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In this paper, we briefly review the large research literature on emotion in social psychology, and show how it is now firmly embedded in language and communication. As a springboard, we look at the history of emotion studies in JLSP . Then, we consider theory and methodology, and evaluate how standard and more recent methods of measurement have led to new ways of looking at the communication of emotion, including in real-life contexts. We conclude with suggestions for a research agenda that takes the study of emotion forward into the heartland of research in language and social psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores different acculturation pathways that older immigrants follow, and the social/cultural identities they claim (or do not claim), as they live and age in Australia. Data were collected from 29 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with older immigrants (65+ years) from nine cultural backgrounds. We used participants' self-defined cultural identity to explore how these cultural identities were enacted in different contexts. Mapping self-defined cultural identity with narratives about what participants do in relation to ethnic and host cultures, we found three dynamic acculturation pathways: (a) identifying with the ethnic culture while embracing aspects of Australian culture, (b) identifying with Australian culture while participating in the ethnic culture, and (c) identifying with both cultures while maintaining the way of life of the ethnic culture. These pathways show that acculturation strategies are not necessarily consistent with self-defined identity, within the same individual or over time. Rather, the participants' narratives suggest that their life in the settlement country involves ongoing negotiation across people, culture, and relationships. The findings highlight the importance for acculturation research to be situated in the context in which immigrants find themselves, to capture the nuances of these dynamic acculturation experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles in this special issue highlight the ways in which science communication, and in particular translational communication, implicates the nuances of language. This issue is the report of the Task Force on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) language set up by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology. The articles raise issues about the multiple stakeholders in science and their characteristic language and concepts, in contexts as diverse as health, energy production, forensic science, and science education. They point to the consequences of getting communication wrong, and to the important role of linguistics and language and social psychology in understanding this process. The articles point to a research agenda for language and social psychology researchers in this increasingly important and salient area, as we address major problems in society through the sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social licence to operate (SLO) is an informal agreement that infers ongoing acceptance of an industrial or energy project by a local community and the stakeholders affected by it. Negotiation of SLOs centrally implicates language and communication, including scientific language and concepts. We first review the literature about the definition and communicative features of SLOs, and their relation to scientific communication. We describe communication accommodation theory and the ways that it can help understand (un)successful SLO negotiation, and describe examples of texts that show accommodative or nonaccommodative language around SLOs. We summarize some results which help indicate different ways of accommodating communities in the negotiation of SLOs. Finally, we describe a research agenda on communication accommodation and SLOs, in the service of improving their impact on energy, the environment, and the transfer of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment that will not provide significant net benefit at the end of a person’s life (called futile treatment) is considered by many people to represent a major problem in the health sector, as it can waste resources and raise significant ethical issues. Medical treatment at the end of life involves a complex negotiation that implicates intergroup communication between health professionals, patients, and families, as well as between groups of health professionals. This study, framed by intergroup language theory, analyzed data from a larger project on futile treatment, in order to examine the intergroup language associated with futile treatment. Hospital doctors (N = 96) were interviewed about their understanding of treatment given to adult patients at the end of life that they considered futile. We conducted a discourse analysis on doctors’ descriptions of futile treatment provided by themselves and their in-group and out-group colleagues. Results pointed to an intergroup context, with patients, families, and colleagues as out-groups. In their descriptions, doctors justified their own decisions using the language of logic, ethics, and respect. Patients and families, however, were characterized in terms of wishing and wanting, as were out-group colleagues. In addition, out-group doctors were described in strongly negative intergroup language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study using Leximancer (a text-mining tool for visualizing the structure of concepts and themes in text) to track the history of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology's ( JCCP's) research articles. We included 1,416 articles mapped by decade. Results reveal a strong overall orientation toward experimental psychology, with an early emphasis on child development. In more recent years, there has been a strong emphasis on the features of culture including values, orientation, and acculturation, with the journal now situated more centrally in social psychology and personality. JCCP is the most broad-based journal in cross-cultural psychology, and its development over 40 years clearly represents changes in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an extension of organizational identity research, we draw on place identity theory (PIT) to argue that employees' identification with their place of work influences their perceptions of large-scale organizational change. To determine how different types of employees respond to threats to their sense of place identity, we conducted 34 interviews with senior and middle managers, supervisory and nonsupervisory staff, and external stakeholders at a public hospital undergoing change. Groups of employees at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy experienced a stronger sense of place and belongingness and greater disruption to their place identity than those at higher levels. We discuss how place identity operates as a component of social identity as well as the responses managers can make to ways in which employees with different place identifications deal with change. [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]

