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Despite widespread hearing problems among older adults, only a minority uses hearing aids. The stigma associated with such aids represents a key factor modulated by language. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of different forms of media communication on both implicit and explicit attitudes toward hearing aids. A preliminary analysis highlighted an over-representation of "technical" and "medical" terms in the corpus linguistic commonly used by the press. These results were used to design an online experimental study. The results suggested that the exposure to a language that includes informal words—as opposed to the technical terms commonly used by the press—favors positive implicit and explicit attitudes toward hearing aids, particularly among people who have direct contact with older adults. Overall, the use of an informal language in the press could generate a style of communication that positively influences people's attitudes toward hearing aids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each culture has a distinct set of features that contribute to a unique communication style. For example, bilinguals often balance multiple social contexts and may undergo cognitive changes that consequently support different communication styles. The present work examines how individual differences in bilingual experience affect one form of communication style: sarcastic and indirect language. A diverse sample of largely bilingual adults (first language English) rated their likelihood of using sarcastic and indirect language across different daily settings. They also rated their second language experience. There were two key findings: Bilinguals use sarcasm for similar social functions as do monolinguals (general sarcasm, frustration diffusion, and embarrassment diffusion) and greater global second language proficiency linked to greater usage of general sarcasm in daily life. These results suggest that bilinguals may use sarcasm to achieve various communicative goals and bilingual experience may affect general cognitive capacities that support sarcasm use across real-world contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speakers build linguistic styles by combining elements of existing styles, a process known as bricolage, which results in stylistic resources appearing across multiple styles. Although speakers' ability to construct and deploy styles across situations has been documented repeatedly, little perceptual work has been done on how linguistic cues function across styles. This study used a matched guise experiment to examine the impact of the English variable (ING) on social perceptions of speakers presented as professors, political candidates, or experienced professionals. As predicted, profession shifted the impact of (ING) on perceived knowledgeability, such that professors were seen as more knowledgeable when using -ing, whereas experienced professionals were more knowledgeable in their -in guises. Use of -in also made all speakers sound less caring and created a positive relationship between political progressiveness and caring in perceptions of political candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the epilogue to this special issue of JLSP, the author notes that the five articles presented in this special issue show the usefulness of a language and social psychology approach. While the topics and perspectives of the articles are different, several key themes emerge, particularly involving communication in complex health contexts. The articles taken together provide health communication scholars with a common research agenda for the next few years. These articles address hard health problems, all of which can be understood as grounded in intergroup relationships. They show the importance of large-scale interdisciplinary projects that can have a significant impact on the quality of health care and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study tested six axioms concerning the effect of language intensity on receiver attitudes. The axioms specify source and receiver variables which might moderate the relationship between intensity and attitude change. The results were consistent with an information processing model based on message discrepancy, expectancy and elaboration likelihood theories. Intensity affected attitudes through three routes. First, intensity increased attitude change via message clarity, with clarity acting as a mediator variable. Second, intensity inter acted with discrepancy and perceived source likeability to produce attitude change. Third, the effect of intensity on attitudes was moderated by source expectations. Results showed that intensity enhances persuasiveness for a high credibility source, inhibits persuasiveness for a low credibility source, and has no effect for a moderate credibility source. Receiver anxiety moderated the effect of source gender expectations on the intensity-attitude relationship. A revised model of intensity effects, based on axioms derived from information processing theory and expectancy theory, is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the literature on the consequences of powerful and power-less language styles for impression formation is extensive, the persuasive effects of power of style have been neglected. Accordingly, a 2 x 2 x 2 experiment was conducted (strong vs. weak argument strength x high vs. low power language x relevant vs. irrelevant topic). Respondents read a message arguing for implementing comprehensive examinations for college seniors which served as a vehicle for the independent variables. Dependent measures consisted of scales assessing persuasion and communicator style/ability. Additionally, cognitive responses were assessed. Dependent measures for persuasion and communicator attributes yielded a three-factor solution: Persuasion, CompetencelControl and Sociability. Further analyses indicated that strong arguments were generally more persuasive than weak ones regardless of relevance, and power of style had no effect upon Persuasion. On the other hand, powerful versus powerless language had a strong effect upon ratings of communicator CompetencelControl and, in conjunction with argument strength, Sociability. Among other things, the cognitive response data indicated that persons were more likely to think about the powerless style than the style that was ostensibly powerful. The results offer little support for Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interpersonal coordination of vocal and visual timing within the conversational interactions of dyad members who liked each other, who disliked each other, and who did not know each other. Time series regression analyses were used to provide an estimate of the temporal coordination of each dyad. Pairs of women were selected for participation in one of the three conditions of 'like', 'dislike', and 'unacquainted' on the basis of their ratings of each other on a sociogram. Each pair was videotaped while engaging in a 30-minute, relatively unconstrained conversation. The videotapes were coded electronically to determine the vocal characteristics of the conversations and