Dawn O. Braithwaite

Engaging theories in interpersonal communication : multiple perspectives

Introduction: Meta-Theory and Theory in Interpersonal Communication Research - Dawn O. Braithwaite, Paul Schrodt, and Kristen Carr PART I: Individually Centered Theories of Interpersonal Communication Action Assembly Theory: Forces of Creation - John O. Greene Attribution Theory: Finding Good Cause in the Search for Theory - Brian H. Spitzberg and Valerie Manusov Evolutionary Theories: Explaining the Links Between Biology and Interpersonal Communication - Tamara Afifi, Sharde Davis, and Amanda Denes Goals-Plans-Action Theory of Message Production: Making Influence Messages - James Price Dillard Imagined Interaction Theory: Mental Representations of Interpersonal Communication - James M. Honeycutt Planning Theory of Communication: Goal Attainment Through Communicative Action - Charles R. Berger Problematic Integration Theory and Uncertainty Management Theory: Learning to Hear and Speak to Different Forms of Uncertainty - Austin S. Babrow and Katie M. Striley Relational Framing Theory: Drawing Inferences About Relationships From Interpersonal Interactions - Rachel M. McLaren and Denise Haunani Solomon Supportive Communication Theories: Dual-Process Theory of Supportive Message Outcomes and Advice Response Theory - Graham D. Bodie and Erina L. MacGeorge Theory of Motivated Information Management: Struggles With Uncertainty and Its Outcomes - Walid A. Afifi and Stephanie Robbins PART II: Discourse/Interaction-Centered Theories of Interpersonal Communication Communication Accommodation Theory: A Situated Framework for Relational, Family, and Intergroup Dynamics - Howard Giles and Jordan Soliz Communication Theory of Identity: Multilayered Understandings of Performed Identities - Michael L. Hecht Critical Approaches to Interpersonal Communication: Charting a Future - Leslie A. Baxter and Bryan Asbury Critical Feminist Theories: Giving Voice and Visibility to Womens Experiences in Interpersonal Relations - Julia T. Wood Expectancy Violations Theory and Interaction Adaptation Theory: From Expectations to Adaptation - Cindy H. White Face Theory: Goffmans Dramatistic Approach to Interpersonal Interaction - Sandra Metts and William R. Cupach Grounded Practical Theory: Theorizing Communicative Practices - Karen Tracy Narrative Theories: Making Sense of Interpersonal Communication - Jody Koenig Kellas Politeness Theory: How We Use Language to Save Face - Daena J. Goldsmith and Emily Lamb Normand Relational Dialectics Theory: Navigating Meaning From Competing Discourses - Leslie A. Baxter and Kristen M. Norwood Speech Codes Theory: Traces of Culture in Interpersonal Communication - Gerry Philipsen PART III: Relationship-Centered Theories of Interpersonal Communication Affection Exchange Theory: A Bio-Evolutionary Look at Affectionate Communication - Kory Floyd, Colin Hesse, and Mark Alan Generous Attachment Theory: A Communication Perspective - Laura K. Guerrero Communication Privacy Management Theory: Significance for Interpersonal Communication - Sandra Petronio and Wesley T. Durham Interpersonal Deception Theory: Purposive and Interdependent Behavior During Deceptive Interpersonal Interactions - Judee K. Burgoon and David B. Buller Media Multiplexity Theory: Technology Use and Interpersonal Tie Strength - Andrew M. Ledbetter The Relational Turbulence Model: Communicating During Times of Transition - Leanne K. Knobloch Stage Theories of Relationship Development: Charting the Course of Interpersonal Communication - Paul A. Mongeau and Mary Lynn Miller Henningsen Social Exchange Theories: Calculating the Rewards and Costs of Personal Relationships - Laura Stafford Social Information Processing Theory: Impressions and Relationship Development Online - Joseph B. Walther

Turning Points in the Development of Blended Families

A modified retrospective interview technique (RIT) was employed with members of 53 blended families to determine the types of turning points they reported experiencing and the developmental trajectories of their respective blended family’s first 4 years. Findings revealed 15 primary types of turning points, of which ‘Changes in Household Configuration’, ‘Conflict’, ‘Holidays/Special Events’, ‘Quality Time’ and ‘Family Crisis’ were the most frequent. A cluster analysis revealed five basic trajectories of development for the first 48 months of family development: Accelerated, Prolonged, Stagnating, Declining and High-amplitude Turbulent. The trajectories differed in the overall positive-to-negative valence ratio, the frequency of conflict related events, the average amplitude of change in feeling like a family, and the current reported level of feeling like a family.

Becoming a family: developmental processes represented in blended family discourse

We adopted a process-focus in order to gain a deeper understanding of how (step) blended family members experiencing different developmental pathways discursively represented their processes of becoming a family. Using a qualitative/interpretive method, we analyzed 980 pages of interview transcripts with stepparents and stepchildren. We studied the first four years of family development, using the five developmental pathways developed by Baxter, Braithwaite, and Nicholson (1999). Three salient issues identified in the family experiences were boundary management, solidarity, and adaptation. While the negotiation of these issues varied across the five trajectories, there were commonalities across family experiences that helped determine whether families had a successful experience of becoming a family. Implications for blended family researchers and practitioners are also discussed.

