Brian H Spitzberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 3650527 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian H Spitzberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian H |
| FAMILY NAME | Spitzberg |
| SIGNATURE | SPITZBERG B H |
| AFFILIATIONS | San Diego State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3838-6052 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 393 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 40 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Pandemic Palliatives and Covid-19 Coping
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical role of coping strategies during global crises and demonstrated how official communications shape public responses. This study evaluates the psychometric validity of a novel pentadic “Coping with Crisis Communication” (COCCO) Scale, which categorizes coping behaviors into five behavioral responses: moving-with, moving-against, moving-outward, moving-away, and moving-inward. A national representative …
Exploring Sentiment, Values, and Misinformation Surrounding Vaccination Legislation on Twitter
California remains among a handful of U.S. states with no clause for a personal belief exemption for required vaccines due to passage of SB277. As vaccines represent an important tool in the public health arsenal against SARS-CoV-2 and may yet be required by schools and employers, other states may consider enacting laws similar to SB277 to address COVID-19 and future outbreaks of infectious diseases. In this case study of California’s SB277 bill,…
Theorizing Mediated Information Distortion
This book explores the phenomenon of distortion of information through media via the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ways in which relevant information distortion and virality have occurred in regard to the disease and its risks. Positing that the interrelated processes of misinformation, disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories are related forms of distortion of information through media (DIM) and can only be understood through a…
Cyber‐harassment victimization of Portuguese adolescents
Cyber‐harassment refers to a pattern of repeated, intentional, and unwanted annoyances, impositions, threats, or other aggravating actions mediated by Information and Communication Technologies. Globally, substantial proportions of adolescents experience cyber‐harassment, resulting in a host of deleterious health‐related consequences. This study tested the empirical utility of the Lifestyle‐Routine Activities Theory in accounting for adolescent c…
Social Network Analysis of Covid-19 Sentiments
The pandemic spread rapidly across Italy, putting the region's health system on the brink of collapse, and generating concern regarding the government's capacity to respond to the needs of patients considering isolation measures. This study developed a sentiment analysis using millions of Twitter data during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 metropolitan cities in Italy's (1) north: Milan, Venice, Turin, Bologna; (2) central: Florence…
The Geography of Covid-19 Spread in Italy Using Social Media and Geospatial Data Analytics
Since December 2019, Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly across the world. From its early stages, while the rest of the world was still new to COVID-19, Italy was one of the first and most severely hit countries. The chronic nature of the COVID-19 outbreak and untimely treatments were translated into an unstable social and emotional environment. This study explores the societal response to the first wave of the pandemic outbreak in Italy, look…
Trace of pace, place, and space in personal relationships
The study of personal relationships has traditionally relied on self‐reports or observations of face‐to‐face interaction. Digital media increasingly provide the ability to trace communication and relationships at scale. Such methods portend significant theoretical and methodological challenges, as well as potential. As a way of illustrating such potential, big data approaches to the select traditional relational concepts of routine relating, prop…
Linguistically guided community discovery
Within some online communities, discussion often centers on issues on which writers take sides, and within some subset of those debate-prone communities, we find over time that particular sets of writers almost always end up on the same side of an issue. These sets we call factions. In this paper, we describe a tool to perform what we call faction discovery on online communities. Generalizing methods developed in the bibliometrics and information…
Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness
In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13–18) and entering college students, 1976–2017 ( N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less time on in-person (face-to-face) social interaction with peers, including getting together or socializing with friends, going to parties, going out, dating, going to movies, and riding in cars for fun. College-bound high school seniors in 2016 (vs. th…
Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016
Social media analytics and research testbed (SMART)
The multilevel model of meme diffusion conceptualizes how mediated messages diffuse over time and space. As a pilot application of implementing the meme diffusion, we developed the social media analytics and research testbed to monitor Twitter messages and track the diffusion of information in and across different cities and geographic regions. Social media analytics and research testbed is an online geo-targeted search and analytics tool, includ…
Is past prologue, or just passed and lacking presence
Space–Time Analysis
Throughout most of human history, events and phenomena of interest have been characterized using space and time as their major characteristic dimensions, in either absolute or relative conceptualizations. Space–time analysis seeks to understand when and where (and sometimes why) things occur. In the context of several of the most recent and substantial advances in individual movement data analysis (time geography in particular) and spatial panel …
