To better understand the communication apprehension (CA) of students in classroom situations, this research investigated the trait and state anxiety of students enrolled in 10 sections of a public speaking course taught at a large Southeastern University. Each of the 195 students (81 males and 114 females) was asked to complete a trait-measure (PRCA-24) one week before and again one week after delivering three required speeches. To measure the state-anxiety, each student was asked to complete the Speaker Anxiety Scale (SA Scale) immediately after delivering each of the three informative speeches. / Five minutes before Speech 2, randomly selected students participated in one of the following treatments: (1) exit the room (E), (2) physical activity (PA), (3) visualization/deep breathing activity (VA), and (4) remain in the room (R), which was considered a control treatment. The treatments were chosen based on suggestions found in various public speaking textbooks to help reduce speaker anxiety. / A comparison of scores reported by the student on the SA Scale for the four treatment groups suggests the following: (1) both the PA and VA treatments were effective in reducing anxiety, (2) the effects of the treatments were considered temporary, and (3) students in the VA and R groups reported the greatest reduction in levels of anxiety from Speech 1 to Speech 3. A comparison of the difference in the posttest and pretest scores of the low, moderate, and high CA students suggests the largest reduction in CA was reported by the high CAs who participated in the PA treatment prior to Speech 2. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2386. / Major Professor: Theodore Clevenger, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore speech reactions to normal auditory feedback (NAF) and delayed auditory feedback (DAF), with reference to three factors: (1) speech-confidence, (2) gender, and (3) the duration of DAF. Male and female subjects were divided into speakers of high speech-confidence (HM and HF respectively) and speakers of low speech-confidence (LM and LF respectively). Speech reactions of these four groups to the speech stress of delayed auditory feedback were examined. Measurements of speech included speech errors, rate of speech, total talking time, intensity of speech, and fundamental frequency. In general, results indicated that the speech responses of high- and low-confident speakers could not be differentiated. With regard to gender however, for two of the outcome variables, i.e., speech errors and upward intensity range, males and females responded to the experimental conditions differentially. Finally, findings confirmed that delayed auditory feedback will generally disrupt normal speech production. However, data were inconclusive regarding the effects of specific durations of DAF on speech production. / A secondary goal of the study was to examine the scores obtained from the Inventory of Communication Attitudes with reference to the similarities and differences among the four subject groups. A significant difference was found in the self-reported speech-confidence levels of LM and LF subjects. In contrast, the speech-confidence scores of HM and HF subjects were not significantly different. / A final objective of the study was to investigate how listeners perceived the speech-confidence level of speakers. In general, it was determined that the ability of listeners to detect the same level of speech-confidence as that reported by the speakers was relatively difficult. Results also showed that listeners perceived females as being "Confident" and "Very Confident" speakers more often than they did males. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: B, page: 5671. / Major Professor: Richard Ham. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Unit-by-unit identification of stuttering is a commonly used clinical technique. Although widely used in the clinical process, investigations have revealed low agreement levels when comparing the unit-by-unit identifications made by different judges. Previous studies have attributed some of this disagreement to characteristics of the judges making the decisions. Only cursory factors (age and gender of judges) have been identified thus far. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between selected characteristics of judges and number of stuttering units identified by those judges, and secondly, to relate the same selected characteristics to the number of stuttering units in agreement with pooled judgements of stuttering made by experienced speech-language pathologists. Characteristics of judges studied were musical training, foreign language experience, singing experience (obtained through survey), musical aptitude (obtained from the Seashore Measures of Musical Abilities) academic success (obtained from grade point averages) and success on academic achievement tests (obtained from S.A.T. and G.R.E. scores). / Forty judges listened to audio recordings of 100 sentences (five repetitions of 20 sentences) which were read by confirmed stutterers. Judges marked where stuttering occurred on a script which would allow stuttering identification on a word or in the space between words. Number of stuttering units marked by judges and number of stuttering units marked in agreement with experienced clinicians were tabulated for all judges. / Spearman correlation coefficients beyond the.05 level of significance were calculated for total number of stuttering units identified by judges and 2 G.R.E. subtests (analytic and quantitative scores). Number of stuttering units identified by judges which were in agreement with experienced clinicians were positively correlated beyond the.05 level with G.R.E quantitative score, G.R.E. analytic score and total G.R.E. score and negatively correlated beyond the.05 level with self judged foreign language competency. / These findings should be treated cautiously due to large confidence interval calculated for this sample size. Trends in the data distribution, future research directions and implications for student selection into graduate programs are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-09, Section: B, page: 4631. / Major Professor: Richard E. Ham. