Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Kim MacLin

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between defensive communication and student outcomes in college classrooms. The researcher hypothesized that students would perceive a greater defensive climate in classes taught by their least favorite professors, and that the defensive climate would encourage the use of coping mechanisms. Defensive communication was also hypothesized to negatively affect student grades, attendance, and course satisfaction and to increase student burnout. Surveys were administered to college students, and results supported all hypotheses. Findings showed that students linked defensive attributes to their least favorite professors more frequently than they did to their favorite professors, and they reported using more coping mechanisms in defensive classrooms. Student grades were lower in defensive classrooms, and the students skipped those classes more frequently. They reported lower satisfaction with courses in which defensive communication took place and also reported greater feelings of burnout.

Year of Submission

2013

Department

Department of Psychology

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

5-2013

Object Description

1 PDF file (iii, 46 pages)

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS