Fat talk refers to the negative, evaluative conversations that women have with each other about their bodies (e.g., "I'm so fat!"). These comments are often driven by negative self-evaluations and engaging in fat talk leads to negative health-related outcomes for the individual. Grounded in confirmation theory, the current research sought to uncover the role of communication in moderating the relationship between fat talk and health-related outcomes (i.e., mental health, body image, and weight management) by focusing on perceptions of both dysfunctional and functional responses to fat talk. Participants were young adult female friendship dyads (N = 239 dyads) who completed a number of measures including fat talk, depression, bulimia, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, dieting, and exercise. Statistical analyses included multilevel modeling and actor partner interdependence modeling. Results revealed that fat talk was associated with most of the health-related outcomes, even after controlling for BMI and different responses from a friend. Engaging in excessive conversations about weight with a friend (i.e., co-rumination) was positively associated with bulimia, drive for thinness, and body dissatisfaction. Showing warmth and attentiveness during conversations about weight (i.e., acceptance) was associated with lower levels of depression and bulimia. Pushing a friend to change her thoughts and habits (i.e., challenge) was associated with lower levels of body dissatisfaction. None of the interaction terms yielded significant results, indicating that responses to fat talk (either positive or negative) did not moderate the relationship between fat talk and the health-related outcome variables. This research highlights the importance of understanding fat talk as a communication process that may be driven by and result in intra-individual outcomes.

Self-talk, its relationship to performance, and responses to feedback were investigated in European Americans (Eu.A.s; n = 66), newly-arrived East Asians (E.A.s; n = 24), later-arrived E.A.s (n = 44), and Latinos (n = 35). Later-arrived E.A.s had a larger proportion of negative to positive self-talk than Eu.A.s. Regardless of cultural background, a greater proportion of negative self-talk related to poorer performance. All cultural groups perceived the task as more valid after receiving positive vs. negative feedback. Results did not replicate work by Peters and Williams (in press), questioning their concern regarding the use of cognitive interventions with E.A.s. Results suggest that E.A. and Latino groups are not homogenous, findings should not be generalized from one collectivist cultural background to another, negative self-talk can act as an indicator for fear of failure in Latinos, and acculturation in E.A.s influences fear of failure.

An Inconvenient Truth was a catalyst for change in the way many adults think about the environment. North American youth are perpetuating the dominant consumerist paradigm, and will need to change their attitudes and behaviour to restore the health of the planet in the future. This study identifies the content and messaging that youth see as effective to engage their peers in pro-environmental attitudes and actions. Middle school participants created environmental videos following a Participatory Video methodology. A content analysis of the videos revealed that youth are optimistic and advocate grassroots community action to “save the world.” The dominant messaging in the videos is “peer talk,” characterized by youth language and diction, youth speaking directly to the youth audience, youth talking to youth on screen, and content that is relevant to youth. These findings are recommended in a grounded theory of effective environmental education for youth through video.

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Use of language is thought to be particularly important when considering an individual’s motivation to change. The present thesis has expanded on existing knowledge of the relation between motivation to change and psychotherapy outcome for individuals with anorexia nervosa. This was accomplished by rating 148 audiotaped psychotherapy sessions with four measures of motivation to change. Data were derived from an existing clinical trial of three types of psychotherapy (Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Specialist Supportive Clinical Management). Three sessions were rated for each of the 53 participants who received up to twenty sessions of psychotherapy, early (sessions 1-5, middle (sessions 6-14), and late (sessions 15-20). Participant expressions of motivation to change were analysed across sessions, within sessions (beginning, mid, and end intervals), by change talk type, and therapy type for those with good and poor outcomes. Resistance and readiness to change, positive psychotherapy process, and readiness to recover from anorexia nervosa were also examined. The main findings were significantly more positive change talk expressed in the beginning than mid and end therapy intervals and significantly more negative change talk expressed in the beginning than end therapy interval and in the mid than end interval. When change talk type was examined, a significant difference in the ratio of positive to negative change talk expressed between change talk types was found. Results from other motivation measures indicated that readiness to change was expressed significantly more frequently in the middle and late than early phase of therapy. There were higher levels of positive process in psychotherapy in the late than early phase of therapy, and higher levels in those with good than poor outcomes. There were significantly higher levels of readiness to recover from anorexia nervosa expressed in the middle and late phases of therapy than in the early phase, and higher levels in those with good than poor outcomes. Limitations to these results include a modest sample size, rater biases, and lack of reliability measures. Notwithstanding these limitations, the present study has produced several potentially important findings that merit further investigation.

