The communication patterns of young married couples may affect the satisfaction and longevity of the relationship. A study examined two young married couples who reported about their relationship with each other. Each couple was interviewed together, and then each member of each couple completed a questionnaire based on the ICPS Family Functioning…

This study examined the relationship between children's gender-typed conversational styles and joint problem-solving performance. Sixty preschool children between 4 and 5 1/2 years completed three problems with a same-sex or opposite-sex peer. Two structured tasks, copying a Tinkertoy model and stringing beads; and one unstructured task, building…

Mediation training should produce highly successful mediators who are capable of carrying out smooth and effective mediation. This study assessed subjects' perceptions of the effectiveness of mediation by comparing trained team mediators to untrained team mediators. Subjects (N=30) evaluated videotaped mediation vignettes showing both the trained…

The purpose of this study was to use three public school action research teams to identify the most desirable, feasible, and effective system-centered strategies, peer-centered strategies, personnel-centered strategies, and child-centered strategies for promoting a sense of belonging. One hundred and sixty four strategies were examined. Eight…

Findings of a study that examined the relationship of administrative role conflict and ambiguity with stress and burnout are presented in this paper. A survey sent to 1,000 Washington State administrators (250 each from the following groups--elementary, junior, and senior high school principals; and superintendents) elicited 741 returns, a 74…

To insure that each child has a safe and positive environment at school, teachers should earn their pupils' respect and classroom activities should be oriented to helping each child succeed. Three key phrases reinforce the expectation of success. These phrases, which teacher and pupils should understand and remember, are: (1) It is O.K. to make a…

Avoidance strategies involve the tactics and techniques people use when they don't wish to be influenced by others. To investigate the types of avoidance strategies men and women use to deal with an unwelcome persuasion attempt from an intimate partner, undergraduates wrote essays describing how they avoided such attempts. A 24-strategy coding…

The measurement integrity of M. A. Rahim's Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI-II) and D. M. Roussel's Managerial Frames of Mind Survey (MFMS) was investigated, as was the relationship between scores on the two measures. Subjects were 369 managers from three types of organizations: (1) higher education; (2) not-for-profit public sector…

The concept of complexity in decision-making can be found in several lines of conceptualization in the area of national and international decision-making. One derives from the classic works on authoritarianism and dogmatism (Adorno, et al., 1950; Rokeach, 1960). Another approach relies on the variables that pertain to group dynamics and to…

Arguments and research studies examining whether people prefer arbitration or mediation to resolve a conflict between disputing parties are discussed, critiqued, and compared. In both mediation and arbitration a presumably neutral third party is involved, along with disputants, as an element of the dispute-resolution process. Mediation and…

Noting the lack of a dispute mechanism for determining whether an advertising practice is truly deceptive without generating the costs and negative publicity produced by traditional Federal Trade Commission (FTC) procedures, this paper proposes a model based upon early termination of the issues through jointly commissioned behavioral research. The…

A study examined the way argumentation in collective bargaining shapes outcomes. Specifically, it explored the types of claims and reasoning processes that characterize bargaining interaction on different subissues of a proposal and tracked the development of arguments through sequential sessions and caucus meetings by examining similarities and…

Establishment of identity represents a normative developmental crisis at adolescence. It is commonly speculated that adopted adolescents find resolution of the identity crisis especially difficult. Some theorists and researchers suggest that adoptees who search for information about their birth heritage have failed to make satisfactory progress…

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between the amount of conflict in a group decision-making process and the achievement of a quality decision. A task problem given to 33 college students completing a group symposium assignment in a basic public speaking and discussion course called for subjects to choose three possible topics for a…

Viewing conflict as a communication process and culture as a system of symbols and meanings allows conflict to be seen as embedded in the normative system of culture. Conflict is functional when it maintains the fundamental norms and values of the culture, regulates an appropriate degree of stability in the system, and takes place in a normative…