Thomas Hugh Feeley

Health information seeking: A review of measures and methods

OBJECTIVE Outlines the methods and measures commonly used to study active health information seeking and prescribes important considerations in advancing the study of patient information seeking. METHODS A systematic review of the literature from 1978 to 2010. A single bibliometric database, PsychInfo, identified 648 articles of health information seeking. The 129 articles included in the review were coded by type of sample, measures (n=12) utilized to study health information seeking, and types of study methods (n=5). RESULTS A majority of studies used non-clinical samples and measured general health information seeking (i.e., whether the participant engaged in a search for health information) through cross-sectional study designs. CONCLUSIONS There are varying samples, measures, and designs used to identify those who do or do not seek health information. Future research should look into how health information seeking influences health management and should uncover the social and relational functions of health information seeking using more advanced (and less routinely applied) measures and methods of studying health information seeking. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS More people are actively searching for health information and health providers should address this in their discussions with patients.

To Catch a Liar: Challenges for Research in Lie Detection Training

Can we train people to detect deception? It is the contention of this article that communication scholars should learn how to train law enforcement professionals on how to detect high stake lies, like those faced by police, judges, customs officials, immigration officials, and so forth. It is proposed that in order to know whether we can train or should bother to train people to detect deception, each training study must meet 6 challenges: (1) relevance, (2) high stakes, (3) proper training, (4) proper testing, (5) generalizability across situations, and (6) generalizability over time. Our quantitative review of the literature suggests that training does significantly raise lie detection accuracy rates. Meta-analytic findings indicate a mean effect size of r = .20 across 20 (11 published studies) paired comparisons of lie detection training versus the control group (i.e., those without some type of training). It should be noted that the majority of the studies that attempt to train lie detectors fall short on many of the above challenges. Current research in lie detection training may actually underestimate the ability to train lie detectors due to the stimulus materials employed in most experiments.

The Persuasive Effects of Message Framing in Organ Donation: The Mediating Role of Psychological Reactance

The effects of message framing on reactions to campaign messages promoting organ donation were examined in three experiments. It was predicted that gain-framed messages would produce more positive reactions toward organ and tissue donation. In Study 1, students (N=189) responded to either a gain-framed or loss-framed message about organ donation. Study 2 (N=318) and Study 3 (N=433) examined the role of psychological reactance as a mediator between framing and reactions. Results indicated an effect for framing across the three studies—specifically, students reading a gain-framed message reported more favorable reactions toward the scripted message and lower psychological reactance. Psychological reactance and perceived manipulative intent were found to mediate the relationship between framing and message reactions.

Examining College Students' Intentions to Become Organ Donors

ABSTRACT 502 university students completed survey items on attitudes, experiences, knowledge, and behaviors related to organ and tissue donation (OTD). Despite positive attitudes toward organ donation, only 11% of students formally have declared their intentions to donate through the state registry or by signing an organ card. When asked to report why they have not signed an organ donor card/registry, students reported, “not considering the topic,” “intentions to donate in the future,” and “general negative attitudes” among other reasons. Students also reported a generally positive attitude toward the topic of OTD and moderate to strong intentions to become organ donors in the future despite feeling somewhat uninformed on the topic. The results are discussed in relation to future campaign message strategies to promote OTD to university students.

Social support, social strain, loneliness, and well-being among older adults: An analysis of the Health and Retirement Study*

This study proposed that, among older adults, higher support and lower strain received from each of the four relational sources (spouse/partner, children, family, and friends) were associated with reduced loneliness and improved well-being and that loneliness might mediate the relationship between support/strain and well-being. Structural equation modeling was conducted using a national sample of adults aged 50 years and older (N = 7,367) from the Health and Retirement Study. Findings indicated that support from spouse/partner and friends alleviated loneliness, while strain from all the four sources intensified loneliness; higher support and lower strain from various sources directly and indirectly improved well-being, with indirect effects mediated through reduced loneliness. It was concluded that, in later life, various sources of support/strain engender distinct effects on loneliness and well-being, and loneliness serves as one of the psychological pathways linking support/strain to well-being.