The Dark Side of Relationship Pursuit
Awards and Praise for the first edition: Recipient of the 2006 International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) Book Award "This text, as it presently stands, is THE go-to text for stalking researchers. That is my opinion and the opinion of multiple fellow scholars I know in the field. It rarely sits on my shelf, but rather is a constant reference on my desk. I can always count on these authors to have done an extensive review of litera…
Toward A Model of Meme Diffusion (M 3 D)
Journal Article Toward a Model of Meme Diffusion (M3D) Get access Brian H. Spitzberg Brian H. Spitzberg 1School of Communication, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Communication Theory, Volume 24, Issue 3, August 2014, Pages 311–339, https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12042 Published: 16 July 2014
A preliminary test of a relational goal pursuit theory of obsessive relational intrusion and stalking
Mapping social activities and concepts with social media (Twitter) and web search engines (Yahoo and Bing)
We introduce a new research framework for analyzing the spatial distribution of web pages and social media (Twitter) messages with related contents, called Visualizing Information Space in Ontological Networks (VISION). This innovative method can facilitate the tracking of ideas and social events disseminated in cyberspace from a spatial-temporal perspective. Thousands of web pages and millions of tweets associated with the same keywords were con…
A Cross-Validation of the Relational Entitlement and Proprietariness Scale
Relational entitlement and proprietariness refer to a set of beliefs supporting a view that a romantic partner is analogous to property and can be treated as such. This individual difference is expected to facilitate various forms of coercion and aggression in relationships. A means and covariance structures (MACS) approach within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on two independent samples of undergraduate students (N A…
The Good Funeral
This study posits a model of funeral satisfaction in which religiosity predicts general funeral attitudes, which predict levels and types of funeral participation, mediating the relationship between attitudes and satisfaction in a particular bereavement context. Over a thousand respondents rated their attitudes toward funerals in general and evaluated the most recent funeral they had actually attended. The resulting model indicated that religiosi…
Conceptualizing Intercultural Competence
The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication
Contents: Part I: Amusing & Bemusing. B.H. Spitzberg, W.R. Cupach, Disentangling the Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication. Part II: Schmoozing, Choosing, and Confusing. L. Knobloch, The Dark Side of Relational Uncertainty: Obstacle or Opportunity. T. Afifi, W. Afifi, J. Caughlin, The Dark Side (and Light Side) of Avoidance and Secrets. M. Whitty, Manipulation of Self in Cyberspace. Part III: Bruising. A.L. Vangelisti, Communicating Hurt. W.R.…
My Child Can Beat Your Child”
From a self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) perspective, a parent's levels of allocentrism and collectivism were predicted to increase the parent's (a) self-protection from negative social comparison, (b) need for positive self-evaluation through “basking in reflected glory,” and (c) dependency on the child's performance to achieve (a) and (b).This study also aimed to identify messages parents communicate in order to maintain a positive self-evaluat…
The state of the art of stalking
Preliminary Development of a Model and Measure of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Competence
The rationale for developing a theoretical model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) competence is established through review of social trends in the use of new media technologies. Special attention is paid to the role new media play in the formation and development of personal relationships. A model of CMC competence is then developed along the lines of motivation, knowledge, skills, context, and outcomes as a metaphorical typology for orga…
Tickling the monster
This study develops a general model of jealousy induction in romantic relationships. The model posits that the goals of jealousy induction predict jealousy-induction tactics, which in turn predict partner responses to jealousy, which in turn predict strategic outcomes. Measures were developed for this study to assess jealousy-induction goals, induction tactics, and strategic outcome (i.e., tactical efficacy). Exploratory factor analysis revealed …
Appropriateness and Effectiveness Perceptions of Conflict Strategies
This study investigates how conflict strategies and communicator gender affect two properties of communicative competence, appropriateness and effectiveness, and how these properties are associated with interpersonal attraction. In total, 361 participants read one of 12 randomly distributed conflict scripts that operationalized one of three conflict strategies (i.e., integrative, distributive, or avoidance), communicator gender, and episode type …
Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness
In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13–18) and entering college students, 1976–2017 ( N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less time on in-person (face-to-face) social interaction with peers, including getting together or socializing with friends, going to parties, going out, dating, going to movies, and riding in cars for fun. College-bound high school seniors in 2016 (vs. th…
A Component Model of Relational Competence
