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- All Subjects: Communication
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Gilpin, Dawn
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a Compassionate Communication Scale (CCS) by conducting a series of studies. The first study used qualitative data to identify and develop initial scale items. A series of follow-up studies used exploratory factor analysis to investigate the underlying structure of the CCS. A three-factor structure emerged, which included: Compassionate conversation, such as listening, letting the distressed person disclose feelings, and making empathetic remarks; compassionate touch, such as holding someone's hand or patting someone's back; and compassionate messaging, such as posting an encouraging message on a social networking site or sending a sympathetic email. The next study tested convergent and divergent validity by determining how the three forms of compassionate communication associate with various traits. Compassionate conversation was positively related to compassion, empathetic concern, perspective taking, emotional intelligence, social expressivity, emotional expressivity and benevolence, and negatively related to verbal aggressiveness and narcissism. Compassionate touch was positively correlated with compassion, empathetic concern, perspective taking, emotional intelligence, social expressivity, emotional expressivity, and benevolence, and uncorrelated with verbal aggressiveness and benevolence. Finally, compassionate messaging was positively correlated with social expressivity, emotional expressivity, and uncorrelated with verbal aggressiveness and narcissism. The next study focused on cross-validation and criterion-related validity. Correlations showing that self-reports of a person's compassionate communication were positively related to a friend or romantic partner's report of that person's compassionate communication provided cross-validation. The test for criterion-related validity examined whether compassionate communication predicts relational satisfaction. Regression analyses revealed that people were more relationally satisfied when they perceived themselves to use compassionate conversation, when they perceived their partner to use compassionate conversation, and when their partner reported using compassionate conversation. This finding did not extend to compassionate touch or compassionate messaging. In fact, in one regression analysis, people reported more relational satisfaction when they perceived that their partners used high levels of compassionate conversation and low levels of compassionate touch. Overall, the analyses suggest that of the three forms of compassionate communication, compassionate conversation is most strongly related to relational satisfaction. Taken together, this series of studies provides initial evidence for the validity of the CCS.
ContributorsRamos Salazar, Leslie (Author) / Guerrero, Laura (Thesis advisor) / Roberto, Anthony (Committee member) / Millsap, Roger (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This dissertation sought to understand how leaders in a public-private strategic alliance collaboratively address complex community problems. The study responded to the gap in academic research of leadership and public relations in alliances to solve complex social issues, as well as the scant scholarly attention to alliance leaders' communications with stakeholders. Its findings corresponded to framing theory, stakeholder theory, SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) theory, complexity theory, and the subtopic of complex leadership -- all through the lens of public relations. This investigation culminated in the introduction of the C.A.L.L. to Action Model of Community Engagement, which demonstrates the confluence of factors that were integral to the alliance's success in eliminating chronic homelessness among veterans in Maricopa County, Arizona -- Communication, Alliance, Leadership, and Leverage. This qualitative case study used the method of elite or in-depth interviews and grounded theory to investigate the factors present in a community engagement that achieved its purpose. It served as a foundation for future inquiry and contributions to the base of knowledge, including 1) additional qualitative case studies of homeless alliances in other communities or of other social issues addressed by a similar public-private alliance; 2) quantitative methods, such as a survey of the participants in this alliance to provide triangulation of the results and establish a platform for generalization of the results to a larger population.
ContributorsSweeter, Janice Martha (Author) / Matera, Frances (Thesis advisor) / Godfrey, Donald G. (Committee member) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Shockley, Gordon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The division of domestic labor has far-reaching implications for "private" life (e.g. relational satisfaction and conflict) and for "public" paid labor (e.g. time and dedication in the workplace and career advancement). Although several theories have been developed and tested, they do not sufficiently explain the consistent findings that women in mixed sex households perform a majority of the domestic labor. Without understanding the causes for differences in task performance, past research encouraging communicative solutions to ameliorate conflict was ineffective in changing task allocation and performance. Therefore, it is necessary to understand theoretical explanations that drive domestic labor behavior to develop effective solutions. The recent integrative theory of the division of domestic labor attempts to explain how individuals interact with household partners to allocate domestic tasks. Recognizing the complexity of the division of domestic labor, the integrative theory considers individual, dyadic, and societal factors that influence task allocation. Because clear differences in task performance have been found in mixed sex households, this study separates sex and gender as distinct variables by considering same-sex roommate relationships, essentially removing sex differences from the living arrangement. Furthermore, this study considers individual threshold levels as described by the integrative theory in order to test the theoretical underpinnings. Specifically, this study is designed to investigate the relationships between individual cleanliness threshold levels and gender, sex, perceptions of satisfaction, equity, and frequency of conflict in same-sex roommate relationships. Results indicate support of the integrative theory of the division of domestic labor. Regarding gender differences, partial support for the theory appeared in that feminine individuals have lower threshold levels than masculine individuals. Regarding sex differences, women possess lower individual threshold levels (i.e. more bothered when a task is undone) compared to men, which likely accounts for why existing research indicates that women spend more time performing domestic tasks. What is more, individuals with higher threshold levels report greater relational satisfaction. Further, individuals whose threshold levels differ from their living partner report lower relational satisfaction and greater conflict frequency. Finally, in terms of equity, both overbenefited and underbenefited individuals experience more conflict than those who feel their relationship is equitable. These results provide theoretical support for the integrative theory of the division of labor. Furthermore, the development and testing of a threshold measure scale can be used practically for future research and for better roommate pairings by universities. In addition, communication scholars, family practitioners and counselors, and universities can apply these theoretically grounded research findings to develop and test strategies to reduce conflict and increase relational satisfaction among roommates and couples.
