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Breakups are among the most distressing occurrences in life. The affective responses to and recovery from relationship dissolution are multifaceted. Scholarship investigating relationship dissolution and the ensuing processes that follow has come a long way in facilitating a more holistic understanding of affect. These findings have driven empirical and theoretical research exploring important intersections around distress and adjustment, while illuminating the need to replicate and expand findings to more diverse populations. This chapter highlights common variables and questions in empirical relationship dissolution research including dissolution strategies (unilateral and bilateral), breakup roles (initiator and noninitiator), sex differences (reasons and roles), time (relationship length and adjustment), age (life span), and relationship redefinition (continuance or termination). These moderating variables have been studied to understand affective responses to relationship dissolution, yet they fail to fully delineate the complex structures that individuals and couples encounter. This chapter concludes by outlining and discussing gaps in prior scholarship and providing evolutionary extensions for relationship dissolution related to contemporary dating practices. The emergent lexicon of the dissolution process extends conventional metrics stability regarding development, intimacy, and commitment of interpersonal relationships. We discuss future areas for applying an evolutionary psychological perspective and offer a unifying narrative around distress, adjustment, and the moderating variables that call attention to the complex process of romantic relationship dissolution.

This study explores the friendzone, or the lexicon surrounding the nexus between platonic and romantic relationships. The friendzone situates layperson and scholarly depictions of platonic and romantic relationships. Minimal scholarship explores this common vernacular from either perspective—those that communicate romantic attraction or those that react. Specifically, this study investigates how initiators (those who communicate interest) and respondents (those who react to declarations) participate in the communicative and relational process of friendzoning. Participants ( N = 787) completed open-ended questions about their friendzone experiences, communication from initiators, reaction of respondents, and changes to friendships. This study utilizes analytic induction to provide further conceptualization and delineation of the friendzone through identifying friendzoning types, initiator communication strategies, respondent reactions, and relationship changes. Findings allowed for: the conceptualizing of the friendzone, highlighting obstacles for navigating non-normative relationship scripts, and identifying risks involved with relationship change.

The Pages of Resistance exhibition project is a digital humanities and public history project dedicated to the study of slavery and rebellion during the slave trade era, occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 1800s. Its focal point is the curation of a travelling exhibition on enslaved Muslim African literacy, conceptualized in this paper as a form of spiritual resistance to bondage. The inspiration for this project is based on the digitization of three sets of nineteenth-century Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic manuscripts found on the bodies of enslaved Muslim Africans after they perished the night of the Malês rebellion in January 1835 in Bahia, Brazil. The Pages of Resistance exhibition project, which currently concentrates on Brazil, is a part of a broader initiative that is focused on Muslim African diasporic history during the Atlantic slave trade era. It is a collaborative initiative between cross-disciplinary researchers and creative producers engaging in digital scholarship and multimedia art production. This article discusses the concept and Public History of the Pages of Resistance project as well as the context in which it is situated, and it describes the methods applied in the research process of this multilingual initiative. In doing so, this project reflects other anti-racist initiatives in the field of public history, situating itself between the intersections of Blackness, memory, religion, and resistance by marginalized groups and minorities.

The stigmatization of suicidal thoughts and behaviors often prevents disclosure to others, including romantic partners. Minimal research has examined the disclosure or withholding of this stigmatized identity, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the benefits or consequences of informing others. Participants ( n = 61) were recruited from Reddit and completed open-ended questions about their prior suicidal ideation and behaviors while in a romantic relationship. Responses were separated by disclosers ( n = 31) and non-disclosers ( n = 30) to romantic partners. After utilizing a thematic analysis, the Disclosure Decision-Making Model (DD-MM) was applied to the results to make sense of decision-making processes. The three primary themes (assessing information, assessing emotional capacity, and assessing the receiver) provide insight into the psychological and communicative progression as well as the differences that arise for each individual. Findings discuss theoretical adaptations, implications, and future directions.

This study presents an initial exploration and conceptualization of relational surprise experiences (RSEs) as communication phenomenon involving strategic relational maintenance behaviors with potential for positive and negative outcomes. University students in the Southeastern United States (N = 203) described a RSE that occurred with a close relational partner (romantic partner, friend, or family member), explained how deception was used to achieve the surprise, and reported relational benefits and drawbacks in an online survey. Seven types of RSEs were reported including gifts, events, visits, and destinations. Responses revealed that people considered surprises as relationally beneficial with minimal drawbacks. Although over one-third of the participants described their partner’s pants perceived the surprise as a violation of relational rules. Some participants reported both benefits and drawbacks to RSEs, thereby illuminating a nuance for traditional relational maintenance typologies. This study establishes a path to explore implications of RSEs for individual and relational satisfaction, happiness, and well-being.

As relational partners document their romantic relationships in mediated contexts, they must manage virtual relational possessions to determine what should be kept or deleted, particularly followin...

