Richard Bello

Interpretations of Messages The Influence of Various Forms of Equivocation, Face Concerns, and Sex Differences

Equivocation, the use of ambiguity or vagueness, is used to protect face when an interlocutor seeks to avoid a hurtful truth or a deception. This study compared the effects of self and other-face, sex, and several versions of equivocation on perceptions of messages. Participants (n = 354) read a scenario about a public-speaking situation in which a classmate makes a comment about a poor performance. Equivocation, especially that directed at other-face, is judged more polite than unequivocal criticism. Unequivocal criticism is judged as more competent and honest than equivocation. A mixed message is regarded the most positively.

Attachment Style, Marital Satisfaction, Commitment, and Communal Strength Effects on Relational Repair Message Interpretation among Remarrieds

This article examines the influence of attachment style and several relational variables on the interpretation of relational repair messages. Participants were 191 remarried individuals who completed questionnaires that measured marital satisfaction, attachment style, commitment, communal strength, and interpretations of hypothetical repair messages from their spouses with varying levels of equivocation. Interpretations were measured along the dimensions of honesty, competence, and politeness using Likert-type scales developed and successfully employed in previous research. Results of regression and MANOVA analyses found that, as predicted, each of the relational variables positively influenced repair message interpretation, and that attachment styles also influenced these interpretations. Results are discussed in terms of the need for relational repair research that makes use of broader predictive models and deals with both production and interpretation of repair messages.

Attachment Style and Tolerance for Ambiguity Effects on Relational Repair Message Interpretation Among Remarrieds

This study examined the role of the dispositional variables of attachment style and tolerance for ambiguity on the interpretation of relational repair messages. Respondents completed questionnaires that measured attachment style and tolerance for ambiguity and made interpretations of hypothetical repair messages from their spouses with varying levels of equivocation. The resulting interpretations were measured along the dimensions of honesty, competence, and politeness using Likert-type scales. Regression and multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) demonstrated that both of the traits influenced the interpretation of repair messages, although in somewhat different ways and along different dimensions.

Managing boundary turbulence through the use of information manipulation strategies: A report on two studies

Abstract In two studies, participants responded to a scenario in which they were asked to imagine they had revealed private information shared with a close friend or a recent acquaintance to a third party, thereby violating a privacy boundary, and were then confronted by the friend or acquaintance. Also manipulated was the degree of privacy of the information involved. The combined results suggest, among other things, that clarity, whether in the form of truth-telling or falsification, was a preferred strategy in situations involving information of a more private nature and that privacy level and relationship type influenced truth-telling. The strategies of falsification and equivocation were found to be significantly related to these independent variables. Communication competence and ambiguity tolerance were also implicated in strategy selection.

A Profile of Those Likely to Reveal Friends' Confidential Secrets

Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a backdrop, this study empirically addresses the issue of whether personal traits and predispositions can predict the tendencies to either reveal or conceal secrets shared in confidence by a best friend. Participants (N = 375) indicated in response to a survey whether they had ever revealed such a secret to others. The survey also measured several trait-like variables shown to be of theoretical or empirical interest. Results, using discriminant analysis, suggested that a combination of several traits could successfully distinguish those who revealed secrets from those who did not. Significant discriminators included tendency to gossip and depth of disclosure. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Attachment Style and Gender as Predictors of Relational Repair Among the Remarried Rationale for the Study

This study examined the construct of relational repair among remarried persons with an instrument developed to measure repair strategies used by the remarried. It utilized accommodation theory and its connection to commitment to form hypotheses, which predicted connections between the independent variables of attachment style and gender and the dependent variables of relational repair strategies and types of commitment. Multivariate analysis of variance found evidence for an attachment style explanation for the use of relational repair items but did not find the predicted gender connection. There was also a limited connection between attachment style and commitment but none between gender and commitment. Implications for future research involving direct comparisons between once-married and remarried persons and between persons remarried more than once were discussed.