ContributorsRiforgiate, Sarah (Author) / Alberts, Jess K. (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul (Thesis advisor) / Roberto, Anthony (Committee member) / Romero, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The 21st-century professional or knowledge worker spends much of the working day engaging others through electronic communication. The modes of communication available to knowledge workers have rapidly increased due to computerized technology advances: conference and video calls, instant messaging, e-mail, social media, podcasts, audio books, webinars, and much more. Professionals who think for a living express feelings of stress about their ability to respond and fear missing critical tasks or information as they attempt to wade through all the electronic communication that floods their inboxes. Although many electronic communication tools compete for the attention of the contemporary knowledge worker, most professionals use an electronic personal information management (PIM) system, more commonly known as an e-mail application and often the ubiquitous Microsoft Outlook program. The aim of this research was to provide knowledge workers with solutions to manage the influx of electronic communication that arrives daily by studying the workers in their working environment. This dissertation represents a quest to understand the current strategies knowledge workers use to manage their e-mail, and if modification of e-mail management strategies can have an impact on productivity and stress levels for these professionals. Today’s knowledge workers rarely work entirely alone, justifying the importance of also exploring methods to improve electronic communications within teams.
ContributorsCounts, Virginia (Author) / Parrish, Kristen (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Thesis advisor) / Landis, Amy (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This study investigated how young adults communicate their decision to religiously disaffiliate to their parents. Both the context in which the religious disaffiliation conversation took place and the communicative behaviors used during the religious disaffiliation conversation were studied. Research questions and hypotheses were guided by Family Communication Patterns Theory and Face Negotiation Theory. A partially mixed sequential quantitative dominate status design was employed to answer the research questions and hypotheses. Interviews were conducted with 10 young adults who had either disaffiliated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Watch Tower Society. During the interviews, the survey instrument was refined; ultimately, it was completed by 298 religiously disaffiliated young adults. For the religious disaffiliation conversation’s context, results indicate that disaffiliated Jehovah’s Witnesses had higher conformity orientations than disaffiliated Latter-day Saints. Additionally, disaffiliated Jehovah’s Witnesses experienced more stress than disaffiliated Latter-day Saints. Planning the conversation in advance did lead to the disaffiliation conversation being less stressful for young adults. Furthermore, the analysis found that having three to five conversations reduced stress significantly more than having one or two conversations. For the communicative behaviors during the religious disaffiliation conversation, few differences were found in regard to prevalence of the facework behaviors between the two groups. Of the 14 facework behaviors, four were used more often by disaffiliated JW than disaffiliated LDS—abuse, passive aggressive, pretend, and defend self. In terms of effectiveness, the top five facework behaviors were talk about the problem, consider the other, have a private discussion, remain calm, and defend self. Overall, this study begins the conversation on how religious disaffiliation occurs between young adults and their parents and extends Family Communication Patterns Theory and Face Negotiation Theory to a new context.
ContributorsFisk, Megan R (Author) / Cheong, Pauline (Thesis advisor) / Roberto, Anthony (Committee member) / Gee, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Sexual violence is a problem on college campuses across that United States. In the past few years, federal and state legislation has been drafted in order to address campus sexual violence. A main feature of this legislation addresses an important communicative construct related to students’ sexual behavior: sexual consent. Colleges and universities are adopting an affirmative-standard of consent, which emphasizes that consent for sexual activity be communicated verbally or via unambiguous actions, mutual, voluntary, enthusiastic, and ongoing throughout the sexual encounter. Literature has explored how college students communicate and interpret sexual consent, but antecedents to sexual consent behaviors, particularly affirmative consent, are largely unknown.
