Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal claiming that the Behavior Alteration Technique checklist suffers from an item desirability bias. Argues that the article's entire allegation rests on a faulty premise and on an indefensible research design which fails to test the contention. (SR)

Explores undergraduate student receivers' symbolic cognitive processes in response to particular types of norm violations. Finds that imagined interactions were used in respect to all three types of violations profiled and that participants were significantly more likely to engage in imagined interactions than to interact with or confront norm…

Examines college students' resistance decisions in the classroom. Finds a greater likelihood of using teacher-owned techniques (teacher is at fault) with nonimmediate teachers and student-owned strategies (student assumes responsibility) with immediate teachers. Finds that neither teachers' compliance-gaining strategy type nor students' gender…

Assesses the effects of situational, teacher, and student difference variables that affect experienced teachers' selection of compliance-gaining techniques. Concludes that teachers' compliance-gaining message selection was substantially influenced by misbehavior type and intensity. (MM)

Offers a demographic profile of the typical graduate-student protege and faculty mentor. Outlines 10 communication strategies with which students initiate such a relationship. Finds that students (1) felt their initiation attempts were somewhat ineffective and unduly difficult; (2) report mentors provide primarily psychosocial rather than career…

A study verified and extended the utility of three topologies of embarrassment (types of embarrassment, face saving strategies, and goals of embarrassment) to the college classroom context. Subjects, 209 undergraduate students enrolled in 12 introductory, lower-division, interpersonal communication classes at a large western United States…

Examines teachers themselves as potential sources of instructional and/or motivational problems. Indicates 28 categories of student-reported teacher misbehaviors, and notes the frequency of each. Reduces the misbehaviors to three factors: teacher incompetence, offensiveness, and indolence. Discusses implications for managing student resistance in…

Examines the impact of teacher immediacy (teacher behavior that communicates positive attitudes toward students and subject matter) on students' attitudes toward learning in different types of classes: people-oriented-courses (communication skills) vs. task-oriented-courses (accounting).

Conducted as part of a research program examining teachers' use of compliance gaining strategies to control specific student misbehaviors, a study investigated the strategies used by experienced teachers in dealing with student misbehaviors. The purpose was to compare the findings with those of an earlier study with prospective teachers. Subjects…

Generated a list of power strategies or behavior alteration techniques (BATs) that elementary and secondary teachers perceive as effective in managing student behavior. Investigated their use and found that teachers rely primarily on reward-type BATs and frequently use the student's "audience" to effect change. (PD)

Given the importance of mentoring in the academic context and in light of the weaknesses of previous research, this study proposed five objectives. Analyses of surveys from 145 students across 12 universities and diverse disciplines revealed first of all, a demographic profile of the typical graduate student protege and faculty mentor. Second, 10…

As part of a research project on teacher power in the classroom, a study examined behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and behavior representative messages (BAMs) used by elementary and secondary school teachers in classroom management. In the first phase of the study, 177 college students generated lists of BATs and BAMs, and then, working in…

As the fourth in a series of investigations of teacher power in the classroom, a study focused primarily on extending and refining the classification of behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and behavior alteration messages (BAMs) that teachers report as representative of the classroom environment. The study took place in three phases. First,…

A study examined college students' resistance decisions in the classroom. Initial validation tests of the resistance typology developed by N. Burroghs, P. Kearney and T. Plax (1989) confirmed the existence of all 19 resistance categories. Further analyses indicated that the categories could be meaningfully reduced to two dimensions: Teacher-Owned…

A study investigated the effects of teacher nonverbal immediacy and strategy type on college students' likelihood of resisting teacher strategies for gaining compliance. Subjects were 629 undergraduate students randomly assigned to four separate conditions. They responded to four written scenarios that reflected the variables of teacher immediacy…