by trained coders to determine the pattern of direct and averted gaze of the interactants. The results indicated a high degree of coordinated interpersonal timing across dyads. Furthermore, the initial dyadic categorisation of interpersonal attraction was differentiated by the magnitude and type of the temporal coordination of the visual and vocal behaviours of the dyads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined the effect of interpersonal construct differentiation and legitimate authority on several facets of regulative message design: the number of message strategies persuaders use, the way in which persuaders conceive the persuadee's behaviour problem, and the way persuaders defend their proposals to their persuadees. In Study 1 undergraduates responded to two situations requiring them to regulate the behaviour of a subordinate. In Study 2 undergraduates responded to one of three regulative situations that cast them into the role of peer or supervisor. In both studies highly differentiated persuaders conceived the problem and defended their proposal in more symbolicallycoordinated ways than less differentiated persuaders. Study 2 found that the correlational relationships did not differ as a function of the legitimate authority existing between the persuader and persuadee. Study 3 found that the correlational relationships could be substantially accounted for by the number of targetrelevant goals and the message-focused conception of persuasion the persuader possessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends recent theorising on the psychology of accounts and account-making. It is argued that while work on this topic in the area of close relationships and reactions to stress is increasing, as yet too little explicit theoretical analysis and hypothesis postulation have been presented. The present statement amplifies further on the nature of the account-making process and articulates an hypothesised role of this process in people's reaction to severe stress. The paper also provides comparison of the present approach to accounts as people's explanations for events structured in story-like fashion and alternative conceptualisations of accounts. Overall, it is contended that the activity of for-mulating an account helps the individual cope with the psychological effects of severe stress. The paper discusses emotion, memory-cognition, and behavioural expectation as they relate to account-making. An agenda is also presented for future research in order to further elucidate accounts and account-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As both unabashed contests for power and forums for political candidates who, presumably, already have relatively substantial societal power, political debates offer a site for investigating the creation of more powerful language use for some, less powerful for others. Since the canonical debate form promises an equal distribution of turns and topic control to all debators through prespecification of practically everything that might vary in conversation (Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974), the instances within actual debate which violate rules for prespecification are prime sites for revealing gender issues. The out of order and oddly functioning talk in six televised political debates was analysed, holding the promise of fairness of canonical debates as a yardstick. Un-rule-y talk violated rules for who was to speak (uninvited and out of turn order UNs) and what was to be happening (unexpected and oddly functioning MOVEs). UNs and MOVEs were categorised, sorted, and analysed as to where they occurred, who did them, what special features they had, and what consequences they had for subsequent topics, turns, and event structuring. The analysis has implications for the study of gender and language as well as the study and conduct of political debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationalist depictions of conversational behaviour assume that communicators engage in a good deal of goal-directed thinking and that such thinking guides message production. The current study used a cued-recall method (Cegala et al., 1988) to investigate the composition of conversational cognition and to investigate the relationship between cognitions and tactics. Results indicated that goal-oriented cognition was prominent but that non-strategic thoughts were more frequent. In addition, results indicated that individuals using tactics of low, moderate, and high levels of goal management sophistication had qualitatively different conversational cognitions. Finally, partner tactics appeared to influence the composition of conversational cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its apparently relational function, account giving is found during the course of goal completion in such task-oriented activities as service encounters. The present case involves calls to a telephone company relating to billing troubles. The analysis presented here reveals that nominally relationoriented talk is not always indicative of relational goals, but can be used as a strategy to achieve a task goal. This strategy, however, creates the potential for a coordination problem between participants, which, in turn, creates a need to negotiate the synchronising of institutional customer goals. The present analysis reveals that when coordination problems occur, formulations are used to redirect the talk, such that both participants orient in real-time to complementary goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the more ill-behaved vagaries of free-flowing conversation may seem to call into question the possibility of formal treatments of coherence in conversation. However, in this paper we show that the notions of planning and local coherence from artificial intelligence work in discourse interpretation make such treatments possible. Four fragments of an ethnographic life history interview are examined; they illustrate a negotiation of topic, an associative slide, discontinuous structure, and the emergence of a new conversational goal. In each case we show that the notions of planning and local coherence make possible an intricate analysis of how local incoherencies can disguise a larger, global coherence or of how global coherence can arise from the piecing together of locally coherent segments. Finally, we give an overview of the production of conversation based on these notions that accommodates these vagaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-two pairs of strangers were videotaped during a 15-minute interaction during which one of the pair, acting as a 'confederate' of the experimenters, inserted a pre-designated 'boast' into the conversation. Male and female confederates were observed to differ significantly on some aspects of their approach to the task: Women were significantly more likely to be calculating, top-down planners, while males were more likely to offer boasts as 'answers' to unprompted questions from their partners. Although there were trends for women to use more reciprocal questions and more topical control strategies than men, the obtained differences were not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]