Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4543. Adviser: Cara A. Finnegan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-217) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Psychotherapists' statements may be conceptualized and described in different ways, depending on which aspects of the statements are highlighted. Traditionally, therapist statements have been described in terms of techniques that serve, for example, interpretative, reflective, or supportive functions. From a psycholinguistic or an interactional communications perspective, therapist statements may also be understood as inviting or instructing the client (directly or indirectly) to respond in a particular manner and to carry out given behaviours. Accordingly, the primary purposes of the present research were (1) to examine therapist statements as potentially containing requests for verbal behaviour, and (2) to test hypotheses regarding clients' responses to these antecedent behavioural requests. The data consisted of 12 sessions; two sessions from the beginning, middle, and end of two therapy cases, one Gestalt and the other psychodynamic. Raters identified therapist statements that contained requests for verbal behaviour and specified the nature of these requests. The requests were then organized into a general set of categories for each therapist. A second team of raters ascertained the goodness of fit between the therapist statements and the categories to which they had been assigned. A third team of judges rated the clients' responses to the therapists' antecedent requests on a four-point scale of conformity. The results indicated that a large proportion of therapist statements contained requests for verbal behaviour (66.3%). While some requests were communicated explicitly as such, others were implicit in the therapists' statements. Some categories of requested verbal behaviour were common to both therapists while others appeared to be unique to a particular therapeutic approach. Both therapists invited certain categories of verbal behaviour more often than others. The findings also showed that the level of client conformity to the therapists' antecedent requests was high in general (82% of client responses in the Gestalt case, 98% in the psychodynamic case), and that this high level was relatively stable and consistent across sessions. In the Gestalt case, the degree of conformity was found to vary depending on the type of verbal behaviour requested by the therapist. Nevertheless, a high level of conformity was reflected in all the categories in one case, and most of the categories in the other case. Contrary to expectations, the findings did not show (1) a strong upsurge in client opposition corresponding to particular stages of therapy, or (2) stage differences in the extent of conformity or type of opposition. The findings of this investigation are discussed in terms of their implications for clinical practice and future research.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the communication processes in the equestrian sport dressage. Phase One was a descriptive, qualitative study examining the pathways of communication. This involved interviewing one coach and two dressage riders. From the results, we made a preliminary model of communication that included three actors (coach, rider, and horse) and different pathways of communication (auditory, kinesthetic, verbal, visual). In Phase Two, we interviewed a second coach and two more riders. We decided to look at their definition of dressage as well as the culture within which we could study communication, as it would bring a deeper understanding of the participant's environment. Here, the role of the horse was more important than we initially thought, and the kinesthetic pathway was key to successful dressage riding and training. Phase Three was a detailed study looking at different levels of riders and horses and how the process of communication differed within each context. The roles of each actor were also studied. A cross context analysis was done and a detailed look between the six different contexts revealed several interesting similarities and differences.

En coaching, la communication, élément essentiel du processus enseignement-apprentissage, permet l'échange d'informations entre l'entraîneur et l'athlète. Au cours des vingt dernières années, plusieurs chercheurs en pédagogie sportive ont étudié les comportements des entraîneurs, mais peu d'entre eux ont cherché à comprendre le rôle de l'athlète. Le but de la présente recherche était, par une approche inductive, d'étudier le processus de communication en sport en considérant à la fois le point de vue des entraîneurs et le point de vue des joueurs. Trois équipes de soccer semi-compétitives composées de garçons de 12 et 15 ans furent étudiées. Les données furent recueillies par des enregistrements sur bandes vidéo, des notes de terrain et des entrevues. En début de saison, deux joueurs et l'entraîneur de chaque équipe furent interviewés afin d'obtenir un premier aperçu de leur perception de la communication entraîneur joueurs. Durant la saison, plusieurs séances d'entraînement et plusieurs matchs furent observés et des entrevues furent effectuées avec les entraîneurs et les joueurs de chaque équipe dans le but de bien comprendre le processus de communication tel qu'il se déroule dans l'action. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The main study consisted of a randomized treatment comparison group design with pre- and posttest intervals. The purpose was to assess the differential impact of two different forms of constructive feedback---descriptive and evaluative---on participants' performance self-efficacy within a growth-oriented appraisal context. It was hypothesized that descriptive constructive feedback would lead to higher observed growth in performance self-efficacy. The results of the main study revealed that although all participants showed evidence of significant improvement from having participated in the study, there was no differential effect between participants in different treatment conditions. Post hoc analysis of qualitative data revealed contamination between the treatment conditions suggesting that the main effect for feedback condition was confounded. The results are discussed in terms of the methodological challenges facing researchers interested in testing the hypothesis that descriptive feedback is superior to evaluative feedback in enhancing performance self-efficacy. The failure of the randomized treatment group design to yield valid results is framed as a basis for considering developing methodologies in this area.

