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.

An intuitive notion regarding the communication of liking is that it is consistently associated with positive relational outcomes. An alternative possibility is that when expressions of liking comprise a negative violation of expectancies, they produce outcomes that are actually more negative than those produced by the absence of such expressions. The current experiment tests this prediction with respect to evaluative and behavioral responses to nonverbal expressions of liking. Ninety-six adults were paired with same-sex strangers and induced to expect the strangers either to like or dislike them and to desire that the strangers either like or dislike them. The strangers, who were trained confederates, enacted nonverbal behaviors associated either with liking or disliking during a short experimental interaction with participants. Participants' evaluations of confederates were most favorable when confederates' behaviors matched participants' desires, whether the desire was to be liked or disliked. Behaviorally, participants matched desired behavior from confederates and reacted with complementarity to undesired behavior. These results suggest the counterintuitive notion that expressions of liking are not consistently associated with positive relational outcomes, but that factors such as receivers' desires and expectations largely determine what outcomes will be produced. The results also raise important issues for how expectations are conceptually and operationally defined.

The primary objective of this research was to investigate whether the principles of Expectancy Violations Theory could be applied to the study of emotional appeals so as to gain an alternative interpretation of the persuasive efficacy of affective messages in the social influence process. Central to this approach is the assumption that certain culturally-based norms guiding the expression of emotion exist at a societal level, and that the violations of these expectancy norms carry implications for the efficacy of persuasive attempts. Specifically, the tenets of EVT suggest that when these violations occur, message recipients will look to the perceived rewardingness of the source of the message, and then interpret the violations as positive or negative. It was posited that these evaluations, in turn, would either facilitate (in the case of positive violations) or inhibit (negative violations) the persuasion process. However, due to a number of methodological confounds in the design of the emotional messages used in this research, this study could not provide a fair test of the predictions suggested by EVT. A significant confederate by actor sex interaction described an experimental situation wherein expectancy violation or confirmation was idiosyncratic to the confederates, which is inconsistent both with the premises of EVT as well as the hypotheses stated in this research. Instead, a series of secondary analyses within confederates was undertaken in an attempt to explore the relationships between source rewardingness and message expectedness on attitude change. However, no significant relationships were found to exist. The discussion section focuses heavily on an analysis of the confounds that existed in this research, and suggestions are made for providing a remedy for similar situations in future research. Finally, directions for future research using expectancy violations theory and emotion are discussed.

A study of people's opinions about deception was conducted. Social scientists believe that people use different types of deception in response to differing situational variables. Individuals perceptions of the different types of deception were studied within a proposed theoretical perspective based on a deceptive adaptation of Language Expectancy Theory and Attribution Theory. The model posits that people develop expectations about deceptive acts that will affect their acceptance of those acts. Deceptive acts that meet or positively violate expectations will be viewed as more acceptable. People make attributions about the causes of behavior when developing normative expectations and will find deceptive acts attributed to situational constraints more acceptable than acts attributed to personal characteristics. A large scale survey of people's repertoires of deceptive strategies and their acceptance as a useful strategy was conducted. Three examples each of six common strategies were used in the survey. The three types of examples involving deceptive acts included two interpersonal situations, one of self-benefit and one of other-benefit, and a medical situation where the deceptive act benefitted the deceiver. The strategies included Ambiguities, Concealments, Exaggerations, Half-truths, Lies and White lies. Three hypotheses examining the theoretical model and two research questions, one examining self-benefit/other-benefit difference and one examining demographic variables, were tested. Results indicate that people do not make major distinctions about deceptive acts, viewing most as Lies, Concealments and Half-truths. Less than 50% of the 3504 examples were correctly identified, and their chosen identifier was a better predictor of their response about use and acceptability than the deceptive act itself. People do admit using deceptive acts, but see others as more deceptive than themselves. Their perceptions of acceptability are more closely linked to their perceptions of their own use of deceptive acts rather than to their perceptions of normative use. Self-benefit/other-benefit results were mixed and demographic differences were non-existent. Implications of the study are discussed and future directions are suggested.

The traditional model of medicine involves recognizing symptoms, undergoing diagnostic tests to find the cause of the symptoms, and provide treatment to relieve or cure the underlying disease. However, with the advent of genetic testing and the ability to diagnose asymptomatic individuals, the traditional model of diagnostic testing and treatment no longer applies. By employing the Extended Parallel Processing Model, EPPM, and utilizing messages similar to fear appeals, this study examined participants' perceptions of testing and treatment efficacy, behavioral intentions to undergo testing, and attitudes towards traditional and genetically-based diagnostic testing. Results indicated that the type of diagnostic test and the temporal proximity of the treatment with respect to the diagnostic test is important in determining the perceived efficacy of testing, treatment, and intent to undergo testing. Practical as well as theoretical implications are discussed as well as directions for future research.

