Socio-communicative Style Research Articles

Verbally Aggressive Instructors and Machiavellian Students: Is the Socio-Communicative Style an Over-Bridging?

Goals of this research are: 1) to examine the role of gender, 2) to explore the relationship between perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness, socio-communicative style and students’ Machiavellian tactics, 3) to investigate the influence of instructors’ verbal aggressiveness on their socio-communicative style and students’ Machiavellian tactics in physical education context and 4) to propose a students’ and instructors’ typology which will be the final over-bridging of verbal aggressiveness and Machiavellianism through communication style. The sample consisted of 269 students (141 males, 128 females) aged 12 - 14 years old (M = 12.6, SD = 0.65) from secondary public schools who completed three types of questionnaires during physical education classes. The results supported the internal consistency of the instruments. According to the results of the study, statistically significant differences were observed in perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness, responsiveness, assertiveness and students’ amoral manipulation, desire for control, desire for status, distrust of others between the genders of the students. Correlational analysis indicated that perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness was positively related to assertiveness, amoral manipulation, desire for control, desire for status, distrust of others and was negatively related to responsiveness. The results of regression analysis revealed that perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness could significantly predict the variables of responsiveness, assertiveness, desire for status and distrust of others. Three behavioral types are revealed: 1) the unrestraint, 2) the responsive, and 3) the distrustful, where verbal aggressiveness appears to be connected with Machiavellianism through communication style in these particular combinations.

Instructor Argumentativeness and Socio-Communicative Style and Student Discipline: Using Physical Education Students’ Class as an Illustration

In this study were examined associations among physical education instructors’ argumentativeness and socio-communicative styles perceived by students and students’ reasons for discipline. The sample consisted of 252 students (111 males, 141 females) aged 10 - 12 years old (M = 11.4, SD = 0.79) from primary schools of public primary schools who completed three types of questionnaires during physical education classes. The results supported the internal consistency of the instruments. According to the results of the study, statistically significant differences were observed in perceived instructors’ argumentativeness and assertiveness between the two classes of the students. Correlational analysis indicated that perceived instructors’ argumentativeness was positively related to responsiveness, intrinsic reasons, self-responsibility reasons and caring reasons for discipline. Significant negative correlations were noted for instructors’ argumentativeness with assertiveness, external reasons, introjected reasons and no reasons for discipline. The results of regression analysis revealed that perceived instructors’ argumentativeness could significantly predict the variables of responsiveness, assertiveness, external reasons, introjected reasons, intrinsic reasons and self-responsibility reasons for discipline.

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of their Advisors: SocioCommunicative Style and Perceptions of Relational Satisfaction

<p>The goal of the current study was to examine the sociocommunicative styles that college students’ perceive their advisor to be using in their interactions. In addition, the study analyzed what characteristics lead to higher relational satisfaction in the advisor-advisee relationship. Three hundred and ninety-seven college students voluntarily completed a survey on their current advisor. Results revealed that there is a significant relationship between sociocommunicative style and relationship satisfaction.</p>

Building Trust in E-Learning

As Web-based course delivery continues to emerge and thrive as a legitimate alternative to classroom instruction, educational institutions and online instructors face the challenge of building and sustaining student trust in e-learning. The present study represents an attempt to address the challenge by identifying the social and technical factors that can likely induce or influence students’ perception about the trustworthiness of an e-learning course and integrating the factors into a socio-technical framework that can be empirically validated. The methodology used and the data obtained from a university-wide survey conducted in an American university are reported in this paper. The results indicate that two underlying dimensions, Course Instruction and Privacy and Security, exist among the 12 trust-inducing factors. Although all 12 factors were found to contribute to the respondents’ perception of the trustworthiness of an e-learning course, the Course Instruction dimension was rated about 10% higher than the Privacy and Security dimension. This suggests that the social and course design factors (e.g., reputation, design quality, instructor sociocommunicative style), when used effectively, can help overcome students’ privacy and security concerns for an e-learning course. The study makes at least two important contributions to the field by proposing a framework of 12 trust-inducing factors for e-learning and by extending the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to a new application area of trust evaluation in e-learning.

Learners’ Engagement in Meaning Negotiation and Classroom Interaction as a Function of Their Perceptions of Teachers’ Instructional Communicative Behaviors

A significant share of classroom interaction occurs between teachers and language learners. Therefore, the individual characteristics of teachers could play facilitative or impeding roles thus encouraging or discouraging learners from getting engaged in interaction and meaning negotiation attempts when interacting with their teachers. Surprisingly however, this area has attracted scant attention. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring students’ perceptions of their teachers’ socio-communicative style and nonverbal immediacy in relation to their engagement in classroom teacher-learner interaction and frequency of meaning negotiation attempts in their interactions. To this aim, 72 students were randomly assigned to six classes of 12 taught by six teachers. Richmond, McCroskey and Johnson’s (2003) nonverbal immediacy scale and McCroskey and Richmond’s (1996) socio-communicative style scale were administered to students to tap into their perceptions of these two qualities of their teachers. Then the total amount of time the students were engaged in active interaction with the teachers and the number of meaning negotiation attempts employed by them were computed. The results of Correlations and Regression Analyses revealed significant relationships between teacher nonverbal immediacy, the two dimensions of socio-communicative style (Assertiveness and Responsiveness) and the students’ willingness to engage in interaction and meaning negotiation with their teachers.