This study explores the relationship between public speaking anxiety (PSA) and Imaginary Interactions (IIs). Participants ( N = 17) were recruited from the multi-section departmental introductory public speaking course. Virtual reality (VR) as a potential form of II treatment for PSA blurs the reality between imagined and actual interactions. This study utilized a sequential explanatory approach to examine inferential and descriptive findings. The inferential investigation employed a four-stage design requiring participants to complete pre-test PSA and post-test assessments before and after VR simulations, exploring II functions and attributions. The follow-up descriptive analysis expanded and generated new understanding for the complexities of II through participants’ experiences using directed content analysis. Utilizing VR as an extension of IIs highlighted the rehearsal function, and variations in attributions for discrepancy and specificity between VR realism and artificial simulated perceptions. The implications suggest that VR provides students in public speaking environments a treatment mechanism that minimizes the cognitive strain to imagine the scene and setting of the situation, while simultaneously providing assistance in PSA reduction.

Resume Les dermites du siege sont frequemment observees chez la personne âgee notamment lorsqu’elle est atteinte de troubles neurocognitifs en lien avec une prevalence accrue de troubles de la continence urinaire et/ou anale. Vue la difficulte de prise en charge de cette pathologie, l’equipe soignante d’un service de court sejour geriatrique a mis en place une etude ouverte utilisant une mousse en spray (EscarProtect®) chez 7 patients. Nous rapportons deux cas cliniques documentes montrant l’efficacite de ce produit ouvrant sur une discussion medicoeconomique en faveur d’une utilisation de ce traitement versus d’autres produits communement utilises.

This meta-analysis compared the educational impact of the method of notetaking in the college classroom – hand written or using electronic device. The findings involved 14 studies combining 3,075 p...

When people end their relationships, they must choose which parts of the relationship to remember and forget as they prepare themselves for future partners. This memory process is complicated by the recordability and permanence of mediated messages because individuals must actively curate their virtual possessions—such as pictures with a previous partner or online relationship statuses. Using the relational dissolution model framework, this study investigated the behaviors people use online to manage the end of their relationships and how these choices may influence the way they adjust to the breakup. College students ( N = 234) were surveyed to examine how their keeping and deleting of virtual possessions are related to their post-breakup adjustment. Results suggest that keeping virtual possessions negatively relates to post-breakup adjustment. Participants who were more nostalgic were more likely to keep virtual possessions following a breakup, which mediated the relationship between nostalgia and post-breakup adjustment. The implications show how the persistence of mediated possessions has the potential to affect the breakup process as people struggle to manage their relational memories.

The study explores graduate teaching assistants’ (GTAs) perceptions of misbehaviors of other GTAs across multi-section introductory communication courses. Utilizing the teacher misbehaviors’ typolo...

This exploratory study investigates virtual environments (VEs) as a treatment intervention for the fear of public speaking (FoPS). Prior preliminary studies indicate fear reduction following VE simulations with few investigations examining participants’ perspectives. Participants (N = 17) recruited from a public speaking course participated in a virtual reality 360° digital recording simulation that carbon copied the physical reality of their classroom and audience. Before and after immersion, participants completed open-ended responses about the simulation, pre- and post-public speaking fears, and VE public speaking experience. Using thematic analysis on the open-ended responses, researchers coded the responses to understand the communicative performance experience surrounding their VE public speaking simulation. Negative-valence emotions occurred for both presentations; however, participants expressed value in experiencing and overcoming the negative feelings. Based on the anecdotal (or clinical) findings, participants reported experiencing fears similar to those experienced in physical reality as well as emotional and behavioral interventions when engaged in the VE. Additionally, a one-year follow-up (N = 6) provided a reflective process for participants to recall their VE experience and implications beyond the physical simulation. These open-ended responses offered implications surrounding emotional reaction, real audiences, and the speechmaking process. The findings suggest mitigation of audience-related fears by the presence of the virtual audience with participants reoriented to focus on execution of speech delivery. This exploratory qualitative investigation builds toward a future of optimal strategies for using instructional technologies to improve public speaking competency.

Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends communication using technological medium(s). For the target of ghosting, the non-initiator, the action usu...

The history of the academic discipline of communication and the subsequent departments that followed are linked in some form or fashion to the evolution of the introductory communication course. Gi...

Course evaluations can be an effective tool for students to appraise a course and instructor; however, they can also be a communicative space for students to write comments instructors perc...

