Examines types of interpersonal rituals in marriages and adult friendships. Assesses ritual enactment among friendship types. Develops a typology of seven marriage ritual types and a typology of six friendship ritual types. (RS)

Data gathered from 208 nonadministrative supervisors and managers at a Midwestern university demonstrated that femininity is closely related to the consideration dimension of leadership style and that masculinity is related to the initiating structure dimension. (PD)

Student question-asking is essential to the learning process, and yet little is known about this communicative phenomenon. More important, the research that is available suggests that students ask far fewer questions than might be expected by educators. An exploratory study examined 15 college communication classrooms and determined that: (1)…

A study investigated the influence of sex on perceived credibility. It was predicted that males would have more credibility than females, and that males and females would respond differently to the question of having more credibility if they were of the opposite sex. A series of research questions concerning both the similarity of sex of the…

Examines two analyses of communicative competence: J. C. McCroskey's knowledge-skills distinction; and B. H. Spitzberg's response to McCroskey's argument, tying competence to motivation, knowledge, and skills. Discusses two unresolved issues in both analyses--the behavioral repertoire mapping assumption, and the conscious monitoring assumption.…

Surveyed 163 women associate professors and professors to determine the characteristics that contributed to the success of women in the communication disciplines. (PD)

Examines the relationship of student questions to teacher comments in college classrooms across the university. Finds 6 categories of student questions (with an average of 3.6 student questions asked per hour of instruction), 8 categories of antecedent teacher comments, and 7 categories of consequent teacher comment. Considers explanations and…

Presents annotations of articles, commentaries, and publications that emphasize the importance of communication and the role of the study of communication in contemporary life. Discusses six emergent themes. Concludes that communication education develops the whole person, improves the work of education, advances the interests of society, bridges…

A study determined the relationship between communicator style and argumentativeness and clarified the relationship between psychological gender and communicator style. Three hundred and fourteen college students enrolled in introductory health and communication courses responded to the Communicator Style Measure, the Argumentativeness Scale, and…

A study examined the grading patterns in basic public speaking and communication courses. It was hypothesized that female students would receive higher grades in basic performance and nonperformance communication courses than would male students. The grades for one academic quarter in two nonperformance communication courses and one public…

This study did not support the following hypothesis: more sexually-oriented jokes will reflect a sexist bias against women than against men. Instead, the findings indicate that joke-tellers of both sexes were more likely to select sexual jokes that discriminated against males. (PD)

To provide an assessment of current instruments being used by communication scholars, investigators examined and identified the most frequently used instruments that had been published in the past five years in the nine major speech communication journals. Each article was examined for the identification of the instruments used, constructs…

Indicates that relationship type did not affect the maintenance strategies that partners chose; however, the partners' relationship intent and the sex-composition of the dyad had a significant impact on the selection of directness strategies. Suggests that individuals are not necessarily more likely to select directness strategies than balance or…

Examines students' questioning behavior in the college communication classrooms. Finds that (1) male teachers receive more questions than female teachers; (2) female students ask fewer questions than male students in courses taught by males; and (3) self-reported masculinity is associated with a greater likelihood of asking questions. (KEH)

A study investigated ways in which masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated individuals differed with respect to the importance placed upon receiver and sender characteristics as prerequisite conditions for self-disclosure. Subjects, 492 college students, completed a personal attributes questionnaire, which identifies individuals as…