<p> This thesis presents an examination of the relationship between psychological safety and relational coordination within interdisciplinary health care teams. Based on previous research, a model is proposed in which psychological safety&mdash;the perceived safety of interpersonal interaction&mdash;partially mediates the link between the relational dimensions&mdash;shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect&mdash;and the communication dimensions&mdash;frequent, accurate, timely, and solution-oriented communication&mdash;of relational coordination. The proposed model was tested using multiple linear regression of survey data from 158 obstetricians, anesthesiologists, and nurses who work in the labor and delivery units at two large teaching hospitals. The findings do not support the proposed model; however, an alternative model in which psychological safety is an antecedent to rather than a consequence of relational quality is well supported. Building on these findings, the potential existence and nature of a new cluster of relationship-supporting communication dimensions is discussed. </p><p> This study also demonstrates the utility of role-level assessment of the psychological safety and relational coordination constructs. In most studies these constructs are assessed at the group level to facilitate comparisons between work groups. However, the role-based data collection and analysis applied in this study identified significant differences in the psychological safety, relational quality, and communication quality measurements with respect to various role-based subsets of the studied work groups. Additional differences were found when both the respondent's role and the role of the individual with whom the respondent was interacting were used as grouping variables. The revealed patterns of differences suggest that psychological safety and the dimensions of relational coordination are influenced by several role-oriented characteristics such as hierarchical status or control as well as a role's centrality or connectivity within an organization's social network. </p><p> The methods and findings presented in this thesis offer small steps toward the greater understanding of the dynamics of high-performance work groups. The practical application of this research includes the development of interventions designed to improve the communication, teamwork, and performance of groups in demanding environments such as hospital care units.</p>

Gestures are studied as part of the communicative strategies pertaining to a language. This study focuses strictly on the gestures observed in the city of Seville, Spain. The inventory includes the emblems most frequently used by native speakers under 35. The scope of the inventory reaches all the social classes and educational levels currently occurring in the city of Seville.

The political and cultural forces of Periclean Athens brought rhetoric to the fore as the master knowledge. Through the school of Isocrates this perspective continued into the fourth century. Read in this context Plato's degrading attack on rhetoric in the Gorgias can readily be reconciled with his surprisingly positive treatment of it in the Phaedrus. In the Gorgias he does not debunk rhetoric per se, but only rhetorical culture, that is, rhetoric as conceived by his contemporaries as chief among the arts, $\eta$ $\kappa\alpha\lambda\lambda\iota\sigma\tau\eta$ $\tau\omega\nu$ $\tau\varepsilon\chi\nu\omega\nu$. On the other hand, in the Phaedrus he recommends rhetoric conceived in a limited sense as simply one art among many. This is supported by the recent work of Robert Conners who interprets Plato's criticism of rhetorical culture in light of the transition from oral to literate culture in fourth-century Greece.

This study considers a corpus of conversational data from a cognitive perspective. The corpus is comprised of a set of dialogues involving a man interviewing his parents about memories of the Oklahoma frontier. The study views this conversation in cognitive terms as a process in which the interlocutors' separate cognitive systems interact by means of the speech signal and change as a result. Cognitive systems are viewed as networks of relationships. It is shown that the consideration of natural conversation yields insights into the cognitive structures and processing of interlocutors, and conversely, that an understanding of cognitive systems is needed to explain surface patterns observable in conversational texts. Several issues concerning the interaction of cognitive systems are addressed. First, the patterning of conversational topic is investigated to discover how the speaker designates topics within his cognitive system and how speaker and listener coordinate their notions of topic. The behavior of cognitive topic is found to be governed by a principle of accessibility. Of all the information in the network that a speaker could designate as topic, that information which is most accessible will be selected. For the addressee, the less accessible a new topic is, the less likely he is to recognize it and the more carefully the speaker must prepare him. Second, two cases of multiple tellings of a single experience are investigated to find what they reveal about how the speaker stores and expresses first-hand information. A continuum of storage types is proposed that is characterized by factors such as the number of times a memory has been related, the fluency of the delivery, and the amount of sensitivity shown to the listener's cognitive needs. Finally, the range of cognitive tasks interlocutors perform as they exchange information is explored. The functions served by statements in a portion of conversation are examined, and it is proposed that statement functions are unified by a protypical function, that of reporting on information present in the speaker's system. An interpretation of the cognitive effect of statements is suggested which recognizes five basic cognitive situations of information exchange in which statements are employed.

