For fifty years, inquiry has attempted to capture how groups of people experience microaggression phenomena through multiple methodological and analytic applications grounded in psychology-influenced frameworks. Yet, despite theoretical advancements, the phenomenon has met criticisms trivializing its existence, falsifiability, and social significance. Unpacking possible interactive factors of a microaggressive moment invites a revisitation of the known and unknown pragmatic conditions that may produce and influence its discomforting situational “content.” This study employs an intentional, game-theoretic methodology based on brief, publicly-recorded, everyday conversation segments. Conversation segments of social interactions provide a means to conduct a mathematically-solid, computationally-tractable analysis of explaining what is happening during encounters where disability microaggressions are likely the result of partial (non)cooperation between communicators. Such analysis extends the microaggression research program (MRP) by: (1) proposing theoretical consequences for conversational repair phenomena, algorithmic programming, and experimental designs in negotiation research; and (2) outlining practical approaches for preventing microaggressions with new communication pedagogy, anti-oppression/de-escalation training programs, and calculable, focus-oriented psychotherapy. It concludes with an invitation for scholars to “be” in ambiguity so that they may speculate possible trajectories for the study of microaggressions as a communicative phenomenon.

This qualitative study explores communication privacy management processes around disclosing a child’s Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV) status within a pediatric healthcare relationship. The pediatric healthcare relationship is a triadic one composed of providers, parents, and patients. The literature from the fields of medicine, psychology and communication was used to explore disclosing HIV status by seropositive positive adults to others and by providers and parents to HIV positive children. Data for this study was collected from a hospital-based clinic using a 3-part protocol that included transcripts and information from a 6 member focus group interview, 42 patient medical charts, and two parent interviews. Datum was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that both providers and parents consider these adolescent behavioral indicators that disclosure is necessary: question-asking about medications and the need for medical appointments, the initiation of dating and sexual behavior, cognitive maturity, and chronological age. Providers and parents negotiate when and how the disclosure will occur and the providers perceptions of the permeability of the family privacy boundaries influence the negotiations. An adolescent’s failure to properly adhere to the medication regimen and the initiation of and engagement in sexual behavior are catalysts for immediate disclosure. Finally, a clinical tool is proposed to assist providers and parents in their negotiations around disclosing the child’s HIV status.

The popularity of feminism is growing. Every day more people claim to be feminist and work is done to end the control of patriarchy. Feminism though, because of its different waves and isolated recognition in the media, the actual goals seem unclear to males in particular; it is predicted that this increase in popularity in conjunction with the lack of clarity contributes to the development of toxic masculinity. “Feminism” is defined by bell hooks as a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression and “toxic masculinity” is a specific model of manhood, geared toward dominance and control and fear of the opposite. To understand the relationship between the two, the documentaries The Mask You Live In and Miss Representation were reviewed as well as books by bell hooks and C.J. Pascoe. Popular culture articles contributed to contemporary views at the public level. Using the knowledge gained from the literature, further research was done through one-on-one interviews with males age 18 to 32. Much of the literature does support toxic masculinity being encouraged and reinforced in varying ways including through the lack of acceptance of femininity and society’s strict gender roles. The interviews were inconclusive in defining a direct relationship between feminism promoting the development of toxic masculinity.

The aim of this research was to better understand the experience of bereaved individuals following their return to work, and the ways in which they communicatively negotiate their relationships at work and at home. One of the most salient facts of life is that everyone will all experience the death of a loved one. The amount, frequency, type, and recovery response for the bereaved may be vastly different, but inevitably everyone has to cope with death. Even though it is an integral part of life, the bereavement experience often is acknowledged as one of the most traumatic and stressful processes that occurs in individuals’ lives (McHorney & Mor, 1988; Miller & McGowan, 1997). In fact, roughly 5% of the workforce is affected by the passing of a close family member each year, and this number excludes those who experience the deaths of close friends (Wojcik, 2000). Evidence suggests that bereavement affects the physical and mental health of survivors, many of whom are in the workforce (Bauer & Murray, 2018; Hazen, 2003, 2008, 2009; Wilson, Punjani, Song, & Low, 2019). In order to explore how work-life roles are integrated into the lives of bereaved individuals, this dissertation qualitatively analyzed 36 interviews with bereaved employees (12), cohabitants (12), and coworkers (12). Through the use of procedural coding (Saldaña, 2009) and emergent codes, this dissertation answered the five posited research questions and their sub-questions. The results of this analysis have numerous implications for social support, emotion at work, grief, and bereavement leave policy. The following dissertation delineates the significance of this research, the literature review providing rationale for study of bereaved employees, qualitative methodological design, analysis of the data, and conclusions about bereavement and work-life relationships.

The division of household tasks has been studied extensively over the past fifty years, but there are unanswered questions about why partners still report imbalances. In this study, I employed a grounded theory research design to systematically collect and analyze data from newly cohabitating, dual-earner couples to generate theory. Three prominent theories (relative resources, time availability and gender ideology) served as the framework for this research. The purpose of this study was to expose the processes of meaning-making, interpretations and decision-making regarding divisions of housework and to determine if, and if so how, dissymmetry in household tasks are understood. My research questions addressed the meanings newly cohabitating couples ascribed to household tasks by and explored how they understand their allocation of these tasks. Eighteen in-depth interviews of six newly cohabitating couples were conducted. Results from the study highlight six major themes that contribute to couples’ meaning-making processes regarding housework performance: care, consistency, expectations, gender & upbringing, micromanagement, and task preference. These findings contribute to the broader body of housework literature by demonstrating how grounded theory methods may offer a unique approach to the examination of household task performance. Further, germination of the blended output theory of housework (B.O.T.H.) that emerged from this study could provide an opportunity to better understand changing family structures.

