Reflected Appraisal through a 21st-Century Looking Glass

The concept of reflected appraisal—also known as reflected self-appraisal or the looking-glass self—refers to the processes by which people\u27s self-views are influenced by their perceptions of how others view them. Reflected appraisal is reflected in the metaphor that people use others as a mirror (i.e., looking glass) for judging themselves, and also in the sense that others\u27 judgments are reflected in self-judgments. The concept refers simultaneously to person A\u27s self-appraisal and person A\u27s appraisal of person B\u27s appraisal of person A. These appraisals exert reciprocal influence: Self-views affect judgments of others\u27 views, and judgments of others\u27 views affect self-views. In short, reflected appraisal can be viewed as a cycle of mutually influential judgments

Virtual Teams Affect, Performance and Interpersonal Perception with Unexpected Leadership Change

Traditional ways of doing business and communicating in the workplace are changing. With frequent mergers, shifting operational demands and underlying economic pressure, computer-mediated communication has been increasingly employed. To achieve greater flexibility in workforce configurations, working virtually is often more the norm than the exception. With continuously improving internet technologies, frequently work-teams are formed when members are not geographically co-located. Both internal and external pressures combine, in the corporate setting, to produce an unprecedented velocity of change which seems especially related to globalization. (Held, 2007) Just exactly how does the virtual team handle abrupt change? While many researchers focus on the differences between face-to-face teams and virtual environs (Olson & Olson 2000), formation of trust (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999), leadership (Kayworth & Leidner , 2001/2002), emergent leadership (Wickham &Walther, 2007), status differences (Weisband, Schneider, & Connolly, 1995), knowledge integration (Hartmann, Piontkowski, Keil, & Laus, 2002) (Malhotra & Majchrzak, 2004) (Zakaria, Amelinckx, & Wilemon, 2004), crossing cultures (Gibbs, 2009) and innovation (Nemiro, 2002),there has been relatively less focus on how the virtual experience influences the emotional state, cognitive functioning, and metaperceptions of teams who work virtually. It would be assumed that instability would affect the virtual teams negatively; however, there could be something different about virtual teams that uniquely position them for better sailing in shifting winds. In the laboratory we simulated the workplace virtual team structure in a streamlined way, assembling 40 groups from the community. This study examined how a quick change of leadership influences the virtual team across measures of affect, cognitive performance, group process performance and evaluative concerns. The teams experiencing leadership change experienced lower positive affect and blunted positive metaperception. Cognitive performance, negative affect, evaluation, and perceptions of team processes were remarkably stabl

An Identity-Based Theory of Information Technology Design for Sustaining Virtual Communities

A variety of information technology artifacts, such as those supporting reputation management and digital archives of past interactions, are commonly deployed to support virtual communities. Despite the ubiquity of these artifacts, research on the impact of various IT-based features on virtual community communication is still limited. Without such research, the mechanisms through which information technologies influence community success are not well-understood, limiting the design of community infrastructures that can enhance interaction in the community and minimize dysfunction. This paper proposes that identity management is a critical imperative in virtual communities and concerns related to communication of identity serve to shape an individual’s interactions and perceptions in the community. Sensitivity to this perspective can help in drawing design guidelines for the IT infrastructure supporting the community. Drawing upon the social psychology literature, this paper proposes an identity-based view to understanding how the use of IT-based features in virtual communities can improve community sustainability. Specifically, identity consonance, defined as the perceived fit between a focal person’s belief of his or her identity and the recognition and verification of this identity by other community members, is proposed as a core construct that mediates the relationship between the use of community IT artifacts and member satisfaction and participation. We analyze four types of community IT artifacts and suggest that they influence identity consonance. The conceptual framework and propositions presented in this article offer a fresh perspective on virtual communities and suggest important implications for the design of the supporting IT infrastructure

Efecto del tono de voz y de la percepción del rostro en la formación de impresiones sobre los hablantes mediáticos

Se observó el efecto de la frecuencia fundamental de las voces (el tono) y de la percepción del rostro en las impresiones sobre hablantes mediáticos. Se pretendía determinar si existía relación entre la información visual y una característica eminentemente acústica: el tono. 320 sujetos fueron sometidos a una de dos condiciones: sonora (percibían sólo las voces) o audiovisual (veían las caras). Luego, respondían mediante escalas del diferencial,a la pregunta: ¿El locutor le pareció? Los resultados muestran que el tono influye en las impresiones, que la percepción del rostro evidencia las diferencias en el enjuiciamiento de las voces agudas, medias o graves, y que la credibilidad dirige las evaluaciones.The study observed the effect of fundamental frequency of voices and perception of the face on the audience's impressions of radio and television speakers. It pretended to determine if there was a relationship between the visual information obtained from face and a specific attribute of oral interpretation: tone. 320 subjects were assigned to one of two conditions: audio (only hearing voices) or audiovisual (also seeing faces). Later, answered a questionnaire with semantic differential scales. Results show tone does influence impressions, that perception of face does make a difference to judgments depending of the tone of the voices (low, medium or high) and that credibility directs evaluations of media speakers

Volume 32, Summer 2005 Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Complete digitized volume (volume 32, Summer 2005) of Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Exploring the Role of Identity Development in Social Networking Web Pages

This study investigates young adults’ social networking web pages for aspects related to identity development. The study is primarily based on the theory of identity development presented by Berzonsky (1997). Raters assessed selected web pages for characteristics associated with different styles of identity development. A principal component analysis was used to determine that there are three components that relate to identity development that are manifested in the web pages. It was established that there were three main components that described aspects of identity within the social networking pages. These components were determined to be a “Self Focused Type,” an “Inconsistent Type” and a “Withholding Type.” Though these components were statistically distinct, the items included in each component were not the items that were hypothesized to be correlated. Implications of the results are discussed

IT Design for Sustaining Virtual Communities: an Identity-based Approach

A variety of information technology (IT) artifacts, such as those supporting reputation management and digital archives of past interactions, are commonly deployed to support virtual communities. Despite the ubiquity of these artifacts, research on the impact of various IT-based features on virtual community communication is still limited. Without such research, the mechanisms through which information technologies influence community success are not well understood, limiting the design of community infrastructures that can enhance interaction in the community and minimize dysfunction. This dissertation proposes that identity management is a critical imperative in virtual communities and concerns related to communication of identity serve to shape an individual's interactions and perceptions in the community. Sensitivity to this perspective can help in drawing design guidelines for the IT infrastructure supporting the community. Drawing upon the social psychology literature, I propose an identity-based view to understand how the use of IT-based features in virtual communities can improve community sustainability. Specifically, identity consonance, defined as the perceived fit between a focal person's belief of his or her identity and the recognition and verification of this identity by other community members, is proposed as a core construct that mediates the relationship between the use of community IT artifacts and member satisfaction and knowledge contribution. To test the theoretical model, I surveyed two online communities: Quitnet.com and myIS.com. The former is an online community for people who wish to quit smoking, and the latter is a site for Lexus IS300 sport sedan enthusiasts. The results from surveys support the positive effects of community IT artifacts on identity consonance. The empirical study also finds that a high level of identity consonance is linked to member satisfaction and knowledge contribution. This dissertation offers a fresh perspective on virtual communities and suggests important implications for the design of the supporting IT infrastructure