Young adults' stereotypes of older adults has been well-documented in communication literature, however, there has been a lack of research on the impact of message strategy on intergenerational interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among three factors that previous research suggests should influence the activation of stereotypes toward a target: age, relational level, and message strategy. This study examines the role that message strategy, in this case, verbal aggressiveness, plays in activating young adults' (n = 186) negative stereotypes of older adults. The young adults' self-reported levels of trait verbal aggressiveness was positively correlated with negative stereotype activation. Verbally aggressive messages, also, consistently activated more negative stereotypes than did the corresponding neutral message strategy. Although all three factors (age, relational level, and message strategy) accounted for differences in stereotype activation, message strategy had the largest effect on negative stereotype activation. Implications of the findings on intergenerational interactions are discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--OGI School of Science and Engineering at OHSU, 2001.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1934. / Foreword by Irene Blanchard.

<p> Sexual assault has been identified as an epidemic within the United States military, with estimates of as many as 80% of female service members facing sexual assault or sexual harassment while on active military duty (Turchick &amp; Wilson, 2010). This study examined the sexual assault epidemic as a cultural phenomenon and surveyed 94 male, active duty members of the United States Army. The participants were recruited via network sampling, and their age, time in service, level of socialization, and expectation of combat were measured. A total of four research questions were examined. Multiple correlation analyses identified positive relationships between hypermasculine ideologies and expectation of combat, hypermasculine ideologies and group socialization, and hypermasculine ideologies and task socialization. Negative relationships were identified between hypermasculine ideologies and age, as well as between hypermasculine ideologies and time in service. Data suggests that military Basic Training is an important aspect in the development of hypermasculine ideologies within the United States Army.</p>

abstract / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore (1) if persons with aphasia (PWA) might be able to easily extract emotional meaning from iconic facial drawings, (2) if they are able and willing to use those drawings as a communicative tool to express emotion and evaluative statements with their communication partners, and (3) if their responses differed from individuals with right hemisphere dysfunction (RHD). Ten persons with aphasia and seven persons with RHD participated in the study, along with two control groups of 34 neurotypical adults. The first phase of the study required 24 neurotypical adults to match twelve words describing various emotional states with the facial drawing most closely representing the word. Then, they were asked to copy six of the drawings as a baseline for drawing accuracy. The six drawings which were determined by the control group to have the least amount of ambiguity of meaning were selected as stimuli to the experimental group. In the second phase of the study, PWAs and persons with RHD were asked to match each drawing with a labeled photograph of a person with a similar facial expression. Secondly, to test their ability to produce these drawings, both stroke groups were asked to copy six of the facial drawings. Lastly, the two experimental groups completed a short, anonymous survey about the nature of their communication difficulties and their willingness to use drawing as a communicative tool. The resultant data was compared to a second control group of ten neurotypical adults, and then, to determine the best candidates for this proposed strategy, the two stroke groups were compared with each other. The results demonstrated that both persons with nonfluent aphasia and RHD were able to identify and copy the drawings with moderate success, although only the PWAs were willing to use drawing to communicate.</p>

No description available.

No description available.

This study examined the associations among family environmental factors, psychosocial characteristics, such as social anxiety, social desirability and social skill, and relational factors with HIV communication, number of past sexual partners, and current condom usage. Seventy-two college aged dating couples completed a sexual communication interaction task in a laboratory and then completed self-report measures of family environment, psychosocial characteristics, and past and current sexual behavior. Results indicated that family environment factors were a major predictor of situational social skill for women, but not men. Additionally, participants who indicated higher levels of HIV communication were also more likely to engage in HIV risk behaviors. Individuals whose partners reported more HIV communication were more likely to engage in HIV risk behaviors. A bias effect was also demonstrated for reports of social skill during the sexual communication interaction task, such that individuals who reported their own social skill to be high, also reported high social skill for their partners.

Social support has been conceptualized as coping assistance (Thoits, 1986) and facilitated reappraisal (Burleson & Goldsmith, 1998). The present investigation sought to explore this conceptualization using a facework-based approach (Goldsmith, 1994a). Specifically, the Communication Model of Facework (Lim & Bowers, 1991) and Burleson's (1985) hierarchical model of comforting sensitivity were used to create the Face Interaction Support Coding Scheme (FISCS). The Communication Model of Facework is built on the premise that individuals want to be accepted for who they are (fellowship face), to be respected for their abilities and accomplishments (competence face), and to be allowed the freedom to make decisions for themselves (autonomy face). The hierarchical model of comforting sensitivity assumes that comforting messages that are more person-centered, rather than position-centered, are often more effective at meeting the needs of distressed persons. The FISCS is intended to assess how person-centered individuals are in meeting their partner's needs for fellowship, competence and autonomy. In addition to examining facework, this study also included an assessment of conversational involvement. Seventy couples participated in an interaction where they discussed a recent stressful event being experienced by one of the partners. Participants completed measures of pre-interaction appraisals of stressfulness and controllability, post-interaction appraisals, communication satisfaction, provider helpfulness, and interaction typicality. Results were analyzed using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kashy & Kenny, 2000). Results of the analyses revealed that an increased use of fellowship face was related to pre- and post-interaction appraisals of problem stressfulness, as well as perceptions of communication satisfaction, provider helpfulness, and the typicality of the interaction. The partner's use of competence face was related to increased perceptions of provider helpfulness, while one's own use of autonomy face was related to perceiving the problem as less stressful following the interaction. Regarding conversational involvement, involvement and pleasantness exhibited opposite partner effects with controllability: increased partner involvement was related to perceiving the problem as more controllable after the interaction, while increased partner pleasantness was related to appraising the problem as more uncontrollable. Finally, partner involvement was also related to increased communication satisfaction and greater perceptions of interaction typicality.