This thesis investigates the status of intimacy in late modernity. It adresses two questions: how should we consider intimacy today? And how can intimacy help us understand social phenomena such as the Bouchard-Taylor Commission?To answer these questions, intimacy is conceptualized as a form of power that regulates the space of social differentiation that exists between individuals in modern societies. The analysis is inspired by philosophical hermeneutics, but also a series of transdisciplinary approaches enabling us to account for the various dimensions of the issue. The thesis provides a close reading of 64 interventions made during the Quebec Citizen's Forum of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences, better known as the Bouchard-Taylor Commission. These interventions are analyzed using a methodology inspired by the "Depth Hermeneutics" developed by John B. Thompson, which comprise three levels of analysis: social-historical analysis, discursive analysis and interpretation. I have enriched this method with the feminist insights of Sara Ahmed.The analysis is framed by a general context that includes the main elements of modernity and late modernity in the West, the more particular context of Quebec, and the effects of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States and its aftermath. Additionally, the thesis situates this analysis in the more specific context surrounding the creation and the work of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission. This contextualization combined with a discourse analysis of the interventions themselves helped to unveil dimensions of intimacy that play a significant role in distancing and approaching bodies in public space and therefore have an influence on the differentiation of individuals in the community. In addition, this thesis argues that people are driven to manipulate their most intimate dimensions in order to gain the recognition of others. This is characterized as a by-product of the clash between our capacity for action and regulatory processes that reduce our margin of independence in late modernity. / Cette thèse a comme tâche principale de répondre aux interrogations concernant le statut de l'intimité dans la modernité avancée. En effet, nous y avons répondu à deux interrogations : comment devrions-nous considérer l'intimité aujourd'hui? Et comment peut-elle nous aider à comprendre des phénomènes sociaux comme la Commission Bouchard-Taylor?Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons conceptualisé l'intimité à l'aide des dimensions y étant associées comme une forme de pouvoir aidant à la normalisation et au contrôle de l'espace à travers la différenciation sociale qu'elle effectue entre les individus. L'analyse présentée est basée sur un cadre théorique inspiré de la philosophie herméneutique, mais aussi d'une série de courants transdisciplinaires nous permettant de rendre compte des diverses dimensions de la question. Comme terrain d'étude, nous avons choisi 64 allocutions effectuées lors des Forums de citoyens de la Commission de Consultation sur les Pratiques d'Accommodement, mieux connue sous le nom de Commisison Bouchard-Taylor. Pour étudier ces allocutions, nous avons fait appel à la méthodologie inspirée du « depth hermeneutics » de John B. Thompson avec les trois niveaux d'analyse suivants : une analyse sociohistorique, une analyse discursive et l'interprétation. Cette méthode, nous a été enrichie à l'aide des travaux de Sara Ahmed, auteure féministe prolifique.Nous avons effectué une analyse du contexte général couvrant les principaux éléments de la modernité et de la modernité avancée, puis une analyse du contexte québécois, sans oublier les effets du 11 septembre 2001. Nous avons aussi présenté le contexte particulier entourant la création et les travaux de la Commission Bouchard-Taylor. Cette contextualisation jumelée à l'analyse discursive des allocutions nous a permis de constater que les dimensions de l'intimité jouent un rôle non négligeable dans le rapprochement et l'éloignement des corps dans l'espace et donc dans la différenciation des individus dans la communauté. Enfin, cette thèse nous a permis de voir que les individus sont poussés à manipuler leurs dimensions les plus intimes afin d'obtenir la reconnaissance de l'autre. Ce phénomène résulterait de nos capacités d'action qui se heurtent au processus de régulation et de contrôle externes diminuant notre marge d'indépendance dans la modernité avancée.

<p> The purpose of this study is to specifically look into one businesses website and online efforts to engage potential new hires in providing them with valuable company information. The research questions focused on how effective the company's online advertisements were, as well as the interaction and involvement of the online advertisements. The researcher of this study utilized communication theories based on Todd Gitlin's media torrent theory of oversaturation and Joseph Walther's social information processing theory to conduct research. To conduct the research a survey was given to 20 prospective job seekers and five face-to-face interviews were conducted. The participation in the survey was anonymous and no tracking information was kept. The interviewees that participated in the interview were current employees that were only asked about their application process and the role that social media played in their online job search. The study concludes that most of the prospective job seekers and current employees find social media platforms to be an easy way to find open positions because these online advertisements direct the applicant to the company website for further information. However, many employees also preferred to learn about the company face-to-face, rather than online. </p>

