User:Trippkennedy/sandbox

Welcome to my sandbox! This is where I can practice my editing when working on drafts before publishing them in the main encyclopedia. It's also a helpful place for me to practice my formatting with the site's markup syntax.

-TK

Mini Assignment: Article Evaluation
"Organizational Communication"

This article was well-versed and presented in an easy to read style. The content in the article was all relevant to the topic of organizational communication. Because organizational communication encompasses everything from individual interpersonal communication to mass communication, it is an very extensive field. That being said, I enjoyed how the article contained several hyperlinks to other articles related to communication studies. This made it easy for the reader to click and read further into communication subfields in order to gain a better understanding on the communication studies topics and terminology used in the article. The references used in this article span from as early as 1947 to as recent as 2015. That being said, there were only 11 references for the entire article (which is quite lengthy), so perhaps the article could benefit from additional citations. The tone of the article is neutral and doesn't seem to be heavily biased in my opinion.

-TK

Article Draft/Outline: Supportive Communication
= Supportive Communication = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In communication studies, supportive communication is a style of communication used to resolve conflict or achieve change in a situation. This style of communication can be beneficial in several types of interpersonal interactions, particularly in relationships that involve some sort of power differential between the communicating individuals.

The study of supportive communication revolves around verbal and non-verbal behaviors that are conducted with the primary intention of improving the psychological state of another person (1 ). Left unattended, the lack of skills to effectively communicate and resolve conflicts with others may negatively affect behavior and impair one's ability to develop and maintain relationships.

Background
Supportive communication is grounded in the broader interdisciplinary research tradition of social support. The difference between the two fields of study is that supportive communication is more directly concerned with the study of those prosocial interactions through which people express supportive intentions. Since the early 1980's, the concept of supportive communication has grown into a popular field of study within interpersonal communication (1). Although the terminology has changed over time, researchers across various disciplines have long recognized the significance of supportive communication for one's quality of life (1).

One reason for the growth of scholarly interest in supportive communication could be a result of the rapid increase seen in empirical evidence that human supportive networks and the supportive interactions between the people within these networks contribute substantially to one's health and wellbeing (2). Several studies have examined the capacity of supportive communication among relationships to help buffer the negative effects of stress, anxiety, depression, and symptoms of physical illness among individuals (2). Because social support possesses powerful health implications, federal funding opportunities for social psychological research have also dramatically increased over the past 30 years (1).

Person-centered theory
Much of the research surrounding supportive communication is grounded in a person-centered theory, which has generated important knowledge regarding the kinds of messages that prove beneficial in helping people cope with emotional distress (1). Because one of the primary goals of supportive communication is to relieve difficult emotions, person-centered theory suggests that the form and content of one's supportive messages should be highly people-focused (1). People-focused support messages express empathy, care and compassion while assisting in the alleviation of negative emotions. The person-center theory of supportive communication has the potential to inform people as they assist their loved ones in coping with stressful events.

Supportive Messages
Much of the research surrounding supportive communication has focused on supportive messages, which can be defined as "specific lines of communicative behavior enacted by one party with the intent of benefiting or helping another" (3).

Low person-centered (LPC) messages tend to deny or ignore the feelings and emotional experiences of the recipient, often by challenging their legitimacy or by telling the other person how they should act or feel (1). Not surprisingly, recipients consider these messages as especially unhelpful and quite hurtful.

Moderately person-centered (MPC) messages attempt to distract the other person's attention from the troubling situation by expressing condolences and sympathy (1). Because these messages present non-feeling centered explanations of the situation, MPC messages fail to encourage the comforted person to explore the difficult emotions that are sometimes necessary to improve their psychological state.

Highly person-centered (HPC) messages explicitly recognize and legitimize the supported person's feelings by helping to articulate those feelings, elaborate reasons why those feelings might be felt by the person, and explore how those feelings fit into a broader context (1). Supporters who use HPC messages use language that specifically validates the emotions of the upset or conflicted person in the relationship with the goal to help improve their psychological state.

Impact on test anxiety and performance
Academic stress is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, including depression and physical illness. Test anxious students experience worries and fears that prevent them from performing well on exams. A study was published in 1993 that showed how naturally occurring supportive communication can reduce feelings of uncertainty in students and helps test anxious students improve exam performance (4). Findings of the study indicated the relationship between social support and test performance depends on a student's level of test anxiety and on the source of the support (4). For example, students who experienced higher test anxiety benefited more from support received from people outside of class, and support from peers in class was negatively related to exam grades for these students (3). On the other hand, the reverse was true for students with low test anxiety as these students benefited more from support received from peers in class and less from people outside of class (3).

A study was published in 2005 that examined the capacity of supportive communication to help cushion the relationship between academic stress and negative health issues (4). In the study, college students reported measurements for their levels of academic stress, supportive communication received (emotional and informational), and health status (stress, anxiety, depression and/or symptoms of physical illness) (5). Results of the study indicated that levels of academic stress and depression for students decreased as supportive communication increased (5).

Online support communities
Virtual communities are a growing source of informational and emotional support for individuals dealing with health concerns. Research has shown how online support groups may provide individuals with access to supportive communication that would not be as easily attainable through face-to-face communication (6). For example, through online support groups, social support is more readily available and accessible at any time the individual seeks it, and the network of support can extend far beyond the individual's geographic location (6). Additionally, individuals may feel more comfortable confiding personal information in a virtual community where there is some degree of anonymity and separation from their face-to-face networks. In online support communities, individuals can confide their feelings to and obtain support from others in a similar way. Significant members from one's offline networks may not be comfortable or even able to provide this support. For these reasons, the number of people seeking health-related support from virtual communities has grown dramatically in recent years (6).

Problem-oriented versus people-oriented
Though many benefits have been found using the person-centered theory for supportive communication, certain situations and relationships may constitute communicating with a more problem-oriented approach. For example, it may be more beneficial at times to use a problem-oriented approach to supportive communication among workplace relationships, particularly in any workplace relationship that involves a power differential between the communicating individuals. In these relationships, supportive communication using a problem-oriented approach can benefit the relationship better than people-centered communication as problem-oriented communication places the emphasis on a specific problem or situation and its potential solutions instead of focusing on the other person involved and their personal traits or characteristics (7). By taking a problem-oriented approach, the supportive communication has the potential to be more effective because it doesn't make the other person in the relationship feel as defensive (7). If the other person in the relationship doesn’t feel a strong need to defend themselves personally, they may be more willing to participate in the proposed solution or change, and may even take an active role in coming up with suggestions on how best to resolve the matter (7).