May 2009 Communication Studies Newsletter
Many times the audience for some of our research projects is limited to a select few who are subscribers to an academic journal. In an effort to show more people the type of research being conducted by individuals in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University, I asked faculty members to give a brief report of one of their recent projects. Below are those summaries. All of the faculty members invite you to contact them personally if you have any questions about their research.
Repairing hurtful messages in marital relationships
Husbands and wives say and do hurtful things in their marriages. Although the hurt is often “repaired” these two aspects have not been investigated together in communication research. In our study, we used an attributional framework to examine the use and effectiveness of repair strategies with various hurtful messages. Married adults reported using a justification repair strategy most often (e.g., I was justified because you insulted me first). The repair strategy of silence (e.g., saying nothing, avoiding the topic, and hoping for improvement) was perceived to be least effective. Spouses perceived informative repair strategies as the most hurtful because they indicated a relatively inflexible, straightforward negative message (e.g., I’ve always disliked that color on you). Individual hurtful messages or subsequent repair strategies were not related to perceptions of intentionality or to relational satisfaction. The best strategy still seems to be to avoid saying negative messages to your relationship partner in the first place!
Dunleavy, K., Goodboy, A., Booth-Butterfield, M., Sidelinger, R., & Banfield, S. (2009). Repairing hurtful messages in marital relationships. Communication Quarterly, 57, 67-84.
”“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother””
Although the sibling relationship is the longest lasting relationship in which people will participate, it is not always the most important relationship. Once individuals reach emerging adulthood, which occurs between the ages of 18 to 25 years, their sibling relationships begin to take less priority over their friendships and romantic relationships and their commitment to each other may begin to decrease. Siblings were asked to provide three examples of the things they do or say to show their commitment to a sibling. From these examples, we identified 11 behaviors they use to show their commitment to a sibling. These behaviors are tangible support (i.e., providing money, food, or aid), emotional support (i.e., expressing caring, concern, and empathy), informational support (i.e., providing advice, input, and feedback), esteem support (i.e., expressing positive regard for a sibling’s skills and values), network support (i.e., participating in shared hobbies and interests), everyday talk (i.e., communicating with each other on a frequent and regular basis), shared activities (i.e., spending time together purposely), verbal expressions (i.e., expressing affection through words and statements), nonverbal expressions (i.e., expressing affection through touch), protection (i.e., looking out for a sibling’s welfare), and intimate play (i.e., engaging in playful fighting). When people are highly satisfied with their sibling relationships, they are more likely to show their commitment by providing emotional support, participating in shared activities, and providing network support. Based on these results, we concluded that emerging adults are committed to their sibling relationships and that they view these relationships favorably.
Myers, S. A., & Bryant, L. E. (2008). The use of behavioral indicators of sibling commitment among emerging adults. Journal of Family Communication, 8, 101-125.
Does Media Use Impact People’s Relationships?
What happens when young people spend most of their time playing video games and watching television, possibly even having a media addiction? In our study, we found that young people who tend to habitually play video games and watch television are less likely to engage in behaviors that maintain their romances, friendships, and family relationships than are young people who are not dependent on the media. Media addicts are less likely to engage in shared activities with their relational partners, they are less cooperative, forgiving, and patient with their partners when managing conflict, and they are less open, assuring, and supportive of their partners. We suggest that these findings may be due to (a) the antisocial content in video games and on TV, (b) media addicts experiencing an enjoyable state of media involvement known as flow while consuming media, and© people spending too much time with the media instead of with their partners. These findings are important because when individuals fail to maintain their relationships, relational satisfaction and commitment decline, which may lead to relationship dissolution.
Chory, R. M., & Banfield, S. (2009). Media dependence and relational maintenance in interpersonal relationships. Communication Reports, 22, 41-53.
This is Your Brain on Aggressive Communication
Why are people aggressive? Some people believe that being exposed to aggressive role models is the main explanation. Others believe communicating aggressively could be due to an argumentative skill deficiency. I am currently studying how the brain reacts to different conflict related stimuli. Working with individuals from the West Virginia Center for Advanced Imaging and the WVU Department of Surgery, we have identified brain activation differences between people low in verbal aggressiveness and people high in verbal aggressiveness. Our goal is to eventually find effective remediation and intervention strategies. Additionally, I have just completed co-editing a book on aggression.
T. A. Avtgis & A. S. Rancer (2010). Arguments, aggression, and conflict: New directions in theory and research. New York: Routledge.
One Foot in Front of the Other, Take One Step then take Another. Keep on Walking, We’re Headed in the Right Direction.
