Showing papers in "Journal of Language and Social Psychology in 2003"
TL;DR: This paper focused on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication and used the social context model to emphasize the importance of contacategorical information for L2 acquisition.
Abstract: Past research has focused primarily on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication. The social context model, for example, stresses the importance of contac...
427 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the use of a variety of types of linguistic resources, phonological and grammatical variation, lexical innovation, language crossing, and interactive style in the creation and maintenance of adolescent groups and categories.
Abstract: This article focuses on the use of linguistic resources from the perspective of the creation and maintenance of adolescent groups and categories, and specifically on the use of aspects of verbal style in the creation and maintenance of distinctiveness. It explores the use of a variety of types of linguistic resources, phonological and grammatical variation, lexical innovation, language crossing, and interactive style. It shows how oppositions with which the group defines itself generally also serve as organizing principles within the group, accounting not only for intergroup but for intragroup differences in language use.
79 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that tone of voice substantially affected judges' ratings of politeness for positive content statements but did so only minimally for negative content statements, and that both positive and negative questions were consistent or inconsistent across verbal content and tone-of-voice.
Abstract: Individuals in two studies listened to statements or questions that were either consistent or inconsistent across verbal content and tone of voice. Results showed that tone of voice substantially affected judges’ ratings of the politeness for positive content statements but did so only minimally for negative content statements. Tone of voice affected judges’ politeness ratings of both positive and negative questions.
74 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that women's tentative language use is influential with men when it serves to unconsciously confirm men's wider, social-structural advantages over women, but only when student identity was salient.
Abstract: Reductionist explanations for gender differences in language use continue to occupy much research attention. However, such approaches cannot explain when or why people might change their gender-marked language use. This article reviews and critiques several of these approaches and tests an alternative from the perspective of self-categorization theory. Male-female dyads (N = 42) discussed a gender-neutral controversial issue under conditions of low or high gender salience. When a shared student identity was salient, males and females used tentative language with equal frequency; but when gender was salient, women used more tentative language than men and held the floor longer. Furthermore, women who used more tentative language were more influential with men, but only when student identity was salient. The article suggests that women's tentative language use is influential with men when it serves to unconsciously confirm men's wider, socialstructural advantages over women.
65 citations
TL;DR: The reality of the "net generation" is questioned before considering the interplay of new and old technologies, the internet as both communication and lifestyle resource, and newer technologies like text messaging and webcams.
Abstract: In an overview of some of the central issues concerning the impact and effects of new technology in adolescence, this article questions the reality of the net generation before considering the interplay of new and old technologies, the internet as both communication and lifestyle resource, and newer technologies like text messaging and webcams.
61 citations
48 citations
TL;DR: The authors surveys and assesses four key themes of effects research concerning adolescents: heavy media consumption, media violence, sexuality, and media and young women, focusing primarily on major trends of the media effects tradition, the dominant paradigm among social scientists.
Abstract: It is argued in this article that to develop richer models and more effective pedagogical tools, studies exploring the relationship between mass media and young people need to foreground media use in the context of young peoples' daily lives, as well as in the context of more broad social and political issues that shape how specific media forms are constructed, deployed, and taken up by young people. Focusing primarily on major trends of the media effects tradition, the dominant paradigm among social scientists, this article surveys and assesses four key themes of effects research concerning adolescents: heavy media consumption, media violence, sexuality, and media and young women. Recent research developments concerning young people and new or digital media forms also are considered, and arguments about media and youth culture from a political economy perspective are reviewed briefly.
40 citations
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that graffiti from the female toilets tended to be more polite and interactive, whereas those from the male toilets were more argumentative and negative, and gender differences in language style were more subtle but generally consistent with those found in other contexts.
Abstract: Research looking at toilet graffiti has focused on topic at the expense of a communication perspective and has also suffered from a number of methodological failings. This study sought to remedy this and integrate the research into the social identity and deindividuation model and communication accommodation theory. Graffiti were collected verbatim from adjacent male toilets, female toilets, and study booths. Strong gender differences were found for topic. Graffiti from the female toilets tended to be more polite and interactive, whereas those from the male toilets were more argumentative and negative. Gender differences in language style were more subtle but generally consistent with those found in other contexts. Gendered language was mitigated in the mixed-gender context. Topics in the mixed-gender context were a composite of the topics found in the men's and women's toilets but also included the only sexist remarks in the data.
36 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined adolescents' relationships with parents and suggested that conceptualizing parent-adolescent communication as dynamic and processual across the short and long term may be more useful than focusing on the parent-as-agent.
Abstract: Adolescents' relationships with parents are examined in this article. The perspective taken here is in terms of communication negotiations centering around three main dialectical forces at work in the parent-adolescent relationship. These forces are autonomy versus connection, privacy versus open boundaries, and an interindividual versus intergroup dimension. It is suggested that conceptualizing parent-adolescent communication as dynamic and processual across the short and long term may be more useful than focusing on the parent-as-agent or issuing recipes for successful communication with adolescents.
