Harry Weger

Arguing in Internet Chat Rooms: Argumentative Adaptations to Chat Room Design and Some Consequences for Public Deliberation at a Distance

This essay examines argumentation practices as they occur in politically oriented chat rooms to explore deliberation at a distance in the public sphere. There is a discrepancy between argumentation as practiced in chat rooms and the ideal of critical discussion that is evident in the apparently incoherent, ad hominem quality of chat room discourse. Three features of chat rooms identified here suggest that the apparently low quality of argumentation may he reconstructed as an adaptation to the affordances for argumentation inherent in the design of the chat room format. These design features include continuous scrolling transcripts, contribution limits, and unidentified participants. We identify the “wit-testing” dialogue type as a rational, though not ideal, response to the affordances for argumentation in the chat room design. Finally, we suggest that the “wit-testing” dialogue in Internet chat rooms adds a new dimension to deliberation in the public sphere.

Couples' argument sequences and their associations with relational characteristics

This study examines argument sequences that couples use in conversations about relational problems and investigates the associations between argument sequences and control mutuality. Two additional relational variables, satisfaction and relationship length, are also examined. Lag sequential analyses and correlation analyses reveal that four sets of sequences were enacted by participants: developing, rudimentary, converging, and diverging. Control mutuality correlated positively with developing and converging sequences, but was associated negatively with diverging sequences. Relational satisfaction also correlated negatively with diverging sequences, while relationship length was associated positively with converging sequences.

Romantic intent, relationship uncertainty, and relationship maintenance in young adults’ cross-sex friendships

Romantic desire and relational uncertainty operate slightly differently in predicting the reported use of Common Maintenance Behaviors (CMBs) and Relationship-Specific Maintenance Behaviors (RSMBs). Cross-sex friendship dyads (n = 197) indicated their desire for a romantic relationship with each other, relationship uncertainty, and self-reported friendship maintenance behaviors. Romantic desire correlated positively with the maintenance behaviors Routine Relationship Activity, Support and Positivity, and Flirtation for both males and females. For both sexes, romantic desire correlated negatively with the friendship maintenance behavior Talk About Outside Romance. Romantic desire correlated positively with three out of five relational uncertainty variables; however, these varied somewhat by sex. All CMBs were negatively associated with at least one dimension of relational uncertainty and, with one exception, relational uncertainty tends to increase the use of RSMBs.

Associations Among Romantic Attachment, Argumentativeness, and Verbal Aggressiveness in Romantic Relationships

This study examines attachment orientation and its associations with the argumentation-related traits of argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness. It examines the possibility that peoples cognitive representations about their romantic relationships might be associated or “bundled” with predispositions to interact with partners in ways consistent with their relationship definitions. It was predicted that high fear of intimacy, as indicated by an avoidant attachment orientation, and high fear of abandonment, as indicated by an anxious attachment orientation, would be negatively associated with argumentativeness and positively associated with verbal aggressiveness in romantic relationships. Results show that anxious attachment orientation correlated with argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness as predicted but avoidant attachment did not. Implications for scholars of interpersonal relationships and argumentation are discussed.

Attachment style and the cognitive representation of communication situations

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the way communication situations are perceived among those with different attachment styles. The study examined the complexity of Secure, Avoidant, and Anxious/ambivalents cognitive representations of other people and found that those with secure attachment styles to be slightly higher in cognitive complexity, on average, than those with avoidant and anxious/ambivalent styles. Further, this study found differences among the attachment styles in the way people think about interpersonal interactions. Using both categorical and continuous measures of attachment style, this study found that those with more secure attachment beliefs think about themselves as more skilled in seeking the affinity of others and define communication situations as more rewarding and attractive. Those with avoidant and anxious/ambivalent attachment styles, on the other hand, were found to perceive interpersonal situations as less rewarding, less attractive, and less useful in gaining the approval of others.

