This study examines self-talk within a communication framework and context. The effects of different types of self-talk on emotion are explored. Specifically, this research looks at different types of self-talk based on the language and message aspects of the self-talk including: valence of self-talk (negative vs. positive), and self-talk content (using name vs. second-person pronoun [you] for self-reference). The relative effects of these different types of self-talk on emotion are investigated within the context of interpersonal anger. For control, the study contrasts the effects of self-talk with the effects of thought. Additionally, this study looks at the effects of the different types of self-talk and thought on subsequent interpersonal communication outcomes (perceived satisfaction and effectiveness of written interpersonal communication as well as willingness to communicate interpersonally). Results indicated that valence of self-talk and thought has significant impact on emotional outcomes. Results also indicated an interaction effect between valence and the self-talk/thought manipulation on negative affect. Positive self-talk decreased negative affect more than positive thought. Further results demonstrated a mediated effect of self-talk on subsequent interpersonal communication outcomes. Positive self-talk led to less anger after interpersonal communication which led to greater perceptions of interpersonal communication effectiveness and satisfaction and increased willingness to communicate interpersonally.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

This is a study of the nature and extent of third grade Papago Indian children's use of personal experiences in their writing. It examines the reflection of their experiences as individuals with unique personalities and interests, their experiences as Papago Indians, their experiences as third grade school children, influenced by the curricular content of their conventional school experiences and such multi-media as books, newspapers, television and film, and finally, their experiences as young children with the ability to fantasize. The study examines the extent to which these children introduce personal experience into both assigned and unassigned writing, considering such variables as their control over the assignment, their knowledge of the content of the assignment. The study also investigates how developmental maturity and gender factors influence the reflection of real life experiences in the children's writing. The seventeen subjects, seven boys and ten girls, are Papago Indian students, either eight or nine years old, enrolled in a public elementary school on the reservation, and all members of the same third grade class. The main data base contains at least eight compositions from each subject for a total of two hundred and thirty-seven writing samples. It also includes retrospective interviews conducted by the researcher at the end of the school year with each subject providing evidence about how they developed their ideas for each piece they wrote, and the extent to which the people, places and events in their written compositions represent real-life experiences. The findings demonstrate that children do introduce personal experience into their writing, clearly revealing the many facets of their experiences such as the ethnic, the religious and the environmental. The extent to which the children's personal experience is reflected in their writing is not affected by the degree of control they exercise over the selection of the writing topic; rather, it is influenced by the function for which the children are writing and by the content of the topic they are writing about. The study raises questions about the relationship between developmental maturity and the ability to fantasize and reveals striking differences between male and female writers in the extent to which they utilize their real life experiences in their writing.

Background: To this date most studies have been focused on the influence of clinical depression and psychotic reactions during the postnatal period on mother-infant interaction, therefore this study examined the effects of maternal depressive mood in the postnatal period on mother-infant verbal and non-verbal communication. Method: Seventy two mother-infant dyads participated in the study. Eighteen infants of mothers with depressive mood and 18 controls were seen when they were 6 months old; and eighteen infants of mothers with depressive mood and 18 controls were seen when they were 10 months old. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used as a mean to assess maternal depressive mood. Tactile, verbal, and gaze behaviours of mothers and their infants when playing face-to-face during pleasure- and surprise-eliciting situations were coded using micro-analytic techniques. The behaviours of infants of mothers with symptoms of depression were also coded during interactions with a female unfamiliar adult (stranger) during a pleasure-eliciting situation. Results: The patterns of communication in non-depressed mother-infant dyads were appropriate to infants’ developmental age. However, maternal symptoms of depression as outlined by the EPDS appeared to somewhat hinder mothers’ ability to attend to infants’ developmental needs and communicate appropriately through touch, speech, and gaze; as well as infants’ capacity for positive emotional regulation, exploration of the toy, and gaze directed to their mothers during play interactions. Conclusions: These results suggest that maternal depressive mood is potentially a risk factor for difficulties in mother-infant communication during the first year postpartum. The mothers’ mood state and their infants’ age influence the type, frequency, and duration of touch, speech, and gaze during early interactions. Such findings are discussed considering a bi-directional influence in the development of communicative responses between mothers and infants across time.

The study develops an interpretative theory to explain the communicative processes underlying the Discussion Meetings of a Buddhist group, SGI-UK, in Aberdeen, using the inductive strategies of grounded theory. The primary data comprised recorded interactions among group members in the meetings. In the process of the analysis, conceptual codes and categories emerged from the data, and the relationships between them were established, thereby creating the theory. After further elaboration, the theory identified the underlying dynamic process: the continuous interaction between ritualised discourse and religious schemata. Ritualised discourse signifies convergent communicative tools and behaviours that centre on narratives. Religious schemata are individual members' mental representations which construct event in a range of social, ideological and cultural ways. Ritualised discourse both maintains and, in turn, is shaped by, these schemata, and thus manifest the ecological nature of the linguistic interactions

In this dissertation, I study the way couples improvise relationships together. I define improvisation as a kind of performance that leads to an interpretive practice where people develop the meanings of their relationships as they perform. Participating in a performance ethnography, my romantic partner, myself, and three other couples reflect on the way we perform together on stage. Adapting the popular improv performance format “Armando” and utilizing post-performance focus groups, I observe how the couples strive to make meaning together and negotiate a joint-perspective about how they played. Ultimately, I argue that attending to the way a couple improvises their relationship off stage can provide key insights into the communication patterns that allow them to share vulnerable experiences and grow close. In the end, I discuss ways that improv techniques and philosophies have informed and guided my own romantic relationship.

This study examines the enactment of leadership communication during videotaped play sessions of thirty kindergarten children. Eighteen of the children demonstrated skills in a cluster of five specific leadership behaviors. All five coders agreed that these eighteen children were sometimes leaders of their individual triad. The coders further agreed that the leadership in the triads flowed from one child to another as the session progressed. The study concluded that leadership is a facilitative process that is fluid rather than statically centered in one or more participants.

This study examined state-receiver apprehension and uncertainty as they relate to each other and to information seeking and confirmation of relational predictions in initial interactions.

Many studies have been devoted to investigating the process by which individuals make dispositional attributions about the people that they encounter. Typically, individuals are more likely to seek future interactions with target individuals if those target individuals have a positive or rewarding disposition. Interactions with target individuals possessing negative or punishing dispositions reduce the likelihood that target individual will be selected for future interactions. An initial false positive trait ascription will be self-correcting with future interactions. An initial false negative trait label will likely remain stable if future interactions are not forced. The importance of quick accurate disposition identification carries important evolutionary implications as well as normal-life implications. Results from an experiment support the ability of subjects to accurately identify the true trait of target individuals with limited dispositional information. / by Robert P. Shuhi. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The present study examined developmental changes in the establishment of mother-infant tactile and visual communication within depressed and non-depressed breast- and bottlefeeding dyads. 113 (30 depressed, 83 non-depressed mothers) mother-infant dyads participated at the 1-month visit and 87 dyads returned at the 3-month lab visit. Maternal mood status was assessed. EEG recordings were taken from the infants at mid-frontal, central, parietal and occipital sites. Mothers and their infants were videotaped during a 5- minute feeding. The feeding session was coded for touch and gaze, utilizing coding scales similar to those of Polan and Ward (1994) and Moszkowski and Stack (2007). Infant self-touch significantly predicted infant EEG asymmetry scores. Non-depressed and depressed breast-feeding mothers displayed more affectionate touch while depressed bottle-feeding mothers displayed an absence of touch. / by Jillian Sader. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.