Communication failures in the complex environment of hospital care affect the quality of care and occurrence of inadvertent harm. This study investigated doctors' written communication using a sample of medical records, specifically doctors' progress notes, and the frameworks of social identity and communication accommodation theories. These records include standardized and stylized language, and are intended to record assessment and treatment of patients according to known guidelines for practice. An interpretive analysis of the language and discourse in these records revealed that doctors used medical record entries both to express their specialty identity and to negotiate intergroup conflict. Nonaccommodation and interspecialty conflict sometimes took precedence over facilitation of patient treatment and management. Thus, intergroup communication in this context can constitute a serious threat to the quality of patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have a tendency to view media reports of intergroup conflicts as biased against their own group (hostile media perception). However, limited research has been conducted investigating how group membership of the perceiver and group membership of the media source combine to influence perceptions of bias. Muslims and Christians in Indonesia (N= 212) read an article describing inter-religious conflict. The article was attributed either to a Muslim newspaper, a Christian newspaper, or an unidentified newspaper. Results indicated the hostile media perception only among high identifiers. There was also some evidence for the predicted role of newspaper religion in influencing perceptions of bias: the article was seen to be biased in favor of Muslims when attributed to a Muslim newspaper, biased in favor of Christians when attributed to a Christian newspaper, and intermediate when the newspaper was not identified. The effect of newspaper religion was mediated by prior beliefs of bias. Results are discussed in terms of heuristic explanations of bias perceptions in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this paper was to examine self-efficacy and perceived appropriateness among rural general practitioners (GPs) in regards to screening and intervention for physical, lifestyle and mental health issues. Method: Fifty GPs from 25 practices in eight rural Queensland towns completed a written survey designed for the study. Results: General practitioners rated opportunistic screening or assessment for smoking and for detection of relapse of mental disorders as the most appropriate, with even cardiovascular and diabetes risk falling behind these. Self-efficacy was highest for medical disorders for smoking assessment. It was significantly lower for alcohol, mental health issues, and addressing risks of physical disorder in people with mental disorders. Conclusions: High appropriateness ratings suggest that current strategies to boost self-efficacy of GPs in addressing mental health issues are timely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research councils, agencies, and researchers recognize the benefits of team-based health research. However, researchers involved in large-scale team-based research projects face multiple challenges as they seek to identify epistemological and ontological common ground. Typically, these challenges occur between quantitative and qualitative researchers but can occur between qualitative researchers, particularly when the project involves multiple disciplinary perspectives. The authors use the convergent interviewing technique in their multidisciplinary research project to overcome these challenges. This technique assists them in developing common epistemological and ontological ground while enabling swift and detailed data collection and analysis. Although convergent interview big is a relatively new method described primarily in marketing research, it compares and contrasts well with grounded theory and other techniques. The authors argue that this process provides a rigorous method to structure and refine research projects and requires researchers to identify and be accountable for developing a common epistemological and ontological position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rumors collected from a large public hospital undergoing change were content analyzed, and a typology comprising the following five broad types of change-related rumors was developed: rumors about changes to job and working conditions, nature of organizational change, poor change management, consequences of the change for organizational performance, and gossip-rumors. Rumors were also classified as positive or negative on the basis of their content. As predicted, negative rumors were more prevalent than positive rumors. Finally, employees reporting negative rumors also reported more change-related stress as compared to those who reported positive rumors and those who did not report any rumors. The authors propose that rumors be treated as verbal symbols and expressions of employee concerns during organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study developed and tested a model of job uncertainty for survivors and victims of downsizing. Data were collected from three samples of employees in a public hospital, each representing three phases of the downsizing process: immediately before the announcement of the redeployment of staff, during the implementation of the downsizing, and towards the end of the official change programme. As predicted, levels of job uncertainty and personal control had a direct relationship with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. In addition, there was evidence to suggest that personal control mediated the relationship between job uncertainty and employee adjustment a pattern of results that varied across each of the three phases of the change event. From the perspective of the organization's overall climate, it was found that levels of job uncertainty personal control and job satisfaction improved and/or stabilized over the downsizing process. During the implementation phase, survivors experienced higher levels of personal control than victims, but both groups of employees reported similar levels of job uncertainty We discuss the implications of our results for strategically managing uncertainty during and after organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated factors that influence managers' conceptions and subordinates' perceptions of effective feedback. A social rules perspective was used to operationalize male and.female managers' conceptions of effective negative feedback. In the first study, 68 male and female managers identified their optimal strategies for providing feedback to subordinates. Male and female managers endorsed different goals and tactics for giving negative feedback, particularly in terms of levels of participation and directness. In the second study, 116 male and female subordinates evaluated the comparative effectiveness and difficulty of these and other standard approaches to feedback. The female manager strategy was evaluated by both men and women as generally more task and relationship effective but not more difficult to enact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]