Journal Article A Component Model of Relational Competence Get access Brian H. Spitzberg, Brian H. Spitzberg 1Brian H. Spitzberg (Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1981) is an assistant professor of interpersonal and public communication at North Texas State University, Denton, TX Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael L. Hecht Michael L. Hecht 2Michael L. Hecht (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 197…
Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016
A Model of the Perceived Competence of Conflict Strategies
This study examines how strategic communication is linked to specific relational features. We hypothesize that perceptions of a communicator's competence mediate the effects of conflict strategies on the relational outcomes measured by trust, control mutuality, intimacy, and satisfaction. The components of competence were specific and general appropriateness, effectiveness, and global competence; these were included in LISREL analyses to investig…
Toward A Model of Meme Diffusion (M 3 D)
Journal Article Toward a Model of Meme Diffusion (M3D) Get access Brian H. Spitzberg Brian H. Spitzberg 1School of Communication, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Communication Theory, Volume 24, Issue 3, August 2014, Pages 311–339, https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12042 Published: 16 July 2014
Loneliness and Relationally Competent Communication
Loneliness is seen as a common social experience, best understood through the mechanisms whereby actors attribute causes for their loneliness. From an attributional perspective, the effects of loneliness chronicity on relational, or communicative, competence are delineated in three hypotheses and empirically tested among dyads involved in a conversational exercise. The hypotheses are generally supported, revealing that chronically lonely people g…
Cyberstalking and the technologies of interpersonal terrorism
Despite extensive popular press coverage of the dark side of the internet, apparently no social scientific research has yet been published on the topic of cyberstalking. This report summarizes three pilot studies conducted in the process of developing a satisfactory factorially complex measure of cyberstalking victimization, and then investigates the incidence of such victimization, and its interrelationships to obsessive relational intrusion. Fi…
Preliminary Development of a Model and Measure of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Competence
The rationale for developing a theoretical model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) competence is established through review of social trends in the use of new media technologies. Special attention is paid to the role new media play in the formation and development of personal relationships. A model of CMC competence is then developed along the lines of motivation, knowledge, skills, context, and outcomes as a metaphorical typology for orga…
Issues in the development of a theory of interpersonal competence in the intercultural context
The Dialectics of (in)Competence
The study of interpersonal communication competence, like many other constructs in social science, has been unduly biased by an ideology of positivity. This article attempts to redress this emphasis by examining a variety of dialectical and problematic tensions in human relations. These tensions reflect potential dilemmas for social actors who face potentially incompatible objectives in their lines of action. In addition, several dialectical tens…
The Good Funeral
This study posits a model of funeral satisfaction in which religiosity predicts general funeral attitudes, which predict levels and types of funeral participation, mediating the relationship between attitudes and satisfaction in a particular bereavement context. Over a thousand respondents rated their attitudes toward funerals in general and evaluated the most recent funeral they had actually attended. The resulting model indicated that religiosi…
Attribution biases and associations between conflict strategies and competence outcomes
This study investigates the extent to which actor‐partner points of view influence the outcomes of conflict messages on perceptions of communicator appropriateness, effectiveness, and global competence. Actors perceived themselves as more competent and appropriate than partners judged them. Correlation analyses revealed that actor‐partner perceptual associations generally were strongest for distributive behaviors (i.e., anger, criticism, sarcasm)…
Mapping social activities and concepts with social media (Twitter) and web search engines (Yahoo and Bing)
We introduce a new research framework for analyzing the spatial distribution of web pages and social media (Twitter) messages with related contents, called Visualizing Information Space in Ontological Networks (VISION). This innovative method can facilitate the tracking of ideas and social events disseminated in cyberspace from a spatial-temporal perspective. Thousands of web pages and millions of tweets associated with the same keywords were con…
Sexual Communication in Interpersonal Contexts
Sexual communication is the means by which individuals come to select potential partners for sexual relations, and through which the meanings, functions, and effects of sexual relations are negotiated. Most cultures, relationships, and individuals develop standard expectancies and practices through which sexual relations are initiated and completed. These standard expectancies and practices can be viewed as scripts that identify some degree of th…
Space–Time Analysis
Throughout most of human history, events and phenomena of interest have been characterized using space and time as their major characteristic dimensions, in either absolute or relative conceptualizations. Space–time analysis seeks to understand when and where (and sometimes why) things occur. In the context of several of the most recent and substantial advances in individual movement data analysis (time geography in particular) and spatial panel …
