Larry D. Miller

This essay chronicles how the leadership of the Southern States Communication Association came to the aid of the Central States Communication Association in the mid- to late-1980s when the Central States organization faced a major financial crisis. Early and consistent support by the Southern leadership helped to craft a successful resolution to what was an unpleasant situational exigency.

This study explored the reasons individuals offered for revealing and concealing dreams to and from an intimate other. Results indicated that dream‐disclosure enhanced feelings of intimacy and trust within established relationships, provided the others’ response was anticipated to be supportive and nonjudgmental. Dreams also contained “taboo”; information, frequently of a sexual nature, that were concealed to avoid anticipated self‐humiliation, diminished respect, harm to the others’ feelings, and/or relational conflict. The dialectical tension of “dream‐expression”; (the disclosure of dreams) and “dream‐protection”; (the concealment of dreams) existed within close relationships.

This study investigated differences in brain structures, as reflected in hemispheric laterality, and sex on communicator style preferences. Handedness, familial sinistrality, and related correlates were combined as a predictor of two types of hemispheric dominance: standard or anomalous. Males and females classified as standard or anomalous dominant completed a measure of communicator style. Data analyses are consistent with the hypothesis that communication preferences have a neurobiological grounding. Significant main and interaction effects were detected for several of the style subconstructs. Anomalous dominant males reported higher friendly, impression‐leaving, animated, open, and communicator image style scores than any other group. Standard dominant males had the highest relaxed style scores. Responses by anomalous dominant females did not generally differ from preferences indicated by standard dominance males.

This study investigated correspondence between self and other perceptions of communication dominance. Subjects who scored either high or low on a measure of communication dominance participated in a task requiring social interaction and subsequently rated videotapes of the interactions. Individuals who scored low on the dominance measure reported noncorrespondent perceptions of communication behaviors following social interaction. The observation of videotape replay of the interaction promoted perceptual correspondence for self and other, but activated social comparison processes which resulted in noncorrespondent perceptions of the communication behaviors of relative strangers. Subjects who scored high on the measure of communication dominance were consistently correspondent.

This experiential learning activity seeks to highlight the perceptual processes that invctriably transpire between two interactants. Participants attempt to match other participants with their prime concern when interacting with someone socially for the first time. Additionally, partidpants render a judgment as to whether or not others have correctly matched them with their own concern. Illustrative data from a sample game are presented and discussed.