The experience of being diagnosed with and treated for cancer is an extremely stressful experience for most individuals. Historically, the literature on stress and coping has focused on negative outcomes, such as depression and anxiety, in relation to one‘s experience with cancer. Under-represented in the literature has been a theoretical framework that examines positive and transformative experiences that may occur throughout the cancer experience. The current study assessed interpersonal variables that rarely have been investigated in relation to one‘s experience with cancer (i.e., received social support and unsupportive interactions) and their association with depressive symptoms, positive emotion, and posttraumatic growth in a sample of men and women recently diagnosed with cancer. The main research design was cross-sectional (although longitudinal analyses were conducted on an exploratory basis), and self-report data were collected from 60 participants who had been diagnosed with cancer on average 5.68 months prior to data collection. Contrary to hypotheses, hierarchical regression equations indicated that received social support was not related to any of the outcome variables. However, unsupportive responses from a main support person were found to be significantly and positively related to participants‘ reports of depressive symptoms and posttraumatic growth within the context of their cancer experience. A major contribution of the present study is that it called attention to the importance of studying unsupportive interactions separately from social support. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between unsupportive interactions and posttraumatic growth in a sample of recently diagnosed cancer patients. Findings were surprising in that the more unsupportive responses individuals with cancer received from a main support person, the more personal growth they reported. The results from the present study have important research and clinical implications for understanding the relationship between unsupportive interactions and posttraumatic growth among men and women who have been diagnosed with cancer.

This thesis is based around five studies examining the psychology of interpersonal communication applied to organizational settings. The studies are designed to examine the question of how the way that people in positions of power in organizations communicate with subordinates, affects various measures of health, well-being and productivity. It is impossible to study modern organisational communication without recognising the importance of electronic communication. The use of e-mail and other forms of text messaging is now ubiquitous in all areas of communication. The studies in this thesis include the use of e-mail as a medium of communication and examine some of the potential effects of electronic versus face-to-face and verbal communication. The findings of the studies support the basic hypothesis that: it is not what is said that matters but how it is said. The results showed that an unsupportive, formal, authoritarian style of verbal or written communication is likely to have a negative effect on health, well-being and productivity compared with a supportive, informal and egalitarian style. There are also indications that the effects of damaging communications may not be confined to the initial recipient of the message. Organizational communication does not take place in a vacuum. Any negative consequences are likely to be transmitted by the recipient, either back to the sender or on to other colleagues with implications for the wider organisational climate. These findings are based on communications that would not necessarily be immediately recognised as obviously offensive or bullying, or even uncivil. The effects of these relatively mild but unsupportive communications may have implications for the selection and training of managers. In the final section of the thesis there is a discussion of how examples of various electronically recorded messages might be used as training material.

This thesis focuses on Kaiapoi, a small town in North Canterbury, and studies the ways young people are discursively constructed by adults and each other, and also the different ways young people experience and use the town's environment. Drawing on key informant interviews, media analysis, a youth survey and a photography activity (photovoice); the research developed a rich understanding of the different ways young people are constructed in Kaiapoi and the places young people enjoy and do not enjoy going to in the town and why.

We hypothesized that unsupportive social interactions (USI) would be associated with poorer psychological wellbeing in people living with HIV (PLWH), and that this relationship would be explained by increased levels of shame. 106 PLWH completed an online questionnaire including measures of HIV-specific USI, shame, depression, negative affect, and perceived stress. Results suggest that insensitive interactions were related to higher levels of depression, negative affect, and perceived stress through higher levels of shame. Internalized feelings of shame may partially explain the relationship between insensitive interactions and psychological well-being.

Individuals living with HIV experience higher rates of stigmatizing social interactions that may negatively impact psychological and physical health. We examined depressive symptoms as a mediator of the relationship between HIV-specific unsupportive social interactions (USIs) and health behaviors in 87 Black and White men living with HIV (MLWH). We also examined ethnicity as a moderator of this model. Depressive symptoms were an indirect mechanism through which HIV-specific USIs explained poorer health behaviors. The indirect effects between disconnecting USI, more depressive symptoms, and poorer health behaviors were significant for Black men but not for White men. Depressive symptoms may be one pathway through which USI are associated with physical health, and disconnecting USI may be particularly detrimental for Black MLWH.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how Black, public school administrator employment decisions are impacted by the behaviors of supervisors in Virginia. Commonalities among the lived experiences of Black, public school administrators were examined in order to identify specific behaviors which impact employment decisions. Transcendental phenomenological qualitative research design was utilized. Participants were identified through gatekeeper introductions and then narrowed through snow-ball sampling. Data was collected through open-ended face-to-face interviews with 12 Black, public school administrators in Virginia via a secure online platform. The data was analyzed in order to identify emergent themes which represent the lived experiences of Black, public school administrators in Virginia and how the behaviors of their supervisors impacted their employment decisions. The findings could be utilized to develop supervisory practices that will increase the hiring and retention of Black educators in Virginia.