Mackenzie Galick

Listening Styles and Receiver Apprehension

This study explores participant’s results on the Listening Style Profile and Receiver Apprehension score in an attempt to discover if there is a correlation between a participant’s listening style and the degree to which they are an anxious listener. 49 individuals participated in our survey and were categorized into listening styles based on how they attend to and process information in a conversational setting. They were also scored based on their fear of misinterpreting or inadequately processing messages sent by others.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #3

1 – 3 PM

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Zoe Herron & Jordan Norris

Connections Between General Communication Competence and Intercultural Willingness to Communicate

With little previous research conducted on the specific links between a person’s general communication competence and their actual willingness to communicate interculturally, we have chosen to explore possible connections between the two in our research. Hypothesizing that those who are more competent in their communication would be more willing to engage in intercultural communication, we surveyed participants on each instrument (Communication Competence Scale and Intercultural Willingness to Communicate) and then examined and evaluated any correlations between the results.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #4

1 – 3 PM

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Kayla Miller & Abby Spencer

Individualism/Collectivism and The Willingness To Communicate Inter-culturally

We conducted a study to examine people’s willingness to communicate inter-culturally among individualistic versus collectivist cultures. We wondered if people were more likely to communicate inter-culturally in an individualist culture or a collectivist culture. Accordingly, we predicted the outcome to be that collectivist cultures will be less likely to communicate inter-culturally. Fourteen people participated in two surveys that tested the relationship between intercultural willingness to communicate and individualism or collectivism. The Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS), and the Intercultural Willingness to Communicate scale were the two survey’s they were presented. In the Intercultural Willingness to Communicate, participants were given twelve situations in which a person might choose to communicate or not communicate, and were asked to indicate the percentage of times he/she would choose to do so. In the AICS, 30 statements were listed to measure where he/she lies on the individualist or collectivist spectrum. Participants had the option to choose from never, rarely, sometimes, usually, often, or always when filling out the survey. The study found a .39(39%) correlation between the two instruments. This study did not produce a high enough percentage to confirm our hypothesis to be true.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #5

1 – 3 PM

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Gabrielle Morales

‘I’m Tired of Not Being Home’: A Rhetorical Fantasy-Theme Analysis of Huerta’s Speech on PTSD

It is common knowledge that many veterans hold symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); however, as active soldiers, most neglect to acknowledge the early symptoms.  Chaplain Carlos Huerta (2012) explores this in his speech. While the speech may read as an autobiography or personal account of his experiences battling with PTSD, the artifact embodies the experiences of all military members who struggle with the condition.  When Ernest Bormann’s fantasy-theme criticism is applied to analyze Huerta’s speech, it is made clear that Huerta is creating a shared worldview of soldiers, both past and present, who are in constant battle with PTSD both on and off the physical war battlefield.

COMM 441, Rhetorical Criticism

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #10

1 – 3 PM

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Gianna Rains

Give Extra, Get Extra’: A Narrative Criticism of Wrigley’s Extra Gum Commercial “The Story of Sarah & Juan”

Wrigley’s Extra gum commercial became popular immediately after being aired. Commercials strive to associate their product with positivity, and Wrigley took this goal to the next level. They created a love story that consisted of a young couple, events of their love story, creative settings, and an organized timeline. The audience gets to see how Sarah and Juan’s love story unfolds, as well as how they commemorate their history of love with giving the other a piece of gum. A narrative criticism looks for key characteristics: character(s), events, and setting(s). These three features help determine what the objective of the commercial is. In this commercial ad, Wrigley’s primary objective is to sell their gum. The secondary objective is to have the audience associate Extra gum with Sarah and Juan’s history and commemoration of their love story. Their unique story also reveals that gender roles and racial norms are challenged, while the tradition of a proposal and marriage remains the same. Therefore, their objectives are effective because of the supporting characteristics of the ad.

COMM 441, Rhetorical Criticism

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #12

1 – 3 PM

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Rory Rice

Feminist Criticism

Taking  the speech by Chamamanda Adichie “Everyone should be a Feminist” and, then learn the theory of feminist criticism so that we can dig into the different ways a feminist critic will dissect the artifact and then we can come up with the conclusion of what the speaker is saying.