The current investigation seeks to longitudinally explore the antecedents to college students’ affirmative sexual consent behaviors (i.e., nonverbal, initiating, verbal). Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework, hypotheses predicted that at Time 1 (T1) attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control would positively and significantly predict students’ (T1) intentions to communicate affirmative consent to their partner. Then, it was predicted that at Time 2 (T2)—thirty days later—intentions to communicate consent from T1 would positively and significantly predict college students’ communication of affirmative consent to their partner during their most recent sexual encounter. The final matched (i.e., completed T1 and T2 surveys) sample included two hundred twenty-five (N = 225) college students who had engaged in sexual activity during the 30 days between survey distributions. Results from the path analyses support the theoretically driven hypotheses for all three affirmative consent behaviors, and demonstrate that subjective norms and perceived control are important and strong determinants of students’ communication of affirmative sexual consent. Furthermore, multi-group invariance tested the potential moderating effects of three individual, two dyadic, and two environmental/contextual variables on the strength of path coefficients between TPB constructs for all three sexual consent behaviors. Only individual and environmental/contextual variables significantly moderated relationships within the TPB for the three models. Results are discussed with regard to theoretical implications as well as practical implications for university health educators and other health professionals. Additionally, limitations and future directions are noted.
The current investigation seeks to longitudinally explore the antecedents to college students’ affirmative sexual consent behaviors (i.e., nonverbal, initiating, verbal). Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework, hypotheses predicted that at Time 1 (T1) attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control would positively and significantly predict students’ (T1) intentions to communicate affirmative consent to their partner. Then, it was predicted that at Time 2 (T2)—thirty days later—intentions to communicate consent from T1 would positively and significantly predict college students’ communication of affirmative consent to their partner during their most recent sexual encounter. The final matched (i.e., completed T1 and T2 surveys) sample included two hundred twenty-five (N = 225) college students who had engaged in sexual activity during the 30 days between survey distributions. Results from the path analyses support the theoretically driven hypotheses for all three affirmative consent behaviors, and demonstrate that subjective norms and perceived control are important and strong determinants of students’ communication of affirmative sexual consent. Furthermore, multi-group invariance tested the potential moderating effects of three individual, two dyadic, and two environmental/contextual variables on the strength of path coefficients between TPB constructs for all three sexual consent behaviors. Only individual and environmental/contextual variables significantly moderated relationships within the TPB for the three models. Results are discussed with regard to theoretical implications as well as practical implications for university health educators and other health professionals. Additionally, limitations and future directions are noted.
ContributorsBednarchik, Lori A (Author) / Costigan Lederman, Linda (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul (Thesis advisor) / Roberto, Anthony (Committee member) / Christopher, F Scott (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Over the past 60 years or so, audience researchers have strived to investigate the impact of structural and motivational factors on audiences’ television viewing behaviors. With the popularity of streaming services, the way people consume and discuss media content has been fundamentally transformed. However, the academic understanding of whether factors traditionally found to impact television viewing behaviors continue to do so in the streaming age remains limited. Building on both agent-based and structural theories in television audience research, this study employed a mixed-method approach that combines data collected via in-depth interviews with that from screenshots captured with a browser extension to revisit the roles of structural and motivational factors in participants’ Netflix viewing. The study’s results underscore that, even in a high-choice media environment, structural factors (e.g., audience availability, content availability and exclusivity) and traditional viewing motivations (i.e. for relaxation and enjoyment) remain critical in determining participants’ viewing practices. Specifically, the platforms and devices that people use to watch television may differ from those used in the network era, but why they watch, when they watch, and what they watch are still determined by the motivational and structural factors identified in traditional television audience research. In addition, the results showed that newer structural factors such as program scores on recommendation sites have less of an impact on participants’ viewing decisions. Habits, which are commonly overlooked in audience research, played an important role in influencing when, how, and what participants watched on Netflix. Further, despite having access to almost unlimited viewing options, many participants still tended to watch programs that they were familiar with or had watched before. The findings highlighted that, even in today’s fragmented media environment, participants’ Netflix viewing practices were repetitive and deeply embedded in the structured routines of their daily lives. The study advances television audience scholarship by providing fresh insights about the traditional and emerging factors in determining viewers’ streaming behaviors. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsShao, Chun (Author) / Barrett, Marianne (Thesis advisor) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Kwon, K. Hazel (Committee member) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This qualitative study examined how culture and community are created in the popular sports video game, NBA 2K. Sports video games are some of the most popular video games, but there has been lack of critical scholarship into these games. By engaging two popular cultural theories, the circuit of culture and the fields of cultural production, this study critically examined how culture shapes online communities in sports video games.By employing a variety of ethnographic methods including thick descriptions of cultural artifacts, an intake questionnaire, interviews with 17 NBA 2K players, and in-game participant observation, this study established cultural patterns, insider language, and other elements of culture within the NBA 2K community. The researcher learned to play NBA 2K, critically examined both physical and virtual cultural artifacts, conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with game players, and participated in NBA 2K with study participants to contextualize their experiences.
