Annotated Bibliography

Christie Schmidt
Alicke, M. D., J. C. Braun, J. E. Glor, M. L. Klotz, J. Magee, H. Sederhoim, and R. Siegel.
"Complaining behavior in social interaction." Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin 18 (1992): 286-95. Sage Journals. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
This article is the first scholarly article to "examine the role of complaining in everyday
social interactions." Therefore this article talks about how complaining is a form of
"social communication" and so it talks more about the behavioral side of complaining.
This will really help with that portion of my capstone project not only because it talks
about the behavioral side of complaining but the data came from college students and
therefore it can help me with the educational setting of my project. However, since there
is a great distinction between high school and college, I cannot rely on this article too
much. It was also written in 1992 so it is a little out of date and I may want to find a more
up to date version of this article.
Bradberry, T. (2012, January 1). How negativity and complaining literally rot your brain.
Talentsmart, 1-3.
This article speaks to how even being around people who complain and are negative can
negatively influence the brains of the listeners with the same effects as stress on the brain.
The article then gives some tips and tricks for dealing with complainers and how to divert
complaining in everyday life. This article also talks about the behavioral effects of being
around someone who complains as that will lead the listeners to feel the need to complain

too. This article gives a broader look at complaining and also gives broader tips to utilize
for complaining. The tips will be helpful for those who are around complainers rather
than the complainers themselves.
Bernhard, T. (2012, June 7). Constant complaining: Does it serve us well? Retrieved March 20,
2015.
This article gives a trick to deal with to the overabundance of complaints that are held by
many people. It states that people need to put their complaints in three different
circumstances: one where it is completely out of their control, one where there might be
some control, and one where there is total control. By doing this the person is supposed to
reevaluate the genesis of their complaints and hopefully move on from some of them.
This gives me a good strategy for dealing with complaints but lends no other knowledge
for my capstone.
Bowen, W. (2007). A complaint free world: How to stop complaining and start enjoying the life
you always wanted. New York, New York: Doubleday.
The book goes into detail about what complaining is, why complaining is destructive,
why it is so hard to stop complaining, and what society would be like if we all stopped
complaining. This book definitely backs up the side that complaining is bad for people
and actually gives tips on how to stop complaining complete with a 21 day challenge for
the reader to stop complaining. This book may lend its more towards a motivational side
and will probably not give insight on the more psychological aspect of complaining. It
also is not very specific to the classroom setting so it may not be totally applicable to my
capstone project.

Gerstner, L. (2014, March 1). How to complain. Kiplinger, 54-56.

This article gives many tips and trick for complaining. It states that people need to
prepare their case before they begin to complain, make sure they speak up, keep the
entire conversation civil, and press on if a person is still unsatisfied. The problem with
this article is that it speaks to complaining more in the consumer market. So while I may
be able to convert some of the tips in order to help out my project, it is not that
applicable. It is also dealing with adults complaining and my focus is more on a younger
range of students rather than adults.
Mukherjee, A., Pinto, M., & Malhotra, N. (2009). Power perceptions and modes of complaining
in higher education. The Service Industries Journal, 29(11), 1615-1633. Retrieved March
20, 2015, from OneSearch.
This study was done with students at the college level and delved into the different levels
of power perception and the varying modes of complaining in higher education. The
study found that students complaint behavior seems to change as the educators levels of
powers vary. This study will be really helpful for my project as it directly relates to the
topic of complaining in a school environment and speaks of the teacher-student
relationship. The one issue with this study is that it deals with college students and it may
not be totally applicable as the relationship between teachers and students in college is
different than the one in high school.
Savage, K. (2014, July 23). The (Social) science of complaining. Retrieved March 19, 2015.

Discusses complaining in the consumer sector and the increase of people complaining
over social media. Talks about how consumers who are angry are more likely to
complain as opposed to consumers who are just dissatisfied. Stating that dissatisfied
consumers are more likely to take steps to figure out the problem on their own. This
article really is not that useful for my purposes because it is more focused on consumers
complaining to consumers and that dynamic is very different then a teacher-student
dynamic in the classroom.
Tugend, A. (2013, May 3). Complaining is hard to avoid, but try to do it with a purpose. The
New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
The author in this article brings up many good points about complaining that she has
learned in her research. She talks about the love-hate relationship that people seem to
have with complaining and talks a little about the social aspect of complaining. She says
that it serves as an icebreaker and talks about how it can bring people together. On the
other side of the spectrum she also made sure to talk about how complaining without
action is not the way to go. This article talks about some psychologist that I think would
be really good for my paper and opened up some interesting directions for me to take.
Wolfe, J., & Powell, E. (2006). Gender and expressions of dissatisfaction: A study of
complaining in mixed-gendered student work groups. Women and Language, 29(2), 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2015, from OneSearch.
This article addresses the difference in complaint behavior between the two genders and
addresses the stereotype that women complain more. It states that they both complain the

same amount but women complain as an indirect request for action and men complain
to excuse behavior or to make themselves seem superior. This experiment also utilizes
students as their test subjects so that opens up a different angle that I can take in my paper
by talking about specific genders within the classroom setting.
Winch G. Authors@Google: Guy Winch. [Youtube Video].
This video is by Guy Winch and is a video about his book titled The Squeaky Wheel
which has a main focus on complaining. This video really goes into the psychology
behind complaining and the behavior. It also takes a more favorable stance towards the
act of complaining so it will help me create a more balanced argument. It also gives a lot
of tips and tricks for complaining effectively to get things done and that can help with
that portion of my Capstone project.