BACKGROUND Multiple ethanol binge drinking-like exposures during adolescence in rat induce neuroinflammation, neurogenesis loss and cognitive deficits at adulthood. Interestingly, the very first ethanol binge drinking-like exposures during adolescence also induce cognitive and synaptic plasticity impairments in the hippocampus at short term while the cellular mechanisms of these effects remain unclear. Here, we sought to determine which of the cellular effects of ethanol might play a role in cognitive and synaptic plasticity disturbances observed in adolescent male rat after only two binge-like ethanol exposures. METHODS Using immunochemistry, we determined neurogenesis, neuronal loss, astrogliosis, neuroinflammation and synaptogenesis in the hippocampus of adolescent rat 48h after two binge-like ethanol exposures (3 g/kg, i.p, 9 hours apart). Flow cytometry was used to analyze activated microglia and to identify the TLR4 expressing cell types. RESULTS Increased DCX immunoreactivity was detected in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus (DG) together with astrogliosis in the SGZ and a lower number of mature neurons in the DG and in CA3, suggesting compensatory neurogenesis. Synaptic density decreased in the stratum oriens of CA1 revealing structural plasticity. There was no change in microglial TLR4 expression nor in the number of activated microglia, suggesting a lack of neuroinflammatory processes although neuronal TLR4 was decreased in CA1 and DG. CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate that the cognitive deficits associated with hippocampal synaptic plasticity alterations that we previously characterized 48h after the very first binge-like exposures are associated with hippocampal structural plasticity, astrogliosis and decreased neuronal TLR4 expression, but not with microglia reactivity.

This investigation applies communication privacy management theory to examine sexual health disclosures from the perspectives of disclosers and confidants. A Qualtrics survey distributed through Amazon Mechanical Turk yielded 161 participants who disclosed sexual health information to a partner and 130 who received a disclosure. Accounts of the conversations were analyzed with content analysis to describe the linkage rules of the disclosures. Motivation to reveal or conceal, risks and benefits, and gender hypotheses and research questions were ascertained using descriptive statistics and tests of difference. Linkage rules for the majority of participants indicate that disclosures are made in a straightforward style before a sexual episode or on the day of diagnosis. Disclosures were perceived to be of above average quality and resulted in increased relational closeness. Tentative results suggest there may be disclosure differences based on privacy orientation. There were no significant differences based on type of diagnosis or gender.

Addressing student public speaking anxiety (PSA) through an introductory speaking course is a fundamental pedagogical touchpoint. The current study replicates and extends PSA research by seeking to...

This study examines sex differences in emotion word use in retrospective private and public relationship dissolution accounts through two studies. Study 1 (n = 423) found men’s use of negative emot...

This exploratory study investigates how emerging adults (EAs) experience catching feelings. Applying the Stages of Change Model and Relational Receptivity Theory, this study investigates how EAs understand the cognitive and behavior changes leading up to commitment and how they process precontemplation surrounding catching feelings. Using focus group interviews, collegiate EAs ( N = 17) define catching feelings as the unintentional, unexpected, and surprisingly desirable development of romantic feelings for another person (commonly beginning face-to-face). When confronted with catching feelings, EAs must delineate their preconditions for catching feelings and work through decision-making processes. Implications for relationship readiness, communication, and commitment are discussed.

This study examined how group members with differential levels (highest, middle, and lowest) of ability contributed to argumentative communication while facilitating a cooperative learning ...

Instructors often struggle with how to make sense of and handle hurtful student course evaluation comments. These comments can be difficult to resolve when they move from constructive course critic...

The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. This qualitative study explores the emerging adults’ dissolution strategies leading up to and through...

This study examines preservation of voicemail artifacts. Applying an exploratory approach through grounded theory, participants ( N = 52) from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk provided common reasons for retaining voicemail artifacts. Results highlighted why participants retained or deleted general and specific voicemails. Five categories, past-focused, important, future-focused, sentimental, and neglectful, represented retaining reasons. The oldest and most important artifacts represented sentimental messages. Three categories, past-focused, technological affordance, and unremarkable or undesirable calls, represented reasons for deletion. Voicemails are paralleled to mass and interpersonal communication and implications make connections between information retention, temporality, and interpersonal memorialization. Findings indicate that asynchronous communication exchanges and relics, such as voicemails, offer linkages to and reverberations of old and emerging technologies.

This study examined the current operationalization of communication centers. Surveying center directors (N = 47), day-to-day operations were analyzed through descriptive statistics and them...

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is the most common enzyme deficiency in the world and renders those affected susceptible to potentially severe oxidative hemolysis. Although the resulting hemolysis is most often associated with drug exposure, it has also been reported after consumption of certain foods. With the exception of review articles that reiterated the historical knowledge that fava beans can provoke severe oxidative hemolysis in individuals with G6PD deficiency, very few articles have examined the safety of other food ingredients and food additives for people with G6PD deficiency. Some articles that associated specific foods with hemolysis appeared to be speculative and based on limited information. The objective of this review was to examine the association between foods, including food additives, and the triggering factors of acute hemolysis. The literature was searched for studies and case reports on food consumption and G6PD deficiency. In this review, fava beans were found to be the only food for which there is conclusive clinical evidence linking the risk of hemolytic anemia to individuals with G6PD deficiency. Food additives, at their permitted level of use in North America, can be consumed safely by most patients with G6PD deficiency.