This dissertation provides a novel understanding for communication in interpersonal relationships... more This dissertation provides a novel understanding for communication in interpersonal relationships. The instinctual human need to observe serves as a social navigation tool, yet individuals also recognize when they are under observation. Individuals respond to social stimuli from others, attempting to understand another person’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and anticipated actions (Heider, 1958). Complimenting partners and recognizing their accomplishments exemplify affectionate communication (Floyd & Morman, 1998), yet may elude to observational communication within interpersonal relationships when expressions do not accurately reflect underlying feelings. While modest amounts of observation could promote affectionate relationships, extreme forms of observation may be an effect of jealousy (e.g., Attridge, 2013; Buss, 2000) where jealousy is directly related to the expressed observational communication. This dissertation focuses on observational communication as a unique communicative behavior that is not recognized in scholarship and distinct from affection and jealousy. Through two studies, this dissertation develops and validates the communication observation measure (COM), offering conceptual and operational definitions to the construct. Study 1 develops the measure through the layperson’s perspective. Participants (N=56) provided the initial referents. Study 1 then explores the initial factor structure of the measure. The result is a 16-item three factor solution. Study 2 validates the measures psychometric properties through convergent and discriminant correlational analyses. Observational communication emerged as verbal and/or nonverbal behaviors that communicate inquiry, contempt, and thoughtfulness
This study explores the friendzone, or the lexicon surrounding the nexus between platonic and rom... more 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: ...
Moral judgments can be the result of cognitive deliberations, which develop with age and socializ... more Moral judgments can be the result of cognitive deliberations, which develop with age and socialization. Rationality began in humans with the development of the cerebral cortex. Alternatively, they can be the based-on survival mechanisms emanating in the sympathetic nervous based on innate, survival mechanisms (fight, flight, freeze) and the amygdala. Common examples are road rage (e.g., I was right while the other driver was wrong, cut me off, and could have killed me) and hold-your-ground state laws for self-defense (the victim was justified in killing the intruder, even though the intruder had no weapon when reaching into their coat pocket). Moral decision making can be based on an innate survival mechanism. Those who did this did not survive and were not our ancestors. This chapter reviews the research on signal detection theory, how aggression is favored over conciliation, as cognitive reasoning breaks down. Physiological studies involving the sympathetic and parasympathetic ner...
Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends commun... more Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends communication using technological medium(s). For the target of ghosting, the noninitiator, the action usually creates an incomplete account of the loss. This investigation explores the non-initiators’ retroactive rationalization of ghosting as loss. Utilizing Amazon Mechanical Turk, we conducted two studies. In Study I, noninitiators (N=189) provided reasons for why they were ghosted. Utilizing analytic induction, eight themes emerged from non-initiators accounts. In Study II, (N¼169), the themes were further examined to determine validity. The retrospective rationalizations determine the incoherent account-making processes in post-dissolution from ghosting.
The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. T... more 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 enactment of disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants (N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation as initiators or non-initiators. The majority of participants reported participating in both roles. Five themes described why initiators chose to enact ghosting, and three themes chronicled their ghosting decision-making processes. Noninitiators illustrated how they realized ghosting occurred through three themes. This exploratory investigation offers a definitive definition of ghosting and a modern discussion of its contents to dissolution, communication, and romantic relationship development.
Grandmothers raising grandchildren narratives challenge normative familial preconceptions. Utiliz... more Grandmothers raising grandchildren narratives challenge normative familial preconceptions. Utilizing the life course theory to examine the turbulence and time-disordered role orientations this study showcases the familial development punctuated by transitions and highlights the transformations experienced in grandparent relationships. This qualitative phenomenological study investigates six grandmothers' experiences about their unforeseen life circumstances and their renegotiation of normal age-appropriate transitions that cause them to reconstruct their life plans. Five themes (obligation, desperation, intervention, salvation, and normalization) emerged from their experiences that underscore the transformative generational structures and explore adaptive life course trajectories.