Teaching with Style to Manage Student Perceptions: The Effects of Socio-Communicative Style and Teacher Credibility on Student Affective Learning

Using survey data from students in a large, public university in the south (N = 278), a model is tested incorporating the character and competence dimensions of teacher credibility, as well as the assertiveness, responsiveness, and cognitive flexibility (i.e., versatility) dimensions of socio-communicative style (SCS) to determine how these dimensions predict affective learning. Results indicated that both teacher credibility and SCS significantly predicted affective learning (R2 = .54). Interpretations and implications for teaching and future research are discussed.

Family Types and Children's Socio-Communicative Style: A Chinese Investigation

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of family types and gender on children's socio-communicative style in Chinese culture. Three major findings were generated. First, family types affect children's socio-communicative style. Children from consensual and pluralistic family types tend to be more assertive and responsive than children from protective and laissez-faire family types in Chinese culture. Second, Chinese children are more responsive than assertive, and significant gender differences are found in responsiveness, but not in assertiveness. Chinese daughters are more responsive than sons, but they do not differ in assertiveness. Last, the Socio-Communicative Style Scale and the Revised Family Communication Pattern Instrument conform to the two-factor model with a Chinese sample.

The Influence of Supervisor Temperament on Subordinate Job Satisfaction and Perceptions of Supervisor Sociocommunicative Orientation and Approachability

The goal of this study was to re-examine McCroskey, Valencic, and Richmond's findings about the impact of a teacher's temperament on her or his students by examining the findings in a different context, the supervisor-subordinate relationship in organizational settings. This study measured a supervisor's temperament to see if it affected a subordinate's job satisfaction, motivation, and perceptions of supervisor credibility, sociocommunicative style, and approachability. Results indicated a positive relationship between supervisor psychoticism and subordinate job satisfaction and motivation, while supervisor extraversion and neuroticism negatively related to subordinate job satisfaction and motivation. Furthermore, results indicated a positive relationship between supervisor extraversion and subordinate perceptions of supervisor responsiveness, and a negative relationship between supervisor neuroticism and psychoticism and subordinate perceptions of supervisor responsiveness. Overall, a supervisor's temperament was shown to affect subordinate perceptions of supervisor communicative behavior.

The Relationships Between Student Responsive Behaviors, Student Socio-Communicative Style, and Instructors’ Subjective and Objective Assessments of Student Work

The purpose of this study was to examine whether instructor perceptions of student responsive behaviors and student socio-communicative style were related to instructors’ subjective (speech presentation) and objective (multiple-choice exam) assessments of student work. The results suggest that student nonverbal and verbal responsive behaviors positively influence instructor assessments of student speech grades accounting for 8% and 11% of the variance, respectively. Instructor perceptions of student socio-communicative style were unrelated to instructor assessments of student speech grades. Neither student responsive behaviors nor student socio-communicative style were related to how well students scored on a cognitive-based, multiple-choice exam assessing public speaking knowledge.

Out-of-Class Communication and Student Perceptions of Instructor Humor Orientation and Socio-Communicative Style

The current study examined student perceptions of instructor humor orientation, assertiveness, and responsiveness as antecedents of out-of-class communication (OCC) between instructors and students. Perceptions of instructor humor orientation were positively associated with the frequency of formal as well as informal OCC, student satisfaction with OCC, and three topics of student-instructor conversation. Perceptions of instructor responsiveness, but not assertiveness, were positively associated with frequency of informal OCC and with satisfaction with OCC. Overall, humor orientation was superior as a predictor of formal and informal OCC frequency, while instructor responsiveness best predicted student satisfaction with OCC. Findings imply that instructors can increase the frequency of OCC with their students, especially informal OCC, by exhibiting humorous dispositions. By using a responsive manner, instructors can promote student satisfaction with OCC.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Contributions from the Discipline of Communication

Some of the contributions of the discipline of Communication are reviewed with an eye toward their contributions to the larger Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. This scholarship, frequently referred to as the study of Communication in Instruction or Instructional Communication, is distinguished from Communication Education, but the two are seen as highly related. Contributions discussed are the impact of student communication apprehension and willingness to communicate on classroom communication, the roles of teachers' nonverbal immediacy, clarity, and socio-communicative style on students' affective and cognitive learning, and the outcomes of communication designed to exercise power and influence in the classroom. It is argued that the study of subject matter content, pedagogy, and instructional communication are of equal importance in preparing an individual to be an effective educator in any field and at any level of instruction. The discipline of Communication has much to offer to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning across disciplines and instructional levels.

Students' Motives for Communicating with their Instructors: Considering Instructor Socio-communicative Style, Student Socio-communicative Orientation, and Student Gender

The purpose of this study was to explore how student motives to communicate (i.e., relational, functional, participatory, excuse making, sycophantic) with their instructors are influenced jointly by perceived instructor socio-communicative style and student socio-communicative orientation. Participants were 225 students enrolled in a variety of introductory communication courses at a Midwestern university. Results indicate that (a) the relational and sycophantic motives to communicate are related to both student and instructor assertiveness and responsiveness, (b) the functional, participatory, and excuse making motives to communicate are related to student assertiveness, and (c) the participatory and functional motives are related to instructor responsiveness and student responsiveness, respectively. Moreover, it was found that (a) female students communicate more for the functional motive than male students and (b) male students communicate more for the relational and the sycophantic motives than female students.