COMM 441, Rhetorical Criticism

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #14

1 – 3 PM

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Michael Buss, Tanner Dean

An Attempt at Visual Arguemnt

Visual arguments are heavily dependent on their context and enthymematic nature. The visual must make a claim, or claims, that are understood by the audience and also provide reasons why those claims are true. We have attempted to translate these concepts to a visual debate: Resolved: Digital photography is better than film photography.

COMM 325, Argumentation and Debate

Doyle Srader

P003

3 – 3:30 PM

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Lesly Eran

Muted Voices

This senior capstone project evaluates the effectiveness and influence of how communication affects the way gender roles are viewed based on the Muted Group Theory. At the event, guest speakers were invited to participate in a symposium panel where questions and answers were discussed identifying the importance and impact of the issues that arise among gender roles and communication. The project was held on the Northwest Christian University campus as an event.  Attendees were counted to measure the effectiveness of this event.

COMM 499, Capstone

Doyle Srader

P003

11 – 11:30 AM

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McKenzie Wirth

Conflict Styles and Using Secret Tests

Conflict styles influence how a person solves problems in his or her relationships. There are five common Conflict Styles: Accommodation, avoidance, competitive/aggressive, compromise and collaborative (Thomas, 1976). When uncertainty over a romantic partner’s commitment to the relationship arises, this could be a potential problem area in which a person’s conflict style makes a difference as to how he or she reduces uncertainty and solves this issue. Often, individuals who have an avoidant conflict style don’t like discussing problems directly with their relational partners, because they experience communication apprehension (Thomas, 1976). Thus, it’s plausible that these individuals may employ Secret Tests to reduce the uncertainty they feel towards their partner’s commitment to the relationship. There are seven common strategies: asking-third-party tests; directness tests; triangle tests; separation tests; endurance tests; public presentation tests; and indirect suggestion tests. The present study seeks to determine the following: 1) If a person has a predominately non-confrontational (passive) approach to conflict, then he or she will use indirect secret tests; and 2) If a person has a predominately solution-oriented (assertive) or controlling (aggressive) approach to conflict, then he or she will not use indirect secret tests.

COMM 499, Capstone

Doyle Srader

P003

10:30 – 11 AM

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Michael Buss

Effective Forgiveness

Given the inevitability of conflict and relational transgressions in interpersonal relationships, forgiveness plays an essential role in the maintenance of relationships. Factors, such as offense severity and blameworthiness effect the type of forgiveness, either direct, indirect, or conditional, and even if someone will choose to forgive at all. If the act of forgiveness is not sincere, the forgiving party’s negative affect will not be reduced. Sincere forgiveness is strongly correlated with a sincere apology.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, poster #1

10 AM – Noon

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Lesly Eran

Exploring: The Positive Outcomes After Breaking Up

The affirmation of romantic relationships is very important for individuals because this can reinforce the sense of identity and self-esteem in people. Researchers have found that positive emotions can occur following a breakup, particularly when different personal growths happen after the dissolution. Moreover, researchers also advise various methods to overcome the ending of a romantic relationship.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, poster #4

10 AM – Noon

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Colby Hanson

The Complexity of Being a Good Comforter

Knowing how to comfort effectively can make a significant difference in how people close to you are able to deal with difficult situations. There are many different suggested approaches to comforting, but few are backed by research. Results from studies have demonstrated that effective comforting doesn’t come from an effective trait or technique, but rather a “person- centered” approach that takes into account the distressed person and elements of the situation.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, poster #5

10 AM – Noon

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Colby Hanson

Crossing the Finish Line the Wrong Way

Physical appearance is often the first source of information that people gain when seeing/meeting others for the first time. This study observed what happened when this wasn’t the case. Participants were shown a story about someone before seeing a picture of that person. Results found that showing a negative story about someone attractive, and then showing a picture of that person, significantly decreased the perceived attractiveness of the person compared to uninformed ratings. When an unattractive person was paired with a positive story, and an average looking person was paired with a neutral story, there were positive, but insignificant changes in the perception of attractiveness.

