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Virtual Team Communication Norms: Modeling the Mediating Effects of Relational Trust, Presence, and Identity on Conversational Interactivity, Openness, and Satisfaction
Abstract
Social Interactions in Virtual Worlds - edited by Kiran Lakkaraju July 2018
... After all, a larger portion of younger generations' social lives are lived through computers [62,63], and social learning seems to occur more quickly at higher levels of social presence [34,94]. This can strengthen the resulting emotional bonds that form between users [37,100], while older generations are thought to base evaluations of trustworthiness more on interpersonal contact and competence [1,19,101]. This leads to the expectation that age will moderate the association between presence and trust here [34], with social presence expected to contribute to trust for younger users more strongly. ...
Generalized trust has reached new lows in America, with young Americans now trusting the least. This complicates the process of interacting with new people, which formerly contributed to trust. The present study thus tested whether networked modes of social contact and social learning might add to interpersonal competence and generalized trust. Responses to a national web survey were matched to US Census percentages for sex, race, ethnicity, age, and region. The sample resembles the US population demographically and is theoretically large enough to represent it (N=1500). Data were analyzed using SPSS and PROCESS. Diverse contact in person was unrelated to trust in general and only contributed to trust for respondents 70 or older when particular age groups were considered. Interpersonal competence, on the other hand, contributed to trust overall, and for respondents 18–29, 40–49, and 50–59. Feeling capable of interacting with new people in person has become more important than the contact itself for trusting, as a way of generating numerous diverse interactions over time. Networked efforts of sociability and posting behavior were also related to trust here. Posting related to trust for respondents 18–29, while sociability contributed to trust for those 18–29, 30–39, and 50–59. Social presence (i.e., sensing immediacy and intimacy in networked settings) related to trust overall and for those 18–29 and 40–49. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) competence contributed to trust indirectly, by way of social presence, and the indirect effect was the largest for the youngest users surveyed. CMC competence had a larger association with interpersonal competence for younger generations as well, which became a second indirect path to trusting. Different age groups draw trust from different places, and trust interventions should also differ with age.
... The importance of a mental model of the VE for the manifestation of presence has been previously highlighted in the literature (Wirth et al., 2007). Therefore, this would also explain the non-significance of usability once presence was added to the model, providing further support for the assumption that prior experience and as a result, the perceived usability of the system, affect the manifestation of presence, extending prior work (Leonard et al., 2015;Sherblom et al., 2018) to collaboration in VR. ...
To enhance operational capability, military teams must possess both teamwork and taskwork knowledge, skills, and attitudes. With the growing availability and maturity of consumer-ready Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), there is an increased interest in adopting immersive Virtual Reality (VR) systems for team training. Whilst desktop-based Virtual Environments (VEs) are evidenced as effective delivery methods for team training (e.g. Barton, Bruce, & Schreiber, 2017), review of the evidence of a training benefit for emerging immersive technologies over desktop systems is inconclusive (Balint, 2021). To optimise future team training systems, it is important to develop an understanding of features endogenous to VEs that may positively affect team training and competency assessment. Building on an exploratory study (Balint, Stevens, Dudfield and Powell, 2020), this paper presents an empirical study that examined the effect of three features, immersion, presence, and psychological fidelity, on the ability of individuals to engage in teamwork. The study design was quasi-experimental between-subjects conducted remotely using an online game (PayDay 2). Seventy-seven experienced gamers were divided into 20 ad hoc teams and were asked to play a cooperative game, PayDay 2, on a desktop (14 teams) or an HMD (6 teams). Data analysis indicated that VE features examined did significantly predict perceived teamwork, over and above previous suggested confounds, such as usability and prior experience with the task and interface. However, not all factors had equal influence. Once usability of the system is perceived to be high enough, so as not to distract users from their task, presence appears to have the most influence on quality of teamwork. Thus, VE features need to be considered when designing systems due to their moderating effects on the ability of individuals to engage in teamwork. Furthermore, the results suggest that designers of future military VE team training systems should focus on maximising presence to support teamwork.
... In a study of Facebook use, Marino, Vieno, Pastore, Albery, Frings & Spada (2016) found that introverts had a greater tendency than extroverts to initiate and nurture friends through Facebook, thus making up for a lack of friendships in real life. Finally, Sherblom, Withers, Leonard & Smith (2018) studied teams in Second Life, finding that better communication among team members and team satisfaction was paired with behaviors such as trust, and being present. ...
