Constructivism

A General Theory of Communication Skill

Brant Burleson, Purdue University Com 601 Presentation February 4, 2009
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A Situation to Imagine
Suppose you just learned that you bombed a big exam in an important class you got a C on the exam! Naturally, you feel awful Later, you run into two friends, Barb and Blair, each of whom tries to comfort you
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Say hi to Barb

Barb says to you:

Im really sorry; I understand why youre feeling so bummed about the exam. When you study hard like you do a C just seems - like - second-rate. I mean, not doing as well as you want on an assignment is so frustrating. The same thing happened to me this semester and I felt the same way you know, really irritated and a little embarrassed. But, youre a great student! I know youll bounce back. Do you think you learned something from this that will help you do better on rest of the class assignments?
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Say hi to Blair

Blair says to you:

A C? Well, thats no big deal. Its only like - one exam and you probably just didnt study enough. Dont be so upset if you didnt study as hard as you could have. Im sure youll bounce back on the next one. Just try to forget about this exam. I mean, youve got a lot going on in your life and you dont want to obsess about this one thing. Anyway, its a pretty dumb class; its really not worth worrying about. So, just try to forget about it. Just think about something else.

Who Was More Comforting? Blair? or Barb?

Why did you react the way you did?

What influenced your responses to these messages?
Message content? Appearance of the source? Aspects of the situation? Your own psychological make-up?

This is the question we are currently trying to answer in our constructivist theory of message processing and outcomes.
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Constructivism: Some Background

Constructivism studies how interpretations affect action Assumes humans are active, interpreting agents; it analyzes interpretive process and their effects Developed by Jesse Delia & his colleagues at the University of Illinois in the 1970s Theory developed and applied to new contexts over the last 30 years Has generated one of largest bodies of research in the communication discipline

General Focus of Theory

Constructivism is a general theory of

communication skill A scientific theory, constructivism helps us:

describe more and less skilled behavior explain why people are more & less skilled predict antecedents & outcomes of skill use control skill development & outcomes

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Specific Focus of Theory

Primary focus: functional communication skills These help us communicate so as to accomplish personal & social goals efficiently & effectively Four issues addressed regarding these skills
What is the nature of skilled behavior? What are the determinants of skilled behavior? (competence & performance factors) What antecedents influence the development of skills and their components? (nature, nurture, & training) What are the consequences of communication skills for personal and social outcomes?

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Why are functional communication skills important?

Help achieve instrumental goals (e.g., informing, persuading, comforting, entertaining, understanding, etc.) they make us more effective Contribute to personal & professional success (cumulative result of effectiveness) Increase others liking and respect for us Contribute to the health and welfare of others Contribute to the skill development of others
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Two General Skills Examined Today

Sense-making or Social Perception Skill Decoding or Message Processing Skill Two other important skills NOT examined
Encoding or Message Production Skill; theres a TON of info available about this (see readings) Conversing or Interaction Management Skill; much less research so far on this skill

Not enough time to examine everything

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Social Perception Skill

Social perception is the process through
which we make sense of the human or social world, including our experiences of ourselves, other people, social relationships, and social institutions Other people are especially important parts of the social world, so much of our mental energy & attention is on them
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Social Perception & Communication

Social perception is important for communication because people base their messages & other communicative behaviors on their perceptions of others So, much of our communicative conduct, as well as our understanding of others communicative conduct, is grounded in our perceptions of others
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Social Perception Processes

Many specific social perception processes:
Making attributions about the causes of anothers behaviors (especially dispositions) Forming impressions of others personalities Integrating information about others over time Recognizing & explaining emotion displays Role taking (perspective taking)

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Social Perception Skills

Each process can be done more or less well So these are skills at which individuals

differ

Some people have advanced skills Others have comparatively primitive skills

Why are there these differences in skills?

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The Interpersonal Construct System

Social perception occurs through

interpersonal constructs
These are cognitive schemes or templates that apply to qualities of others Constructs are flexible structures for multiple social perception processes (attribution, role-taking, etc.)
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Lets Generate Some Constructs!