<p> The purpose of this investigation was to examine romantic lesbian dating scripts, understand the meanings shared among them, and compare them to heterosexual dating scripts. Twelve in-depth interviews constructed around three research questions were conducted with lesbian women between the ages of 18 and 43. Results indicated that lesbian women used both hypothetical and interpersonal dating scripts, which were affected by butch and femme identities, as well as high levels of privacy and self-awareness that characterize lesbian women. Specific actions such as initiation between potential partners, preparation for dates, and payment methods were frequently discussed. Results also indicated that social media has revolutionized lesbian dating, allowing for more preferred dating scripts to be used. With the lack of gender to dictate roles, communication is key for lesbians to both negotiate and assign acceptable dating behavior. </p>

<p> Over the years, growing concerns for the environment have increased discourse regarding the problems and solutions to environmental crises. Messages in popular culture have implications for public perceptions of the environment and, as a result, impact how we interact with and understand our natural surroundings. While we understand the impact of rhetorical strategies in a general sense, research is needed when exploring how speaker credibility influences environmental messages. </p><p> This thesis explores two concepts: how credibility impacts environmental messages and the concept of speaking for the environment. I explore these concepts through a media-centered rhetorical criticism of the film, <i> The Lorax</i> (2012). I analyze seven selected scenes, drawing on McCroskey&rsquo;s (1966) scale of ethos and Spangle and Knapp&rsquo;s (1996) study of tactics and appeals. The analysis reveals several tactics used by the two main characters, the Lorax and Once-ler, to establish their credibility. How the Lorax and Once-ler establish or fail to establish credibility impacts the future state of the environment. Ethos is a key communication concept in speaking for the environment, as the way we speak and represent the environment has consequences for how we interact with the natural world.</p>

<p> This study investigated the relationships between international students' use of social networking sites (SNS), their acculturative stress and social connectedness. A survey was conducted among 63 international students who attended a rural, Midwestern University in the United States. To keep in contact with individuals from their home country and individuals in the U.S., international students reported using both U.S.-based SNS such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as SNS geared towards their home countries, such as Weibo and WeChat. Positive correlations were found between Guilt and Culture Shock, Culture Shock and Homesickness, Guilt and Homesickness, Guilt and Perceived Hatred, Culture Shock and Perceived Hatred, Perceived Discrimination and Perceived Hatred, Perceived Discrimination and Culture Shock, and between Perceived Discrimination and Guilt. Hours spent per day on social networking sites was negatively correlated with Perceived Hatred, Guilt and Social Connectedness, but positively correlated with Relationship Maintenance, Social Surveillance, Socializing, Culture Shock and Perceived Discrimination. Social Connectedness was negatively associated with all five components of Acculturative Stress and Social Surveillance, but positively associated with Relationship Maintenance. The findings suggest that international students' SNS use may be associated with their ability to adjust to life in the foreign country and to continue feeling connected to a network of social support. The small sample size and other limitations are discussed, as are the potential implications.</p>

<p> This study examines how LGBT activists and LGBT youth make meaning of a strategic advocacy campaign. By examining activist and advocacy efforts aimed at youth, this research brings to light how LGBT organizations use campaigns to articulate identity and, conversely, how LGBT youth articulate notions of identity. Through the lens of the It Gets Better Project, a nonprofit activist organization, this dissertation uses in-depth interviews with organizational members and chat-based interviews with LGBT youth to study the meanings participants brought to the campaign. </p><p> Strategic communication has been instrumental in construction of LGBT as a cohesive collective identity and has played a vital role in the early stages of the gay rights movement. This research demonstrates how contemporary LGBT advocacy, through strategic communication, works to shape understandings of LGBT youth. </p><p> Instead of focusing on the Internet as a democratic space that equalizes power differentials between an organization and its publics, this study shows that the construction of identity is the result of a dynamic process between producers and consumers in which power is localized and does not simply belong to an organization or its public. </p><p> This research challenges the Internet as a democratic space and demonstrates that identity is a discursive struggle over meaning that is bound up in the intimate dance between producers and consumers of a campaign. In contrast to functionalist understandings of public relations that privileges the organization, this dissertation contends that a cultural-economic approach focuses on the processes of communication. A cultural-economic approach gives voice to the diverse audiences of a communication campaign and addresses the role communication plays as a discursive force that influences the construction of identities. </p>