Purpose: Adults with stuttering (AWS) commonly demonstrate verbal avoidance behaviours as a result of speech-related anxiety. This can result in an experience of ‘communication restriction’. By nature, verbal avoidance and communication restriction are difficult to evaluate objectively, and existing evidence consists primarily of self-report data from qualitative interviews. However, recent preliminary evidence indicates the potential utility of systemic functional linguistics (SFL; Halliday, 1985) to this area of research. The SFL framework provides quantitative analyses for the objective examination of language use in sociolinguistic contexts. Recent data also suggest that the confrontation naming paradigm may be a second possible means for quantitatively evaluating aspects of functional linguistic behaviour in AWS. The purpose of the present study was to identify specific patterns of conversational language and confrontation naming behaviour in AWS using an objective methodology, and to explore these behaviours within the context of stuttering intervention and with reference to the experience of communication restriction. Method: Twenty AWS (14 males, 6 females) and 20 matched controls (AWNS), aged between 16 and 56 years, were recruited for this study. All participants were native speakers of English with no cognitive, language, motor speech, or hearing impairment (with the exception of stuttering in AWS). All participants completed: (a) self-rating scales of general and communication-related attitudes and anxiety; (b) the UC Picture ID (O’Beirne, 2011) picture naming task, designed to objectively evaluate verbal avoidance behaviour; and (c) 10 minutes of spontaneous conversation with an examiner, loosely structured around a range of set topics. For the AWS participants, these procedures were completed pre- and post-attendance at either the Naturalness Intensive Programme in Christchurch, New Zealand (NZ), or the Intensive Stuttering Clinic (Blomgren, 2009) in Salt Lake City, USA (US). All conversational samples were analysed using both conventional and SFL-based analyses. Specifically, the quantity and complexity of verbal output, as well as the frequency of use of transitivity, modality, appraisal, and thematic resources, were examined. To identify group differences on all measures between AWNS and AWS at both pre- and post-treatment, two-tailed independent samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests were conducted. To compare the performance of AWS between pre- and post-treatment, two-tailed paired t-tests and Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks tests were used. Group comparisons were conducted for the full participant group, as well as separately for the NZ and US subgroups. Pearson correlation matrices were also constructed, to identify linear relationships between measures. Correlations between conventional and SFL analyses of linguistic behaviour were of particular interest. Results: Group differences for each subgroup were generally consistent with those for the full participant group. (a) AWS demonstrated higher social anxiety than AWNS at pre-treatment, but self-reported anxiety levels and stuttering impact decreased following treatment. (b) No differences were found across comparisons for confrontation naming performance on the UC Picture ID task. (c) In conversation, AWS produced consistently less language than AWNS, and produced less complex language than AWNS at pre-treatment, as shown by conventional and SFL indices. Specific SFL measures revealed fewer politeness-marking modal operators, more frequent comment adjuncts, and reduced expression of appraisal in the spontaneous language of AWS. Improvements in most of these areas were seen following treatment. The results of the correlational analyses showed that self-report scale outcomes were not linearly correlated to actual performance on any linguistic measures. However, positive correlations were observed between basic linguistic indices (i.e., language productivity and complexity) from the conventional and SFL approaches. An interesting negative correlation between language productivity and frequency of use of comment adjuncts was also seen. Conclusions: The current study extends available preliminary evidence on language use in AWS. Linguistic patterns identified in the conversational language of AWS suggest a reduced openness to interpersonal engagement within communication exchanges, which may restrict the experience of such exchanges. The data indicate that conventional and SFL analyses are interchangeable at a basic level, but also exemplify the unique utility of the SFL framework for examining specific aspects of language functionality within social context. Although AWS and AWNS were not found to differ in performance on the UC Picture ID task, the observations provide insight into the conditions under which verbal avoidance behaviours may be prone to occurring. Finally, the lack of straightforward correlations between self-reported anxiety and avoidance on the one hand, and various linguistic-behavioural indicators on the other, highlights the importance of a multidimensional, holistic approach to clinical stuttering evaluation.