35 citations
TL;DR: The authors suggests that mutually antagonistic representations might feed into the interaction between the two groups and recommends more fine-grained research on such interaction; and argues that initiative to improve young people's "communication skills" may serve as part of an individual-blaming agenda.
Abstract: Adults in authority (teachers, employers, police officers, doctors, benefits officers, etc.) have been found to view adolescents as lacking in communication skills and even the motivation to communicate with them. Adolescents themselves, on the other hand, highlight issues of power and a lack of respect in causing problems in their communication with these adults. This review suggests that mutually antagonistic representations might feed into the interaction between the two groups; recommends more fine-grained research on such interaction; and argues that initiative to improve young people's "communication skills" may serve as part of an individual-blaming agenda.
33 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the language of five well-known politicians, taken from television interviews, is compared with the langua- tation of the dialogue of the same five politicians.
Abstract: This research can be regarded as a “natural experiment” on political equivocation in which the language of five well-known politicians, taken from television interviews, is compared with the langua...
TL;DR: This article investigated how the type of interdependence between a speaker and a recipient influences communicators' descriptions of positive and negative target behaviors, and found that the positive target behaviors would be described more concretely in the cooperation condition, whereas the reverse pattern was predicted in the competition condition.
Abstract: Two studies were designed to investigate how the type of interdependence (cooperative vs. competitive) between a speaker and a recipient influences communicators' descriptions of positive and negative target behaviors. The target-addressee relationship was a positive one in the first study. It was expected that speakers in the cooperative condition would describe positive target behaviors in a more abstract way, whereas in the competitive condition, negative target behaviors would be described in a more abstract way. In the second study, the addressee-target relationship was negative. Here we expected that the positive target behaviors would be described more concretely in the cooperation condition, whereas the reverse pattern was predicted in the competition condition. The results broadly supported these predictions. The implications of these findings for the linguistic intergroup bias are described.
TL;DR: In this paper, the need to find out what young people actually understand by, and know about, communication is discussed, with adolescents commonly depicted by adults as communication ignorant and inept.
Abstract: With adolescents commonly depicted by adults as communication ignorant and inept, the need to find out what young people actually understand by, and know about, communication is discussed in this a...
TL;DR: The authors assesses E. Hall's 1976 communication context as one explanatory mechanism governing interethnic perceptions of subtle racist speech and find that lower and higher context communication styles mediated the perception of racist speech harm.
Abstract: This investigation assesses E. Hall's 1976 communication context as one explanatory mechanism governing interethnic perceptions of subtle racist speech. Six hundred thirteen participants evaluated the perceived harm of direct and indirect racist slurs made by a White (European American) speaker to a non-White (Asian, African, or Hispanic American) target. A series of 2×2×2 (Message Explicitness: Direct vs. Indirect × Group Membership: In-Group vs. Out-Group × Racial Slurs: Roommate vs. Class Discussion) mixed-effects ANOVAs revealed that lower and higher context communication styles mediated the perception of racist speech harm. Asian Americans were more sensitive to the communication context, evaluating indirect racist speech as the most problematic; whereas European, African, and Hispanic Americans relied more on the actual message, rating direct racist statements most disturbing. Both theoretical and applied implications of the findings are discussed.
TL;DR: This paper found that adults accommodate to the speech style of their conversational partner for men and this accommodation is mediated by gender role beliefs, and found that men are more likely to accommodate to women than men.
Abstract: Research has shown that adults accommodate to the speech style of their conversational partner. For men, this accommodation is mediated by gender role beliefs. Speech accommodation and factors infl...
TL;DR: This article examined contributions to argument on Internet sites concerned with animal rights and highlighted the strategies used by pro-and anti-animal-rights contributors, concluding that animal use is necessary for human health.
Abstract: This article examines contributions to argument on Internet sites concerned with animal rights. As this is part of a project examining how “rights” and “cases” are constructed and contested through argument, the texts considered are selected from sites that take an explicit stance for or against animal rights. Our reading of these texts highlights the strategies used by pro- and anti-animal-rights contributors. The pro-animal-rights side used two main argumentative strategies. The first constructed animal use as a moral problem by ascribing rights to animals in discourses of suffering, oppression, and depravity. The second constructed animal rights as mutually reinforcing of human welfare by presenting animal use as needless for, and dangerous to, human health. The anti-animal-rights side reconstructed animal use as necessary for reasons including human health, thereby situating animal interests and human welfare as incompatible, and make animal rights rather than animal use the moral problem. Implications are discussed.
TL;DR: The authors collected more than 600 adolescent accounts of group rejections, as well as regrets concerning the failure to voice disagreement with the social exclusion of others, and found that nearly 80% of these adolescents shared specific language they now regretted not using at the time.
Abstract: Although successful entry into childhood peer groups is a prerequisite for development of self-concept, social skills, and school successes, little is known about real-world attempts to penetrate social group boundaries. The authors collected more than 600 adolescent accounts of group rejections, as well as regrets concerning the failure to voice disagreement. Narrative accounts revealed six reasons for failing to voice disagreement with the social exclusion of others: (a) group dynamics, (b) social fears, (c) uncertainty, (d) social inadequacies,(e) qualities of the excluded individual, and (f) low motivation. Seventy percent of these adolescents shared specific language they now regretted not using at the time. Two cognitive frameworks emerged: (a) group membership was perceived as fragile and (b) rejection stigma was perceived as contagious. A model describing negative social reasoning used by those who remain silent during the rejection of others is offered, as well as intervention strategies to stimu...
