Interpersonal constructs and communicative ability in a police environment: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

This study investigates the relation between indexes of the development of interpersonal construct systems and the qualities of messages generated in response to persuasive tasks within the context of an urban police force. Hypotheses assuming that length of sem'ce as a line officer would predict less &eloped construct systems, and that more developed construct systems would predict message strategies that acknowledge the unique qualities of receivers found general support. In addition, the possibility of further relations between length of service and message variables was explored, but no substantial atidence was found for such effects. These results show the importance of environmental influences on construct development, and suggest that interpersonal perception and message behavior functionally adapt to the needs of organizntional participation.Within the field of communication, constructivist theory (Applegate, 1989;Burleson, 1987;Delia, O'Keefe, & O'Keefe, 1982) focuses on the cognitive and strategic processes that serve as the foundation for human interaction. This position views communication as based upon a system of social cognitive schema (Kelly, 1955) which guide our understanding of people and situations and thereby influence our communicative behavior. Within the constructivist framework these cognitive systems are seen as developing along two conceptually discrete axes: first, the sheer number of constructs available for social perception is thought to increase with development (referred to as "differentiation"); second, the quality of interpersonal constructs is considered to develop from relatively concrete evaluative constructs (tdlshorf) to abstract constructs more reflective of individual dispositions and motivations (securelinsecure). Constructivist research has been directed toward understanding developmental differences in construct systems and their influence on communicative behavior.

Alternative measures of cognitive complexity as predictors of communication performance

“…Our comparison of Bieri et al's (1966) and Crockett's (1965) It should be noted that our findings may be limited by the nature of role-played communication tasks or may be limited to college student populations. However, to date the relationship found between Crockett's measure of cognitive complexity and person-centered communication (a) is consistent across measures of role-played, laboratory, and naturally occurring interactions and (b) has been found across a variety of populations such as daycare teachers, police officers, nurses, mothers, and medical students (e.g., Applegate, 1980aApplegate, , 1980bApplegate, , 1990Applegate, Coyle, Seibert, & Church, 1989;Clark & Delia, 1979;Clark, Willinghanz, & O'Dell, 1985;. Such diverse findings suggest our procedures for measuring person-centered communication in these studies are valid, and our measurement procedures have not interfered with our comparison of complexity measures.…”

What employees perceive as personal communication: results of a Q study on internal communication

“…Among other points, they addressed the aspect of “[p]ersonal familiarity” (p. 340) in communication style when analyzing online communication between different groups in a university setting. The concept of “person-centered” communication is in a similar vein since it conveys the idea that “personal” messages must be appropriate to a collocutor's perspective (Applegate et al , 1989; Yamaguchi, 2005; Fix and Sias, 2006; Bambacas and Patrickson, 2008; Tench et al , 2017).…”