Date of Graduation
1999
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Communication Studies
Committee Chair
Matthew M. Martin
Committee Member
James C. McCroskey
Committee Member
Steven C. Hines
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between teachers’ use of behavior alteration techniques and power, and students’ compliance. Participants rated their teachers’ BATs (pro-social or anti-social) and power (coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, or expert), along with their degree of compliance to specific teacher requests. After dividing the teachers into two groups (pro-social BATs and expert or referent power, or all other combinations), an ANCOVA was run to test the relationship between the two groups and student compliance. Contrary to the hypothesis, the groups were not found to differ on their compliance. This finding was mainly due to the co-variates (teacher nonverbal immediacy, affect toward the teacher, and course difficulty), which were found to be significantly related to compliance.
Recommended Citation
Gonyea, Randall P., "Compliance-gaining in the classroom: The effects of the use of behavior alteration techniques and power." (1999). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 10414.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10414