Online social technologies, such as email, social networking applications, texting and others, are now used by a majority of individuals in the U.S. (Pew, 2018a). As a result, it is not uncommon to develop friendships with others that are conducted primarily in an online environment. However, we know little about the qualities of online friendships and how they may, or may not, differ from traditional face to face friendships. The present study focused on exploring friendship quality in online and offline domains using two groups: a gamer group and a non-gamer group that used non-gaming applications to connect with others online. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire to gather information about their online and face to face friendships, the McGill Friendship Questionnaire (Mendelsohn & Aboud, 2014) for their closest online and offline friends and measures of happiness, anxiety, and depression. In Study 1, within group comparison found that gamers’ online friendships were of significantly higher quality than their offline friendships. For non-gamers, the opposite results were found. A second study was done using a larger, non-college-based sample. Results of Study 2 found that for gamers and non-gamers offline friendships were of higher quality than online friendships, although both types of friendships existed in both groups. There were no differences between groups in general life happiness, anxiety or depression. Suggestions for follow-up research are presented.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the use of social media platforms compared to IT-enabled communication in the context of dispersed teams.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw on the millefeuille theory to develop a model that examines the impact of multiple media use (namely the millefeuille effect) on team performance. Data were collected from 70 dispersed teams.
Findings
We showed dispersed teams are more likely to improve their performance when relying on diverse media, including social media platforms and other IT-enabled communication. We provide empirical evidence that the millefeuille effect does not necessarily impede performance.
Originality/value
An increasing number of companies are implementing social media platforms as part of their media portfolio in addition to the already existing IT-enabled communication, such as email. However, we lack understanding of how the use of different media impacts team performance. Drawing on the millefeuille theory, this study investigates the use of social media platforms in dispersed teams by examining how their use with other IT-enabled communication can lead to team performance. This research introduces and differentiates two measures of the millefeuille effect to explain the different impacts of the millefeuille effect: millefeuille size (the number of non-overlapping media used) and millefeuille diversity (the variety of media used).
Our study explores the differences in the experiences and attitudes of students assigned to student teams in online courses versus face-to-face courses. The study was administered to 320 students in 14 sections (eight online and six face-to-face) of a graduate-level course. The results demonstrate that student ratings of team trust, team satisfaction, and team identity as assessed mid-semester are lower in online courses than face-to-face courses. As the semester progressed, these course modality differences in student perceptions of team trust and satisfaction diminished. However, feelings of team identity remained lower in online courses than in face-to-face courses through to the end of the semester. Implications for online instruction and recommendations for future research are offered.
A laboratory experiment investigated the processes that underlie the development of transactive memory structures - the organizing schemes that connect knowledge held by individuals to knowledge held by others (D. M. Wegner, T. Guiliano, & P. T. Hertel, 1985). The design was a 2 × 4 factorial that controlled expectations about the partner's knowledge (similar or different from the participant's) and cognitive interdependence, the degree to which participants' outcomes depended on whether they recalled the same or different information as their partner (defined by 4 incentives). Transactive memory was most differentiated when individuals had different expertise and incentives to remember different information and most integrated when individuals had similar expertise and incentives to remember the same information. These findings may help to explain the impact of previous experience and relationships on the development of transactive memory.
Scant research has examined the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for team learning across time. Drawing on theories of team learning, group development, and technological affordances, we provide a multi-method case analysis of emails and interviews that explores how and when team learning occurs. We analyze 468 emails and 20 interviews collected from a team in a large Swedish insurance company over the course of a 44-week project, from start to completion. The analysis reveals that the affordances of email (asynchronicity, editability, persistence, and replicability) and perceptions of time (time for face-to-face interaction [FtF] and time management) drive three nonlinear cycles of knowledge sharing, co-construction, and constructive conflict across the 44-week life span of the project. The findings challenge existing framings of team learning grounded in FtF contexts and highlight the increasing importance of team learning through ICTs.
The current article explores patterns of identity development in virtual worlds, with the aim of introducing a conceptual model of virtual identity. Despite the rapid spread of virtual environments, no model has been developed to date that fully captures this complex entity. Rather than taking a purely social approach, as has been the dominant trend in most prior work, the structural elements used in this current framework incorporate several dimensions and approaches identity as a conglomerate of personal, social, relational and material aspects. Building on an extensive body of the available literature, with the current conceptual model, we intend to provide a comprehensive base on which to further expand theoretically as well as empirically in future work-related concerning identity in virtual worlds.