Grab a blank sheet of paper Think about someone you know who is about your age and who you like In the next 3 minutes, describe this person in as much detail as you can Pay particular attention to the others traits, dispositions, and internal qualities and characteristics (rather than appearance)
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Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity

People differ in the degree to which their interpersonal constructs are developed: differentiated, organized,

abstract
Highly developed construct systems are complex; so, people with such systems have high levels of

interpersonal cognitive complexity

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Understanding Cognitive Complexity

An analogy: Just as certain properties of the muscular system (strength, flexibility, stamina) determine your overall level of athletic skill, so certain properties of the construct system (differentiation, abstractness, integration) determine your overall level of social perception skills Cognitive complexity is domain specific; the RCQ measures your social or emotional intelligence (i.e., interpersonal complexity)
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Cognitive Complexity and Social Perception Skills

High cognitive complexity = better ability to acquire, store, retrieve, organize, and generate information about the social world More sophisticated social perception skills Experts in the social world - greater capacity to process social information
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Summary: Social Perception Skills

Social perception skill = ability to acquire, retain, manage, and use information about the social world Many different social perception processes; so many different skills All processes occur through interpersonal constructs, so cognitive complexity provides overall estimate of social perception skill
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BREAK TIME!

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A Constructivist Approach to Message Processing

Message reception is the process of
interpreting the (assumed) intentional symbolic behavior of another in the effort to understand the meaning and implications of that behavior Message reception is a complex process composed of several events
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Figure 2 A Model of the Message Reception Process

Hearing Social (Signal Perception Detection) Processes

Transmitted Utterances or Message Received Words and Phrases

Comprehension (Syntactic Analysis)

Understanding of What Other Has Said

Interpretation (Semantic Analysis)

Understanding of What Other Means

Act Recognition (Pragmatic Analysis)

Understanding of What Other Is Doing

Understanding (Motive Analysis)

Understanding of Others Purposes

Note: Rectangles represent structures; arrows represent processes.

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Comforting as a Context for Study

Most messages we receive are fairly simple and dont require extensive processing But sometimes circumstances and/or messages are complicated and we benefit from deeper processing Comforting contexts are often complicated
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Emotional Support and Comforting

I view emotional support as specific lines of

communicative behavior enacted by one party with the intent of helping another cope effectively with emotional distress. Comforting communication has the intended function of alleviating, moderating, or salving the distressed emotional states of others.
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Research Areas in Comforting

1.

2.

3.

The nature of comforting messages features and qualities of more and less helpful messages The determinants of comforting skill factors that influence the ability and motivation to comfort others skillfully and to respond to others messages skillfully The antecedents of comforting skill social factors affecting skill development
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Research Areas in Comforting

4.

The consequences of comforting skill personal, social, & physical

Consequences for message recipient
changes in affect, coping, mental health, physical health

Consequences for helper

Liking, acceptance, popularity

Consequences for relationship

Intimacy, stability, commitment
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A Key Finding in Work on Nature & Consequences of Comforting

Highly person-centered (HPC)
messages are regularly experienced as more sensitive, helpful, and effective than low person-centered (LPC) messages. Message person centeredness: the

extent to which the feelings and perspective of the recipient are acknowledged, elaborated, explored, and legitimized.

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High Person-Centered Message

Highly person-centered messages acknowledge, elaborate, and legitimize the feelings of distressed others and encourage them to express and explore their feelings Barb broke up with you? Oh man! Im really sorry; I know you must be hurting right now. Do you want to talk about it? You were together a long time and were really involved with her, so you must have some real heartache. This just sucks; Im really sorry, man. The same thing happened to me last year, and I remember how rotten it makes you feel. Its especially tough when its sudden like that. Its probably gonna take some time to work through it after all, breaking up is a really hard thing. I know it may not mean very much right now, but keep in mind that youve got some good friends here people who really care about you. Im here whenever you want to talk about things.
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Low Person-Centered Message

Low person-centered comforting messages challenge the legitimacy of the distressed others feelings and perspective (at least implicitly), often telling the other how he or she should feel about or act in the troubling situation Ben broke up with you? Hes an idiot! But, this isnt the end of the world, you know. I mean, its not the worst thing that could happen to you, and to be honest, I think youll be better off without Ben. Anyway, there are tons of cute guys on this campus, you know, lots of fish in the sea. You just gotta get out there and catch another one! Keep in mind that no guy is worth getting all worked up about. I mean, its just not that big a deal, not at this point in life. You can do a lot better than Ben. Just remember that Ben isnt worth any heartache and youll stop being so depressed about the whole thing.
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Some Research Puzzles