COMM 499, Capstone

Doyle Srader

P003

1 – 1:30 PM

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McKenzie Hinson

Talk Clean to Me: Removing the Taboo Surrounding Sex-Communication with Children

One particularly tricky communication situation occurs when people communicate with their children about the concept of sex. In communicating, parents have the opportunity to convey ideas, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and expectations to their children, and consequently, parents play an important role in the formation of their children as they move into adolescence and adulthood. Despite an understanding of this, parents often feel uncomfortable when discussing sexual matters with their children, and research suggests that there are unique challenges and concerns in discussing things of a sexual nature with young children and with adolescents. In light of the research presently discussed, parents should strive to have open sex-communication with their children. While there are legitimate concerns and anxiety regarding sex-communication with children, general parent-child communication was found to be a significant predictor of adolescent sexual behavior. Though these conversations are not necessarily easy to have, it’s arguable that parent-child sex-communication is important at any age, and thus, should not be avoided.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, poster #6

10 AM – Noon

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Madi Novelli

Attraction & Lasting Relationships

Attraction plays a big role in relationships and can determine just how long some relationships last. People get into relationships to better enhance their self. Research shows that similarities play a big part when someone is attracted to someone. However, not having much in common is great as well because different personalities and interests can make someone else experience new things and make their self even greater. Bad attraction also happens a lot within the process of getting into relationships. Bad attraction is often found with online dating or relationships that are pretty much all on a screen. Those relationships lack face to face conversations and human touch that can really affect relationships in the long run.

COMM 413, Advanced Interpersonal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, poster #8

10 AM – Noon

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Maci Beierle & Joseph Miller

America’s Shift to a Contact Culture

The purpose of this presentation is to show how America has shifted from a non-contact culture to a contact culture. Our hypothesis states that America has transitioned to a more contact culture over the past 50 years. This research is analyzed with the help of two popular sitcoms in their respective times; I love Lucy (1950’s) and Modern Family (2010’s). After watching the “”Pilot”” episodes in each sitcom, we recorded all physical contact between couples, male and females, and those of the same sex. Both sitcoms displayed all three-gender aspects within physical contact, whether it was a tap on the shoulder or a kiss on the cheek. With the information we gathered from these episodes, we were able to conclude that our hypothesis was correct.

COMM 430 Nonverbal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #2

10:00 AM – Noon

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Michael Buss

Nonverbal Communication in Worship Band Settings

When worship bands play live, they need to communicate in order to make the music as fluent and flawless as possible. Verbal communication is limited if not absent during a live set, therefore band members must communicate non-verbally. Rehearsal times are essential to achieving a fluent live set. It is beneficial to have more than one rehearsal before playing live. Rehearsals are the place to coordinate song road map and dynamics which are managed through corrective and expressive behaviors primarily displayed by the band leader. The first rehearsal is the coordination stage, the second rehearsal is the dress rehearsal and finally, the culmination of events, the live performance.

COMM 430 Nonverbal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #3

10:00 AM – Noon

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Niki Duncan & Lesly Eran

Gender and Power Roles Displayed Nonverbally in Advertising

In this study we will be looking at the difference between nonverbal gender and power role cues in advertising magazine pictures from 1995 and 2016. Our purpose is to find out how gender roles have altered throughout the years.  We estimate that Women will have more encouraged independence, and power in women’s magazines today than they did in 1995. We also hypothesize that there will be less of a difference between men’s gender roles within magazines in 1995 and magazines today in 2016.

COMM 430 Nonverbal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #4

10:00 AM – Noon

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Colby Hanson & McKenzie Hinson

Nonverbals and Finding Success on The Voice

For the purpose of this study, we examined performers’ gestures, primarily illustrators and affect displays, in order to determine if there is a correlation between these nonverbal displays and the likelihood of winning the singing competition The Voice. We hypothesized that if a performer is able to use illustrators and affect displays more frequently and efficiently, then he or she will have a greater likelihood of wining the competition, because in so doing, he or she will elicit powerful, satisfying emotions in audience members. Thus, audience members will feel a greater connection to the performer, causing them to vote in favor of the performer.

COMM 430 Nonverbal Communication

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #5

10:00 AM – Noon

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Joshua Higashi

Language of Leaders

I will be presenting a poster comparing two speeches I wrote. I wrote a speech for current NCU President Joseph Womack and for former President of New Hope Christian College Guy Higashi. I will be comparing the differences in speeches based on the speaker’s cultural and ethnic background as well as the audience’s demographic.

COMM 311 Speechwriting

Doyle Srader

Banquet Room, Poster #2

1:00 – 3:00 PM

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