Theoretically based factors of computer mediated communication (CMC) competence are analyzed in the context of education for effective use of internet technology in online interpersonal communication and group interaction. An empirical analysis was performed of two versions of a newly developed CMC competence self-assessment measure. The first version of this measure was applied in a paper-and-pencil form and the second version was administered online. A critique and suggestions for the improvement of the CMC competence self-assessment measure are provided alongside an elaboration of the empirically uncovered factors of CMC competence that closely correspond to some dimensions of face-to-face/off-line interpersonal communication competence. Finally, some remarks are made concerning the online testing procedures for web-based assessment systems related to CMC competence, and also about education for CMC competence as a part of education for participation in the information society.
One of the key challenges of distributed teams is the lack of social presence resulting from multiple work locations. Virtual environments (VEs) have been viewed as a collaboration tool for distributed teams that can enhance social presence via shared collaboration space and avatars. We observed, recorded, and analyzed the VE meetings of a globally distributed team. Data were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Our findings show that in the meetings, social presence was a situational phenomenon that constantly varied in strength. Social presence occurred as either a subgroup or group phenomenon, which at times coexisted at both levels. In particular, 2 of the 3 subdimensions of social presence, psychological involvement and behavioral engagement, were observable in team interaction.
What do interactions in virtual spaces suggest about everyday life in the digital age? How do interactions in virtual spaces shape everyday life in the digital age? Guided by hypermodern theory, I conduct participant observation in the social virtual world Second Life to provide tentative answers to those questions. I suggest that Second Life is both a social psychological playground where participants enjoy individualistic fantasies and a virtual community where they collaborate on collective projects. When people define the virtual as real, it is real in its consequences. Accordingly, social virtual spaces such as Second Life offer sociologists unique opportunities for research, education, intervention, and hence the development of a virtual imagination.
Most research of online communication focuses on modes of communication that
are either open (like forums, bulletin boards, Twitter, etc.) or direct (like
e-mails). In this work, we study a dataset that has both types of communication
channels. We relate our findings to theories of social organization and human
dynamics. The data comprises 36,492 users of a movie discussion community. Our
results show that there are differences in the way users communicate in the two
channels that are reflected in the shape of degree- and interevent time
distributions. The open communication that is designed to facilitate
conversations with any member, shows a broader degree distribution and more of
the triangles in the network are primarily formed in this mode of
communication. The direct channel is presumably preferred by closer
communication and the response time in dialogues is shorter. On a more
coarse-grained level, there are common patterns in the two networks. The
differences and overlaps between communication networks, thus, provide a unique
window into how social and structural aspects of communication establish and
evolve.
Trust has become more and more important in the context of mixed use of longitudinal face-to-face and computer mediated group collaboration using Group Support System tools. Previous research has investigated trust factors in different dimensions. This paper takes the perspective of individual trust and aims to explore the new trust factors and also their detailed second level trust sub-factors in computer mediated collaboration over time. We have taken the interviews using the student groups during the two year-long collaboration project based case studies. We have validated the previous factors and found seven new trust factors and thirty one sub-factors which are associated with the main factors. Furthermore, based on the new factors, this paper has also designed an innovative trust traffic light model with suggested steps which could be easily used to help analyze the trust factors development over time for future longitudinal studies.
The purpose of this study was to create a model for examining the relationships between computer-mediated-communication (CMC) apprehension, CMC skill, and CMC presence. Using structural-equation modeling, the study found that CMC apprehension and CMC skill negatively corelated with each other (− .36). Furthermore, CMC apprehension was not shown to relate to CMC presence (− .09), but CMC presence was shown to be impacted by CMC skill (.41). Increased skill in virtual environments likely enhances perceptions of presence in CMC.
Earlier research on online communication has observed how its distinctive characteristics (such as limited cues and potential asynchronicity) facilitate online communication, notably ‘hyperpersonal communication’. Yet these distinctive characteristics do not explain the development of trust in online communication. This article uses qualitative interviews with 17 internet users to explore the foundations of trust in online friendships, drawing on Piotr Sztompka’s theoretical framework. It concludes that there are four main sources of online trust. First, reputation, whether grounded in a pseudonym or offline identity. Second, performance, due to the scope for enhanced performance in online communication. More than this, performance plays an especially important role in the building of online friendship, following Giddens’ model of the pure relationship (1991). Third, pre-commitment, through self-disclosure, which in turn encourages a ‘leap of faith’ and reciprocal self-disclosure. Finally, situational factors, especially the premium placed upon intimacy and the pure relationship in contemporary societies.