In a series of five studies, I used the Internet and computed-mediated technologies as tools to revisit the longstanding issue within the fields of personality and experimental social psychology: "person by context" interaction on social communicative behaviour. The effects of the personality trait of shyness were examined in visually anonymous and non-anonymous conditions to see if the interaction of the person and context influenced social communication. Participants were paired in dyads and instructed to converse using a text-based online Instant Messenger program. Dyads were randomly assigned to converse with webcams or without webcams. For some types of behaviour (e.g., self-disclosure), shyness and level of visual anonymity interacted (Studies 1 and 2). Shy individuals disclosed more personal information in a visually anonymous context than a visually non-anonymous context. For non-shy individuals, self-disclosure was not influenced by the context. For other types of behaviour (e.g., affective language), the effect of shyness was consistent across context. To determine the specificity of the shyness-anonymity interaction, other person-anonymity interactions were examined (e.g., self-esteem, loneliness, sex of the participants) (Studies 3 and 4). Finally, the influence of the shyness-anonymity interaction on social communicative behaviour was examined in a cooperative performance-related task (Study 5). These series of studies suggest that anonymity is a particularly salient contextual cue for shy individuals. Furthermore, the moderating effects of anonymity on shyness do not generalize to other characteristic of the person. Instead, anonymity moderates the other characteristics (e.g., self-esteem) uniquely. The present findings have theoretical implications to the study of person by context interactions by identifying how such interactions influence specific aspects of social communication. These findings also have practical or clinical implications. For example, the treatment of social difficulties related to high shyness, low self-esteem, or high loneliness, may involve specific treatment plans building off of modifications in anonymity. Shy individuals benefit from using the Internet as a social medium in which they can control the level of anonymity as is demonstrated by their bolder behaviour during visually-anonymous conversations. The present findings also suggest that the Internet and computer-mediated technologies can be used in novel ways to study longstanding questions in personality and experimental social psychology. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Businesses are increasingly using social media for crisis communication messages, and so do employees. Given the special relationship with employees, organisations should pay attention to understanding employee communication behaviour (ECB) during an organisational crisis. Drawing from the Situation Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and the perspective of employees as active participants in crisis communication, this study proposes an evidence-based employee-focused conceptual framework of the anticipated ECBs on social media during an organisational crisis and in response to crisis type and the crisis response strategy utilized by organisations. This research aims to examine the impact of crisis types and crisis response strategies on employee communication behaviour outcomes in social media. The research employs a 2 (crisis type: victim crisis or preventable crisis) * 2 (crisis response strategy: accommodative or defensive) qualitative experimental design. 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in Kuwait with employees working in different industries in the private sector to investigate: 1) ECB on social media in response to defensive and accommodative crisis response strategies in a preventable crisis type, 2) ECB on social media in response to defensive and accommodative crisis response strategies in a victim crisis type, and 3)Employee-organisation relationship (EOR) influence on ECB on social media during an organisational crisis. This research argues that the anticipated ECB is within four classifications 1) Proactive advocacy ECB, 2) Reactive advocacy ECB, 3) neutral ECB, and 4) Adversary ECB. The findings show that employees are more likely to engage in advocacy ECB if the crisis response is informative, regardless of the crisis type. An adversary ECB is expected when the organisation faces a preventable crisis type and utilizes a defensive response strategy. Additionally, a positive EOR encourages a more advocacy ECB.

The purposes of this study were to explore students&rsquo / perceptions of the extent to which constructivist approaches are present in chemistry classes at high school level in Turkey, to assess students&rsquo / perceptions of their chemistry teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours in their classroom learning environments and to investigate the learning strategies of students in chemistry classes considering school type, gender, and grade level differences. In this study, the Constructivist Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLES), the Teacher Communication Behaviour v Questionnaire (TCBQ) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used as measuring instruments. In addition, the questionnaires included some questions for demographic characteristics of participants. The study was conducted in conveniently selected two schools (private and public) in Ankara with a total of 994 ninth and tenth grade students in the second term of 2006-2007 semesters. Data obtained from the administration of measuring instruments by using the analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) The results of the study indicated that school type, gender and grade level of the students had significant effect on perception of classroom learning environment, teacher&rsquo / communication behaviour and perceived use of learning strategies. For instance, students in private schools perceived their classroom-learning environment more constructivist than student in public school. In addition girls rated that, their learning environment and teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours more favourably than did boys. The study also showed that students use rehearsal-learning strategy mostly in their chemistry classrooms.