Laura K. Guerrero

Some things are better left unsaid: Topic avoidance in family relationships

This study extends topic avoidance research by investigating both child/parent and sibling relationships. Results indicated that: (1) Adolescents and young adults avoid discussing negative life experiences and dating experiences more with parents than siblings, and more with male targets; (2) adolescents and young adults avoid discussing sexual matters with opposite‐sex family members; (3) female dyads (daughter/mother, sisters) practice the least avoidance on topics involving relationship issues or friendships; and (4) males avoid discussing relationship issues, negative life experiences, dating experiences, and friendships more than females. Wanting to protect oneself was highly predictive of topic avoidance across all family relationships except for sister‐sister relationships. For sisters, partner unresponsiveness and social inappropriateness were predictive of topic avoidance.

Interpersonal deception: XII. Information management dimensions underlying deceptive and truthful messages

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) proposes that among the strategies deceivers use to create credible messages is information management. Delineated here are five fundamental dimensions along which verbal content and style can be altered to manage information: (1) completeness (informational and conversational), (2) veridicality (actual and apparent), (3) directness/relevance (semantic and syntactic/pragmatic), (4) clarity (semantic and syntactic/pragmatic), and (5) personalization. Two studies employing encoding and decoding methodologies are presented that assess the degree to which (1) senders can vary discourse on demand along these dimensions and (2) receivers (observers) can recognize such variations. Participants in the first experiment engaged in separate truthful and deceptive interviews; during the latter, they enacted one of three different forms of deception (falsification, equivocation, concealment) representing different combinations of the five dimensions. Participants in the second expe...

Coping with the green‐eyed monster: Conceptualizing and measuring communicative responses to romantic jealousy

Communicative responses to jealousy perform critical functions in interpersonal relationships: They can reduce uncertainty, help maintain or repair relationships, and aid the jealous person in saving face and restoring self‐esteem. The three studies reported herein concentrate on conceptualizing and measuring communicative responses to jealousy that are relevant to these functions. Study 1 is a descriptive, qualitative analysis of respondents communicative responses to jealousy. Twelve superordinate categories and 67 tactics were found. Studies 2 and 3 focus on finding reliable and valid measures representing the various responses found in Study 1. Measures for six types of interactive responses (integrative communication, distributive communication, active distancing, general avoidance/denial, expression of negative affect, and violent communication/threats) and five types of general responses (surveillance/restriction, compensatory restoration, manipulation attempts, rival contact, and violent behavior...

Romantic jealousy and relational satisfaction: A look at the impact of jealousy experience and expression

This study investigated the combined effects jealousy experience and expression have on relational satisfaction. A sample of 346 individuals currently involved in dating or marital relationships completed questionnaires. Results indicated that: (1) cognitive jealousy is a more potent predictor of relational satisfaction than emotional jealousy, (2) individuals who use integrative communication and/or expression of negative affect to communicate jealousy, while refraining from using distributive communication and/or active distancing, are most likely to be satisfied with their relationships, and (3) jealousy expression accounts for significantly more variance in relational satisfaction than jealousy experience alone.

Interpersonal Deception IX. Effects of Social Skill and Nonverbal Communication on Deception Success and Detection Accuracy

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) posits that socially skilled individuals are better able to project truthful demeanors and evade detection than are unskilled individuals. IDT also predicts that social skills benefit receivers, making them better able to detect deception. Past research by Riggio, Thcker, Throckmorton, and Widaman in 1987 (in two separate studies) has shown that socially skilled individuals emit nonverbal behaviors that enhance believability. The present study extends Riggios findings by investigating how social skills and nonverbal communication work in concert to predict three forms of deception/detection success: believability, accuracy, and bias. Acquainted and unacquainted dyads participated in interviews in which interviewees (senders) answered two questions truthfully and then used falsification, equivocation, or concealment to deceive on the remaining 13 questions. Results confirmed that as sender social skills increased, believability increased and receiver detection accuracy decreased, especially during equivocation. Skilled senders were more fluent and less hesitant. Senders were more believable, and truth biases were higher, if senders displayed greater involvement, positive affect, fluency, and composure and used a concealment strategy. Hesitancy was also implicated in a complex way. Only one dimension of receiver skill improved accuracy. Receivers were also more accurate if senders were less fluent.