This dissertation provides a novel understanding for communication in interpersonal relationships... more This dissertation provides a novel understanding for communication in interpersonal relationships. The instinctual human need to observe serves as a social navigation tool, yet individuals also recognize when they are under observation. Individuals respond to social stimuli from others, attempting to understand another person’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and anticipated actions (Heider, 1958). Complimenting partners and recognizing their accomplishments exemplify affectionate communication (Floyd & Morman, 1998), yet may elude to observational communication within interpersonal relationships when expressions do not accurately reflect underlying feelings. While modest amounts of observation could promote affectionate relationships, extreme forms of observation may be an effect of jealousy (e.g., Attridge, 2013; Buss, 2000) where jealousy is directly related to the expressed observational communication. This dissertation focuses on observational communication as a unique communicative behavior that is not recognized in scholarship and distinct from affection and jealousy. Through two studies, this dissertation develops and validates the communication observation measure (COM), offering conceptual and operational definitions to the construct. Study 1 develops the measure through the layperson’s perspective. Participants (N=56) provided the initial referents. Study 1 then explores the initial factor structure of the measure. The result is a 16-item three factor solution. Study 2 validates the measures psychometric properties through convergent and discriminant correlational analyses. Observational communication emerged as verbal and/or nonverbal behaviors that communicate inquiry, contempt, and thoughtfulness
This study explores the friendzone, or the lexicon surrounding the nexus between platonic and rom... more 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: ...
Moral judgments can be the result of cognitive deliberations, which develop with age and socializ... more Moral judgments can be the result of cognitive deliberations, which develop with age and socialization. Rationality began in humans with the development of the cerebral cortex. Alternatively, they can be the based-on survival mechanisms emanating in the sympathetic nervous based on innate, survival mechanisms (fight, flight, freeze) and the amygdala. Common examples are road rage (e.g., I was right while the other driver was wrong, cut me off, and could have killed me) and hold-your-ground state laws for self-defense (the victim was justified in killing the intruder, even though the intruder had no weapon when reaching into their coat pocket). Moral decision making can be based on an innate survival mechanism. Those who did this did not survive and were not our ancestors. This chapter reviews the research on signal detection theory, how aggression is favored over conciliation, as cognitive reasoning breaks down. Physiological studies involving the sympathetic and parasympathetic ner...
Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends commun... more Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends communication using technological medium(s). For the target of ghosting, the noninitiator, the action usually creates an incomplete account of the loss. This investigation explores the non-initiators’ retroactive rationalization of ghosting as loss. Utilizing Amazon Mechanical Turk, we conducted two studies. In Study I, noninitiators (N=189) provided reasons for why they were ghosted. Utilizing analytic induction, eight themes emerged from non-initiators accounts. In Study II, (N¼169), the themes were further examined to determine validity. The retrospective rationalizations determine the incoherent account-making processes in post-dissolution from ghosting.
The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. T... more 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 enactment of disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants (N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation as initiators or non-initiators. The majority of participants reported participating in both roles. Five themes described why initiators chose to enact ghosting, and three themes chronicled their ghosting decision-making processes. Noninitiators illustrated how they realized ghosting occurred through three themes. This exploratory investigation offers a definitive definition of ghosting and a modern discussion of its contents to dissolution, communication, and romantic relationship development.
Grandmothers raising grandchildren narratives challenge normative familial preconceptions. Utiliz... more Grandmothers raising grandchildren narratives challenge normative familial preconceptions. Utilizing the life course theory to examine the turbulence and time-disordered role orientations this study showcases the familial development punctuated by transitions and highlights the transformations experienced in grandparent relationships. This qualitative phenomenological study investigates six grandmothers' experiences about their unforeseen life circumstances and their renegotiation of normal age-appropriate transitions that cause them to reconstruct their life plans. Five themes (obligation, desperation, intervention, salvation, and normalization) emerged from their experiences that underscore the transformative generational structures and explore adaptive life course trajectories.
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