This study examined differences in personal definitions of virginity among college students who had received either abstinence-stressing sex education or comprehensive sex education. It was hypothesized that participants who received abstinence-education would be more likely to perceive virginity as a gift, to be unsure about what specific sexual activities result in virginity loss, to have taken formal or personal virginity promises, to define their own non-vaginal sexual activity as abstinent, and to have pretended to be a virgin when they were not. Two surveys were distributed online to students at a large Southwestern university, and responses from 352 quantitative surveys and 75 qualitative surveys were analyzed. Participants in the abstinence group were more likely to be unsure about what sexual activities count as virginity loss and were more likely to have pretended they were a virgin when they were not. Women in the abstinence group were more likely to perceive virginity as a gift than those in the comprehensive group, though men were not. No differences were discerned between the abstinence group and the comprehensive group in rates of formal virginity promises or in tendency to define their own sexual activity as abstinent.

This dissertation investigated positive intergroup contact and communication in the experiences of fans at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Guided by concepts from Intergroup Contact Theory (ICT), formerly Allport’s (1954) Contact Hypothesis, I asked fans to identify and discuss factors that were relevant to their experiences at the event. These factors are reported in previous literature to foster positive intergroup relations. The fan participants also provided detailed, experience-based rationales for why and how the factors supported each other and created individual models of their experiences of ICT at the Olympics. The study relied on participant-centered, in-depth qualitative interviews using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) software. Based on an integration of ICT, communication theories, social capital concepts, and calls from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and mega-sporting event industry, the dissertation sought to answer four research questions. It started with a broad approach to the array of previous scholars’ ICT factors in order to identify what factors were present and relevant in fans’ experiences. It also sought to understand why and how the factors worked together by analyzing the ways factors related to and supported each other in Olympic fans’ experiences and producing a composite meta-structure of the factors’ relationships. Additionally, through thematic analysis, the research explored where and when in fans’ experiences the factors emerged and were active. Finally, the study identified the functions that each ICT factor served in fostering positive intergroup contact and communication and offered suggestions for practitioners and organizers of intergroup contexts. The study aimed to make theoretical contributions by addressing gaps and calls in ICT literature, as well as practical contributions by providing insight about how to organize intergroup contexts to foster positive contact and communication. In addition to addressing its research questions, the study provided a comprehensive list of previous scholars’ ICT factors, a preliminary, tentative model of ICT for ideal intergroup contexts adapted from Pettigrew’s (1998) model of group membership transformation for problematic contexts, and promising future directions given the unique, ideal, and unexplored features of the Olympics.

ABSTRACT

This study sought to inform the curriculum of crew resource management (CRM) for multi-pilot flight deck operations. The CRM curriculum requires continued reexamination to ensure safe flight in the changing demographic of flight decks in the US. The study calls attention to the CRM curriculum’s insufficient inclusion of robust training components to address intercultural communication skills and conflict management strategies.

Utilizing a phenomenological approach, the study examined the communicative experiences of African American female military and airline transport pilots on the flight deck and within the aviation industry. Co-cultural theory was used as a theoretical framework to investigate these co-researcher’s (pilots) experiences. A parallel goal of the investigation was to better understand raced and gendered communication as they occur in this specific context—the flight deck of US airlines and military aircraft.

The researcher conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews and shadowed two co-researchers (pilots) for a period of days and built a relationship with them over the course of one year. Eight years of preparation working in the airline industry situated the researcher for this study. The researcher collected stories and interviews during this time immersed in industry. The data collected offers initial insights into the experiences of non-dominant group members in this unique organizational environment.

The study’s findings are reported in the form of a creative
arrative nonfiction essay. This effort was twofold: (1) the narrative served to generate a record of experiences for continued examination and future research and (2) created useful data and information sets accessible to expert and non-expert audiences alike.

The data supports rationalization as a co-cultural communication strategy, a recent expansion of the theory. Data also suggests that another strategy—strategic alliance building—may be useful in expanding the scope of co-cultural theory. The proposed assertive assimilation orientation identifies the intentional construct of alliances and warrants further investigation.

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airport security has become an increasingly invasive, cumbersome, and expensive process. Fraught with tension and discomfort, "airport security" is a dirty phrase in the popular imagination, synonymous with long lines, unimpressive employees, and indignity. In fact, the TSA and its employees have featured as topic and punch line of news and popular culture stories. This image complicates the TSA's mission to ensure the nation's air travel safety and the ways that its officers interact with passengers. Every day, nearly two million people fly domestically in the United States. Each passenger must interact with many of the approximately 50,000 agents in airports. How employees and travelers make sense of interactions in airport security contexts can have significant implications for individual wellbeing, personal and professional relationships, and organizational policies and practices. Furthermore, the meaning making of travelers and employees is complexly connected to broad social discourses and issues of identity. In this study, I focus on the communication implications of identity and emotional performances in airport security in light of discourses at macro, meso, and micro levels. Using discourse tracing (LeGreco & Tracy, 2009), I construct the historical and discursive landscape of airport security, and via participant observation and various types of interviews, demonstrate how officers and passengers develop and perform identity, and the resulting interactional consequences. My analysis suggests that passengers and Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) perform three main types of identities in airport security contexts--what I call Stereotypical, Ideal, and Mindful--which reflect different types and levels of discourse. Identity performances are intricately related to emotional processes and occur dynamically, in relation to the identity and emotional performances of others. Theoretical implications direct attention to the ways that identity and emotional performances structure interactions, cause burdensome emotion management, and present organizational actors with tension, contradiction, and paradox to manage. Practical implications suggest consideration of passenger and TSO emotional wellbeing, policy framing, passenger agency, and preferred identities. Methodologically, this dissertation offers insight into discourse tracing and challenges of embodied "undercover" research in public spaces.