Noting that the format imposed upon a debate can affect the presentation of information provided to audiences and that presidential campaign debates have become a significant event in the election process, this paper contends that it is important to analyze various formats and to consider carefully formats that are developed for future encounters…

Concludes that Japanese managers tend to rely more often on altruism-based strategies to gain compliance, while American managers tend to rely more often on reward- or punishment-based strategies. (MS)

A study compared adult learners and traditional undergraduate students in terms of three communication traits that may affect the quality and quantity of communication in the classroom. The study investigated whether adult learners differed significantly from traditional undergraduate students in terms of communication apprehension, willingness to…

A study was designed to determine if communication majors had greater communication competency than non-majors. Additionally, for majors, the number of communication courses and types of course, were also examined for their effect on communication competence. Subjects were 200 students at the University of Memphis. The impact of these independent…

Investigates specific differences in self-reports of shy and not-shy individuals regarding their communication behavior: social composure, social confirmation, social experience, appropriate disclosure, articulation, and wit. Finds significant differences on social composure, articulation, and social experience. (SR)

Perceptions of interpersonal communication skills of participants in the Women in Community Service (WICS) program, an initiative of Tennessee JOBS, were assessed to examine the relationship between WICS skill blocks training and improvement in communication competence and communicator style flexibility while decreasing communication apprehension.…

A total of 2,286 college students in seven countries completed the Communication Style Measure (CSM) in an investigation of the communication styles of groups. The students were enrolled in universities in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Micronesia, Hawaii, and the Philippines. The CSM is designed to measure subjects' perceptions of themselves as…

Describes a study comparing public attitudes with attitudes of public relations practitioners and measuring accuracy of practitioners' predictions of public attitudes. Provides limited support for the thesis that PR pros can perceive and predict public attitude with modest accuracy. (MS)

A study focused on the administrative training and leadership practices used by communication chairpersons. Of particular interest is the comparison of leadership practices of male and female chairpersons and how those practices are influenced by the length of term as chair, the size of the institution, the size of the department, whether or not…

A study determined the relationships among interpersonal communication competence, communicative flexibility, and rhetorical sensitivity and whether there are difference among gender groups, age groups, and class groups in rating these dependent measures. Subjects, 78 students enrolled in one of 4 sections of an upper-division undergraduate…

Mothers' ability to decode their children's nonverbal expressions of four affects (happiness, sadness, fear, and anger) was contrasted with the decoding ability of a matched group of nonmothers. Results indicate that mothers were accurately able to decode expressions of happiness but had relative difficulty with decoding expressions of sadness,…

Analysis reveals that the four labels do not denote four discrete problems; rather, the constructs overlap to a great extent. Author recommends systematic interviews with individuals to identify their problems and then a treatment dependent on the exact nature of the problem. (PD)

Indicates that the incidence of communication apprehension among the Americans was significantly lower than that among the Japanese but significantly higher than that among the Australians or Koreans. (Author/RL)

Compared comprehension of novel communicative signs to assist 2.5- and 3-year-old humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans find hidden objects during a hiding-finding game. Found that children at both ages performed above chance with all signs. No ape performed above chance for any signs not known before the experiment despite three times as many…

A study compared the communication apprehension of basic studies (underprepared) and nonbasic studies college students in four contexts: (1) group, (2) interpersonal, (3) meetings, and (4) public communication. Subjects were 238 male and 209 female undergraduate students enrolled in the required basic communication course at the University of…