Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4182. Adviser: John P. Caughlin. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-240) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> This study investigates the relationship between gender identity and flirting styles. Data analysis on a sample (<i>N</i>=227) revealed the existence of a relationship between gender identity and the sincere style and between gender identity and the physical style, but not between gender identity and the playful, polite, and traditional styles. Masculine and Androgynous individuals are more likely than Feminine or Undifferentiated individuals to employ the physical style. Androgynous individuals are more likely to employ the sincere style than masculine or undifferentiated individuals. Feminine individuals are more likely to employ the sincere style than masculine individuals. Further analysis found that there is a relationship between biological sex and the traditional style and between relationship status and the playful style. This study finds that gender identity is a better predictor of flirting style than either biological sex or relationship status, but suggests that it would be more appropriate to consider all three.</p>

<p>In light of the increasingly complex sustainability problems facing local and global communities, and the need to improve the scientific basis for decision making, sustainability science elevates the role of research collaborations and communication among scientists and stakeholders in developing solutions. Although many universities are heeding the calls for collaborative research and are making progress on bringing diverse groups together to address sustainability issues, disconnections between the production of knowledge and its actual use in society persist. These persistent divisions indicate that we still have a great deal to learn about how to develop university-stakeholder partnerships that facilitate collaboration between the various actors in society. </p><p> Building successful, enduring research partnerships is essential for improving links between knowledge and action. The overarching question addressed in this dissertation is: <i>"In the quest to develop sustainable solutions, what factors may strengthen or hinder the development of robust stakeholder-university research partnerships?"</i> In answering this question, I interrogate the role of communication in partnership development, the influence of communication practices on stakeholder and researcher interactions, and ways that we can use interdisciplinary forms of and approaches to research to improve communication with partners. The goal of this research is to improve university and community capacity for collaborative, problem-focused research to address pressing societal problems. </p><p> Using quantitative and qualitative survey data from the <i>Maine Municipal Official Survey</i> and the <i>Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement Survey,</i> each chapter addresses the overarching research question in different ways. In the first and second chapters, I develop theoretically and empirically supported statistical models to identify a set of factors influencing officials' reported interest in developing a community-university research partnership and factors influencing officials' participation preferences in community-university research partnerships, respectively. The models strengthen the capacity for co-learning by providing data on interest and preference alignment between potential project partners, and they provide data on stakeholder preferences and experiences that may improve communication between partners and inform partnership interactions. The third chapter bridges interdisciplinary theories from social psychology and communication to deepen the conversation about justice in community-university research partnerships. The dissertation concludes with lessons learned about developing community-university research partnerships. </p>

The Challenge of System Justification for Acknowledging and Responding to Environmental Dilemmas and Climate Change

<p> Previous scholars have found that organizational members use various tactics to encourage their peer coworkers to voluntarily exit their organizations. These tactics are known as peer-influence exit tactics. What has been missing from the literature is clarity about the factors that influence organizational members' use of peer-influence exit tactics. This dissertation explored the construct of peer-influenced exit to develop greater clarity about the motives for encouraging peer coworkers to leave, the characteristics of the peer-influence exit tactic source and receiver, and the organizational influences on peer-influenced exit. Study 1 used an open-ended survey design to explore the motives, process, and means through which peer-influenced exit occurs and the success of using peer-influence exit tactics. Results indicated that organizational members use eight peer-influence exit tactics and have four overarching motives for using them. Organizational members also reported that they consciously planned their tactics and the tactics were used with some success. Study 2 used an experimental design to explore how certain tactic source and receiver characteristics and organizational characteristics affect the use of peer-influence exit tactics. Results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed that organizational members use affirmation, unprofessional, depersonalization, and professional peer-influence exit tactics. Results of the experiment indicated that organizational members use affirmation, unprofessional, depersonalization tactics more frequently with low performing peer coworkers than with high performing peer coworkers. No differences emerged regarding the use of peer-influence exit tactics based on the cohesiveness of the organizational culture. The results also revealed relationships between competitiveness, agreeableness, and self-esteem of the source and peer-influence exit tactics. Study 3 incorporated a correlational design in which working adults were surveyed about their personal experiences with peer-influenced exit. Results revealed that personal gain, altruistic, organizational enhancement, and climate improvement motives predicted the use of peer-influence exit tactics, as did the competitiveness, agreeableness, and self-esteem of the source, perceived similarity, work performance, liking, and organizational influence of the target, and the organizational climate, supervisor complicity, and coworker regard. The results provide greater insight into the antecedents and outcomes of organizational exit that are valuable for both organizational communication scholars and organizational practitioners. </p>

<p> Interpersonal communication is essential for developing and maintaining relationships. Strong interpersonal relationships undergird communities by facilitating their formation and supporting their maintenance and growth. This study explores the effect of training in Empathic Dialogue, a system of communication based on Nonviolent Communication, on the interpersonal communication skills of nine participants. The participants were interviewed prior to attending two three-hour training sessions, and again between one month and three months after the sessions.</p><p> Before turning to the empirical study, I make sense of the theoretical strengths of this position. First, in order to argue that Nonviolent Communication constitutes a virtue, I outline Aristotle's definition of virtue and the process by which one develops virtue. I then introduce the theory of McDonaldization, based on Max Weber's theory of rationalization, and apply it to interpersonal communication. Finally, I review Nonviolent Communication based on the dimensions of McDonaldization, the results of which support my contention that Nonviolent Communication opposes McDonaldization.</p><p> I present my finding that Empathic Dialogue had a positive impact on the research participants' communication skills. I then address these findings through the lens of Aristotle's virtues and McDonaldization. Finally, I consider wider implications of these findings on the development of sustainable communities. </p>

The purpose of this study is to describe how university honors calculus students negotiate meaning and language for conceptually important ideas through mathematical discourse. Mathematical discourse has been recognized as an important topic by mathematics education researchers of various theoretical perspectives. This study is written from a perspective that merges symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969) with personal agency (Walter & Gerson, 2007) to assert that human choice reflects, but is not determined by, meanings that are primarily developed through social interaction. The process of negotiation of meaning is identified, described, and analyzed in the discourse of four students and their professor as they draw conclusions about the volume of water in a reservoir based on graphs of inflow and outflow. Video data, participant work, and transcript were analyzed using grounded theory and other qualitative techniques to develop three narrative accounts. The first narrative highlights the participants' use of personal pronouns and personal experience to negotiate meaning for the conventional mathematical terms "inflection" and "concavity." The second narrative describes how the participants' choices in discourse reflect an effort to represent both their mathematical and experiential understandings correctly as they negotiate language to describe critical "zero points." The third narrative describes the participants' process of mapping analogical language and meaning from the context of motion to the context of water in a reservoir. Analysis of these three narratives from the perspective of conventional and ordinary mathematical language suggests that the contextualized study of mathematics may provide students access to mathematical discourse if the relevant mappings between mathematical language and language from other appropriate contexts are made explicit. Analysis from the perspective of social speech (Piaget 1997/1896) suggests that specific uses of personal pronouns, personal experience, and revoicing (O'Connor & Michaels, 1996) may serve to invite students to become participants in mathematical discourse. An agency-based definition of mathematical discourse is suggested for application in research and practice.