Journal of Language and Social Psychology recent issues

Reflections on Language and Social Psychology Research From ICLASP11, Tucson, Arizona

Pitts, M. J., Harwood, J. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This introductory essay outlines the rationale for this special issue. It reports on the background to the International Conferences on Language and Social Psychology (ICLASPs) and establishes the importance of a special issue representing the work from ICLASP11, held in Tucson, Arizona, in the summer of 2008. After describing the keynote presentations at the conference, specific articles making up the special issue are introduced. Finally, the future of the conferences is addressed with the announcement of the location for ICLASP12 (Brisbane, Australia).

Conflict-Initiating Factors in Intergenerational Relationships

Zhang, Y. B., Lin, M.-C. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study examined American young adults’ written accounts of intergenerational communication with a focus on factors that initiate conflict. Analysis of the conflict scenarios in intergenerational relationships revealed seven types of initiating factors. Results also indicated that the type of relationship with older adults was associated with the frequency distribution of five of the seven initiating factors. Specifically, young adults perceived they were criticized and rebuffed by nonfamily elders more frequently than by family elders, whereas young people tended to disagree with and rebuff family elders more than nonfamily elders. Furthermore, young people reported more incidents of illegitimate demand from family elders than from nonfamily elders. Results are discussed with respect to intergenerational communication research and the communication predicament of aging model.

Is Your Language a Social Clue? Lexical Markers and Social Identity

Mange, J., Lepastourel, N., Georget, P. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This research deals with the interplay between language use and social identity. Social lexical markers used by two leaders of two opposed groups (French and American presidents) on the Second Gulf War were identified. Experimental texts were constructed on this basis and were read by French participants. The authors compared two types of social identity activation, either indirect (in-group vs. out-group lexical markers) or direct (in-group vs. neutral priming). Attitude and intergroup perception were measured on three groups (French, American, and Iraqi). Whereas no effect of direct activation was observed, results notably showed that using out-group marker leads participants to emphasize their in-group attitude, whereas an in-group marker leads them to "open-up" toward out-group attitude. Besides, an interesting in-group bias was evidenced despite the use of negatives outcomes and the three groups’ evaluation. Potential applications for intergroup communication are discussed and theoretical and practical elaborations are proposed.

Linguistic Accommodation and the Salience of National Identity Markers in a Border Town

Llamas, C., Watt, D., Johnson, D. E. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study tests the extent of speakers’ linguistic accommodation to members of putative in-groups and out-groups in a border locality where such categorizations can be said to be particularly accentuated. Variation in the speech of informants in dialect contact interactions with separate interviewers is analyzed for evidence of speech accommodation in the form of phonological convergence or divergence. The data do not support a straightforward interpretation of accommodation, and findings are considered in terms of evidence required for such an account. Implications for the notion of salience in explanations of contact-induced language change are also considered, as is the significance of the "interviewer effect" in the compilation of data sets for use in quantitative studies of phonological variation and change.

Convergence and Contact in Milwaukee: Evidence From Select African American and White Vowel Space Features

Purnell, T. C. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

Past sociophonetic research on African American speakers of the Inland North dialect of American English suggests that speakers in the region do not participate in vowel changes observed among White speakers. Speaker identity to a pan—African American dialect has been often implied as militating against participation in White sound changes.Yet most of these studies analyze vowels as static and single data points, although vowels are known to be articulatorily and perceptually dynamic. It is unclear, then, whether situations involving phonetic convergence co-occur with different vowel properties than previously reported. This study investigates vowel dynamics (raising of vowel qualities and elongation of diphthongs) to test accommodation by Black speakers in southeastern Wisconsin toward White speakers. Results reveal that Black—White contact—either synchronically in an interview or diachronically from historical employment and housing discrimination—influences vowel-quality position and diphthong elongation in vowel space.

False Faces and Broken Lives: An Exploratory Study of the Interaction Behaviors Used by Male Sex Offenders in Relating to Victims

Campbell, A. M. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study examines the use of self-presentation strategies and manipulation by male sex offenders in grooming a victim for a sexual relationship. The study finds that male sex offenders use multiple categories of self-presentation strategies in their interactions with victims with the supplication strategy being present in a majority of reports of such interactions. Furthermore, the research reveals that the male sex offender uses manipulation to isolate and groom the victim for a sexual relationship in conjunction with coercive tactics to ensure the victim does not reveal the true nature of their relationship to other people. Findings are discussed in the context of luring communication theory and applications of the findings.