This article reports on key aspects of a theory generative study into social presence in text‐based online learning environments. The focus of the article is the nature of social presence as experienced by online learners in those environments. Employing a collective case study design, the study accessed online learners’ experience‐based heuristic knowledge through a multi‐phase dialogical process which functioned as an extended interview. Among the key findings was (a) a definition of social presence drawn from learners’ experiences; (b) explication of the nature of social presence in online learning environments; (c) suggestions for the creation and sustenance of social presence in those environments; and (d) support for a relational view of social presence which emphasizes human agency in mediated social processes and foreshadows a role for social presence as a critical element of online learning environments.
Alternative views of computer-mediated communication suggest that it is devoid of affective cues and interpersonal expression, or that the translation of affect into verbal cues facilitates relational communication. Little research has examined basic affective communication online, mirroring a dearth of empirical research identifying spontaneous affective verbal cues in face-to-face interaction. An experiment prompted participants to enact greater or lesser affinity in face-to-face or synchronous computer chat dyads in order to assess the proportion of affect expressed verbally online compared to that which is verbal offline and the specific behaviors that account for affective communication in each channel.Partners’ ratings demonstrated affective equivalency across settings. Analyses of the verbal, kinesic, and vocalic behaviors of face-to-face participants and verbal transcripts from computer sessions revealed specific cues in each condition that led to these ratings. Results support a primary but previously untested proposition in the social information processing theory of mediated interaction.
This article contextualizes the special issue of the journal by discussing the importance of language variables in the study of communication technology. It asserts three reasons to study technology: to see how technology changes language use, to see how social actors adapt to technology limitations and thereby bring into sharp focus basic social processes in human interaction, and to inform the design of technologies based on theories of language and the requirements of communication dynamics. Computer-mediated communication offers special opportunities for examining language and communication theory, in that online discourse is immune to many nonverbal communication elements that may confound language effects in speech. The role of language in communication technology research has been cyclical, with recent research refocusing on language data as evidence of human-computer interaction effects. Future research directions are suggested.
The purpose of this research was to study social presence in the online learning environment. Dimensions of social presence were examined using quantitative and qualitative methods. Three dimensions of social presence-social context, online communication, and interactivity-emerged as important elements in establishing a sense of community among online learners. The privacy factor was also an important element in the level of comfort for students online. An increase in the level of online interaction occurs with an improved level of social presence. This can be fostered by considering characteristics of the learners, by selecting the appropriate computer-mediated communication medium, and by applying appropriate instructional elements to course design.
This research presents an experiment based on the theory of electronic propinquity, testing how the presence of alternate communication media, media bandwidth, information complexity, and users' communication skills affect propinquity (the psychological feeling of nearness) and satisfaction that communicators experience using different communication channels. Groups communicated using one or two of several different channels, including face-to-face, desktop video, audio, and text-based chat, with channel differences between members in some groups. Predicted effects of bandwidth, information complexity, communication skills, and comparative media availability on propinquity and satisfaction were observed. These findings demonstrate a confound in previous research on propinquity theory, suggest newfound validity, and extend the model to interactive computer-mediated communication channels unanticipated by the original theory. Implications include the potential of electronic propinquity to account for discrepancies in the research on computer-mediated communication that have been generated by other theories.
214 college students completed measures of public and private self-consciousness and social and personal aspects of identity. As predicted by self-consciousness theory, public self-consciousness correlated significantly more with social than personal aspects of identity, and private self-consciousness correlated significantly more with personal than social aspects of identity. Implications for the psychology of identity are discussed.
