Showing papers by "Patricia Noller published in 1986"

Perceptions of Communicative Relationships in Families with Adolescents

Abstract: In this study of perceptions of interactions within the family group, both parents and one adolescent from 54 two-child middle-class families were videotaped while interacting on two set topics. Each pair of parents and their adolescent child then viewed the videotape and made ratings on the dimensions of anxiety, involvement, dominance, andfriendliness of themselves and the other family members. While there were few differences between parents, adolescents rated family members as more anxious, less involved, and less dominant than did other family members, and were rated as less dominant and less involved than other family members. Various interpretations can be made of these findings, among them that their striving for independence may require adolescents to move outside the family and adopt a more objective, outsider's view. At the same time, adolescents judged interactions to be as friendly as did their parents, indicating a desire for closeness with other family members. Otherfindings revealed that perceptions of the levels of anxiety, involvement, dominance, andfriendliness shown by family members also varied according to the sex of the adolescent and the level of marital quality in the family. In families with adolescent daughters, for example, those high in marital quality ratedfamily members as more friendly than did those low in marital quality. In families with sons, those low in marital quality rated family members as more dominant and more involved than did those high in marital quality.

Communication Awareness in Married Couples

Abstract: Forty-six married couples participated in a standard communication task. When encoding messages they made a rating of clarity on a six-point scale, and when decoding they made a rating of confidence. Highly and moderately adjusted subjects were more confident for messages they decoded correctly than for those they decoded incorrectly. Subjects low in marital adjustment were equally confident for messages they decoded incorrectly and correctly. Highly adjusted subjects were also better able to predict whether their spouse would decode the message correctly or not, particularly the wives. There were no differences for clarity related to marital adjustment level. Negative messages were rated as clearer and were predicted more accurately. Neutral messages received lower confidence ratings and correct neutral messages received lower clarity ratings than other correct messages. Neutral messages were also predicted less accurately than other messages.

Sex differences in nonverbal communication: Advantage lost or supremacy regained?

Abstract: This paper examines sex differences in nonverbal communication and possible explanations for these differences. Explanations are discussed for both encoding and decoding, including the probable reasons for women being generally more accurate decoders than men and “losing their advantage” over men in situations where the encoder is known or where deception or channel discrepancy is involved. Explanations for sex differences in nonverbal communication generally focus on what it is about women which causes them to decode less accurately in these particular situations rather than why men generally decode poorly, except in these specific situations. This bias occurs despite the fact that both men and women have difficulty decoding discrepant and deceptive communications. It will be argued in this paper that the most parsimonious explanation of sex differences in nonverbal accuracy involves women's greater knowledge of and endorsement for social rules about (a) emotional supportiveness and politeness, ...

Sending emotional messages in marriage: Non‐verbal behaviour, sex and communication clarity

Abstract: Videotaped standard content messages sent by 24 married couples to each other with positive, neutral, and negative affect were coded for the presence or absence of specific nonverbal behaviors on the visual channel Analyses showed differences related to message type, sex of sender, and marital adjustment level When sending positive messages, wives used more of the behaviors associated with positive messages (eg, smiles), while husbands used similar behaviors (eyebrow raises and flashes) for both positive and negative messages High marital adjustment husbands smiled more on positive and neutral messages, while low marital adjustment husbands used more eyebrow flashes on positive messages When sending positive messages, high marital adjustment husbands, like wives, used more of the behaviors that discriminate positive messages

Feedback motivation and reactions to personality interpretations that differ in favorability and accuracy

Abstract: Personality feedback based on participants' actual test scores was systematically varied in terms of accuracy and favorability and presented to subjects for the purpose of comparing reactions to the various types of feedback information. Responses to the self-relevant information were related to individual differences in the recipient's general level of desire for personal feedback. For most subjects, ratings of feedback accuracy showed stronger endorsement for positive over negative feedback, and for accurate over inaccurate feedback. Raters who exhibited high levels of desire for feedback, however, did not discriminate between favorable and unfavorable accurate feedback, or between accurate and inaccurate favorable feedback. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the reliability of personal endorsements for results derived from psychological testing devices and (b) potential for personal adjustment indicated by higher levels of desire for personal feedback.