Evidence of Halo Effects in Student Evaluations of Communication Instruction

The halo effect is a construct reserved to explain individual raters failure to discriminate among conceptually distinct aspects of a stimulus persons behavior. One hundred twenty-eight students from three communication courses evaluated a college professor by completing items measuring nonverbal immediacy, teaching effectiveness, and attitudes toward course content. Students also completed two items considered irrelevant to teaching effectiveness: vocal clarity and physical attractiveness. Significant inter-correlations were found (ranging from 0.28 to 0.72) among all five measures indicating the presence of a halo effect. Moreover, relationships between the two irrelevant measures and nonverbal immediacy, teaching effectiveness and course affect were somewhat stronger when the two irrelevant items were placed at the end of the survey. The results were discussed and implications for halo effects in student evaluations of communication instruction were considered.The halo effect is a construct reserved to explain individual raters failure to discriminate among conceptually distinct aspects of a stimulus persons behavior. One hundred twenty-eight students from three communication courses evaluated a college professor by completing items measuring nonverbal immediacy, teaching effectiveness, and attitudes toward course content. Students also completed two items considered irrelevant to teaching effectiveness: vocal clarity and physical attractiveness. Significant inter-correlations were found (ranging from 0.28 to 0.72) among all five measures indicating the presence of a halo effect. Moreover, relationships between the two irrelevant measures and nonverbal immediacy, teaching effectiveness and course affect were somewhat stronger when the two irrelevant items were placed at the end of the survey. The results were discussed and implications for halo effects in student evaluations of communication instruction were considered.

Reactions to Narrative and Statistical Written Messages Promoting Organ Donation

Students (N = 412) attending a large eastern university evaluated two of three message vignettes (narrative, statistical, actual) on organ donation after reporting their attitudes on the topic. The narrative and statistical vignettes were replicated from a study published in 1998 by Kopfman, Smith, Ah Yun, and Hodges. The study design replicated the Kopfman et al. experiment while also correcting for two methodological artifacts (order effects and analysis procedure) that may have accounted, in part, for the reported findings. Results failed to replicate the findings of Kopfman et al., and in one factor findings were in the opposite direction previously hypothesized. Number of total thoughts and number of positive thoughts were greater for the first message compared to the second message regardless of message condition. Narrative messages were evaluated more positively, seen as more causally relevant, and rated as more credible when compared to the actual messages.

Humans as lie detectors: Some more second thoughts

Humans lack the ability to detect deceptive communication when it is present. This review examined several explanations for this state of affairs. Twenty years of research in deception has shown that there is not a reliable set of nonverbal or verbal indicators of deceptive communication. Moreover, human lie detectors’ veracity judgments are often affected by cognitive biases and erroneous stereotypical information about how a prototypical liar should look. The current review also suggests that the inability to distinguish lies from truths may be a function of the decoding task presented to receivers in interpersonal communication. Receivers of deceptive communication must reject information they have already accepted, must draw inferences of anothers underlying intent, and rarely receive any feedback with regard to their inferences. Additional factors that mediate lie detection accuracy are also reviewed. Finally, suggestions were made regarding how scholars should proceed with future research efforts i...

The Behavioral Correlates of Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Deceptive Communication

Ninety-three students were randomly assigned to one of three veracity conditions: (1) truthful, (2) unsanctioned-deceptive, or (3) sanctioned-deceptive. Participants in the truthful condition were honest when reporting strategies used when attempting to unscramble a series of anagrams. Students in the sanctioned-deceptive and unsanctioned-deceptive condition were implicated to cheat (by looking at the answers) on the anagram task by a research confederate. Students in the sanctioned condition were asked by an experimenter to conceal their cheating by lying to the interviewer about their “high score” on the anagram task whereas students in the unsanctioned condition were not given any instructions about how to answer the interviewers questions regarding their anagram-solving strategies. All interviews were videotaped and verbal and nonverbal behaviors were analyzed by four student-coders. Results indicated that unsanctioned deceivers, when compared to sanctioned deceivers, made fewer speech errors and speech hesitations, gazed less at their targets, and used fewer other references.

Testing a communication network model of employee turnover based on centrality

Abstract This study tested Feeley and Barnetts (1997) Erosion Model (EM) of employee turnover which predicts that individuals who are more central in their communication network will be more likely to remain at their position (or less likely to turnover). Seventy employees from three different organizations were surveyed about their attitudes toward their jobs and were also asked to indicate (by checklist) which employees they spoke to regularly at work. Turnover data were obtained at 3 and 6 months time after the surveys were completed. Results generally supported the Erosion Model of employee turnover. Those employees with high Degree or number of links in the network were less likely to turnover. Employees who required fewer links to communicate to all others in the network (i.e., Closeness) were also less likely to turnover but this relationship only approached statistical significance (p = .06). Betweenness, defined as the frequency with which a person falls between pairs of other positions in a network, was also significantly related to employee turnover. It was also predicted, based on Feeley and Bametts EM, that the relationship between network position and turnover would be mediated by an employees level of commitment to the organization and his or her intentions to leave work. Closeness significantly predicted commitment while Betweenness and Degree were unrelated to commitment levels. Organizational commitment was negatively related to intentions to leave work and, unexpectedly, commitment levels were positively related to employee turnover. The results were discussed and the applications of this research for management practitioners were considered.