Outcomes of comforting messages are influenced by more than just message content Outcomes vary as a function of the source, recipient, and situation
Sometimes different messages have similar outcomes. WHY? Sometimes the same message has different outcomes as function of source, recipient, and situation. WHY?
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A New Theory
We recently proposed a dual-process model of supportive message reception to explain variable outcomes of comforting messages Our model resembles the ELM and HSM models of persuasive message processing, but is also different
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Assumptions of Our DualProcess Approach

People process information in support situations more or less extensively (elaborately, deeply) Different processing levels lead to features of messages and situations having different outcomes Variables can have multiple effects on outcomes through multiple mechanisms
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Processing Modes (Levels)

People assumed to process supportive messages on an elaboration continuum that ranges from highly extensive to highly superficial Elaboration refers to the amount or extensiveness of thinking with respect to the content of the message.
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Extensive Processing
When processing extensively (systematically), recipients carefully reflect on the content of the message and the information it contains. They thoughtfully consider this information in relation to prior ideas and viewpoints, and give close attention to the full content of a message.

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Superficial Processing
When processing superficially (e.g., heuristically), little attention given message content of the message Instead, outcomes may be largely influenced by environmental cues that activate associations, heuristics or other tacit decision rules which influence responses
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Environmental Cues Tied to Decisional Heuristics

Cue
Physical Attractiveness of Helper ___________________________ Perceived Similarity of Helper

Decisional Heuristic
Attractive people provide good support. ___________________________ People who have experienced life like me are good support providers. Close others provide helpful support in times of need.

Relationship Closeness

Sex of Helper

Women provide good support.40

Consequences of Processing Levels

Outcomes of support messages are a joint function of message quality and processing level Message content (quality) has strongest effect when processed extensively, and less effect when processed superficially Environmental cues have strongest effect when messages are processed superficially, and less effect when messages processed extensively
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Consequences of Processing Levels: Duration

Changes in affect and coping can be large and enduring when a high quality message is extensively processed (and thereby fosters changes in, e.g., cognitive appraisals) Changes in affect and coping fostered by distraction or environmental cues (i.e., heuristics) may be large, but are likely to be short-lived since these do not act on the causes of upset (i.e., appraisals)
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Determinants of Processing Level

Extensive processing occurs when recipients are motivated to attend to the message and have the ability to consider its content Motivational factors propel . . . information processing and give it its purposive character Ability factors encompass a persons capabilities and opportunities
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Motivational Influences on Message Processing

Individual Influences on Motivation
Affiliative Need Attachment Style Communication Values Culture of Support Recipient Depression Gender Schematicity Locus of Control Perceived Support Availability Self-Concept Sex of Support Recipient
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Situational Influences on Motivation

Recipient Need for Support Message Timing or Sequence Message Content

Ability Influences on Message Processing

Individual Influences on Ability Situational Influences on Ability

Cognitive Complexity

Stressfulness of Situation

Communicative Competence

Distractions

Emotional Intelligence
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Supportive Message

Temporary Positive Changes in Affect and Behavior

Yes Is the Recipient Motivated to Process the Helpers Message? 1 No Yes Is the Recipient Able to Process the Helpers Message? 2 Yes Is the Message of High Quality? 3 Yes Enduring Positive Changes in Affect and Behavior through Cognitive Reappraisals 4 No Little Change or Negative Changes in Affect and Behavior; Support Attempts That Fail and Cold Comfort; Negative Feelings toward Helper 5 Are There Relevant Peripheral Cues Present in the Communicative Situation? 6 No No Change in Affect or Behavior

A Dual Process Model for Supportive Communication 46 (after Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Initial Studies
Currently, engaged in a series of both survey and experimental studies that test aspects of our theory These studies focus on how motivational and ability factors influence responses to quality of comforting messages (i.e., person centeredness) and environmental cues (e.g., helper gender)

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Good Grief
(NCA, 2007) Examines how responses to griefmanagement messages that vary in person centeredness differ as a function of factors that influence:
ability to process (interpersonal cognitive complexity) ability and/or motivation (degree of emotional upset)
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Good Grief - Method

Participants (69 women, 36 men) had experienced a death loss in the previous two years (M = 11 months) Completed modified version of Marwit & Carusas Support-intended Statements Scale; this yielded evaluations of 16 comforting messages that varied in person centeredness (4 versions of each message) Also completed questionnaires assessing
interpersonal cognitive complexity (RCQ) degree of emotional upset (e.g., how upset were you?) thought list protocol (to measure elaboration)
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Good Grief Results 1

Message Cognitive Quality Complexity Low -.40** Moderate .09 High .29**
* p < .05, ** p < .01

