Communication is a diverse discipline that includes many social scientific, humanistic, and critical modes of inquiry. After elucidating several challenges to teaching a communication research methods course, this article describes a four-credit, one-semester "research incubator" that was piloted by two faculty members and seven students…

Indicates through regression analyses that (1) the Ziller, Martell, and Morrison self-differentiation measure and (2) Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire are significantly related and significant predictors of the criterion variables. Found Bieri et al.'s measure to be virtually unrelated to any of the study variables. (JD)

Discusses replication factors for communication experiments. Gives research findings regarding the treatment of sampled replications as fixed effects. Considers objections to treating replications as random. Suggests the empowerment of studies through modest increases in the number of replications. (HB)

Given that overt linguistic behavior is not an adequate or primary datum for linguistic theory and that linguistic theory cannot directly account for overt linguistic behavior, human language can be seen as an abstract system that relates (graphic or phonetic) surface representations of sentences and underlying grammatical forms and semantic…

Communication competence has been approached primarily from three perspectives in the communication literature: (1) as cognitive understanding of communication, (2) as a capability of performing certain communication skills, and (3) as achieving effective communication. Most scholars who write about communication competence view competence either…

Current conceptualizations of the construct of "communication competence" are examined in this paper and are found to be problematic. The paper argues that "communication competence" must be distinguished from "communication performance" and sees neither as a reliable predictor of the other. The paper suggests that both research and pedagogy must…

The bulk of communication research has approached competency from a trait perspective and has attempted to identify the individual characteristics that are presumed to generalize across all social settings. The role of social situation and the possibility that some individuals can be competent in some settings and incompetent in others have not…

The variety of terms used to describe the process of self-other differentiation in communication--empathy, role taking, decentering, and perspective taking are but a few--tend to undermine efforts to establish a consistent framework for research in this area. A review of these terms suggests that decentering is the broadest of the concepts,…

An overview of the literature in family communication since 1976 reveals that a huge body of research continues to focus on the family context but that little of this research is being conducted by scholars whose primary interest is communication. Communication researchers could make a contribution to family communication research if they…

A great deal of research has been done in the area of "compliance-message" tactics and strategies, but this research has not produced a coherent framework for studying this interpersonal communication process. Based on six axioms concerning the nature of communication behavior in general and on one postulate and five theorems defining…

Finds no relationship between undergraduate students' self-evaluations as interpersonal communicators, public speakers, or listeners and their observed ability to perform in these three communication areas. Argues that observed performance data are more valid than self-report data, and advises caution in drawing conclusions when using self-report…

The purpose of this paper is to present a general research model for the study of interpersonal communication competence. The paper summarizes the research background for the model and covers considerations for a general theory of competence. It notes that recently the communication field has shifted in emphasis from concerns of public speaking…

Evidence suggests that individual difference measures of personality are limited in their ability to predict cross-situational behavior. This limitation has applied to measures of communication-bound anxiety that have generally been developed as unidimensional instruments. A study explored whether a measurement approach based on individual and…

This classic paper, first published in 1964, discusses communication problems involved in a simple guessing game involving a deck of cards, describes a three-person experiment based on the game which used various control procedures to facilitate communications, and considers the effects of these controls on the investigation. Twelve references are…

Tests the hypothesis that listener's proximity in the standard referential communication situation might prevent subjects from realizing that only verbal information is useful in this situation by comparing the standard situation to one in which messages are conveyed over citizen's band radio. Twenty-four first-grade students served as speakers in…