Michael Burgoon

Acculturation, Familism, Parental Monitoring, and Knowledge as Predictors of Marijuana and Inhalant Use in Adolescents

The authors investigated relationships between marijuana and inhalant use and several cultural and demographic factors in Anglo American and Hispanic American adolescents (N=1,094). Outcome measures assessed lifetime and 30-day marijuana and inhalant use. Predictors and covariates used in logistic regression analyses were region, grade, gender, knowledge, acculturation, familism, and parental monitoring. Hispanic Americans exhibited higher usage across all measures. In this group, high acculturation was associated with low marijuana, but high inhalant, use. Across all participants, positive family relations and parental monitoring were strongly associated with attenuated marijuana use hut only among those most knowledgeable about drugs. Familism and monitoring were not associated with diminished usage among the less knowledgeable. For inhalants, monitoring combined with high knowledge or high familism was associated with diminished usage.

Illiteracy among Medicaid Recipients and its Relationship to Health Care Costs

Poor literacy is associated with poor health status, but whether illiteracy is also linked to higher medical care costs is unclear. We characterized the literacy skills of 402 randomly selected adult Medicaid enrollees to determine if there was an association between literacy skills and health care costs. Each subjects literacy skills were measured with a bilingual (English/ Spanish) reading-assessment instrument. We also reviewed each subjects health care costs over the same one-year period. The mean reading level of this Medicaid population was at grade 5.6. Mean annual health care costs were

Situational influences on the selection of compliance‐gaining messages: Two tests of the predictive utility of the Cody‐McLaughlin typology

4,574 per person. There was no significant relationship between literacy and health care costs. While there are compelling reasons to improve poor reading skills among Medicaid enrollees, illiteracy in this population does not appear to contribute to the high cost of providing government-sponsored care.

An Empirical Test of an Axiomatic Model of the Relationship Between Language Intensity and Persuasion

Recent work on the dimensions of compliance‐gaining situations offers an opportunity for systematizing a portion of message selection research. Two studies that utilize the six dimensions isolated by Cody and McLaughlin (1980), as well as one other, as predictors of compliance‐gaining message selection are reported. The first study relied on the hypothetical situation method typical of most compliance‐gaining research. Study 2 utilized a new method that asked participants to recall a persuasion situation they had been part of. Across the two investigations the effects attributable to the situation were relatively few in number and small in size. Several alternative interpretations of the data are suggested. The advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are examined. Explanations for each of the situational effects (or lack thereof) are considered.

Using group support systems for strategic planning with the United States Air Force

The study tested six axioms concerning the effect of language intensity on receiver attitudes. The axioms specify source and receiver variables which might moderate the relationship between intensity and attitude change. The results were consistent with an information processing model based on message discrepancy, expectancy and elaboration likelihood theories. Intensity affected attitudes through three routes. First, intensity increased attitude change via message clarity, with clarity acting as a mediator variable. Second, intensity inter acted with discrepancy and perceived source likeability to produce attitude change. Third, the effect of intensity on attitudes was moderated by source expectations. Results showed that intensity enhances persuasiveness for a high credibility source, inhibits persuasiveness for a low credibility source, and has no effect for a moderate credibility source. Receiver anxiety moderated the effect of source gender expectations on the intensity-attitude relationship. A revised model of intensity effects, based on axioms derived from information processing theory and expectancy theory, is discussed.

An Inoculation Theory Explanation for the Effects of Corporate Issue/Advocacy Advertising Campaigns

Abstract Strategic planning is a critical part of establishing an organizations direction. Although strategic planning is utilized throughout the United States Air Force today in various forms, group sessions can become time-consuming without structured planning and a focus on group communication. Computer-supported strategic planning, making effective use of technology, is one way to improve the strategic planning process. This research implements a group support system (GSS) as a communication tool to facilitate the strategic planning process. The researchers investigate effects of a facilitators using technology to structure verbal and electronic communication, with the goal of increasing quality output and improving group member satisfaction. This project was completed at Mountain Home Air Force Base with the support of the 366th Wing. As predicted, a GSS facilitators structuring verbal and electronic communication improved the quality of the strategic plan, reduced time to complete a strategic plan, and increased satisfaction with the strategic planning process. The results did not indicate increased commitment to implement the strategic plans developed by a group using GSS facilitation.

Refining the meaning and measurement of acculturation: Revisiting a novel methodological approach

Despite the popularity of issue / advocacy advertising campaigns, there has been limited empirical study of their overall impact. This investigation posits that issue / advocacy advertising should be viewed as a vehicle for inoculating against attitude slippage and for enhancing the sponsors credibility among people who already favor a corporations position, rather than as a tool to change attitudes. An experimental test of attitudinal and image effects of issue / advocacy advertising confirmed this theoretical view. The results indicated that issue / advocacy advertising inoculates against attitude change, while simultaneously protecting sponsors against slippage in ratings of source credibility, after exposure to a persuasive attack on behalf of an opposing position. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and policy implications.

Cultural and situational influences on the process of persuasive strategy selection

Abstract The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican-Americans (ARSMA) of Cuellar, Harris, and Jasso (1980) is a widely used instrument of high reliability. Attempts to refine and validate the measure have been limited largely to factor analytic techniques. Typically three to four orthogonal factors are extracted from this measure. However, these factors usually are ignored in practice, and a single summed acculturation score is calculated across all items. The present research illustrates the dangers of factoring scales of extremely high internal consistency, and suggests an alternative. This alternative, applied to the responses of 790 Hispanic Americans, successfully reduces the ARSMA by half while maintaining its high internal consistency. The reduced measure is clearly single factored, strongly relates to the full scale, and replicates earlier results. The results of this scale construction/ refinement suggest a strong link between communication and acculturation.

Long-term effects of language intensity in preventive messages on planned family solar protection.

Abstract This investigation explored compliance gaining attempts by members of two cultures: Asian and North America. Using the 16 Marwell and Schmitt compliance-gaining strategies, this study found significant differences in strategy use based on culture, but was unable to find a consistent underlying dimensionality for the Marwell and Schmitt typology. Effects for communicative context and locus of benefit were also found, indicating that strategy selection is influenced by situational as well as cultural variables. The results show that these latter two variables operate similarly in both cultures.

An Expectancy-Value Analysis of Viewer Interest in Television Prevention News Stories

A series of sun safety messages containing highly intense language and deductive logical style achieved the most immediate compliance by parents, particularly when they intended to improve protection. Inductive messages were more successful when no intentions existed (D. B. Buller, Borland, & Burgoon, 1998; D. B. Buller et al., 2000). Interviewers recontacted 568 parents during the winter following message dissemination and assessed solar protection. A 2 (language intensity) ×2 (logical style) ×3 (behavioral intention) ×2 (person) mixed-model analysis of variance showed that parents receiving high-intensity, deductive messages reported the most improved solar protection and improvement was greatest when parents intended to improve protection. Over the long term, high language intensity may reinforce decisions to take preventive action and does not appear to provoke psychological reactance or resistance to these highly directive messages.