Emotional PSA Upset -.26** -.41** .19* .01 .44** .01

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Regression of Evaluations for Highly Person-Centered Messages on Emotional Upset as Moderated by Level of Cognitive Complexity R a te d H e lp fu ln e s s o f H PC M essages 4.5 4
High Complexity Low Complexity

3.5 3 Low Average Level of Emotional Upset

High
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Good Grief Results 3

Effects of cognitive complexity and degree of upset on evaluations of LPC messages NOT significantly mediated by elaboration extent Effects of cognitive complexity on evaluations of HPC messages partially mediated by elaboration extent (about 20%)
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Everyday Comforting
(ICA, 2008)

Examines how responses to comforting message quality (person centeredness) and environmental cue (helper sex) vary as a function of factors that influence:
ability to process (interpersonal cognitive complexity) motivation to process (severity of problem situation)

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Everyday Comforting Predictions

With a mildly severe problem, recipients may rely on heuristics (like helper sex) when judging message quality, but this effect should disappear when dealing with moderately severe problems Cognitive complexity will increase ability to process messages, and thus the impact of message quality on evaluations Problem severity will increase motivation to process messages, and thus the impact of message quality on evaluations

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Everyday ComfortingMethod
331 college students (119 men and 202 women) Participants asked to assume they were experiencing one of 6 upsetting situations (e.g., not doing well academically) Two versions of each of these situations
a mildly severe version (e.g., getting a C on a quiz that counted 1% of the course grade) moderately severe version (e.g., getting a D in a course that required a B for admission into ones chosen major).
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Method (continued)
Participants read a set of 6 comforting messages that were attributed to either a female or male helper
2 low, 2 moderate, 2 high levels of person centeredness.

Participants rated messages on four, 5-point items tapping perceptions of message helpfulness (e.g., helpful, effective).
Alphas ranging from .81 to .91 and averaging .86.
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Method (continued)
Also completed questionnaires assessing
interpersonal cognitive complexity (RCQ) degree of emotional upset (e.g., how upset would you be?) thought list protocol (to measure elaboration)

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Effects of Message Quality and Problem Severity on Message Evaluations Among Low Complexity Participants
4.5 Rated M essage Helpfulness 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 Low Moderate High Level of Message Person Centeredness Problem Severity Effect: F (1, 167)=2.57, p >.10 Message Quality Effect: F (2, 334)=214.43 p <.001, 2 =.561 Message X Severity Interaction: F (2, 334)=0.59 p >.50
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Mild Problem Moderate Problem

Effects of Message Quality and Problem Severity on Message Evaluations Among High Complexity Participants
4.5 Rated Message Helpfulness 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 Low Moderate High Level of Message Person Centeredness Problem Severity Effect: F (1, 160)=6.73, p <.01, 2=.040 Message Quality Effect: F (2, 320)=339.79 p<.001, 2=.680 Message X Severity Interaction: F (2, 320)=4.49, p<.02, 2=.027
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Mild Problem Moderate Problem

Effects of Helper Sex and Problem Severity on Message Evaluations

Male Helper 3.3 3.2 3.1 Rated Message 3 Helpfulness 2.9 2.8 2.7 2.6 Mild Problem Moderate Problem Men Mild Problem Moderate Problem Women Female Helper

Sex of Participant and Severity of Problem

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Everyday Comforting Other Results

Elaboration extent associated with:
Cognitive complexity, r = .27, p < .001 Emotional upset, r = .23, p < .001

Elaboration extent significantly (but partially) mediated effects of:

Cognitive complexity on evaluations of LPC messages Emotional upset on evaluations of LPC messages
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Other Recent Research Findings

Factors associated with the ability and motivation to process supportive messages mediate sex differences in evaluations of LPC & HPC messages (NCA, 2008) Aspects of both the recipient & situation jointly influence the motivation to process messages & thus responses to these messages (IARR, 2008) More extensive processing of HPC messages reduces cardio-vascular reactivity in stressed participants (Bodie, 2008)

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Contributions of the Research

Presents and tests theoretical explanations about how people process supportive messages Explains effects of numerous variables on message processing and outcomes in a parsimonious and heuristic way Extends constructivism and dual-process models to a new context Provides guidelines for more effective support practice in many situations
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Other Questions Pursued by Constructivism

What factors underlie skill at producing effective messages? What are the social antecedents of skillfulness at producing and processing messages? How can we effectively train or develop communication skills?
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THANK YOU!

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