Conversational Argument in Close Relationships: A Case for Studying Argument Sequences

This article examines how people develop their ideas with each other through the use of argument sequences. First, we discuss the argumentative function of communication in close relationships. Second, we articulate the theoretic cornerstones of our research program. Here we present the basic premises of the theory of Minimally Rational Argument, which identifies conversational argument as a process of developing a definition of the relationship through seeking convergence through rational dialogue. Third, we discuss the method of studying argument building sequences as an important advance in the use of the conversational argument coding scheme. Four types of argument sequences are presented: developing, converging, diverging, and rudimentary. Next, we explore how studying act-to-act argument sequences informs our understanding of relationship communication by presenting four conversational argument patterns as they associate with perceptions of communicator competence, communication satisfaction, and relational quality indicators of satisfaction and control mutuality. Finally, we present ideas for future research that expand upon both our methodological system and how our methodological system can elucidate research in related areas of study.

The Principle of Reciprocity in Hospitality Contexts: The Relationship Between Tipping Behavior and Food Servers’ Approaches to Handling Leftovers

Based on the norm of reciprocity, this study hypothesized that food servers would earn higher tips when they boxed customers’ leftovers compared with having customers’ box leftovers themselves. In addition, the effect of writing messages (i.e., the date and/or customer’s name) on boxes of leftovers was explored. Two female food servers waited on 608 diners and boxed or did not box leftovers, and wrote or did not write messages on boxes. The hypothesis was supported. However, writing messages was not associated with tipping behavior.

Transitions in Polyamorous Identity and Intercultural Communication: An Application of Identity Management Theory

ABSTRACT This study examines the communicative strategies and nonmonogamous identity formation of individuals who are polyamorous. We investigate the identity management tactics that individuals who are polyamorous utilize to navigate a society in which monogamy and monosexuality are the norm. Interactions of individuals who are polyamorous within a mononormative society are treated as a type of intercultural communication due to the contrasting cultural identities and communication rules. E-interviews with 38 individuals who are polyamorous provided basis for phone and Skype interviews. Twenty-two interviews produced the phases of identity management, including trial and error, enmeshment (mixing up), and renegotiation. Analyzing interviewees’ communication also produced the themes of managing stigma and impressions of the relationship identity. Implications of the study include a richer understanding of polyamorous identity management, polyamory as a relationship orientation, and a new perspective in applying identity management theory.

Predicting Responses to Bids for Sexual and Romantic Escalation in Cross-Sex Friendships.

ABSTRACT The transition from a platonic cross-sex friendship to a more intimate sexual and/or romantic relationship is an interesting, yet somewhat understudied, phenomenon. In this study, we introduce and test relationship adaptation theory to predict cross-sex friends’ predispositions for reciprocating a bid for escalation to an exclusive dating or friends with benefits (FWB) relationship. Analyses of data collected from 288 participants found participants’ dating status, anticipated rewards from escalating the relationship, expected social disapproval, friendship quality, and their friend’s attractiveness predicted disposition to reciprocating a cross-sex friend’s hypothetical bid for escalation to an exclusive romantic escalation. In addition, participants’ biological sex, anticipated rewards from escalating the relationship, expected social disapproval, sexual permissiveness, and their friend’s attractiveness emerged as predictors of disposition toward a friend’s hypothetical bid to escalate a platonic friendship to a FWB relationship.

Relationship maintenance across platonic and non-platonic cross-sex friendships in emerging adults

ABSTRACT Prior research examining maintenance in cross-sex friendships focuses heavily on platonic (i.e., nonsexually active) friendships with limited research examining sexually involved cross-sex friendships (i.e., “friends with benefits relationships”). In this study, we investigated differences in relational maintenance behaviors between sexually and nonsexually active cross-sex friendships types. In an online survey, 531 emerging adult participants from large southwestern and southeastern universities identified either a friends with benefits or platonic opposite sex friendship and then completed items asking them to report the frequency with which they enacted each of 36 relationship maintenance behaviors. Overall, participants involved in casual sex friendships engaged in the least, and those who transitioned from a friends-with-benefits relationship to a romantic relationship engaged in the most frequent relationship maintenance. Platonic friendships employed more frequent maintenance than casual-sex friendships but less than either true friends with benefits or participants who transitioned to a romantic relationship.