Based on interdependence theory and the interpersonal process model of intimacy, individuals' personal attributes, perceptions, cognitions, and affect should influence relationship expectations. Self-disclosure is one form of behavioural interdependence and includes perceptions of the partner's disclosure. These behaviours (own disclosure) and perceptions (perceived partner's disclosure) should impact cognitions about the self and partner (cognitive closeness) and affect about the relationship (satisfaction). Personal attributes also determine how people react. Allocentrism, one personal attribute, refers to an individual's orientation involving emotional ties and dependence on others. A study involving cross-sex friendships tested whether allocentrism predicted own disclosure, own disclosure predicted perceived friend's disclosure, which predicted closeness, and finally closeness predicted satisfaction. A series of hierarchical regressions supported these relations and accounted for 23% of the variance in satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Factor analysis, path analysis, structural equation modeling, and related multivariate statistical methods are based on maximum likelihood or generalized least squares estimation developed for covariance structure models (CSMs). Large-sample theory provides a chi-square goodness-of-fit test for comparing a model (M) against a general alternative M based on correlated variables. It is suggested that this comparison is insufficient for M evaluation. A general null M based on modified independence among variables is proposed as an additional reference point for the statistical and scientific evaluation of CSMs. Use of the null M in the context of a procedure that sequentially evaluates the statistical necessity of various sets of parameters places statistical methods in covariance structure analysis into a more complete framework. The concepts of ideal Ms and pseudo chi-square tests are introduced, and their roles in hypothesis testing are developed. The importance of supplementing statistical evaluation with incremental fit indices associated with the comparison of hierarchical Ms is also emphasized. Normed and nonnormed fit indices are developed and illustrated. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Demonstrates the application of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in testing 1st- and higher-order factor models and their invariance across independent groups, using a LISREL (linear structural relations) framework. Data from a study by the 1st author et al (see record
1985-09311-001) gathered from administration of the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ) to 658 Australian children in Grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 were used to examine the factor structure. The original study tested theoretical predications about the structure of self-concept advanced by R. J. Shavelson et al (see record
1978-30429-001) and Shavelson and R. Bolus (see record
1982-22201-001). In the present demonstration, CFA indicated that the basic factor model hypothesized to underlie the SDQ provided a good fit to the data across 4 age groups. Model 5, which proposes that there are 2 academic factors at the 2nd-order level that combine with the nonacademic factor to form a General Self factor at the 3rd-order level, was found to provide the best fit. Means and standard deviations for the 28 subscales of the SDQ are appended. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined recent applications of latent variable modeling (LVM) of reciprocal relationships involving employee attitudes with regard to assumptions made about unmeasured variables and correlations among residuals of structural equations. Data from 2 published studies from the job satisfaction and organizational commitment literature were reanalyzed with LVM. The consequence of specifying residual correlations was examined for models containing nonlagged and lagged reciprocal effects. The results of model comparison tests in both samples supported the importance of specifying correlations among the residuals, and many of the residual correlations estimated were statistically significant. Moreover, specifying residual correlations resulted in most of the significant parameter estimates representing reciprocal effects becoming nonsignificant, and changes in other parameter estimates also occurred. Implications for model specification are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Second Life, in a form of advergaming (a portmanteau of “advertising” and “gaming”), can be an innovative venue for marketing communication and brand management in virtual commerce (v-commerce). Virtual shopping malls in threedimensional (3D) environments provide interactive and immersive settings that complement strong offerings of electronic commerce. The ability to offer vivid and engrossing social interactions with spokes-avatars within 3D environments is the keyadvantage of interactive marketing in Second Life. This study particularly focused on the “physical presence” (i.e., the degree to which consumers feel as if virtual products and retail settings were real) dimension of interactive brand marketing in 3D virtual environments and its impact on brand-self connection and consumers’ evaluation of a spokes-avatar’s credibility. Data analyses show that an increased level of physical presence positively influences consumers’ brand-self connection and evaluation of spokes-avatar credibility (expertise and trustworthiness) in 3D virtual environment-based brand marketing.
The present study examines the influence of student knowledge, motivation, skill, apprehension, and the communication medium on the degree of participation in online classroom discussions. Regression analysis shows that student knowledge of the computer-mediated communication (CMC) medium is the strongest predictor, β=.41. Skill in communicating through the medium is second, β=.23. Apprehension, β= -.17, and motivation, β=.11, also affect student participation. The medium itself has little effect, β=.01. Results suggest that teaching students strategies for communicating in a CMC medium: coping with the reduced nonverbal cues available, engaging with specific conversational tactics, and using instructor techniques to reduce CMC apprehension and increase student motivation, can facilitate greater participation in online in computer-supported, collaborative learning (CSCL) classroom environments.
Second Life is one of the largest and most well-known, three-dimensional virtual worlds that exists today (Koles & Nagy, 2012). Since its launch by Linden Labs in 2003, Second Life has grown rapidly and currently boasts millions of participants worldwide 0in & Bolebruch, 2009). In 2005 Second Life was recognized as having become a major public relations opportunity (Cere, 2007; Martin, 2008; Nikolaou, Bettany, & Larsen 2010); and in 2006 the global public relations firm Text 100 International opened a Second Life office (Text 100, 2006). However, by 2007 public relations professionals began voicing skepticism over the possibility of developing any truly useful and important public relations campaigns in Second Life. In 2010, following results published by the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School to a survey of 400 executives’ responses to their public relations practices, Second Life was declared officially dead as a public relations tool.
