John M. Wiemann

Current Theory and Research In Communicative Competence

The concept of competence in speech communication situations is explored here, with emphasis on the identification of competency as an educational objective. A review of relevant research in the relatively new area of communicative competence is presented, as well as an examination of the theoretical and conceptual issues relating to it. Competence research reveals a number of “dimensions” or components of competence, the most clearly defined being empathy, behavioral flexibility, and interaction management. With a basic knowledge of which communication abilities are necessary for adequate functioning in society, educators are then challenged to devise educational strategies to give students the knowledge and experiential learning necessary to achieve competence in this vital area of their lives.

Male/female language differences and effects in same‐sex and mixed‐sex dyads: The gender‐linked language effect

Ninety‐six university students (48 males, 48 females) were randomly assigned a partner (whom they did not know well), forming two dyad conditions: (a) same‐sex, and (b) mixed‐sex. The 48 dyads were audiotape‐recorded in 20‐minute problem solving interactions, from which 300‐word language samples were transcribed for analysis. In Study 1, 9 trained observers coded 12 language variables previously shown to distinguish male from female language use. Discriminant analysis results demonstrated that a weighted combination of 8 variables could differentiate male from female interactants: male indicators—interruptions, directives, and conjunctions/ fillers begin sentence; female indicators—questions, justifiers, intensive adverbs, personal pronouns, and adverbials begin sentence. An analysis of variance of individuals’ gender discriminant function scores showed greater differences in gender‐linked language behavior in same‐sex than in mixed‐sex dyads. In Study 2, 231 naive observers rated the 96 interactants, usi...

Models of Turn Taking in Conversational Interaction

The routine exchange of turns is a fundamental structural feature of conversational interaction. This paper reviews current attempts to understand the mechanisms by which turns are exchanged and considers three major approaches: stochastic models, signalling models, and sequential-production models. Conceptual and empirical strengths and limitations of each approach are examined, and it is suggested that a synthesis combining some ideas from the signalling approach with the sequential-production approach offers the greatest promise. Attention is directed to three major concepts: conversational events as resources; the functions of social organisational, relational, and sequential contexts in the management of turn taking; and the interactional construction of turns.

Differences in how physicians and patients perceive physicians’ relational communication

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between physicians’ self‐perceptions of their “typical” communicative style during medical interactions and the patients’ perception of the physicians’ communicative styles. Three dimensions of communicative style were studied: interpersonal involvement, communicative dominance, and expressiveness. The research participants were 25 physicians and 354 patients of a large, multifaceted medical clinic. There were three major findings of this study: (1) physicians’ self‐perceptions and patients’ perceptions of physicians’ communicative style differed significantly, (2) these perceptual differences were systematically related to the patients’ ages and education levels, and (3) physicians’ self‐perceptions of communication were unrelated to the patients’ satisfaction with medical care. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed.

Assessing communication literacy

In order to define speaking and listening as basic skills four major problems must be overcome: lack of systematic attention to social communication, the need to identify salient social contexts for literate communication behavior, the need to explicate behaviors one must exhibit to be considered literate, and the difficulty in assessing functional competencies. The communicative competence paradigm is proposed as a framework in which literacy studies can be accomplished.

Communication Strategies for Role Invention.

The research questions asked in this study were: What communication strategies are used by persons in the process of role invention? Which of these communication strategies are perceived by the actors as being most satisfying to themselves? Data were gathered by means of a survey of persons whose social situation required the invention of a role for which there were no social norms. Factor analysis identified five strategies: “deliberately dissimilar,”; “actively friendly,”; “authoritative,”; “non‐adaptive,”; and “indifferent. “Also included in the survey was a measure of communication satisfaction. Correlations between each strategy and the measure of satisfaction showed a significant positive relation between communication satisfaction and the “actively friendly”; and “authoritarian”; strategies, and a significant negative correlation with the “indifferent”; strategy.

The Language of Relationships: I. Description

ABSTRACT This paper examines the way in which people describe their own relationships, and compares those descriptions to the universally acknowledged relational dimensions, control and affiliation . Subjects wrote descriptions of one of three types of relationships: best liked opposite sex friend, best liked same sex friend, or described in terms of Affect, Approach-Avoidance and Structure. In addition, subjects characterised their positive relationships in terms of Support and their negative relationships in terms of Incongruity. Importantly, control appeared as a sub-set of Structure: one of many constraints, limits and obligations which define relationships. Affect appears to be broader than previously considered, in that several types of cognitive and behavioural representations are perceived as defining a relationship along this dimension. Support is a care-giving or caretaking dimension. Approach-Avoidance is an indication of the inclusiveness or “tightness” of the relational system. The dimension identified as Incongruity in negative relationships encompasses the insincerity or phoniness enacted by people who are forced into a relationship and try to “put a good face on it”.

Social Impact of Communication

MEDIATED COMMUNICATION: A SOCIAL ACTION PERSPECTIVE by James A. Anderson & Timothy P. Meyer (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1988—

EXPLICATION AND TEST OF A MODEL OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

29.95, ISBN 0-8039-3050-X) COMMUNICATION YEARBOOK/12 edited by James A. Anderson (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989—

Advancing communication science : merging mass and interpersonal processes

60.00, ISBN 0-8039-33487) COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH: THE CHALLENGE OF THE INFORMATION AGE edited by Nancy Weatherly Sharp (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988—