Kathy Kellermann

Situational Urgency and Conversational Retreat When Politeness and Efficiency Matter

Conversational Constraint Theory posits that preferred levels of efficiency and social appropriateness for particular conversational encounters fluctuate in response to situational, relational, and personal factors, and these fluctuations alter and determine which behaviors are acceptable tactics for achieving goals in these encounters. This research examines the situational factor of urgency, its influence on minimally preferred levels of efficiency and social appropriateness, and its influence on the acceptability of tactics for unilaterally withdrawing from conversations. A three phase research process finds that (a) efficiency and appropriateness assessments of conversational retreat tactics are goal dependent and within-goal variant, stable over time and across subpopulations; (b) situational urgency increases the preferred level for efficiency only; and (c) situational urgency alters tactical acceptability such that appropriate though less efficient tactics acceptable in nonurgent situations are unacceptable in urgent situations.

A Goal-Directed Approach to Gaining Compliance Relating Differences Among Goals to Differences in Behaviors

This research examines how particular face threats intrinsic to compliance gaining goals constrain compliance gaining behaviors, finding that (a) threats to certain negative and positive face wants differentiate compliance gaining goals from each other; (b) compliance gaining goals are distinct from each other in their arrangements of the number and kind of both appropriate and inappropriate, and efficient and inefficient, compliance gaining behaviors, particularly the goals of stopping an annoying habit, getting a date, asking a favor, and ending a relationship; and (c) a compliance gaining goal’s restriction of cointeractants’ autonomy accounts for differences in which compliance gaining behaviors are judged more and less appropriate, and which more and less efficient, for different compliance gaining goals. Although compliance gaining goals differentially threaten aspects of both negative and positive face, a goal’s autonomy restriction, although not its negative affect potential, relates systematically to the appropriateness and efficiency arrangements of compliance gaining behaviors.

Strategies of conversational retreat: When parting is not sweet sorrow

This research explores strategies and tactics persons use to unilaterally retreat from conversations. Based on metagoal theory, efficiency and social appropriateness were expected to differentiate retreat strategies from each other, with strategies used in mutually negotiated endings being located in the socially appropriate and relatively efficient area of the conversational retreat strategy space. Retreat strategies were found to include verbal bids such as hints (summaries, preclosings, future continuations, and positive statements), projections (ascribing excuses to the partner for parting), excuses, and departure announcements; changing ones focus onto another subject or person; and signaling rejection, restlessness, or nonresponsiveness. As expected by metagoal theory, these strategies range in their efficiency and appropriateness, and are more diverse than (though they include) those strategies typically used in mutually desired partings.

Cultural and gender influences on age identification

Age identification plays a significant role in young adults’ mass, interpersonal, intergenerational, and intercultural communication. This research examines cultural and gender influences on young peoples age identity by measuring the social age identity of male and female young adult members of five cultures varying in individualism/collectivism (Laos, Thailand, Spain, Australia, and the U.S.A.). We found cultural influences on age identity to be both unexpected in nature and modest in effect. American and Laotian respondents had similar and nominally higher levels of age identity than Australian, Thai, and Spanish respondents, with all having a markedly different age identities than those of Japanese respondents as reported by other researchers. No direct effect for gender on age identity emerged, though American females were more age identified than all other respondents. Across cultures, the social identity scale was found to be a reasonably adequate measure of age identity.

Personal Opacity and Social Information Gathering Explorations in Strategic Communication

Tactics by which individuals withhold information from inquisitive others were explored by inducing individuals to achieve varying goals in conversational encounters. Persons were told to reveal as little as they could about themselves (low revealers), as much as they could about themselves (high revealers), or to have a typical conversation (normals). These individuals were paired in conversation with persons told to find out as much as they could about their conversational partner (high seekers). Information-quality, self-presentation, conversational-management, behavioral, content-focus, and utterance-form tactics were explored. Information-quality and content-focus tactics are the most important tactics for evasion plans, whereas pausal phenomena seem to be indicative of on-line planning of evasiveness. Implications for the study of the negativity effect and disclosure research are discussed.

Conversational Topic along a Continuum of Perspectives: Conceptual Issues

The literature regarding conversational topic is vast. Conversational topic, however, has various conceptualizations. For example, some studies examine topic changes, whereas others examine the broad subjects about which people talk. Four different perspectives (i.e., topic as a noun phrase, topic as a bounded unit, topic as a perception of language users, and topic as a subject matter of talk), focusing on different conceptions of topic for ostensibly different purposes, emerge across the literature, and, as a result, grasping the literature as a whole is difficult. This chapter highlights each perspective by pointing to the questions already answered and others remaining to be answered. In doing so, within each perspective, we review relevant research, offer critiques and suggestions for future research, and discuss conceptual issues. Spanning the four different perspectives, several general points elucidate commonalities throughout the conversational topic literature. We therefore present our own conceptualization of conversational topic following from our explication of the conceptual issues (such as topical abstractness, globality-locality, prototypicality, and focus) that emerge in light of the four perspectives. Finally, we draw conclusions based on our explication of conversational topic for various areas within the communication discipline.

A Comparison of Observer and Actor Coding of the Role Category Questionnaire.

This experiment compares the (a) rank ordering of cognitive differentiation scores by observers and actors, and (b) methods of construct sampling based on instructional set. Results indicate that observer and actor codings are inconsistent but that two different methods of sampling are consistent. Additionally, data suggest that the particular score of the RCQ assigned by observers using the established procedures may not reflect the actual construct system of the individual (actor).