This chapter provides a discussion of what has become known as media naturalness theory, a theory of communication media with a special focus on electronic communication, and developed based on human evolutionary principles. The theory is centered on the media naturalness hypothesis, which argues that, other things being equal, a decrease in the degree of naturalness of a communication medium (or its degree of similarity to the face-to-face medium) leads to the following effects in connection with a communication interaction: (a) increased cognitive effort, (b) increased communication ambiguity, and (c) decreased physiological arousal. It is argued here that the media naturalness hypothesis has important implications for the selection, use and deployment of e-communication tools in organizations. Unlike some previously proposed technologycentric theories, the media naturalness theory is compatible with social theories of behaviour toward electronic communication tools. Among other things, this chapter shows that the media naturalness theory is compatible with the notion that, regardless of the obstacles posed by low naturalness media, individuals using those media to perform collabourative tasks may achieve the same or better task-related outcomes than individuals using media with higher degrees of naturalness.
As pervasive as the use of avatars is in online communications, there exists little research on the influence of avatars on user trust in computer mediated communication environments. From a pedagogical perspective, this gap in the literature should be addressed because many e-learning environments utilize computer mediated communications tools as first-order mechanisms to support distance learning student-teacher interaction. In this study, we measured two dimensions of trust in order to assess whether or not there exists an affect from the uses of avatars on individual perceptions in computer mediated communications. Data analysis suggests that the use of avatars associated with trustworthiness affects trust development and in the perception of trustworthiness. The findings of this study are particularly important given the increasing rate at which many traditional educational activities are migrating to online environments and subsequently rely upon computer mediated communications as a principle means of student-teacher interface.
In our day-to-day routines, we are being asked to extend ourselves into virtual environments that capture mere glimpses of who we are and what we think. As education focuses on the development of online learning environments, we are once again asked to recreate ourselves for another environment. This article explores aspects of social presence and impression management within formal and informal online learning environments. It will examine the point of intersection between the theories of social presence and impression management as they relate to social network and learning sites and discursive practices. Social presence is understood as a key component of the constructivist and situated learning that can take place in online learning environments. An individual's impression management, which might be understood as their ability to send/read, recognize and be recognized through those cues they choose to present, becomes intertwined with their learning experience. At what point do these two theories intersect, and what implications does this have for the design of online learning environments?
Over the past decades, digital games have continued to extend their audience as they moved into
the cultural mainstream. Despite this fact, however, only a portion of those who play games consider
themselves a gamer. Drawing on insights from social identity theory, this study explores the factors
that contribute to why people attribute a gamer identity to self or others. It does so by considering 2
sites of identity construction: the social context of players and the broader cultural milieu. Results suggest
that a gamer identity is first and foremost associated with stereotypical behaviors that find their
origin in a consumption logic. Friendship networks, however, provide an important environment in
which a gamer identity can be performed.
People differ in the relative importance they place on personal versus social aspects of their identities. Two studies were conducted to examine hypotheses regarding the relationship between an individual's salient aspect of identity and behavioral preferences. In the first study, respondents whose identities were composed primarily of personal elements rated personally-relevant job outcomes, such as personal growth and self-fulfillment, as more important in their choice of an occupation than respondents whose identities were not based heavily on personal attributes. At the same time, subjects with predominantly socially-based identities preferred jobs that offered social rewards such as status and friendships. In Study 2, respondents high rather than low in personal identity were found to participate in "individual" rather than "team" sports to a greater degree, and emphasized personal reasons for engaging in recreation. On the other hand, subjects who placed more importance on social aspects of identity preferred "team" sports and more strongly endorsed social reasons for participating in sports.
This study investigated how student perceptions of prosocial instructor variables (immediacy, communication satisfaction, interpersonal attraction) and student academic entitlement predict graduate student reports of three dimensions (incompetent, indolent, and offensive) of teacher misbehaviors in online communication courses. Results revealed that communication satisfaction, immediacy, and task-related interpersonal attraction significantly predict student reports of incompetent and indolent teacher misbehaviors, while communication satisfaction and task- and social-related interpersonal attraction significantly predict perceptions of offensive teacher misbehaviors. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the teacher-student relationship and instructor approaches in the computer-mediated classroom context.