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study reports four content analyses of the character Nora in Henrick Ibsen's A Doll's House. The first three studies examine different media: the printed page, the play, and a film. The fourth study examines the film again using cluster unitizing as its methodology. The objectives of these studies were twofold: to develop a quantitative methodology for studying a character to complement the more established method of qualitative research; and to compare and contrast various media for presenting the same play. / An adaptation of Sandra Bem's Sex-Role-Inventory was applied to the study of androgynous behavior of the character, Nora. Bem's original scale was used in the first two content analyses with minor modifications. The final two content analytic studies used a revised 3-point scale with twenty adjectives (ten masculine and ten feminine) in place of the original sixty items. / Dietrich's motivational unit was used to unitize the play for each coding. The first three studies used unit-by-unit analysis while the fourth study used longer cluster units. The first two studies were based on one male and one female coder while the third study used four female coders. The fourth study employed fourteen adult coders (six female and eight male). / The intercoder reliability improved with each analysis. The book reliability was .25; the play's was .33; the film was .61; the second coding of the film was .92. Intrascale reliability remained high throughout, but especially with the last coding when reliability for female items was .93 and for male items was .94. Coders for the last study were given the Bem Sex Role Inventory test to determine whether their own androgyny levels affected their coding of Nora; no effect was found. / Coding results were consistent with a subjective, independent dramatic analysis of the play and contributed to a deeper understanding of the character. It was concluded that the adapted BSRI was a promising instrument for studying sex-role behavior in drama. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1625. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The purpose of this study was to examine the affective semantics of stuttering and non-stuttering individuals. Overall affective semantics, its component elements of evaluation, activity, and potency and the relationships between these factors and age and severity of stuttering were investigated. / A 2 x 3 x 3 x 17 nested factor design was used. The 21 male stuttering subjects were matched to 21 male non-stuttering subjects with regard to age and intelligence in addition to pre-established criteria concerning language history, visual and hearing abilities, and reading level skills. The 42 subjects were further divided into three age groups: child, adolescent and adult. Subjects who stuttered were rated mild-moderate or moderate-severe. / The subjects were administered a 17 concept, 14 scale semantic differential. The data were examined by an analysis of variance, the T-test, cell means, and the Distance statistic. / The results indicated that: / (1) No significant difference was found between stuttering and non-stuttering individuals regardless of age with respect to overall affective semantics. The adolescent group, however, showed a significant difference when the D-statistic was applied. / When comparisons were made by age for stutterers only, a T-test revealed no significant differences between the child and adolescent, and child and adult groups. There was, however, a significant difference between the adolescent and adult group. The average score for the older group showed more extreme reactions. This apparent conflict was discussed. / (2) There was a significant difference between stuttering and non-stuttering individuals with respect to the evaluative semantic factor. / (3) Although no significant difference was found between stutterers and non-stutterers with regard to the factors of potency and activity, when an analysis of variance was applied, the D-statistic revealed a significant difference at the adolescent level with regard to the activity factor. / (4) Severity did not produce a significant difference between the mild-moderate and moderate-severe stuttering groups when a T-test was applied. / Implications for both future research and clinical applications were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2126. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-10, Section: B, page: 6321. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