Reverse Linguistic Stereotyping: Measuring the Effect of Listener Expectations on Speech Evaluation

Kang, O., Rubin, D. L. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

The linguistic stereotyping hypothesis holds that even brief samples of speech varieties associated with low-prestige groups can cue negative attributions regarding individual speakers. The converse phenomenon is reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS). In RLS, attributions of a speaker’s group membership trigger distorted evaluations of that person’s speech. The present study established a procedure for ascertaining a proclivity to RLS for individual listeners. In addition to RLS, variables reflecting degree of multicultural involvement (e.g., proportion of friends who are nonnative speakers, amount of language study) predicted speech evaluations. Although the RLS measurement procedure outlined here requires more demanding administration than mere paper-and-pencil self-reports, it has the advantage of reflecting authentic RLS processes. Measuring individuals’ RLS levels can help screen teachers, job interviewers, immigration officials, and others who are called on to make judgments about the oral proficiency of speakers of nonprestige language varieties.

Evaluating the Speech of Younger and Older Adults: Age, Gender, and Speech Situation

Odato, C. V., Keller-Cohen, D. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study examines how listeners arrive at judgments of speech as irrelevant or off-topic (off-target). Older adults and college students evaluated a set of narratives ascribed to speakers differing in age and gender and presented as conversations or interviews.The results show that young and old adults bring different understandings of age and situation to the evaluation task. Older evaluators judged narratives more on-target than younger evaluators. Differences between evaluator age groups were also observed in the effects of speaker age and speech situation: Younger evaluators judged older speakers more on-target than younger speakers, but older evaluators did not; and younger evaluators judged speech in interviews more off-target than older evaluators did. However, both old and young evaluators judged female speakers more on-target than males. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of age stereotypes in evaluating speech, highlighting the listener’s role in constructing an interlocutor’s speech as off-target.

The 12th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology: Brisbane, Australia: Date: June 16 to 20, 2010

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

Second Language Competence in the Italian-Speaking Population of Alto Adige/Sudtirol: Evidence for Linguistic Stereotype Threat

Paladino, M.-P., Poddesu, L., Rauzi, M., Vaes, J., Cadinu, M., Forer, D. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

Stereotype threat theory suggests that a negative stereotype about a social group can undermine the performance of group members in a stereotype-relevant domain. The present research examines this in the domain of second language (L2) competence. Two studies were conducted to test the effects of stereotype threat on L2 performance in a group of Italian-speaking people living in Alto Adige/Südtirol (AA/ST), a bilingual region of Italy. Participants were members of the Italian-speaking community who are generally not very proficient in L2 (i.e., German). When reminded of the negative stereotype, participants who highly identified with the domain (i.e., German language; Study 1) and those who believed that their linguistic group was in a disadvantaged position in AA/ST (Study 2) underperformed in a German language test. These findings are discussed in relation with people's mastery of L2 in bilingual contexts and their consequences for the study of stereotype threat.

Culture, Positive and Negative Face Threats, and Apology Intentions

Hee Sun Park, , Xiaowen Guan, — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

This study investigated cultural differences in apology intentions moderated by the threatened face type and the relationship between interactants. With Chinese and U.S. undergraduate participants, this study revealed that (a) offending acts were more face-threatening toward a stranger than toward a friend; (b) apology intention was stronger for a stranger than for a friend; (c) for threatening negative face, Americans had stronger apology intentions than did Chinese, whereas for threatening positive face, Chinese had stronger apology intentions than did Americans; (d) situational variations in negative and positive face threats significantly related to apology intentions; and (e) Americans' apology intention, compared with Chinese, was more strongly related to amount of negative face threat in each act.

"Should Be Fun--Not!": Incidence and Marking of Nonliteral Language in E-Mail

Whalen, J. M., Pexman, P. M., Gill, A. J. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

According to Kreuz's principle of inferability, speakers tend to employ nonliteral language when it can reasonably be perceived by their conversational partner. In a computer-mediated communicative setting, such as e-mail, this suggests that the e-mail writer might use discourse tools that facilitate comprehension on the part of the recipient. The present study examined rates of usage for various forms of nonliteral language in 210 e-mail messages written by young adults. In 94.30% of all e-mails there was at least one nonliteral statement, and participants used an average of 2.90 nonliteral statements per e-mail. Results showed that forms of nonliteral language that are typically deemed to be riskier, such as sarcasm, were used much less frequently than other less risky forms, such as hyperbole, and were marked with discourse markers more often. This indicates that e-mail authors are sensitive to the risky nature of nonliteral language use in e-mail, yet are savvy to the tools available to them in this communicative medium.

