Nancy Burrell

Comparing Student Satisfaction with Distance Education to Traditional Classrooms in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis.

Meta-analysis provides a method of quantitatively summarizing and comparing empirical literature to reduce Type I and Type II error. The meta-analysis described here indicates a slight student preference for a traditional educational format over a distance education format (average r = .031, after the deletion of outliers), and little difference in satisfaction levels. A comparison of distance education methods that include direct interactive links with those that do not include interactive links demonstrates no difference in satisfaction levels. However, student satisfaction levels diminish as additional information is added to the available channel of instruction (e.g., written to audio to video). The findings support those of researchers arguing that distance education does not diminish the level of student satisfaction when compared to traditional face-to-face methods of instruction.

Feminine Tensions in Conflict Situations as Revealed by Metaphoric Analyses

This investigation combined interpretive and quantitative metaphoric analyses to examine conflict images of women in government. Based on feminist, conflict, and metaphor literature, we anticipated that first-order (metaphoric family) and second-order (structural or linguistic) analyses would reveal overarching categories, underlying tensions, and contextual differences in workplace metaphors. Findings indicated that metaphoric families provided generalizable categories but that linguistic devices suggested subtleties in the ways in which professional women conceptualized their conflictual interactions in the workplace.

Mediator communicative competence

In this paper we report on a research program investigating a model of mediator communicative competence in a divorce mediation context. The theory holds that more successful mediators quickly define specific role relationships during mediation through the use of distance, coherence and structuring mediation strategies, and they use these strategies at times that encourage constructive, and discourage destructive, interaction patterns. Data from sessions of actual divorce mediations (in ten of which agreement was reached and in ten of which no agreement was reached) indicated that structuring and reframing strategies and tactics discriminated most between the two conditions, particularly in response to disputant bolstering and integrating negotiation strategies.

Gender-Based Perceptual Biases in Mediation

The questions posed in this article are related to gender stereotyping in a simulated mediation context: Do disputants perceive the role effectiveness of men and women mediators differently, and do men and women mediators enact intervention strategies differently during highly control-oriented mediation sessions? To answer these questions one mixed-sex group of subjects was trained to mediate roommate conflicts using an interventionist model of mediation (i.e., highly control oriented), whereas another mixed-sex group received no training. The data revealed that, although the trained mediators used equally controlling strategies, the males were perceived by the disputants as more controlling. In contrast, untrained female mediators were more controlling but they were perceived as less controlling. These results are related to current research in gender stereotyping.

When I Call You Up and You're Not There: Application of Communication Accommodation Theory to Telephone Answering Machine Messages.

This investigation extends Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to an everyday situation in which non‐simultaneous, temporally limited, and less information rich communication occurs. Specifically, this study explores whether callers converge to structural (script and message features) and relational (verbal immediacy cues) message aspects found in recorded answering machine messages. After comparing recorded answering machine messages and caller messages, we found that callers exhibited greater convergence to relational than to structural aspects. Both female and male callers converged with levels of immediacy in answering machine messages. Implications for future research in CAT are outlined.

Evaluating the Believability of Sequential Arguments.

Earlier research points out that sequential causal arguments judged as technically correct may still be unpersuasive. The current research examines a possible reason for this: the framework an indi...

Reframing the Cultural Differences between the East and the West

This study proposes that the fundamental cultural differences between the East and the West lie in a holistic-analytic worldview, and this new perspective can explain the cultural differences better than collectivism-individualism. To test the claim, this study developed a measurement for holism and its derivative, cognitive relativity. Then, it examined the degree of holism, cognitive relativity, and independent and interdependent self-construals with Korean and American college students. Results showed that (a) Koreans had a stronger holistic worldview than Americans, (b) Koreans maintained a higher degree of cognitive relativity than Americans, (c) Koreans and Americans did not differ in either independent or interdependent self-construals, and (d) the impact of holism was still strong after controlling for the effects of self-construals.

Effects with Multiple Causes: Evaluating Arguments Using the Subjective Probability Model.

This study examines whether or not the subjective probability model accurately predicts the beliefs of an individual for circumstances of a single event with multiple causes. The mathematical model specified by the subjective probability model continues to provide some degree of prediction for beliefs prior to the exposure to a message. After exposure to a persuasive message, the model did not maintain the same level of accuracy of prediction. Several suggested explanations for this change are considered.

Differences in Cognitive Relativity Between Americans’ and Koreans’ Assessments of Self

Earlier studies on identity have reported that North Americans and East Asians have very distinct views of self. While North Americans related consistency, stability, and clarity of self to high self-esteem, good social adjustment, and strong true self, East Asians, who tended to contextualize their identity and demonstrate high inconsistency and lack of clarity, did not relate these tendencies to lack of self-esteem or true self. Markus and Kitayama (1991, 1998) explained this difference with independent and interdependent self-construals. This study extends these earlier studies by proposing and testing an alternative theoretical framework, the theory of cognitive relativity. The theory stipulates that Koreans, who hold a holistic worldview, maintain higher cognitive relativity in their self-concept than Americans, who hold an analytic worldview. The results supported the theory. Koreans showed higher relativity in all three attributes of self-concept: physical, psychological, and social. Particularly, the social attribute yielded a striking difference and the psychological attribute also showed robust differences between the two cultures. Physical attribute did not show as strong a difference, but the difference was still statistically significant. Americans and Koreans did not show statistically significant differences in independent and interdependent self-construals, while the effect of culture on cognitive relativity was significant after controlling for the effect of self-construal.

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).