A preliminary test of a relational goal pursuit theory of obsessive relational intrusion and stalking
Tickling the monster
This study develops a general model of jealousy induction in romantic relationships. The model posits that the goals of jealousy induction predict jealousy-induction tactics, which in turn predict partner responses to jealousy, which in turn predict strategic outcomes. Measures were developed for this study to assess jealousy-induction goals, induction tactics, and strategic outcome (i.e., tactical efficacy). Exploratory factor analysis revealed …
The Geography of Covid-19 Spread in Italy Using Social Media and Geospatial Data Analytics
Since December 2019, Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly across the world. From its early stages, while the rest of the world was still new to COVID-19, Italy was one of the first and most severely hit countries. The chronic nature of the COVID-19 outbreak and untimely treatments were translated into an unstable social and emotional environment. This study explores the societal response to the first wave of the pandemic outbreak in Italy, look…
Social media analytics and research testbed (SMART)
The multilevel model of meme diffusion conceptualizes how mediated messages diffuse over time and space. As a pilot application of implementing the meme diffusion, we developed the social media analytics and research testbed to monitor Twitter messages and track the diffusion of information in and across different cities and geographic regions. Social media analytics and research testbed is an online geo-targeted search and analytics tool, includ…
Global Impressions of Social Skills
(1984). Global Impressions of Social Skills: Behavioral Predictors. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 8, Communication Yearbook 8, pp. 446-463
Is past prologue, or just passed and lacking presence
Global Impressions of Social Skills
(1984). Global Impressions of Social Skills: Behavioral Predictors. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 8, Communication Yearbook 8, pp. 446-463
A Component Model of Relational Competence
Journal Article A Component Model of Relational Competence Get access Brian H. Spitzberg, Brian H. Spitzberg 1Brian H. Spitzberg (Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1981) is an assistant professor of interpersonal and public communication at North Texas State University, Denton, TX Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael L. Hecht Michael L. Hecht 2Michael L. Hecht (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 197…
Loneliness and Relationally Competent Communication
Loneliness is seen as a common social experience, best understood through the mechanisms whereby actors attribute causes for their loneliness. From an attributional perspective, the effects of loneliness chronicity on relational, or communicative, competence are delineated in three hypotheses and empirically tested among dyads involved in a conversational exercise. The hypotheses are generally supported, revealing that chronically lonely people g…
Appropriateness and Effectiveness Perceptions of Conflict Strategies
This study investigates how conflict strategies and communicator gender affect two properties of communicative competence, appropriateness and effectiveness, and how these properties are associated with interpersonal attraction. In total, 361 participants read one of 12 randomly distributed conflict scripts that operationalized one of three conflict strategies (i.e., integrative, distributive, or avoidance), communicator gender, and episode type …
Handbook of Interpersonal Competence Research
Issues in the development of a theory of interpersonal competence in the intercultural context
A Model of the Perceived Competence of Conflict Strategies
This study examines how strategic communication is linked to specific relational features. We hypothesize that perceptions of a communicator's competence mediate the effects of conflict strategies on the relational outcomes measured by trust, control mutuality, intimacy, and satisfaction. The components of competence were specific and general appropriateness, effectiveness, and global competence; these were included in LISREL analyses to investig…
The Factorial Domain of Interpersonal Skills
A total of 168 naturally occurring dyadic conversations in and around a large Midwest metropolitan city were interrupted and the interactants were surveyed on their impressions of their partners' communicative skills. Given several extant, competing models for the factorial structure of interpersonal behavior evaluation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to ascertain the best fit of current theoretical models and the optim…
Attribution biases and associations between conflict strategies and competence outcomes
This study investigates the extent to which actor‐partner points of view influence the outcomes of conflict messages on perceptions of communicator appropriateness, effectiveness, and global competence. Actors perceived themselves as more competent and appropriate than partners judged them. Correlation analyses revealed that actor‐partner perceptual associations generally were strongest for distributive behaviors (i.e., anger, criticism, sarcasm)…
The Dialectics of (in)Competence
The study of interpersonal communication competence, like many other constructs in social science, has been unduly biased by an ideology of positivity. This article attempts to redress this emphasis by examining a variety of dialectical and problematic tensions in human relations. These tensions reflect potential dilemmas for social actors who face potentially incompatible objectives in their lines of action. In addition, several dialectical tens…
The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication
Sexual Communication in Interpersonal Contexts
Sexual communication is the means by which individuals come to select potential partners for sexual relations, and through which the meanings, functions, and effects of sexual relations are negotiated. Most cultures, relationships, and individuals develop standard expectancies and practices through which sexual relations are initiated and completed. These standard expectancies and practices can be viewed as scripts that identify some degree of th…
The tactical face of stalking
The Tactical Topography of Stalking Victimization and Management
A meta-analysis of 108 samples across 103 studies of stalking-related phenomena, representing almost 70,000 participants, reveals an average prevalence across studies of 23.5% for women and 10.5% for men, with an average duration of almost 2 years. The average proportion of female victims across studies was 75%, and 77% of stalking emerged from some form of prior acquaintance, with 49%originating from romantic relationships. New typologies of sta…
Cyberstalking and the technologies of interpersonal terrorism
Despite extensive popular press coverage of the dark side of the internet, apparently no social scientific research has yet been published on the topic of cyberstalking. This report summarizes three pilot studies conducted in the process of developing a satisfactory factorially complex measure of cyberstalking victimization, and then investigates the incidence of such victimization, and its interrelationships to obsessive relational intrusion. Fi…
The Dark Side of Relationship Pursuit
Authors William R. Cupach and Brian H. Spitzberg synthesize the expanding multidisciplinary base of knowledge about obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) and stalking, presenting a comprehensive scholarly consideration of these behaviors. Their inclusive approach is reflected in the breadth of research represented, including social, clinical and forensic psychology, psychiatry, counseling, communication, criminal justice, law enforcement, sociolog…
Tickling the monster
This study develops a general model of jealousy induction in romantic relationships. The model posits that the goals of jealousy induction predict jealousy-induction tactics, which in turn predict partner responses to jealousy, which in turn predict strategic outcomes. Measures were developed for this study to assess jealousy-induction goals, induction tactics, and strategic outcome (i.e., tactical efficacy). Exploratory factor analysis revealed …
The state of the art of stalking
Preliminary Development of a Model and Measure of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Competence
The rationale for developing a theoretical model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) competence is established through review of social trends in the use of new media technologies. Special attention is paid to the role new media play in the formation and development of personal relationships. A model of CMC competence is then developed along the lines of motivation, knowledge, skills, context, and outcomes as a metaphorical typology for orga…
Conceptualizing Intercultural Competence
The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication
Contents: Part I: Amusing & Bemusing. B.H. Spitzberg, W.R. Cupach, Disentangling the Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication. Part II: Schmoozing, Choosing, and Confusing. L. Knobloch, The Dark Side of Relational Uncertainty: Obstacle or Opportunity. T. Afifi, W. Afifi, J. Caughlin, The Dark Side (and Light Side) of Avoidance and Secrets. M. Whitty, Manipulation of Self in Cyberspace. Part III: Bruising. A.L. Vangelisti, Communicating Hurt. W.R.…
My Child Can Beat Your Child”
From a self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) perspective, a parent's levels of allocentrism and collectivism were predicted to increase the parent's (a) self-protection from negative social comparison, (b) need for positive self-evaluation through “basking in reflected glory,” and (c) dependency on the child's performance to achieve (a) and (b).This study also aimed to identify messages parents communicate in order to maintain a positive self-evaluat…
A Cross-Validation of the Relational Entitlement and Proprietariness Scale
Relational entitlement and proprietariness refer to a set of beliefs supporting a view that a romantic partner is analogous to property and can be treated as such. This individual difference is expected to facilitate various forms of coercion and aggression in relationships. A means and covariance structures (MACS) approach within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on two independent samples of undergraduate students (N A…
The Good Funeral
This study posits a model of funeral satisfaction in which religiosity predicts general funeral attitudes, which predict levels and types of funeral participation, mediating the relationship between attitudes and satisfaction in a particular bereavement context. Over a thousand respondents rated their attitudes toward funerals in general and evaluated the most recent funeral they had actually attended. The resulting model indicated that religiosi…
Mapping social activities and concepts with social media (Twitter) and web search engines (Yahoo and Bing)
We introduce a new research framework for analyzing the spatial distribution of web pages and social media (Twitter) messages with related contents, called Visualizing Information Space in Ontological Networks (VISION). This innovative method can facilitate the tracking of ideas and social events disseminated in cyberspace from a spatial-temporal perspective. Thousands of web pages and millions of tweets associated with the same keywords were con…
Psychology (31 works) · Social Psychology (27 works) · Social Psychology (21 works) · Computer Science (19 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Interpersonal communication (12 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (9 works) · Competence (human resources (8 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Medicine (8 works)