There is a “prevalence of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in education,” and a concern for its negative psychosocial consequences and lack of effectiveness as an instructional tool. This essay identifies five variables in the CMC research literature and shows their moderating effect on the psychosocial, instructional experience of the CMC classroom. These influences are: the medium, the social presence, the amount of student and instructor effort involved in classroom interaction, the student's identity as a member of the class, and the relationships developed among the instructor and students. The essay articulates ways in which a CMC classroom instructor can strategically address the challenge of these influences to develop positive CMC classroom interactions, relationships, and learning experiences.
Virtual teams are thought to be experienced differently and to have poor outcomes because there is little or no face-to-face interaction and a tendency for virtual team members to use different communication techniques for forming relationships. However, the expanding use of virtual teams in organizations suggests that virtual teams in real world contexts are able to overcome these barriers and be experienced in much the same way as face-to-face teams. This paper reports the result of an experiment in which virtual teams participated in an exercise where they completed an information-sharing task ten times as a team. The results suggest that, contrary to one-shot, ad hoc virtual teams, longer-lived virtual teams follow a sequential group development process. Virtual team development appears to differ from face-to-face teams because the use of computer-mediated communication heightens pressure to conform when a virtual team is first formed, meaning trust is most strongly linked with feeling that the team was accomplishing the task appropriately. As the virtual teams developed, trust in peers was more strongly linked with goal commitment. Once the teams were working together effectively, accomplishing the task appropriately was the strongest link with trust in peers. I suggest that virtual team managers should cultivate virtual workspaces that are similar to those proven to work in face-to-face contexts: (1) teams should have clear, specific goals, (2) members should be encouraged or even required to communicate with each other, and (3) team members should feel that they might work with the other team members again.
This study investigated the effects of trust and constructive controversy on student achievement and attitude in online cooperative learning environments. Students in one university course were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups after they took part in a common initial workshop on general cooperative learning skills. The “trust” and the “constructive controversy” groups received subsequent associated skills training. The overall results indicated that after each group received the treatment during online cooperative group activities, the “trust” groups had significantly higher achievement than the “constructive controversy” groups. In addition, the “trust” groups had significantly more positive attitudes toward online cooperative learning than the “constructive controversy” groups. Specifically, using “trust” building strategies was significantly more effective than using “constructive controversy” strategies for improving the ‘openness and sharing’ and ‘acceptance and support’ components of student attitudes in online cooperative learning environments.
The optimal matching and social capital perspectives frame present research expectations and interpretations of the network, esteem, informational, and emotional support communication of 3 computer-mediated communication social support groups, each having a different health-promoting purpose. Past research has shown differences in the support communication provided by different groups but has offered little explanation for these differences. The present study uses a comparative analysis of optimal matching and social capital influences to compare and analyze differences in the support communication provided by Alcoholics Anonymous, cancer caregivers, and transgender identity support groups. Results show different patterns of support communication enacted in each. These results provide support for optimal matching and social capital predictions, indicating that the life stressor and group structure affect the social support provided. However, results also demonstrate a need for greater refinement in interpreting the effects of these influences. Each group communicates network, esteem, informational, and emotional support somewhat differently in response to the life stressor and in enacting bridging and bonding social capital. The present comparisons provide a fuller analysis of the optimal matching and social capital influences upon the support communicated in groups than afforded by past research studies and suggests research opportunities for future research.
This article introduces the novel model of “virtual identity discrepancy” as an investigative framework for computer-mediated self-representation and interpersonal communication in avatar-based virtual environments (VEs). Study 1 examined the roles of virtual self-discrepancy and self-presence in intrapersonal virtual identity construction. Study 2 explored the roles of virtual other-discrepancy, social presence, expectancy violation, and uncertainty reduction in animated avatar-to-avatar (AtA) virtual social interaction. Mediation analyses following a bootstrapping procedure indicated that self-presence mediates the relationship between virtual self-discrepancy and flow while social presence mediates the relationship between virtual other-discrepancy and flow. Furthermore, expectancy violation mediates the relationship between self-disclosure and trust in text-based chatting while uncertainty reduction mediates the relationship between nonverbal immediacy and flow in nonverbal communication between avatars.
Is the use of an online course delivery format, when compared with the more tradi- tional face-to-face format, good or bad in the context of university education? Those who subscribe to the no-significant-difference perspective argue that online delivery is good, because it allows students with time and geographic distance constraints to obtain the education that they need, with no significant negative impact on the quality of the learning experience. Others argue that online delivery is bad, advocating a version of the competing significant-difference perspective, because the electronic communication media used for online delivery are not rich or natural enough to enable effective learning. This study contrasted students perceptions and grades in two different sections of the same course: one delivered entirely online and the other delivered face to face. Data were collected and analyzed at two points in time, namely, at the middle and end of a long semester. The study found support for both the no-significant- and significant-difference perspectives. At the middle of the semester, students in the online condition perceived communication ambiguity as significantly higher, and also obtained significantly lower grades, than students in the face-to-face condition. At the end of the semester, no signif- icant differences were found.