This study proposed and tested a model of relational development in mediated environments. Burgoon and colleagues' principle of inter-activity (Burgoon, Bonito, Bengtsson, Ramirez, Dunbar, & Miczo, 1999), Sunnafrank's (1986) Predicted Outcome Value theory, and Walther's (1996; Walther & Burgoon, 1992) Social Information Processing theory were reviewed and each incorporated into a model for understanding how decisions to pursue relationships in mediated environments occur. The present study examined the role of media and information richness and mediation within the model's framework. Dyads conducted two socially-oriented interactions via one of four conditions (text-only, audioconferencing, videoconferencing, or face-to-face). Results indicated experiential properties were strongly associated with initial predicted outcome values and the certainty with which they are held, which in turn were associated with various relational and communicative factors. Initial predicted outcome values also distinguished relationships which developed from those that did not. Implications for each theoretical perspective are discussed.

<p>With a growing number of multinational corporations sending workers into new locations, the need for knowledge about how individuals and families successfully integrate and connect to their host country is paramount. This study focuses on the phenomenological communication strategies used for cross cultural adjustment and adaptation of longterm sojourners in a new culture. Longterm sojourners who have lived for three years or longer in two host countries were interviewed to explore their communication strategies of adaptation for meaning making for themselves and for their families. Specifically, perspectives around the experience of cross culture adjustment, language acquisition, and identity shift were explored. Findings show that individuals who approach the experience with openness and non-judgmentalism find greater satisfaction with the host country. Also, those who seek to integrate and deeply embrace the new culture experience acceptance and stay for longer periods. Humor, humility, and perseverance are character traits that predict for satisfactory adjustment. The stresses on marriage and family provide a dialectic experience of strain and closeness. Implications from this study indicate that satisfied longterm sojourners have discovered ways of contending with difficulties that provide knowledge for managing this stressful adjustment. Their experience can inform the expectations of future sojourners. This study emphasizes the need for sojourners to be prepared for the challenges ahead and to engage the process with flexibility.

<p> Mass media messages have overwhelmed modern culture. Many of these messages are not created with the best interest of the recipient in mind (Potter, 2008). The Mass media does not operate as a public service. It's big business. Good daily decision making has become increasingly dependent on the ability to be "information literate" - to effectively evaluate the accuracy, currency, and completeness of media messages. But these critical information literacy skills are surprisingly lacking today (Asher &amp; Duke, 2012). One recent study suggests that information literacy skills can be effectively developed through training in media literacy (Van De Vord, 2010). This thesis has replicated this study in an effort to validate the correlation between information literacy and media literacy. Aside from the Van De Vord study, the communications theory of Media Ecology, as proposed by McLuhan, and developed by Postman is foundational to this work. Also referenced are McCombs and Shaw's agenda setting and Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theories. Additionally, the work of Potter in media literacy; of McChesney in media economics; and of Duke &amp; Asher in information literacy are also foundational. Quantitative research for this thesis was conducted using an internet-based survey. The gathered empirical data was used in a statistical correlation analysis between information literacy and media literacy. The test results validated that the two variables were weakly correlated in a positive direction with evidence of statistically significant probability. The weakness of the correlation and the limitations inherent in the testing methods suggest that additional study is needed - perhaps utilizing alternate testing methods. Further comparison between the differing methods that are traditionally used in teaching the two different literacies is also suggested.</p>

<p> With the widespread use of the Internet, grief has been extended in its representation. Specifically, social networking sites, like MySpace, have turned grief presentation from private expressions into public displays of mourning. This study utilizes the theoretical foundations of the grief presentation process of K&uuml;bler-Ross' (1969) five categories of bereavement (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) to determine whether the grief presentation process is present in an online setting. In this study, the researcher conducted an empirical investigation of 4,931 comments, resulting in 22,263 bereavement themes outlined by K&uuml;bler-Ross, which were condensed into 2,288 time-point comparisons posted to 140 MySpace profiles of users who have passed-on. Results revealed noteworthy practices surrounding grief presentation on the MySpace profiles of the deceased. Specifically, bereaved commenters post a significantly greater number of bereavement narratives in the first three months post-mortem as opposed to months four through six. Additionally, race and sex of the deceased, as well as sex of the bereaved, did not prove to be mitigating factors in online grief presentation. Moreover, across observed races and sexes, the bereavement category of acceptance was found most often, followed by depression, denial, anger, and bargaining. Findings suggest that post-mortem commenting behavior blends current memorializing practices while also extending the space for communication and grief presentation. Additional implications for understanding grief communication on MySpace and future directions for research conclude this study.</p>