More than half of Western populations do not get the recommended daily 30 minutes of physical activity. This leads to a 250,000 deaths and more than $76 billion in costs in the United States alone. In an attempt to lower these numbers and to promote physical activity, an 8-week media-based social marketing campaign was used to encourage adults in West Virginia to get moving. During the campaign, radio and television stations aired advertisements encouraging people to walk 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. At the conclusion of the intervention, our phone poll found that 12% of the population had increased their walking activity after the campaign.
Reger-Nash, B., Bauman, A., Cooper, L., Chey, T., Simon, K., Brann, M., & Crespo, R. (2008). WV Walks: replication with expanded research. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 5, 19-27.
“I don’t want to talk about that”: Topic Avoidance in Romantic Relationships
Avoiding certain topics in the context of romantic relationships often leads to less relational satisfaction. In this study, we wanted to examine the reasons behind topic avoidance in dating relationships, and how these reasons for topic avoidance relate to feelings of relational closeness. College students in romantic relationships reported that feelings of closeness were significantly reduced when they avoided topics for two reasons: to protect them from feeling embarrassed, and/or because they do not feel that their partners would respond appropriately. In addition, when people feel that they are not “getting what they deserve” in their relationship, they are more likely to avoid talking to their partners about the state of their relationship and discussing their own personal failures. Finally, when individuals think it would be difficult to end their relationship, they seem to feel that it is pointless to discuss certain issues with their partners because they are not responsive.
Dillow, M.R., Dunleavy, K.N., & Weber, K.D. (2009). The impact of relational characteristics and reasons for topic avoidance on relational closeness. Communication Quarterly, 57(2), 205-223.
How do other people find out information about YOU?
Using the Internet to seek information about other people
Technology has created a world in which people now have many ways to learn about others. This is especially true as people continue to put more and more information about themselves online. We studied the manner in which
individuals use various media in the interpersonal information seeking process. When trying to find out information about people who were not their friends or loved ones, people were more likely to use indirect strategies (e.g., not openly contacting the person, asking a third party for information). When interacting with someone they know, people were more likely to directly contact the person. Social networking websites were frequently reported to be useful regardless of whether the target was well known or less known. This usefulness likely helps explain some of the widespread use of social networking sites, but also offers a warning: Be careful what you put on these sites, as you never know who is going to use that information.
Westerman, D., Van Der Heide, B., Klein, K. A., & Walther, J. B. (2008). How do people really seek information about others?: Information seeking across Internet and traditional communication sources. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 751-767.
Daughters-In-Law and their Mothers-In-Law
There are many mother-in-law jokes that often imply that individuals’ relationships with their mother-in-laws are always cumbersome and forced. To understand more about this relationship, we asked daughters-in-law (N = 190) to tell us the positive and negative aspects of this relationship. In addition, we explored the importance of shared family identity – the extent to which daughters-in-law feel like members of a family unit with their mothers-in-law. We found that mothers-in-law who are perceived as being supportive and accommodating (e.g., including the daughter-in-law in family storytelling, accepting religious and/or cultural values that are different from her own) are more likely to be considered as “family.” Additionally, feeling a strong sense of shared family identity is linked with daughter-in-law intentions to maintain this relationship over time. In short, our findings reveal the positive and negative aspects of this complex relationship while also suggesting that identity plays an important role over the lifecourse of the relationship.
Rittenour, C. E., & Soliz, J. (2009). Communicative and relational dimensions of shared family identity and relational intentions in mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships: Developing a conceptual model for mother-in-law/daughter-in-law research. Western Journal of Communication, 73, 67-90.
“My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team.”—Don Shula
Some people compare the coach-athlete relationship to the teacher-student relationship. In attempt to replicate results found in the classroom, in this study we were interested in the relationship between coaches’ use of Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs) and verbally aggressive messages would have on their players’ motivation and affect for their coaches. College students who had participated in a competitive high school sport completed our survey. As expected, positive BATs were positively related while negative BATs were negatively related to motivation and affect. Similarly, coaches’ use of verbal aggression was negatively related to motivation and affect. Male coaches were perceived as more verbally aggressive than female coaches, and male coaches were perceived as being more verbally aggressive with boy teams versus girl teams. While some coaches might believe that threatening, intimidating, and embarrassing players is an effective influence technique, our study found no support for such a claim.
Martin, M. M., Rocca, K. A., Cayanus, J. L., & Weber, K. (2009). The impact of coaches’ use of behavior alteration techniques and verbal aggression. Journal of Sport Behavior, 32, 227-241.