From birth to death, many individuals chronicle their lives online through blogs, pictures, games, Web sites, and social networks. Online spaces, created by the living about the dead, provide a glimpse into often invisible or silent grieving practices. To investigate the role computer-mediated communication (CMC) plays in influencing communication surrounding the often private and taboo topic of suicide, we analyzed the comments sections of MyDeathSpace.com. Our results suggest both a breaking down of social taboos (speaking ill of the dead) and a reaffirming of strict social norms (enforcing a narrow range of acceptable presentation of identity and purpose in life), highlighting how anonymity as a characteristic of CMC can influence our online communication about death.
The multidimensionality of communication satisfaction was explored in three stages. An original questionnaire was administered and factor- analyzed. On this basis, a new questionnaire was refined and administered to four different organizations in order to compare the factor structures derived from each. Finally, each of the stability factors were correlated with a global measure of job satisfaction.
This study examines relationships among interpersonal informational trust and openness with Internet-based political activities and attitudes. Conceptually, it proposes the categorization of online spaces and activities as consumption or interaction types, and classifies interpersonal informational trust within inner and outer circles. Interpersonal informational trust was found to be positively associated with perception of online activities as political participation. It also was associated with use of all types of online media for purposes of political communication, but mostly with online spaces that require interaction with others. Interpersonal political openness showed positive association with the use of interactive-type Web sites for purposes of political communication.
Understanding communication processes is the goal of most communication researchers. Rarely are we satisfied merely ascertaining whether messages have an effect on some outcome of focus in a specific context. Instead, we seek to understand how such effects come to be. What kinds of causal sequences does exposure to a message initiate? What are the causal pathways through which a message exerts its effect? And what role does communication play in the transmission of the effects of other variables over time and space? Numerous communication models attempt to describe the mechanism through which messages or other communication-related variables transmit their effects or intervene between two other variables in a causal model. The communication literature is replete with tests of such models. Over the years, methods used to test such process models have grown in sophistication. An example includes the rise of structural equation modeling (SEM), which allows investigators to examine how well a process model that links some focal variable X to some outcome Y through one or more intervening pathways fits the observed data. Yet frequently, the analytical choices communication researchers make when testing intervening variables models are out of step with advances made in the statistical methods literature. My goal here is to update the field on some of these new advances. While at it, I challenge some conventional wisdom and nudge the field toward a more modern way of thinking about the analysis of intervening variable effects.
Avatar-based, three-dimensional, virtual environments such as Second Life, the most popular and fastest growing environment, offer a promising corporate communication channel for brand marketing, advergaming, and interactive advertising. Drawing on presence literature, this study examines the effects of the presence (versus absence) of spokes-avatars that provide product information and consumers’ multimodal interactions with these spokes-avatars on improvements in the consumers’ product involvement, attitude toward the product, and enjoyment of the online shopping experience. In addition, this study investigates the effects of spokes-avatars’ physical characteristics in terms of humanness (versus non-humanness) on consumers’ evaluation of their physical attractiveness and the information value of the advertisement message. A path analysis reveals a mediating role of spokes-avatars’ physical attractiveness.
present a conceptual framework for understanding the managerial choice process based upon symbolic interactionism / research linking appropriate media choice with managerial effectiveness will be presented / message equivocality and media choice / contextual determinants and media choice / symbolic meaning and media choice
practical guidelines for managers / 1. send equivocal messages through a rich medium / 2. send unequivocal messages through a lean medium / 3. be a critical receiver / 4. use the medium for its symbolic message / 5. evaluate new communication technology carefully (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present study investigates why people participate in Second Life social support groups. Twenty-three participants in Alcoholics Anonymous and Cancer Caregiver groups that meet in Second Life were interviewed and asked how satisfied they are with those meetings, what influences their satisfaction, what they find most helpful, what they like the least, the nature of their relationships in the group, and what surprised them the most. Their responses identify the text-based anonymity, nearly synchronous communication, visual representation of avatars, and use of time and virtual space as influences that stimulate hyperpersonal relationship development in their Second Life social support groups.