The current population of the United States is remarkably racially diverse relative to its past and to other nations. As a result, individuals have many opportunities to interact with others from differing racial backgrounds. However, close, intimate, friendships between individuals from differing racial groups remain uncommon, especially among European Americans. Given persistent racial tension within the U.S., it is important to understand how racial attitudes develop in children and how these attitudes influence interracial interactions. A common adage is that “hate is learned” and theorists have long argued that children adopt the racial attitudes of their family members (Allport, 1954). However, research provides inconsistent evidence for this claim. The primary goal of this dissertation is to examine the role of maternal race-related attitudes and behavior, especially mothers’ modeling of behavior during cross-race interactions, in shaping children’s racial attitudes. Specifically, we sought to test the hypothesis that Asian American, European American, and Latino mothers who exhibit more warm interactions with an African American confederate would be more likely to have children who have positive attitudes toward African American. Conversely, Asian American, European American, and Latino mothers who behave in an anxious or avoidant manner during an interaction with an African American confederate would be more likely to have children with negative attitudes toward African Americans. Additionally, we investigated the role of individual differences in predicting mothers’ nonverbal behavior in the cross-race interactions (i.e., levels of situational diversity, social network, racial attitudes, theories of prejudice, colorblindness). Mothers (N = 44; 29 to 48 years, M = 39.54) and their children (N = 44; 21 girls, 4 to 6 years ; M = 5.31 ) were placed in a room with an African American confederate. The interaction was unstructured (i.e., no task to be completed or predetermined topic to be discussed) and filmed in its entirety. Mothers and children were then separated post-interaction and completed several measures of racial attitudes. Results indicated mothers lived in moderately racially diverse environments. As expected, mothers' and children's attitudes toward African Americans were unrelated; mothers held slightly pro-African American attitudes, whereas children held slightly pro-European American attitudes. Mothers also discussed race with their children somewhat often as evidenced by their self-reported frequency of race-related messages and reported little apprehension about broaching the topic with their children. Contrary to expectations, none of the maternal measures assessed here (e.g., mothers’ racial socialization, racial beliefs, intergroup contact, nonverbal behavior) were significant predictors of their children’s racial attitudes. / text

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This study investigated nonverbal communication patterns in siblings in the prosocial, neutral, and agonistic conditions. Sixty-four children aged 3 years 3 months to 9 years 6 months (16 same-gender and 16 mixed-gender sibling dyads) participated. All children's behaviors were coded using the system for Identifying Affect Expressions by Holistic Judgments (AFFEX, facial expressions) and the Behavioral Coding System (BCS) for behaviors. The major finding was that all children were as likely to imitate positive facial expressions in the prosocial as in the aggressive conditions. However, they were more likely to imitate positive behaviors in the prosocial condition and negative behaviors in the aggressive condition. Age within the dyad was the most important subject factor affecting imitation of positive facial expressions and positive and negative behaviors. Younger children tended to imitate their older siblings more than the reverse. Gazing at the older siblings' nonverbal behaviors (NVBs) was an important precursor during both prosocial and aggressive play situations. Of paradigmatic importance is the finding on dyad-gender effects that all-female dyads imitated positive facial expressions as part of their communication during aggressive play.

This study introduces Texas Hold'em Poker as a research interest and discusses the use of poker in studying interpersonal deception. The first section reviews relevant literature in the study of deception and detection in order to answer: 1) What is the base rate of deceptive attempts for poker players? 2A) What types of tells are exhibited? 2B) What inconsistent nonverbal behavior does each player exhibit? This research also hypothesizes that bluffers will engage in consistent nonverbal behavior in bluffing and non bluffing sets. The second section describes the methods used. A videotaped poker game was recorded and analyzed. Twenty nonverbal behaviors were coded and frequency of behavior was calculated. The third section describes the results of the analysis: base rate, tells, and inconsistencies. Finally, the last section discusses the results, conclusions, limitations, and further avenues of study. / Department of Communication Studies

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Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1971. / Bibliography: leaves 76-81. / ix, 81 l tables

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Psychology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.M.) Florida State University, 2008. / Advisor: Alice-Ann Darrow, Florida State University College of Music. Title and description form dissertation home page (viewed 4-7-2009). Document formatted into pages; contains 117 pages.

Theses (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains iv, 122 pages. Bibliography: p. 119-122.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1922. / Vita. Published also as Teachers College, Columbia University, Contributions to education, no. 126. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: p. [83]-84.