Ray, C. D. (In Preparation).   "When people do not deserve social support: A thematic analysis of instances when social support was purposefully withheld."
This ongoing project investigates instances when people purposefully chose not to communicate emotional support to those they knew facing difficult situations because they felt the person did not deserve their support. Former undergraduate communication student Emily Parker (now a masters student in social psychology at University of Essex) conducted the majority of the interviews, whereas current masters student Andrew Anderson is working with Dr. Ray to code the data..

Ray, C. D. (In Preparation).   "Mixed messages: III. Experimentally and longitudinally exploring the recall of negative statements embedded in emotional support messages."
Shortly after arriving San Diego State University, Dr. Ray founded the Human Communication Laboratory and began investigating how people physiologically react to emotional support messages that simultaneously express positive statements of empathy and also negative statements of criticism. Two undergraduate and five graduate students recently helped Dr. Ray conduct over 150 laboratory sessions over the course of a year. Current masters student Andrew Anderson is helping Dr. Ray analyze the qualitative, quantitative, and physiological data gathered during those laboratory sessions. .

Ray, C. D., Floyd, K., Tietsort, C., Veluscek, A. M., Otmar, C. D., Hashi, E. C., & Fisher, R. (2019).   "Mixed messages: I. The consequences of communicating negative statements within emotional support messages to cancer patients" Journal of Patient Experience. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373519873781
This recently completed project was borne out of Dr. Ray’s dissertation project at Arizona State University where he directed the Health Communication Laboratory and coordinated a team of fellow doctoral students (Tietsort, Veluscek, Hashi, & Fisher) to collect data by conducting over 100 laboratory sessions. Upon arriving at San Diego State University, Dr. Ray worked with masters student Christopher Otmar (now a doctoral student at UC-Santa Barbara) to refine the manuscript for submission to the Journal of Patient Experience, where it was accepted in 2019. .

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