Linguistic Predictors of Mindfulness in Written Self-Disclosure Narratives

Moore, S. D., Brody, L. R. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

This study investigated whether relative changes in cognitive, emotion, temporal, and self-reference word frequencies in repeated narratives predicted improvements in mindfulness skills (i.e., nonjudgmental acceptance of present-moment experiences, observing and describing present stimuli, and acting with awareness) subsequent to narrative self-disclosure. Participants wrote repeated narratives of traumatic or daily events over 3 days. Mindfulness was assessed at baseline and 4 to 8 weeks posttask. Results indicated that relative increases in cognitive processing words (among traumatic events participants and women in both conditions) and present tense words (among all participants) significantly predicted increases in nonjudgmental acceptance, describing, or overall mindfulness. Increases in present tense words appeared to partially mediate the higher mindfulness outcomes of participants writing about daily events when compared with those writing about trauma. The findings suggest that linguistic changes in self-disclosure narratives are associated with improvements in specific mindfulness skills.

The Language of Lyrics: An Analysis of Popular Billboard Songs Across Conditions of Social and Economic Threat

Pettijohn, T. F., Sacco, D. F. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

The lyrical content of Billboard No. 1 songs for each year from 1955 to 2003 was investigated across changes in U.S. social and economic conditions. Consistent with the environmental security hypothesis, popular song lyrics were predicted to have more meaningful themes and content when social and economic conditions were threatening. Trends for more meaningful, comforting, and romantic lyric ratings were observed in more threatening social and economic times. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, songs with more words per sentence, a focus on the future, and greater mention of social processes and intergroup themes were popular during threatening social and economic conditions. Limitations and possible implications are discussed.

Factors Affecting Women's Verbal Immediacy to Sexually Risky Situations

Hoyt, T., Yeater, E. A. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

The current study used a word count measure of verbal immediacy to analyze undergraduate women's responses to a set of written vignettes describing hypothetical situations involving sexual risk. Several influences on verbal immediacy were examined, including severity of previous victimization, sexual-risk proximity, relationship intimacy, and response effectiveness. Results revealed that women with a more severe history of victimization evidenced less immediacy in their responses than both women with a less severe or no history of victimization. Responses higher in immediacy were rated as more effective by a group of undergraduate peers. The interaction of risk proximity and relationship intimacy also predicted verbal immediacy. Women responded with greater immediacy to distal risk situations involving nonintimates, and less immediacy to proximal risk situations as well as distal risk situations involving intimates.

Book Review: Floyd, K. (2006). Communicating Affection: Interpersonal Behavior and Social Context. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 222. ISBN: 978-0-521-73174-4

Alley-Young, G. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

Book Review: Charles, L. L. (2008). When the Shooting Stopped. Crisis Negotiation at Jefferson High School. Lanham, MA: Rowan & Littlefield. pp. 144. ISBN: 978-0-7425-6088-8

Giebels, E. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

Book Review: Powers, J. H., & Xiao, X. (Eds.). (2008). The Social Construction of SARS: Studies of a Health Communication Crisis. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. pp. 242. ISBN: 978 90 272 0618 3

Schnell, J. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:15:29 PDT

Complex Health Communication: A Language and Social Psychological Perspective

Jones, L., Watson, B. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

The articles presented in this special issue represent key issues for current day health communication scholars. The articles were commissioned by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology Taskforce and presented at the 2008 International Communication Association in Montreal. Each article tackles a specific health dilemma and demonstrates the need for immediate but theoretically based interventions.

Communication in Medical Records: Intergroup Language and Patient Care

Hewett, D. G., Watson, B. M., Gallois, C., Ward, M., Leggett, B. A. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

Communication failures in the complex environment of hospital care affect the quality of care and occurrence of inadvertent harm. This study investigated doctors' written communication using a sample of medical records, specifically doctors' progress notes, and the frameworks of social identity and communication accommodation theories. These records include standardized and stylized language, and are intended to record assessment and treatment of patients according to known guidelines for practice. An interpretive analysis of the language and discourse in these records revealed that doctors used medical record entries both to express their specialty identity and to negotiate intergroup conflict. Nonaccommodation and interspecialty conflict sometimes took precedence over facilitation of patient treatment and management. Thus, intergroup communication in this context can constitute a serious threat to the quality of patient care.