Forty-eight females, sixteen in each of three age groups (20 to 30 years, 40 to 50 years, and 60 to 70 years), performed a series of diotic competing message subtests under two different response formats (recognition and recall). The diotic subtests were constructed to emphasize either a semantic (body parts or colors) or a phonemic (releasing or arresting consonant contrasts) relationship among the diotic word pairs. Results of the experiment suggest that age of the listener, nature of the stimuli, and response paradigm all influence diotic performance. Each age group differed in performance, and semantic subtests were easier than phonemic subtests. A hierarchy of subtest difficulty was established (body parts or colors < releasing consonant contrasts < arresting consonant contrasts), but this hierarchy varied some according to age group. Recognition performance was better than recall performance, but only on phonemic subtests; and no age-related differences in recognition and recall were found. Different error patterns were also identified among different aged listeners. Results were discussed in terms of auditory processing/perceptual changes that occur with increasing age. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: B, page: 4030. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

This study investigated the phonological and grammatical characteristics of Black American English Dialect, and the congruence between three popular assessment procedures: spontaneous discourse, elicited imitation and sentence completion. Codeswitching was also observed using a researcher designed sentence completion task and a uniform narrative sample. 10 black male and 10 black female 5th grade subjects were from three predominantly black elementary schools in two North Florida Counties were used. Nineteen (10 phonological and 9 grammatical) constructions were observed on all tasks throughout this investigation. The results of this investigation suggest that while some of the elements of BAD reported in previous literature still persist, others did not occur frequently enough or were too subject specific (even when the opportunity for them to occur was high) to be considered characteristic of the speech/language pattern of an entire culture or community. It was also found that males used more BAED constructions than females on all tasks, and that difference was statistically significant. This investigation also suggests that there is some level of congruence between the subjects' performances on spontaneous discourse, elicited imitation and sentence completion tasks. These subjects performed comparably on all three tasks. This congruency, was found to be highly variable and specific to certain phonological and grammatical constructions. Possible reasons for the apparent change in the characteristics of BAED, the variability in the results in congruence and their implications for future research are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: B, page: 3430. / Major Professor: Virginia Walker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This dissertation attempts to determine whether the original and remake versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Sleep, and Murder My Sweet are sub-genres, visual styles, time bound, or a film genre. It objectifies and compares the aesthetics/environment, proxemics, paralanguage, appearance/artifacts, and kinesics in each film's mise-en-scene. Each pair of films reveals a consistent pattern in its nonverbal/film noir symbols that complements the noir storylines and noir character portrayals. Thus, these six noir films meet the criteria of a film genre. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-12, Section: A, page: 3770. / Major Professor: Peter Stowell. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

This study examined the relationship between trait-like communication apprehension and extroversion/introversion. Included in the study was the determination of the shape of the relational curve, the strength of the relationship and an examination of any gender differences. / Two hundred and ninety-two female and 238 male students enrolled in fundamental speech and public speaking classes at two state universities and one private college were administered McCroskey's Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) scale of extroversion/introversion during the first week of classes. / Descriptive statistics revealed a normally distributed sample for PRCA and a typical distribution for extroversion/introversion. A scattergram between communication apprehension and extroversion/introversion revealed a linear relationship. A Pearson r correlation of.5049 between these two variables was computed. Contingency tables were developed from scatterplots of scores derived from the five levels of communication apprehension and extroversion/introversion for females, for males and for all subjects. The contingency tables confirmed that the communication apprehension/introversion relationship adhered to expectations derived from theory. As the PRCA scores increased, so did the introversion scores. The extroversion/communication apprehension relationship did not seem to fully conform to theory. There were as many extroverts in the extremely high CA category as in the extremely low CA category. / There were no gender differences in the communication apprehension/introversion relationship. / The study verified a moderately strong linear relationship between trait-like communication apprehension and introversion. Replication with other measures of extroversion/introversion is needed to confirm the findings. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: A, page: 2922. / Major Professor: Richard R. Lee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.