Stepchildren’s Perceptions of the Contradictions in Communication with Stepparents

This interpretive study, framed in relational dialectics theory, sought to identify stepchildren’s perceptions of the contradictions that animate communication with the stepparent in their household of primary residence. In-depth interviews were conducted, producing 802 pages of double-spaced interview transcripts, which were analyzed inductively for commonly experienced contradictions of stepchild-stepparent communication. Three underlying contradictions were identified. First, stepchild-stepparent communication was perceived to be characterized by a dialectic of integration, characterized by both closeness and distance. Second, stepchild-stepparent communication was perceived to be characterized by a dialectic of parental status, in which the stepparent was, and was not, granted legitimacy in a parent role. Third, stepchild-stepparent communication was perceived to be animated by a dialectic of expression in which both candor and discretion were featured.

The role of rituals in the management of the dialectical tension of “old” and “new” in blended families

In this study we examined how members of step‐ or blended families interact and develop their families by examining their successful and unsuccessful ritual enactments. Blended families provide a fertile context in which to study ritual adaptiveness and the possible relationship between successful enactment of rituals and their adaptability. Data were in‐depth interviews with 53 members of blended, families concerning their successful and unsuccessful ritual enactments. A qualitative/interpretive analysis indicated that blended families face an ongoing dialectical opposition between the “old family” and the “new family.” Blended family rituals are important communicative practices that enable blended family members to embrace their new family while still valuing what was important in the old family environment. The adaptive nature of rituals demonstrated the process of adjusting to the loss of the old family and to living in the new, blended family. Rituals that were successfully enacted were characterize...

“You're My Parent but You're Not”: Dialectical Tensions in Stepchildren's Perceptions About Communicating with the Nonresidential Parent

The nonresidential parent plays a role in the lives of stepchildren and in stepfamily households. The focus of the present study was on the interaction between the nonresidential parent and his/her child who resides as part of a stepfamily household. Grounded in relational dialectics theory, the researchers performed an interpretive analysis of 50 transcribed interviews with college-aged stepchildren. Stepchildrens perceptions of communication with the nonresidential parent were animated by two contradictions: parenting/nonparenting and openness/closedness. These two contradictions form a totality, interwoven with one another. The parenting/nonparenting contradiction reflected stepchildrens ambivalence over parenting attempts of nonresidential parents. Stepchildren wanted nonresidential parent involvement and parenting, and at the same time they resisted it, often finding communication to be awkward and challenging. In addition, stepchildren wanted open and intimate communication with their nonresidential parents, yet they found openness to be problematic and managed these contradictory demands via segmentation. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with insights to guide professionals working with stepfamilies and adults co-parenting children to better understand and interact in ways that promote healthy stepfamilies.

Constructing family: A typology of voluntary kin:

This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four voluntary kin family types were justified by an attributed deficit in the blood and legal family. Because voluntary kin relationships are not based on the traditional criteria of association by blood or law, members experience them as potentially challenging, requiring discursive work to render them sensical and legitimate to others.

A binding tie: Supportive communication of family kinkeepers

Abstract Families are an important source of social support and little scholarship exists regarding how family members stay in touch and provide support for one another. Kinkeepers are said to provide support and keep family members informed about one another, yet there has been little research on who family kinkeepers are and how they communicate and enact this role. Two studies were undertaken. The first study used surveys to provide demographic data on kinkeepers and to ascertain information on their activities. The second study used diaries and interviews to document the activities of a set of kinkeepers and to describe outcomes of kinkeeping communication. These studies revealed that kinkeepers are mostly females between the ages of 40–59, who use the telephone and personal visits predominantly. Five outcomes of kinkeeping communication were identified: providing information, facilitating rituals, providing assistance, maintaining family relationships, and continuing a previous kinkeepers work.

`I do' Again: The Relational Dialectics of Renewing Marriage Vows

This study provides descriptive insight into the dialectical themes of one public relationship ritual in modern US society, the renewal of marital vows between spouses. Interpretive analyses of in-depth interview data revealed that this ritual allows spouses to manage three underlying dialectical contra- dictions: private-public, stability-change and conventionality-uniqueness.

A Social Relations Model of Everyday Talk and Relational Satisfaction in Stepfamilies

This study examined the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms underlying reported frequencies of everyday talk and relational satisfaction in stepfamilies. Participants included a parent, stepparent, and child from 114 stepfamilies (N =342) from the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States. Social relations model analyses revealed that everyday talk and relational satisfaction vary across stepfamily relationships as a function primarily of actor and relationship effects. Stepparents’ reports of everyday talk with the parent (i.e., their spouse) varied primarily as a function of actor effects, whereas reports of both childrens and parents’ satisfaction with the stepparent varied primarily as a function of relationship effects. Dyadic reciprocity emerged in the stepparent/stepchild relationship for reports of both everyday talk and satisfaction. Finally, stepparents engaging in everyday talk more frequently with stepchildren were more likely to be satisfied with stepchildren, and were more likely to have stepchildren reporting satisfaction with them, than stepparents engaging less frequently in everyday talk.