ABSTRACTS

Volume 6, Number 4
October-December 2001

Vol. 6, Num. 4: Contents | Editorial | Up Front | Abstracts

Campaign Exposure and Interpersonal Communication as Factors in Contraceptive Use in Bolivia
     Thomas W. Valente, Walter P. Saba

Two mass media campaigns concerning reproductive health were broadcast in Bolivia from March 1994 to June 1996. Data were collected at three time points from both cross-sectional and panel samples of randomly selected, married, urban women. Campaign exposure and interpersonal communication with spouse, friends, and others were associated with contraceptive knowledge and use, but not attitudes. Campaign exposure was associated with perceptions that members of one's personal network used contraception. This study provides a more contextual view of campaign effects by linking mass media and personal network communication.

Relational Control in Difficult Physician–Patient Encounters: Negotiating Treatment for Pain
     Susan Eggly, Angela Tzelepis

Many physicians report feelings of frustration and anger resulting from encounters with patients during which there is disagreement over the use of narcotics to treat pain. In this article, investigators report a relational control analysis of transcripts of three encounters of this type in order to explore the control dimension of these interactions. Similar analyses in the literature have reported that patients in general attempt to gain control of the interaction more often than previously thought. Results of this analysis, however, were remarkable in that nearly half of the transactions were characterized by competition for control. In addition, a descriptive analysis of the control-gaining strategies revealed physician strategies of giving instructions and orders, explicitly rejecting or disagreeing, providing reasons, and attempting to negotiate; patient strategies included explicitly rejecting or disagreeing and providing reasons. Communication skills training may enhance physicians' ability to understand their feelings of discomfort in this type of interaction as well as train them to be more effective communicators during interactions in which there is a struggle for control.

Addressing Cultural Orientations in Fear Appeals: Promoting AIDS-Protective Behaviors among Mexican Immigrant and African American Adolescents and American and Taiwanese College Students
     Joe Sampson, Kim Witte, Kelly Morrison, Wen-Ying Liu, Anne P. Hubbell, Lisa Murray-Johnson

Fear appeals threatening the individual have been shown to be powerful persuasive devices in the cultures where they have been studied. However, most fear appeal research has been conducted with members of individualist cultures. Individualist cultures place self-needs above group concerns, while collectivist cultures place group needs above self-concerns. Little is known about the effectiveness of fear appeals (or other persuasive strategies) in collectivist cultures. Two studies assessed the effectiveness of AIDS-prevention fear appeals threatening the self versus fear appeals threatening the group (i.e., family) on members of individualist and collectivist cultures. The first study focuses on African American and Mexican immigrant junior high school youth. The second study focuses on U.S. and Taiwanese college undergraduates. The results indicated that fear appeals should address cultural orientation (i.e., individualist versus collectivist orientation) to achieve maximum effectiveness. The results also indicate that one cannot assume cultural orientation based on ethnicity.

BOOK REVIEW

Persuading People to Have Safer Sex: Applications of Social Science to the AIDS Crisis
Richard M. Perloff
Reviewed by Kathryn Greene