This study established NBA 2K as having some of the most advanced functions of any sports video games, including sophisticated multi-user domains (MUDs) and complex avatar (MyPLAYER) creation. NBA 2K offers a unique opportunity to create diverse MyPLAYER representations, setting the bar for sports video games to include people from varied physical identities. Though the game has made strides to include WNBA athletes, the lack of gendered options for the MyPLAYER feature reinforces misogynistic and hegemonic power structures that
are common in both sports culture and gaming culture.
ContributorsForbes, Allison (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Kishonna (Committee member) / Reed, Sada (Committee member) / Silcock, Burton (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Modernity has become a goal for every nation in this time of a globalized and connected world. Nevertheless, in the 21st century, modernity is inherently reflexive as nations have the sources and technologies to adopt their own identity and act upon it. Global media is a mirror of their national identity and social structure. Thus, this dissertation sets the scope to explore how global news media frames national identity in the context of reflexive modernity.This study examines the ways that global online news channels frame the Saudi transition to modernization, epitomizing Saudi Vision 2030. Guided by framing theory, this study explores how global online news channels (i.e., Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, RT, BBC, and CNN) have positioned the Saudi identity (i.e., avowal and ascription) and framed the structure of the Saudi identity (i.e., indulgence, restraint, certainty, uncertainty, thriving governance, and doomed governance). The study utilized a mixed-method content analysis of news articles (N = 584) that include paragraphs (N = 7846) from three years, April 25, 2016, to April 25, 2019.
The study results indicated that global online news channels framed the Saudi cultural identity and political identity heterogeneously, but the Saudi economic identity was framed homogenously. The study’s findings revealed that the English online news channels positioned the Saudi cultural identity different from the Arabic online news channels. The Study also found that Al Jazeera-Arabic framed the Saudi national identity across all contexts differently compared to Al Arabiya-Arabic. The study also showed that uncertainty and restraint were used to frame the Saudi cultural and political identity, while human rights issues were the central theme for the framing process. The study concluded that, in reflexive modernity, global online news channels frame the national identity through three cues: Deviation (glocalization), Domination (interpretive community), and Hybridization (humanization).
This study contributes to the literature on framing by providing a new measurable and replicable model—the national identity frame model. The study advances the literature on media framing by providing conceptual and operational definitions to bridge the gap between the micro and macro levels in the context of modernization and global identities.
ContributorsSahly, Abdulsamad H (Author) / Silcock, B. William (Thesis advisor) / Gilpin, Dawn (Committee member) / Gallab, Abdullahi (Committee member) / Kwon, K. Hazel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
During uncertain situations such as a crisis or risk scenario, journalists experience challenges in filtering, verifying, and curating information and adapting to the new work conditions. Utilizing Sensemaking Theory, this qualitative study aims to understand how journalists construct reporting decisions on uncertain scientific topics, given the potential impact of these stories on the public’s understanding and acceptance of science. The study focuses on Kuwaiti journalists’ handling of science and health information during the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID‐19). The research adopts a narrative approach, conducting in-depth interviews with science reporters and managing editors from digital news outlets in Kuwait. Thematic analysis of the data indicates that journalists’ handling of COVID-19 uncertain science news was mainly influenced by interests, emotions, external pressures, personal stances, and organizational alignment rather than a thorough evaluation of claims. This suggests a lack of expertise and competence in effectively evaluating and interpreting science news.
The study identifies six primary sensemaking approaches used by science journalists and reveals the implicit connotations that underlie Kuwaiti journalists’ roles, which are heavily influenced by their professional, social, and cultural realities. The findings suggest that journalists’ perceptions of their surrounding environment, including their country’s level of scientific contribution, public interest in science, and the overall state of journalism, are important dimensions influencing their perception of their role. Additionally, the study adds to the body of research on gatekeeping by highlighting the influence of sensemaking on journalists’ resistance and compliance with a gate and how this may sometimes lead to overlooking a gate’s presence.
Moreover, the study contributes to understanding journalists’ news values and value prioritization during uncertain times. It emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between sensemaking and news values, where values serve as both selection and sensemaking devices. The findings also shed light on how journalists justify their control over uncertain information dissemination, using uncertainty, audience perception, and social responsibility to legitimize their actions and deflect criticism. The insights gained from this study have significant implications for journalistic practices, ethics, and responsibilities in the context of uncertainty and health crises.
ContributorsAlshehab, Ahmad Sh (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis advisor) / Silcock, B. William (Committee member) / Thornton, Leslie-Jean (Committee member) / Ebrahim, Husain (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023