TL;DR: In this article, the use of fear appeal in a natural discursivistic approach has been examined from an experimental and non-discursive perspective, and it has been shown that fear appeal can be used as a tactic of persuasion.
Abstract: Fear appeal, as a tactic of persuasion, has been studied mostly from an experimental and nondiscursive perspective. The aim of this study is to examine the use of fear appeal in a natural discursiv...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how people meet and master certain challenges in adolescence and how these challenges have a lasting impact on the remainder of their lives, and how group theories of communication offer a unique perspective to aid in the...
Abstract: How people meet and master certain challenges in adolescence may have a lasting impact on the remainder of their lives. Intergroup theories of communication offer a unique perspective to aid in the...
TL;DR: For a survey of recent research into adolescent risk behaviors from a variety of disciplines and methodologies, denoting the range of researchers interested in this area and whose interest in communication and language articulates and exemplifies the extent of the field, see as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Examples of recent research into adolescent risk behaviors from a variety of disciplines and methodologies, denoting the range of researchers interested in this area and whose interest in communication and language articulates and exemplifies the extent of the field, are surveyed in this article
TL;DR: Menopause is a complex time in the lives of mid-aged women, and this contributes to the diversity of attributions of menopausal experience as mentioned in this paper, which has important implications for women's self-image and health-seeking behaviors.
Abstract: Menopause is a complex time in the lives of mid-aged women, and this contributes to the diversity of attributions of menopausal experience. In this study, participants' comments on a survey of attitudes about menopause were analyzed discursively to consider how mid-aged women account for their own and other women's experience of menopause. Two discourses drawn upon to make attributions about menopausal experience were identi- fied. Women account for menopausal experience either by reporting a range of healthy habits such as good diet and exercise or by suggesting women can overcome menopause with a "get-on-with-it" approach to life. These discourses construct women as social actors within a moral order in which the absence of menopausal symptoms is an indicator of vir- tuous behavior, and health is a moral imperative. The way these attributions of meno- pausal experience position mid-aged women has important implications for women's self- image and health-seeking behaviors.
TL;DR: The authors examined how sexually harassing messages harm, based on theories of sexual harassment and message effects, message contents and perceptions of message features were related to indices of distress, and regression results showed that message perceptions accounted for significant amounts of variance in the affects and psychosomatic symptoms measures.
Abstract: This study examined how sexually harassing messages harm. Based on theories of sexual harassment and message effects, message contents and perceptions of message features were related to indices of distress. Sixty-six messages were collected and then sorted to acquire similarity data, which was then cluster analyzed to derive content themes. A separate set of participants were exposed to randomized sequences of the messages in written form to provide their perceptions of each and predict the extent to which each would activate affects and elicit psychosomatic symptoms. One-way ANOVA results across the content themes showed that the hostile/aggressive category produced the highest levels of distress. In addition, regression results showed that message perceptions accounted for significant amounts of variance in the affects and psychosomatic symptoms measures. Results are discussed in terms of advancing work on message effects through inclusion of sets of message perceptions.
TL;DR: This paper investigated cognitive, emotional, and verbal responses to unfair contributions (nonrational vs. noncooperative speech acts) using an open-ended answering format in various presentation modalities (written, auditory, and role-play).
Abstract: Research about argumentational unfairness has focused primarily on the cognitive evaluation of argumentational rule violations, applying written argumentational scenarios, and structured answering format. This study investigates cognitive, emotional, and verbal responses to unfair contributions (nonrational vs. noncooperative speech acts) using an open-ended answering format in various presentation modalities (written, auditory, and role-play). No differences appeared between reactions to nonrational versus noncooperative contributions or between the different presentation modalities. The results replicate previous findings and provide support for the validity of attributional models in unfair everyday discourse, as well as for the position that argumentative behavior is rule governed by reciprocal expectancies.
TL;DR: This paper found that the automatic evaluation effect is the tendency for people to immediately and unintentionally classify environmental stimuli as either "good" or "bad" or even "bad", and that this effect extends even to one's first encounter of novel voice stimuli.
Abstract: The automatic evaluation effect is the tendency for people to immediately and unintentionally classify environmental stimuli as either “good” or “bad.” Does this effect extend even to one’s first encounter of novel voice stimuli? Novel nonsense words were generated and then served as priming stimuli together with a group of common English words. Each prime stimulus was presented immediately before a visual lexical target stimulus. Latency of response to the target was always the dependent variable. Experiment 1 indicated that nonsense stimuli are immediately evaluated and classified on the basis of their superficial phonetic qualities. Experiment 2 indicated that these superficial qualities did not influence the automatic evaluative response to familiar words, which was based instead on the words’ semantic meaning. These results imply that there is a preconscious first impression for the sounds of unfamiliar languages and that this is a potentially biasing influence on subsequent judgments and social inte...