William J. Jordan

A multidimensional scaling of three sets of compliance‐gaining strategies

This article employed cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling techniques to develop a working typology of relevant compliance‐gaining message strategies. Subjects constructed and sorted strategies they reported to use in three compliance‐gaining situations. The resultant typology included “direct‐rational,” “manipulation,” “exchange” and “threat” strategies. A category of “expertise claims” strategies emerged in the solutions for a negotiating situation. Some of the obtained categories supported strategies used in Clark (1979) and Fitzpatrick and Winke (1979), providing independent support for the existence of some aspects of their taxonomies. It was concluded that future research on identifying factors influencing strategy preference strive to incorporate more relevant forms of strategy choices.

Perception of the communicative performance of Americans and Chinese in intercultural dyads

Abstract This study explores basic processes of intercultural perception by testing the stereotyping hypothesis in intercultural relations against the individual judgment hypothesis. Videotapes of nine inter cultural (American/Chinese) hetero-sexual initial interactions were produced and interactants were rated by American subjects on six dimensions of communicative performance: linguistic skill. apprehension, dominance, helpfulness, attractiveness, and expertness. Results of the study support the individual judgment hypothesis. Implacations of the research for cross-cultural training are discussed.

The effects of relational and physical distance on lexical diversity

Lexical diversity was found to be significantly higher when speakers were talking to strangers rather than friends and when speakers were seated further rather than closer to the listener. Results were interpreted as indicating verbal caution in adapting to context.

I. A. Richards' concept of tenor‐vehicle interaction

Explicit in Richards theory of metaphor is the concept of semantic interaction between the tenor and vehicle in the resolution of metaphoric meaning. Four interaction models were generated and tested under two context conditions. Osgoods congruity model, adapted to metaphor, demonstrated the greatest power to predict responses to metaphoric assertions.

Figurativeness as an independent variable in communication research

Data derived from a sorting task and multidimensional scaling analysis support the hypothesis that decoders do perceive a figurative/literal dimension in language. Likewise the data support the hypothesis that multidimensional scaling will yield information concerning the semantic intensity of terms relative to their distance from the subject of the metaphor.

Novelty and Recall Effects of Animate and Inanimate Metaphorical Discourse.

Two experiments tested college and high school students’ responses to literal, animate metaphoric and inanimate metaphoric passages of discourse. In three out of four cases the animate metaphoric passages appeared to have greater novelty than the literal passages, they were not recalled more accurately than the literal passages.

Impression formation in triads

Three linear and two non‐compensatory models of impression formation in the small group were compared for predictive power. When groups evaluated persons with affectively consistent attributed personality traits, the group impression was most accurately predicted from a simple averaging of each members initial impression. Group impressions of persons with affectively incongruent personality profiles were best predicted by a weighted averaging model, with weights derived from individual members proportion of total utterances in task control areas.

Uncertainty as a function of grammatical class size

The results of this study strongly suggest that the parts of speech system in traditional grammar may serve an important function in the human coding process. A significant and positive correlation was found between coders uncertainty for specific parts of speech in a coding task and the number of word types available for their selection in each part of speech class. This finding suggests that the parts of speech system, rather than being an arbitrary classification system imposed on language students by grammarians, may function as a type of preverbal filter system in the encoding process of translating ideas into verbal messages.

Demographic characteristics of nonrespondents to speech communication survey research

The purpose of this study was to determine if nonrespondendents to speech communication survey research differ demographically from respondents. As a follow‐up investigation of a questionnaire study, 1,604 subjects were compared across six dimensions to establish if differences existed between respondent and nonrespondent populations.