本研究主旨在探討教師在不同層級的兒童英語教室所具有語言的特徵。文中從二個角度來分析教師語言：句法及言談功能。藉著分析教師語言的形式及功能，期能暸解教師語言的內涵，幫助學生語言學習。 有三位兒童英語老師及三個不同層級的班級參與本研究,分別為初級，中級及高級。每位教師分別接受四節課之錄音，每一個層級選擇錄音最清晰的二節課予以轉成文字稿。經仔細檢視文稿後，每一層級選擇十五分鐘之語料做分析比較。以二項句法特徵及十一項言談功能來分析，記出其頻率，算出百分比及相關的統計方法。本研究的主要發現如下： (1) 教師語言平均語句的長度隨著層級愈高而增加。教師在初級的兒童 英語教室之平均句長為2.95，在中級教室為3.47，在高級教室為4.53。此顯示，教師隨著學生程度的增加而調整其語句長度。 (2) 教師語言的語法正確率在三個層級都很高。教師在初級教室的語法正確率最高為99.52%，其次為中級教室96.20%，最低為高級教室為94.21%。此顯示，教師給予學生相當正確的語言輸入(Input)。 (3) 教師語言的言談功能隨著層級的增加而不同。在十一項言談功能中，初級教室教師最常用的是練習(Drill)，中級教室教師最常用的功能是講解(Informative)，而高級教室教師用的最多的是發問(Elicitation)。 本研究亦提據結果提供以下的教學建議：教師應依學生程度的不同，調整其言談功能，同時教師需提供學生更多語言溝通的機會，培養學生語言溝通的能力。 / This study aims to investigate the characteristics of teacher talk in child EFL classrooms of different levels. Teacher talk is analyzed from two perspectives：syntactic and discourse. Three child language teachers and three classes of different levels participate in this study: the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Four units of each level are recorded. After initial screening, two units of each level are transcribed on the basis of intelligibility. By careful examination, only a portion lasting about ten to fifteen minutes at each level is selected for data analysis. Two formal characteristics--MLU (mean length of utterance) and grammaticality--are measured in syntactic analysis; and in discourse analysis, the function of teacher talk is analyzed. For syntactic analysis, teachers' MLU is counted; the grammaticality of teachers’speech is measured in the proportion of correct utterances to the total amount of utterances. For discourse analysis, teachers’utterances are categorized according to a discourse model adopted from Tsui (1985). Three major findings are found in this study. Firstly, teachers’ MLU increases as students’ proficiency increases. Teacher’ MLU at the elementary level is 2.95, at the intermediate level 3.47 and at the advanced level 4.53. It shows that teachers adjust their length of utterances to the proficiency level of students. Secondly, the grammaticality of teachers’ speech is very high in all the three classrooms. The grammaticality is 99.52% at the elementary level, 96.20% at the intermediate level and 94.21% at the advanced level. It shows that teachers provide students a very correct target language input. Thirdly, the functions of teacher talk are different at different levels. Among eleven functions, teachers use the function “Drill” most frequently in the elementary classroom, “Informative” in the intermediate classroom and“ Elicitation” in the advanced classroom. Two factors may be attributed as the cause the differences of teachers’ functions：the learners’ stage of development and the teaching method. Pedagogical implications are suggested according to the findings. Teachers are suggested to speak in such a way as to provide students with opportunities to speak in the target language if the purpose of teaching is to develop communicative ability.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-182). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Univ., Diss.--Halle, 1999. / Literaturverz. S. 291 - 321.

Thesis (Ph. D., Education)--University of Idaho, October 2008. / Major professor: Damon D. Burton. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-93). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.