Charles Pavitt
Professor Emeritus
University of Delaware
Biography
My research activities lie in three distinct
areas. For more than a decade, I have been examining the factors that lead people to cooperate with one another in small decision-making groups. That examination has primarily been performed in group discussion tasks in which group members have to share a
slowly-regenerating valued resource, analogous to resources such as
fresh water, forests, or fish reserves. My second area of research lies
in communication theory. I am involved in classifying
scientific communication theories based on the dimensions of form and
content. Finally, I have begun a research project relevant to the ethics
of transgressions in interpersonal relationships, at this time in the
specific area of deception.
I teach a variety of
courses in the general area of interpersonal communication. I have a
personal goal of integrating research into my teaching. This has led me
to include statistical-analytic research projects in all of my
400-level courses, and to involve students in my research as much as
possible. All my recent studies of small-group discussion have been
done as part of “research practicum” courses in which students have
conducted the data collection and experienced all stages in subsequent
data analysis. Although those data analyses are just for “practice,”
several students have gone on to perform “real” data analyses intended
for publication as independent study experiences.
Link to Small Group Communication: A Theoretical Approach (3rd Edition).
Courses Regularly Taught COMM341: Theories of Interpersonal Communication
COMM442: Small Group Communication
COMM442: Communication and Negotiation
COMM490: Communication Honors Capstone
This Page Last Modified On: