ABSTRACT

Communication research often focuses on processes of communication, such as how messages impact individuals over time or how interpersonal relationships develop and change. Despite their importance, these change processes are often implicit in much theoretical and empirical work in communication. Intensive longitudinal data are becoming increasingly feasible to collect and, when coupled with appropriate analytic frameworks, enable researchers to better explore and articulate the types of changes underlying communication processes. To facilitate the study of change processes, we (a) describe advances in data collection and analytic methods that allow researchers to articulate complex change processes of phenomena in communication research, (b) provide an overview of change processes and how they may be captured with intensive longitudinal methods, and (c) discuss considerations of capturing change when designing and implementing studies. We are excited about the future of studying processes of change in communication research, and we look forward to iterations between empirical tests and theory revision that will occur as researchers delve into studying change.

摘要

传播研究通常侧重于过程沟通，例如信息如何随着时间的推移影响个人或人际关系如何发展和变化。尽管它们很重要，但这些变化过程通常隐含在传播的许多理论和实证工作中。收集密集的纵向数据变得越来越可行，并且在与适当的分析框架相结合时，使研究人员能够更好地探索和阐明沟通过程背后的变化类型。为了促进对变化过程的研究，我们 (a) 描述了数据收集和分析方法的进步，使研究人员能够阐明传播研究中现象的复杂变化过程，(b) 概述变化过程以及如何通过密集的纵向方法，(c) 讨论在设计和实施研究时捕捉变化的考虑因素。我们对研究传播研究变化过程的未来感到兴奋，我们期待着随着研究人员深入研究变化而发生的实证检验和理论修正之间的迭代。