A New Structure of Attention?: Open Disclosure of Adverse Events to Patients and Their Families

Iedema, R., Jorm, C., Wakefield, J., Ryan, C., Sorensen, R. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

This article presents an inquiry into how clinicians realize a health policy reform initiative called Open Disclosure. Open Disclosure mandates that discussions with patients/family and team staff about "adverse events" are now no longer ad hoc, individualized, and without consequences for how the work is done, but planned, collaborative, and leading to systems change. The article presents an empirical analysis of a corpus of interviews about the impact of Open Disclosure on clinicians' practices. It situates Open Disclosure in the context of arguments that health care workers are increasingly expected to do "emotional labor" with patients and their families, in that staff are advised to practise "reflexive listening" as a means of managing patients' and family members' emotions in response to incidents. The analysis suggests that thanks to the intensity of Open Disclosure interactions, clinicians may be introduced to an affective-interactive space that they were hitherto unaware of and unable to enter or attain what Nigel Thrift calls "a new structure of attention."

Effective Health Communication in Native Populations in North America

Kalbfleisch, P. J. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

Effective communication for Native Americans living in North America and Hawaii includes taking time in conversation and providing information indirectly through story-telling, example, and metaphor. It also includes listening and using humor to build relationships through communication. Modern medical community members communicate by moving quickly in a time efficient manner to learn symptoms, make diagnoses, and relay health information to assist as many patients as possible. Native Americans may not understand the response they receive from the modern medical community and may not trust or follow the recommended treatment. Examining effective communication for Native Americans and those who treat them is essential as Native Americans are at greater risk for life-threatening illness than other minority groups in North America and Hawaii. This article examines effective communication for Native American health care, the existing problems, and the potential impact of these problems. Measures to improve communication in this health context are outlined.

Towards a Code of Practice for Effective Communication With People With Dementing Illnesses

Young, T., Manthorp, C. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

In this article, the authors highlight the need for a Code of Practice (CoP) to address the communicative needs of people with dementia and their formal and informal carers. The authors also detail a proposed CoP, as well as an innovative and inclusive consultation process through which the authors and other stakeholders will produce a complete final working version. The authors produced a three level framework for a proposed CoP. Level 1 is a statement of beliefs and principles underlying a person-centred and empowering approach to effective communication with people with dementia. Based on this, Level 2 consists of components of communication strategies and considerations for effective communication. The authors have produced three examples of level 2 components, and these are detailed here. Level 3 of the proposed CoP will consist of practical and individualized advice on actual communication with people at various stages of dementia. The authors also outline a regime for empirically testing the efficacy of the CoP in different contexts, and discuss implications for research and for communication practices in health care contexts.

A Communication Model for the Competent Delivery of Geriatric Medicine

Nussbaum, J. F., Fisher, C. L. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

The competent practice of geriatric medicine has become a priority within the health care system. As older adults transition from independence to dependence, the health care system must respond to a complex set of interdependent networks that the system and those who work within it may not be prepared to handle. The competent practice of geriatric medicine is dependent on the coordination of numerous health specialists, organizations, the older patient, and the patient's social network. Failure to competently coordinate this system makes it nearly impossible to provide consistent quality health care, potentially resulting in misdiagnoses, increased cost, destruction of family relationships, professionals not willing to "see" older patients, and ultimately, higher mortality rates. A model is presented that graphically places communication at the core of the practice of geriatric medicine, while providing a "road map" for developing quality practices to improve older adults' health care.

Epilogue

Gallois, C. — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:56 PDT

In the epilogue to this special issue of JLSP, the author notes that the five articles presented in this special issue show the usefulness of a language and social psychology approach. While the topics and perspectives of the articles are different, several key themes emerge, particularly involving communication in complex health contexts. The articles taken together provide health communication scholars with a common research agenda for the next few years. These articles address hard health problems, all of which can be understood as grounded in intergroup relationships. They show the importance of large-scale interdisciplinary projects that can have a significant impact on the quality of health care and outcomes.

Does Time Fly When You're Having Fun, or Do You?: Affect, Agency, and Embodiment in Temporal Communication

McGlone, M. S., Pfiester, R. A. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

When describing the passage of time, people metaphorically assign the agency for temporal change to themselves (e.g., we are approaching the weekend) or an event (the weekend is approaching). Embodiment theory suggests that temporal agency assignments reflect conceptual correspondences between time, motion, and emotion, whereby people symbolically move toward affectively positive events but passively observe the arrival of negative events. This article reports three studies testing these theoretical claims. Analyses of large spoken and written English corpora (Study 1) and solicited accounts of positive and negative experiences (Study 2) indicated that communicators prefer to assign temporal agency to themselves when describing positive events but to events when describing negative events. Study 3 demonstrated that temporal agency assignments have attributional consequences, in that they colored participants' perceptions of a fictitious speaker's affective orientation toward a described event. Implications of these findings for the study of temporal communication are discussed.