Abstract not available.

In today's global marketplace, translators are responding to the current demand to produce fast and high-quality translations by using electronic tools to help them do their jobs, and one of the most promising tools that translators have at their disposal is translation memory (TM) software, a veritable database of previously translated material. Fuzzy matching---where the TM system identifies a portion of the text that is similar to but not exactly the same as one stored in the database---has become an integral feature of TM software; yet using this feature effectively remains a mystery to most translators. This is largely because translators have not been presented with any type of guidelines with regard to helping them identify an ideal setting for the fuzzy match value. The objective of this thesis is to provide translators with a better understanding of TM systems by exploring fuzzy matching in detail, and particularly by investigating factors such as the TM system selected, the category of text being processed, the working languages involved, and the degree of fuzziness of the match. Accordingly, a series of experiments have been designed and carried out to determine the influence that these four factors might have on the ideal fuzzy match setting. The results of these experiments show that these factors should indeed be taken into account when translators are selecting the fuzzy match value to be used with a TM system.

While the self is a central figure in the study of Communication, it is generally depicted as an autonomous figure that communicates to connect with others and the world. In this thesis we problematize this instrumental articulation by focussing on the concepts of affect and time. Specifically, we analyze these concepts in the film A History of Violence through the three-tiered methodology of discourse analysis, articulation, and intermediality. By analyzing specific scenes in this film, we demonstrate that affective investments function as a communicative circuit in which the individual becomes 'in-between' the pre-personal and subjective intensities of affect. Concomitant with this circuit is the revelation of multiple temporalities that underpin the present moment of investment. We then conclude that affect and time can help us move from being to becoming by challenging the assumption of autonomous selves, which raises new issues that are pressing to be recognized in Communication Studies.

A text is not merely a pattern of semantic designations. If composed in a phonetic alphabetic, it is also a pattern of graphemes eliciting a pattern of vocal sounds or phonemes, which in turn elicits a pattern of phonating movements. In the typical translating scenario, where a negotiation between natural languages takes place, these vocal sound patterns are virtually always regarded as the variable element in the process. They are deemed expendable, and are summarily transformed for the purpose of constructing semantic affinities between source and target texts. There is a margin of translation activity, however, that has devised strategies and techniques for creating vocal sound affinities between texts, and at varying degrees of expense to both the source text's semantics, as well as to target language convention. This dissertation reflects upon the ways in which translators deal with the sonorous dimension of texts. Four principle questions will guide this reflection: (1) How does inter-linguistic translation typically discard vocal sounds in its conception and rendering of source text form? (2) Does the written word itself, as visual/spatial medium and technique, somehow orient the translator's consciousness away from the oral/aural dimension of the text? (3) How might one conceive modes of reading a text in language sound as opposed to language sense? (4) What are some of the marginal practices that do indeed strive to re-construct a source text's sound pattern? To answer these questions, I will draw on both classical and contemporary language philosophies that illuminate the translator's bias both toward and against the sonorous dimension of language. Under examination as well will be certain revolutionary movements in twentieth century poetics, movements that help conceptualize not only the motivation but also the operative techniques behind many of these marginal sound translation practices. The goal, ultimately, is to make tentative steps toward a theoretical framework in which these marginal practices may be addressed positively and in their own right, rather than simply as lunatic-fringe specimens defined against the norm.

No description available.