Michael J. Cody
University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Daniel J. Canary
Ohio University

Sandi W. Smith
Michigan State University

The objective of compliance-gaining research is to increase our understanding
of how social actors use messages to achieve goals. Whereas the research area
focusing on "compliance-gaining message strategy selection" has been popu-
lar in the communication discipline in the last several years, research on dyad-
ic social influence processes has a long history in social psychology (see reviews
by Seibold, Cantrill, & Meyers, 1985; Wheeless, Barraclough, & Stewart, 1983).
Three decades of research, for example, have focused on ingratiation tactics
( Godfrey, Jones, & Lord, 1986; Jones, 1964; Jones & Wortman, 1973), bases
of power ( French & Raven, 1959; Raven, Centers, & Rodrigues, 1975; Raven
& Kruglanski, 1970), and influence in the organization ( Kipnis, 1972, 1976;
Kipnis, Castell, Gergen, & March, 1976; Kipnis & Cosentino, 1969; Kipnis
& Lane, 1962; Kipnis, Schmidt, & Braxton-Brown, 1990; Kipnis, Schmidt,
& Wilkinson, 1980; Schmidt & Kipnis, 1984). Our contribution to the general
area of influence processes began with an interest in how people perceive com-
mon influence situations ( Cody & McLaughlin, 1980, 1985a; Cody, Woelfel,
& Jordan, 1983), and extended to research attempting to uncover the types
of strategies people use when influencing others ( Cody, 1982; Cody, Greene,
Marston, Baaske, O'Hair, & Schneider, 1986; Cody, McLaughlin, & Jordan,
1980; Cody, McLaughlin, & Schneider, 1981).

Recently, however, we have been more interested in how goals (rather than
specific situation perceptions) direct strategies ( Canary & Cody, in press;

-33-