Identity Implications of Relationship (Re)Definition Goals: An Analysis of Face Threats and Facework as Young Adults Initiate, Intensify, and Disengage From Romantic Relationships

Wilson, S. R., Kunkel, A. D., Robson, S. J., Olufowote, J. O., Soliz, J. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Identity implications theory (IIT) is applied to analyze how young adults manage identity concerns associated with the goals of initiating, intensifying, and disengaging from romantic relationships. Participants wrote their responses to one of six hypothetical romantic (re)definition scenarios, indicated whether they actually would pursue the relational goal if their scenario were real, and rated degree of threat to both parties' face. Responses were coded for positive and negative politeness strategies. Participants in different relational goal conditions perceived different face threats, varied in their likelihood of pursuing the relational goal, and employed different politeness strategies. Relationship (re)definition goal also moderated associations between perceived face threats and goal pursuit as well as politeness strategies. The findings show how multiple goal theories such as IIT can be applied to situations where relational goals are primary as well as how, to varying degrees, identity concerns shape and constrain how young adults pursue relational (re)definition goals.

Double Standards in Sentence Structure: Passive Voice in Narratives Describing Domestic Violence

Frazer, A. K., Miller, M. D. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Previous research has shown that passive voice predominates in mass media reports describing male violence against women. However, there has been little systematic study of narratives describing female violence against men. The authors analyzed the impact of perpetrator gender on verb voice, first in a content analysis of published news stories and second in a new procedure for eliciting written narratives with male or female perpetrators. Results reveal an increased frequency of passive voice when perpetrators are male. These findings suggest that writers specifically prefer the passive voice to describe male-on-female violence rather than for violent or negative acts in general.

Cancer Patients Versus Cancer Survivors: Social and Emotional Consequences of Word Choice

Mosher, C. E., Danoff-Burg, S. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Two studies examined the social and emotional implications of different linguistic classifications of individuals with cancer. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to rate their reactions to either cancer patients or cancer survivors. Across studies, participants held more favorable perceptions of the character of cancer survivors relative to cancer patients and displayed more positive attitudes toward the former group. In addition, participants in Study 1 reported greater willingness to interact with cancer survivors compared with cancer patients. Positive perceptions of prognosis did not appear to account for favorable attitudes toward cancer survivors; most participants in Study 2 did not assume that cancer survivors were beyond the treatment phase of their illness or cured of their disease. Findings point to a potentially powerful effect of word choice on reactions to individuals with cancer.

Online Interactions Between Group Members Who Differ in Status

Dino, A., Reysen, S., Branscombe, N. R. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Intragroup interactions between high and low status members on Internet message boards were examined. Messages from low status members to high status members and vice versa were rated for degree of conformity, ingratiation, agreeing, requesting, and instructing. Text was also analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. Low status member messages were rated as more conforming, ingratiating, and agreeing than high status member messages. Low status members also used more first person singular voice, affective words, and exclamation marks. High status member messages were rated as more instructive than low status member messages. High status member messages contained more complex words, second person references, and welcoming language than did low status member messages. Language use in online contexts clearly differs depending on group member status.

Book Review: Fiedler, K. (Ed.). (2007). Social Communication. New York: Psychology Press. x, 444 pp. ISBN 978-1-84169-428-3 (hardcover)

Sommer, D. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Book Review: Schmalhofer, F., & Perfetti, C. A. (Eds.). (2007). Higher Level Language Processes in the Brain. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum. 413 pp. ISBN 0-8058-5262-X

Stone, J. D. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Book Review: Koven, M. (2007). Selves in Two Languages: Bilinguals' Verbal Enactments of Identity in French and Portuguese: Vol. 34. Studies in Bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 327 pp. ISBN 978 90 272 4145 0 (hardcover)

Weckerle, L. J. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:13 PST

Book Review: Weatherall, A., Watson, B. M., & Gallois, C. (Eds.). (2007). Language, Discourse and Social Psychology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. vii, 309 pp. ISBN 1-4039-9595-8 (paper)

Palomares, N. A. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:14 PST

Book Review: Mildner, V. (2008). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Communication. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 978-0-8058-5435-0 (hardcover)

Keyton, J. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:14 PST

Book Review: Waldron, V. L., & Kelley, D. L. (2008). Communicating Forgiveness. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. vii-x, 206 pp. ISBN 978-1-4129-3970-6 (hardcover), 978-1-4129-3971-3 (paper)

Regalia, C. — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:56:14 PST