Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This essay explores some of the common current perspectives attributed to sense making with respect to the communicative phenomenon of advice giving. Communicative activities that surround the phenomenon of advice giving are discussed, including those of face and social networks. Personal advice giving within relationships is then explored as a concept understood through the theories of politeness and social support. Politeness theory and theories of comforting are framed as privileging the speaker, the advice giver. As an alternative perspective, Problematic Integration Theory privileges the hearer, and the advice seeker/receiver is postulated as a lens through which to reexamine and explore the phenomenon of personal advice giving within relationships.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In Japan, there are various professionals, governmental organs, non-governmental organizations which provide citizens involved in disputes with advice about how to resolve the disputes. Naturally, this does not mean that all the citizens involved in disputes utilize those third-party advice providers to resolve their dispute. Quite a few people rather resolve it on their own without seeking any kind of third-party advice or do not take any action whatsoever.
Based on a national survey conducted in 2006, we examine how and why some of the citizens involved in disputes utilized the third-party advice providers and the other not. As independent variables, we use such variables as advice seekers’ socio-economic attributes, their perception of the legal and social system, their particular needs related to the disputes they had been involved, and the substance of the disputes in which they had been involved. Then, we examine the effects of those independent variables on the citizens’ (not-)utilizing a particular third-party advice provider. This might show the whole landscape of the patterns of the citizens’ utilizing the third-party advice providers and also the magnitude and nature of the barriers to their accessing the legal advice in contemporary Japan.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this presentation I examine a variety of issues concerning why and how women use popular pregnancy advice books. I explore pregnant readers’ evaluations of the pregnancy advice books they have read including their assessment of the trustworthiness of this advice compared to other sources such as female friends and physicians. Given that most women rank the information they receive from their physicians above that which they receive from female friends and (to a lesser extent) books, I also detail the uses of books in the context of women’s relationships with prenatal providers. Despite women’s reticence to criticize their providers, I show that books were used to compensate for deficiencies in doctor-patient communication and to facilitate the exchange of medical information. I pay particular attention to how women’s use of these books supports dominant medical definitions of pregnancy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The self-help industry is rife with books offering advice in relational communication. Interpersonal communication experts should be concerned with the credibility of these self-help authors and what advice is dispensed. Study one of this paper involved an examination of the qualifications of 31 popular self-help authors in relational communication. The results revealed that although many authors had earned Ph.D.s, none had degrees in communication and most had not published any empirical research. Study two analyzed fourteen books for their content and the type of evidence used. Five common themes were revealed including using a banking analogy, dividing couples into types, elaborating on a series of steps for the strategies offered, referring to childhood as a cause for current relational problems, and offering exercises to implement the strategies offered. Most authors relied solely on anecdotal evidence for their claims. Implications for future research in the area of interpersonal communication are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The World Bank, the IMF, and other multilateral and bilateral development agencies dispense a great deal of policy advice to developing countries. Many of the loans and grants dispersed by these agencies are conditioned on following this advice. And yet in many cases the advice, when applied, does not produce the desired results or has unanticipated consequences that cause injury to some aspect of the country?s development program or society. In other cases, the government is incapable of carrying out the advice. What are the ethical obligations of policy advisors to test the efficacy of policy advice? Policy advice is based on an understanding of a set of facts underlying the particular problem and an assumed causal relationship that can be manipulated in some way, normally based on a theory of economics or politics. What are the obligations of policy advisors to fully understand the facts about the problem they are dealing with in the country they are advising as well as the ability and willingness of the government to carry out advice? What are the obligations of policy advisors to test their theories before offering them as advice for application by governments? In this paper I will look at the literature on the ethical obligations of professionals in fields such as medicine, public planning, and law to see what lessons we can draw for experts in development in offering policy advice to developing countries.