Paul Schrodt

A Meta-Analytical Review of Family Communication Patterns and their Associations with Information Processing, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Outcomes

This meta-analysis reviews the findings of 56 studies (n=19,745) examining the associations among family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and information-processing, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes. When both conversation and conformity orientations are considered collectively, the cumulative evidence indicates a small, but meaningful relationship between family communication patterns and overall outcomes (r=.285). Similar overall effect sizes were observed for conversation (r=.262) and conformity orientations (r=.253), though the average effect size for conversation orientation and psychosocial outcomes (r=.460) was greater in magnitude than those obtained for information processing (r=.238) or behavioral outcomes (r=.276). Slightly larger effect sizes were observed when researchers used the Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (r=.332) as compared with the Family Communication Patterns scale (r=.261), though this difference in magnitude was statistically non-significant. Collectively, the results suggest that family communication patterns have a meaningful association with a variety of cognitive activities and relational behaviors, as well as individual well-being.

Students' Appraisals of Instructors as a Function of Students' Perceptions of Instructors' Aggressive Communication

Encouraging students to think critically often requires instructors to challenge their students in classroom discussion. It is crucial, however, that instructors adopt argumentative stances toward their students without veering into aggression. This investigation explored associations among student perceptions of instructor aggressive communication, perceived understanding, instructor credibility, and instructor evaluations. Participants were 228 undergraduate students enrolled in basic communication classes. Perceived instructor verbal aggressiveness (VA) was inversely associated with student perceptions of understanding, instructor credibility, and evaluations. Perceived instructor argumentativeness, in contrast, was positively associated with instructor credibility and evaluations. Perceived instructor VA was a stronger predictor of instructor credibility and evaluations than was perceived instructor argumentativeness. When combined, student perceptions of instructor aggressive communication and perceived understand ing accounted for 71% of the shared variance in a criterion composite of instructor credibility and evaluations. These findings affirm the importance of instructor communication behaviors that facilitate understanding and allow students to communicate successfully with their instructors.

Communication Processes that Predict Young Adults’ Feelings of Being Caught and their Associations with Mental Health and Family Satisfaction

In this study, the degree to which young adults felt caught between their parents was tested as a mediator between marital conflict behaviors and young adults’ mental health and family satisfaction. Participants included 1170 young adult children from first marriage and postdivorce families in four different states. Using structural equation modeling, the results revealed that parents’ symbolic aggression, demand/withdraw patterns, and negative disclosures were positively associated with young adult childrens feelings of being caught. Such feelings, in turn, were inversely associated with childrens reports of family satisfaction and mental health. Although young adult children from divorced families witnessed, on average, more marital aggression, negative disclosures, and demand/withdraw patterns than those from nondivorced families, the associations in the model were relatively comparable across both family types. Further, tests of mediation revealed that feeling caught served primarily as a partial mediator for family satisfaction and as a full mediator for mental health, though such feelings suppressed the positive effect of parental disclosures on family satisfaction for children in nondivorced families. Finally, childrens closeness with both parents moderated the associations in the model.

A Meta-Analytical Review of Teacher Credibility and its Associations with Teacher Behaviors and Student Outcomes

This meta-analysis reviews the findings of 51 studies (N = 14,378) examining the associations among teacher credibility, teacher behaviors, and student outcomes. When all three dimensions of credibility are considered collectively (i.e., competence, trustworthiness, and caring), the cumulative evidence indicates a moderate, meaningful relationship between teacher credibility and overall outcomes (r=.448). Similar overall effect sizes were observed for competence (r=.481), trustworthiness (r=.477), and caring (r=.554), though the overall effect size for caring was greater in magnitude than that obtained for credibility measured as a single factor (r=.294). On average, higher correlations were observed when researchers measured all three dimensions of credibility (r=.518) than when they only measured competence and character (r=.256). Collectively, the results highlight the unique contributions of perceived caring to the teacher credibility construct, as well as the meaningful role that teacher credibility plays in facilitating student learning.

Students’ Attributions of Instructor Credibility as a Function of Students’ Expectations of Instructional Technology Use and Nonverbal Immediacy This paper was presented to the Instructional Development Division at the National Communication Association's annual convention in Boston, MA.

This study examined the interaction effect of nonverbal immediacy and expected instructional technology use on students’ initial reports of instructor credibility. Participants included 549 college students who were randomly assigned to one of eight scenarios depicting first-day class sessions across four levels of technology use and two levels of nonverbal immediacy. A 4×2 factorial MANOVA revealed a significant multivariate interaction effect for instructor credibility, as well as significant multivariate main effects for both expected technology use and nonverbal immediacy. Univariate procedures revealed that the interaction effect and both main effects were significant for all three dimensions of instructor credibility. Finally, planned cell comparisons revealed different trends among dimensions of credibility for highly immediate vs. nonimmediate instructors.

Student Perceptions of Teacher Power as a Function of Perceived Teacher Confirmation

This study explored the associations among perceived teacher confirmation behaviors (i.e., demonstrating interest, responding to questions, and teaching style) and student perceptions of teacher power use (i.e., coercive, reward, expert, legitimate, and referent power). Participants included 656 students from two Midwestern universities. Results revealed that perceived teacher confirmation accounts for 20% of the variance in student perceptions of teacher power. Further, perceived teacher confirmation behaviors were more closely associated with student perceptions of teacher pro-social power use than with anti-social power use. Specifically, post hoc analyses revealed that perceived confirmation behaviors are more closely associated with student ratings of expert and reward power than ratings of referent and coercive power.

Family Communication Schemata and the Circumplex Model of Family Functioning

Using Koerner and Fitzpatrick’s general theory of family communication, this study extends Olson’s circumplex model of family functioning by examining the degree to which three dimensions of family communication schemata (i.e., expressiveness, structural traditionalism, and conflict avoidance) facilitate family cohesion and adaptability. Participants included 426 young adults from first‐marriage families who completed a series of survey measures. Results indicated that family expressiveness was positively associated with family cohesion and adaptability, whereas structural traditionalism and conflict avoidance were inversely associated with both dimensions of family functioning. Collectively, all three dimensions of family schemata accounted for 51% of the variance in family cohesion, though expressiveness and avoidance emerged as the only significant predictors in the model. Likewise, all three dimensions of family schemata accounted for 53% of the variance in family adaptability, including an interaction effect of expressiveness and structural traditionalism. Finally, discriminant analyses revealed that family expressiveness was primarily responsible for distinguishing among different types of family systems.

A Social Relations Model of Everyday Talk and Relational Satisfaction in Stepfamilies

This study examined the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms underlying reported frequencies of everyday talk and relational satisfaction in stepfamilies. Participants included a parent, stepparent, and child from 114 stepfamilies (N =342) from the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States. Social relations model analyses revealed that everyday talk and relational satisfaction vary across stepfamily relationships as a function primarily of actor and relationship effects. Stepparents’ reports of everyday talk with the parent (i.e., their spouse) varied primarily as a function of actor effects, whereas reports of both childrens and parents’ satisfaction with the stepparent varied primarily as a function of relationship effects. Dyadic reciprocity emerged in the stepparent/stepchild relationship for reports of both everyday talk and satisfaction. Finally, stepparents engaging in everyday talk more frequently with stepchildren were more likely to be satisfied with stepchildren, and were more likely to have stepchildren reporting satisfaction with them, than stepparents engaging less frequently in everyday talk.

Learner Empowerment and Teacher Evaluations as Functions of Teacher Power Use in the College Classroom.

This study tested two theoretical models of learner empowerment as a potential mediator of teacher power use and students’ ratings of instruction. Participants included 1,416 undergraduate students from four different institutions in the United States. Results of structural equation modeling provided more support for the partial mediation model than for the full mediation model, though in the final structural model, learner empowerment failed to mediate the influence of teacher power use on students’ ratings of instruction. Instead, referent, reward, and legitimate power accounted for 66% of the variance in learner empowerment, while referent, expert, and coercive power accounted for 80% of the variance in teacher evaluations. Referent power emerged as the only form of power that predicted both empowerment and evaluations.

The relationship between organizational identification and organizational culture: Employee perceptions of culture and identification in a retail sales organization

This study explored the relationship between organizational identification and organizational culture in a retail sales organization. Participants included 76 employees from 31 different store locations who completed Cheneys (1983b) Organizational Identification Questionnaire and Glaser, Zamanou, and Hackers (1987) Organizational Culture Survey. Confirmatory factor analyses, as well as tests of parallelism, were conducted to confirm the dimensional structure and internal consistency of both measurements. Although six dimensions of organizational culture were significantly related to organizational identification, employee morale emerged as the only significant predictor of employee identification. Implications of these results, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.