Investigating the Effects of Nonverbal
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DO ACTIONS REALLY SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS?: INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF NONVERBAL IMMEDIACY AND VERBALLY AGGRESSIVE MESSAGES ON PERCEPTIONS OF A MANAGERS PERCEIVED LEVEL OF CREDIBILITY, CARING, AND COMMUNICATOR STYLE. A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Joseph E. Lybarger December, 2014 DO ACTIONS REALLY SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS?: INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF NONVERBAL IMMEDIACY AND VERBALLY AGGRESSIVE MESSAGES ON PERCEPTIONS OF A MANAGERS PERCEIVED LEVEL OF CREDIBILITY, CARING, AND COMMUNICATOR STYLE. Joseph E. Lybarger Thesis Approved: Accepted: _______________________________ _______________________________ Faculty Advisor School Director Dr. Andrew S. Rancer Dr. Therese L. Lueck _______________________________ _______________________________ Committee Member Dean of the College Dr. Yang (Young) Lin Dr. Chand K. Midha _______________________________ _______________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Elizabeth E. Graham Dr. George R. Newkome _______________________________ Date ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A major research project like this is never the work of anyone alone. The contributions of many different people, in their different ways, have made this thesis possible. I would like to extend my deepest appreciations, especially to the following. I wish to thank, first and foremost, my family. My grandparents (Joe & Janet), my parents (Andy & Kim), and my three beautiful and amazing sisters (Lyna, Tara, & Jana). The love and support you have all shown me over the years has given me the strength and resilience to overcome many obstacles and persevere when hope looked lost. Especially to my grandfather, Ralph, J. Lybarger, for believing in me when no else did. It is with immense gratitude that I acknowledge the support, the educated and experienced advice, and help of my advisor, Dr. Andrew Rancer. I want to thank you for believing in me as an advisee, a student, and a person. You have helped me grow as a researcher, as a student, and as a person in many ways. This thesis would have remained a dream without your help and support, and for that I am greatly appreciative. It was a great honor to have been able to work with someone as accomplished as yourself. To Dr. Elizabeth Graham, and Dr. Young Lin, to whom I am deeply grateful, for not only agreeing to erve as members on my committee, but also, for all of the support, guidance, and indisputably invaluable advice you have given towards the developing of my thesis topic, and for your pain staking efforts in proof reading the drafts. Without your duidance, I would not have been able to put this thesis together. iii This thesis would not have been possible without the help, support and patience of Dr. Phil Hoffman. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule and assisting in providing the resources and the use of the Universities TV station for the producing of the videos essential to my experiment. You have always been someone who has shown confidence in my abilities as a graduate student, and as a scholar. I would also like to thank the actors who took part in the making of the videos used for the pilot study and experiment. Tom Stephan (who played the part of the Manager) and Brian Westerley (who played the part of the employee), thank you for your professionalism as both actors and individuals and for your patience in getting the videos perfect and exactly how I envisioned them. They turned out better than I could have imagined, thank you. I cannot find words to express my gratitude to Dr. Keith Weber. I owe you my deepest gratitude and thanks. You helped to pick me up, when I had fallen, and if it weren’t for you I would never have gotten as far as I have today. You have taught me so much, and gave me some of the most heart felt, and at times comical, advice I have ever received. I owe my success thus far to you and for that, again, I cannot find words to express my gratitude. Thank you so much. Lastly, and certainly not least, I am indebted to my many friends and colleagues who have supported me. Christa Mitchell, thank you for being my biggest fan, and providing me with all the emotional support an ambitious, Type-A personality graduate student needs. Nick Smith, you have always made yourself available to provide friendship, advice, comfort, and during the times when all I wanted to do was complain, a listening ear, even when faced with impending deadlines. Thank you. iv As I stated in the beginning of my acknowledgements, a major research project such as this thesis, is never the work of anyone alone. It is because of the contributions of those listed above, in their own different ways that have made this thesis possible. Thank you all. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………….……….…...…..ix LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………..………x CHAPTER I. REVIEW OF LITERATURE…………………………………………..……………….1 Introduction………………………………………………………….…………….1 Verbally Aggressive Behavior.………….…………………….…….…………….2 Causes of Verbally Aggressive Behavior.………………….…….…..….….…….7 Aggression Within the Workplace…….…………………….…….…….….……10 Communicator Style………………………………….………………………….12 Affirming Communicator Style………………………………………………….16 Immediacy…………………………………………………………….………….27 Verbal Immediacy………………………………….…………………………….29 Nonverbal Immediacy……………………………………………………...…….29 Source Credibility………………………………….…………………………….47 Cognitive Valence Theory……………………………………………………….52 Purpose of the Study………………………………………………….………….56 Hypothesis…………………………………………………………….…………58 II. STUDY I: PILOT STUDY MANIPULATION CHECK…….….….…….………….59 Participants……………………………………….…….……….………….…….59 vi Creation of The Scripts………………………………………..…………….…...59 Procedures for Study One……………………...….…...….…………….……….61 Results of Study One……………...……………………………………………..63 III. STUDY II: EXPERIMENT……………….….…….……..…………….….….….…64 Participants……………………………………………………………………….64 Procedures for Experiment….…………………….…..…….….……….……….66 Dependent Variable Questionnaire……….….…………………………………..67 Measurement of Competence & Character.……….……………………..67 Measurement of Caring…………………….……………………….……68 Measurement of Affirming Communicator Style…………….……….…69 IV. RESULTS OF STUDY TWO: THE EXPERIMENT……………………………….71 Dependent Variable: Competence……………………………………………….73 Dependent Variable: Character (Trustworthiness)……………………………....76 Dependent Variable: Caring (Goodwill).………………………………………..79 Dependent Variable: Relaxed Communicator Style……………………………..81 Dependent Variable: Friendly Communicator Style…………………………….84 Dependent Variable: Attentive Communicator Style………………………..…..87 IV. DISCUSSION………………………………….………………………..…………..91 Limitations of the Study…………………………………………………………97 Suggestions for Future Research………….……………………..………………99 REFERENCES………………………………..………………………………….…….103 vii APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………….116 APPENDIX A. FIGURES & TABLES……………………….…….….…...….117 APPENDIX B. IRB APPROVAL (INFORMED CONSENT)..……….………123 APPENDIX C. SCRIPTS FOR FOUR VIDEO CONDITIONS….….………...124 APPENDIX D. MANIPULATION-CHECK QUESTIONAIRE..……..…....…134 APPENDIX E. DEPENDENT VARIABLE QUESTIONAIRE…….…....……136 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Cognitive Valence Theory Model……………..………….….…………..………..…118 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Pearson’s Correlation for the Source Credibility Construct………………………..119 2. Pearson’s Correlation for the Affirming Communicator Style Construct…….……119 3. Main Effect Means in Relation to Superiors’ Verbally Aggressive Behavior.……..120 4. Main Effect Means in Relation to Superiors’ Nonverbal Immediacy Behavior……120 5. Means for one-way ANOVA: Dependent variable – Competence.………………………………………….…......121 6. Means for one-way ANOVA: Dependent variable – Character (Trustworthiness)…………………………...……121 7. Means for one-way ANOVA: Dependent variable – Caring……………...…………………………….………….121 8. Means for one-way ANOVA: Dependent variable – Relaxed Communicator Style.................................................122 9. Means for one-way ANOVA: Dependent variable – Friendly Communicator Style…………………………….…122 10. Means for one-way ANOVA: Dependent variable – Attentive Communicator Style……………………………………………………………...….……..……….122 x CHAPTER I REVIEW OF LITERATURE Introduction Berlo (1960) illustrates how important it is that we have a working understanding of human communicative behaviors and practices. He informs the reader that the average person spends about 70% of his or her life communicating. Unfortunately, the ways in which we communicate can be, and at times are in fact, destructive. Research has uncovered that some people are more prone to this dysfunctional behavior than others, specifically in the case of those with predispositions (personality traits) to communicate in a verbally aggressive manner. In today’s technologically advanced world, many psycho-biologists are turning to neurological activity and biochemical signatures (traits) in order to better understand human behavior in depth. Psycho-biologists are turning to traits research because personality traits heavily influence how we communicate on an everyday basis (Rancer & Nicotera, 2006). Although some people are more so prone to being verbally aggressive, we all possess the capacity to become “aggressive, and undoubtedly, all of us have at one time or another attacked someone who offended us— [either] in our thoughts or verbally, if not in an open assault” (Berkowitz, 1998, p. 263). 1 There has been an abundance of research investigating and finding support for the notion