The Impact of Social and Cognitive Variables on (PDF)

University of the Pacific University of the Pacific Scholarly Commons Scholarly Commons University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2019 The Impact of Social and Cognitive Variables on Communication The Impact of Social and Cognitive Variables on Communication Competence Competence Griffin Cheek University of the Pacific Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Cheek, Griffin. (2019). The Impact of Social and Cognitive Variables on Communication Competence. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3627 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]  1 THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE VARIABLES ON COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE by Griffin Joseph Cheek A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS College of the Pacific Communication University of the Pacific Stockton, California 2019  2 THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE VARIABLES ON COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE by Griffin Joseph Cheek APPROVED BY: Thesis Advisor: Qingwen Dong, Ph.D. Committee Member: Teresa Bergman, Ph.D. Committee Member: Marlin Bates, Ph.D. Department Chair: Teresa Bergman, PhD. Dean of Graduate School: Thomas Naehr, Ph.D.  3 THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE VARIABLES ON COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE Copyright 2019 by Griffin Joseph Cheek  4 DEDICATION I want to dedicate this work to my wife and kids. Courtney, I am inspired by the hard work and dedication you apply to our home, family and your career every day. The patience you have shown, as I have worked through my studies, has given me the confidence to move forward believing in myself with each step. Sevanna, Grace, and Griffin. I hope that I have shown that hard work can allow you to reach your dreams. I know the frustration of balancing my studies with everything else sometimes make me difficult to be around. I love you all and know I could not have done this without you.  5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There has been a bottomless reservoir of support from friends and family that have volunteered every time my schedule and research conflicted with my responsibilities to my children. Getting them to school and back, taking them to practice and games, and sometimes just giving them a place to hang out in the evenings. Chiefly, my parents, Charlotte and Ron Cheek and my wife’s parents Christine and Dennis Huckstep have been a steady and reliable source of support. I could never have done this without you all. I have had numerous colleagues from different cohorts that have been supportive and shared the struggles of taking and teaching classes as we worked our way to completing our goals. Tiffany Ellington and Thalia Bobadilla showed me the way to my goals and never failed to explain or provide materials that gave me the insight for following in their footsteps. Jennifer Baney, the perfect office mate that I never saw coming. You have inspired me through your hard work, given me an essential sounding board for my ideas, and taught me a lot about myself in the process. I will forever value our shared experience as we struggled and celebrated together. Qiana Moore, you have been my guide. You were there on orientation day to show me around campus and introduce me to other students. When all of our office doors were open, you knew I was coming to get advice and to compare notes on the classes we were teaching. A huge thank you to all of you. I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Dong, my thesis chairperson. The willingness you have to see me on a moment’s notice, offer both guidance and encouragement, and correct me with humor and understanding has been a blessing to my work. The commitment you show to understanding the importance of my time and schedule when working to complete my degree program, according to my goals, cannot be overstated. There was additional faculty  6 support from Dr. Marlin Bates and Dr. Teresa Bergman, who both served on my thesis committee. A final thank you to the other members of the Communication Department faculty who offered insight, feedback and endured my pestering for the collection of survey data in their classrooms. Thank you all.  7 The Impact of Social and Cognitive Variables on Communication Competence Abstract by Griffin Joseph Cheek University of the Pacific 2019 College students are increasingly engaged in watching online videos and using social media. Therefore, researchers should attempt to better understand how these variables as well as other social and cognitive variables, affect the communication competence of students. The researcher administered a questionnaire to 392 college students from a private medium-sized West Coast university using various modified scales examining student-to-student confirmation, social support through social media, online video viewing, self-esteem, personal reports of public speaking anxiety, and communication competence. Student-to-student confirmation and online video viewing were measured using new sets of scales developed by the researcher. The data from the surveys was analyzed to determine which independent variables have the greatest influence on communication competence. Student-to-student confirmation, social support through social media, online video viewing, and self-esteem all have a significant positive relationship with communication competence. The correlation analysis also found a significant negative correlation between personal reports of public speaking anxiety and communication competence. A regression analysis showed that the combination of social support through social media, online video viewing, self-esteem, and personal reports of public speaking anxiety  8 demonstrated predictive power regarding communication competence. These results suggest that there are important relationships between both social and cognitive variables and communication competence. Keywords: Confirmation, Social Support, Social Media, Communication Competence, Self-esteem, Public Speaking Anxiety, Online videos.  9 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………...……….…….11 LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………..…………….12 CHAPTER 1. The Problem………………………………………………………………….….…….13 Statement of the Problem……………………………………...…………….