Lea P. Stewart

Differential Factors Influencing the Hierarchical Level and Number of Promotions of Males and Females Within an Organization1

A study of perceptions of the promotion process for males and females within a large organization revealed that, after control of certain other factors, males had higher job grades than did females...

Relationship with instructor and other variables influencing student evaluations of instruction

This study examined some of the factors which influence college students’ evaluations of their instructors. Data were collected from 557 students enrolled in a basic speech communication course. Overall, a students relationship with the instructor was the best predictor of the students evaluation of the instructor. This study lends partial support to the idea that students evaluate male and female instructors differently. The variables examined in this study were better predictors of student evaluation of female than male instructors.

A Case Against "Binge" as the Term of Choice: Convincing College Students to Personalize Messages about Dangerous Drinking

The most recent literature on the prevention of problematic drinking on the college campus includes a growing controversy about approaches to the reduction of college drinking. On the one hand, there is an increasing body of literature reporting success in driving down drinking on college campuses using social norms-based approaches (Haines, 1996; Jeffrey & Negro, 1996; Lederman, Stewart, Barr, Powell, Goodhart, & Laitman, 2000; Perkins & Wechsler, 1996). Advocates of social norms-based approaches claim that students operate under the misperception that everyone on campus drinks excessively (Butler, 1993; Burns, Ballou & Lederman, 1991; Jeffrey & Negro, 1996). Social norms strategies target these misperceptions by providing students with actual norms, reporting that this approach both changes perceptions and drives down actual drinking. On the other hand, some well established researchers report finding increased

Extending the Domain of Instructional Effectiveness Assessment in Student Evaluations of Communication Courses.

Student evaluations of college‐level courses are valuable tools for assessing and improving classroom teaching. However, they do not systematically capture information about the longer‐term assessment of instructor and course effectiveness that could be provided by other stakeholders, such as alumni. To achieve this goal, an alumni teaching effectiveness survey was developed based on previous research findings, phone interviews, and a pilot survey, and then completed by one‐year and 10‐year graduates of the Department of Communication at a large public university. Results indicate that alumni believe that good instructors should demonstrate effective preparation, interest in course material and students, availability to students outside of class, effective pedagogy, practical application (e.g., “real‐world”; connections), classroom interaction with students, sociability, and a high level of scholarship. In general, according to alumni, being an effective communicator is an essential component of being an effective instructor.

Ethical issues in postexperimental and postexperiential debriefing

This article presents an analysis of the ethical issues in debriefing simulations and games informed by a consideration of the ethical issues involved in debriefing research experiments. Ethical issues faced by debriefers and participants in postexperimental and postexperimental debriefing are discussed Guidelines for ethical participation in simulation/gaming debriefings are presented.

Addressing College Drinking through Curriculum Infusion: A Study of the Use of Experience-Based Learning in the Communication Classroom.

This study examined whether the use of a norms-based simulation in a communication class can influence students’ misperceptions about college drinking. Participants (N=462) were enrolled in two undergraduate communication courses: one in which the simulation was used and another that served as a control. Results indicated that participating in the simulation resulted in a decrease in beliefs about college drinking myths; moreover, students’ perceptions of social drinking norms were related to their actual drinking behaviors. Findings indicated that the campus atmosphere and social networks promoted alcohol consumption. Results support using a norms-based simulation to provide information about dangerous drinking behaviors while at the same time teaching relevant communication principles.

Applying Communication Theories to Prevent Dangerous Drinking among College Students: The RU SURE Campaign

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a dangerous drinking prevention campaign on a large university campus. Members of the target audience, first‐year students, are particularly susceptible to misperceptions of drinking norms on campus given their previous experiences and environmental messages communicated to them through the media. Thus, this campaign was designed using the Socially Situated Experiential Learning (SSEL) Model (Lederman & Stewart, 1999) that builds on a framework of interpersonal communication theories, social norms theory, and experiential learning theory. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of a health communication campaign that combines both a traditional media campaign with experiential learning activities conducted by upper‐level students who serve as disseminators of campaign messages as well as role models for the target audience.

Binge drinking: Not the word of choice

Abstract Educators and researchers strive to use terms that reflect a replicable measure of behavior. A term commonly used to describe drinking of a problematic nature is binge drinking. Binge drinking defines behavior by a number of drinks of an alcoholic beverage consumed in a space of time. The authors argue that the term does not describe drinking behavior that students believe is problematic. They claim that students define problem drinking not in terms of quantity, but rather by the outcome (and occasionally by frequency), and attribute different negative connotations to the term binge. They suggest using a term that has shared meaning with students, such as dangerous drinking, to describe the drinking behavior that results in undesirable or unintended consequences.

Communication openness, satisfaction, and length of employment in Japanese organizations

Hypotheses were generated regarding the relationship among communication openness, satisfaction, and length of employment in Japanese organizations. A questionnaire was administered to employees of Japanese organizations in the Tokyo area. The data revealed that upward, downward, and lateral communication openness were associated positively with both relational and organizational satisfaction. Length of employment also was associated with downward and lateral communication openness and with both relational and organizational satisfaction. The relationships between length of employment and satisfaction differed for employees in large and small‐to‐moderate sized organizations. Lateral communication openness was associated positively with satisfaction variables and there was a relatively small association between length of employment and satisfaction.

Using simulation in a dangerous-drinking prevention campaign

The Advanced Health Communication (AHC) Simulation models a subdivision of an actual campus organization, the Communication and Health Issues Partnership for Education and Research (CHI). To address dangerous drinking at Rutgers University, CHI created a dangerous-drinking prevention campaign, RU SURE? and designed the AHC simulation for students to participate centrally in the campaign. The simulation was incorporated into an advanced course in health communication. The three major sets of activities in the AHC simulation are (a) the design and pilot testing of campaign messages and materials, (b) the implementation of the campaign, and (c) the evaluation of the campaign. The simulation provides a structure in which students learn about a set of behavioral processes regarding campaign design and organizational behavior on the macrolevel while learning about their drinking-related behaviors on the microlevel. Participants reported learning about working in a complex organization, designing and implementing a prevention campaign, and decreasing their own drinking-related perceptions and behaviors.