…...13 Purpose of the Thesis……………………………………...……….……….……14 Definition of Key Terms………………………………………………….……...15 Significance of the Study…………………………………………….….....….…18 2. Review of Literature……………………………………….…………...…………..…20 Social Variables………………………………………………...………………..20 Student-to-student confirmation………………………………...….……20 Social support through social media……………………………………..21 Online video viewing…………………………………..………….…..…27 Cognitive Variables………………………………………………...…..………..20 Self-esteem……………………………………………………….…...….29 Personal reports of public speaking anxiety……………...…………...…31 Dependent Variable…………………………………………………………...…33 Communication competence…………………………………….….……33 Summary……………………………………………………………….……...…34  10 3. Methodology……………………………...……….………………………………..…36 Sample.………………………………………………………………….….….....36 Procedure…………………………………………………………………….…..36 Measurement………………..………………………………….….……….….…36 4. Results……………………………………………...……………….……….………..40 Demographic Information……………………….…………………………..…...40 Independent Variable and Dependent Variables………….……………………...40 Correlation Analysis…………….……..…………….……………..………….…43 Multiple Regression Analysis…….…..…………………………..……………....47 5. Discussion ………………..………….…………….……………………..…..…....….50 Implications of the Study………………..……………………..…….…………..50 Limitations and Future Research…………………….………………..………....55 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...………..58 REFERENCES………….………………………………………………....…………………….60 APPENDICES…………………...……………………………………………...………….……69 A. SCALES…..……….…………………………………...……………………………..69 B. SURVEY…...……………………………………...………………………………….75  11 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Reliability of Student-to-student confirmation, Social support through social media, Self-esteem, Personal reports of public speaking anxiety, Communication competence, and Online video viewing scales………………………………………….……………………….………..…..……41 2. Descriptive Statistics for Variables ..……...……………………….………...……..…....43 3. Correlation analysis of independent variables on communication competence…………………………………………...……...………….………...…..…45 4. Multiple regression analysis of PRPSA, social support through social media, self-esteem, and online video viewing as predictors of communication competence ……......................................................................................47  12 LIST OF FIGURES 1. Correlation analysis of independent variables on communication competence.………………………………………………………….………..…....……45 2. Model of social and cognitive effects on communication competence……………………………..……...…………………………...……..…......49  13 Chapter 1: The Problem Statement of the Problem There is a common line of thought that the communication skills of students are eroding as they spend more time using digital or technological forms of communication like texting or social media. These forms of communication are often vilified as a distraction in the classroom, and the omnipresent cell phones of college students are considered public enemy number one in some settings. Rules are used to reduce their use in attempts to limit those distractions. There needs to be more research regarding the overall effects of these forms of communication and it would be helpful to compare them to other facets of communication to gain more context regarding their effects. Communication competence has long been considered a broad-ranging measure of a student’s overall communication ability (Wright et al. 2013). This study seeks to discover some of the effects of college student behaviors on communication competence. First, a better understanding of the social support of student-to-student confirmation and social support through social media and their effects on communication competence is needed. Those effects should be compared to internal influences on communication competence. The measures of self- esteem and personal reports of public speaking anxiety can gauge facets of the self that may be related to overall communication competence. Finally, there should be a gauge of a student’s overall exposure to media in communication competence. The fastest growing segment of media in college-age students is online video viewing, like YouTube videos (Vorhaus, 2009). The amount of time spent watching online videos should be measured. The media usage can then be compared to peer influences and internal influences that may affect communication competence. This study seeks to better understand the different influences on communication competence by measuring these five variables in hopes of discovering empirical evidence that shows which of  14 these five factors has the most effect. If increasing communication competence can have far- reaching and various positive effects on overall communication ability and effectiveness, then knowing what the leading factors are in bolstering that competence is of great value. In addition, if there are specific variables that stand out as having a significant effect on communication competence, then it would be important to know. Those specific variables can then be emphasized and studied deeper to provide benefits to students, faculty, and other stakeholders in the education field. Purpose of the Thesis College students balance their interactions with many activities and people in life. The requirements of the classroom, social environments, family, and work are all providing input to the student’s college experience. Those activities undoubtedly have effects on one another. Social connections are made in the classroom or over social media, and these connections may be valuable sources of social support for the students. The social support that is gained from face-to-face and through social media may be influencing the ability for those students to communicate with other people in different settings. The social support can have a confirming effect that encourages students to be more confident in other communication settings. As social media and online activities of students increase over the years (Carter, 2004; Vorhaus, 2009), it is important to gain an understanding regarding the differing effects of social support that are obtained from online activities such as social media use and online video viewing. These supportive activities can then be compared to social support in face-to-face situations. In addition, social activities should be considered alongside the cognitive variables that may be influencing communication competence.