exam 1 Flashcards
communication
the process through which people use messages to generate meanings within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media
5 features that characterize communication:
o 1st Communication is a process that unfolds overtime through a series of interconnected actions carried out by the participants
o 2nd Those engaged in communication use messages to convey meaning.
o 3rd communications occurs in a seemingly endless variety of contexts, or situations
o 4th people communicate through a variety of channels
o 5th to transmit information, communicators use a broad range of media tools for exchanging media
• Models of communication
o Linear communication model: communication is an activity in which information flows in one directions, from a starting point to an end point. The linear model contains several components.
o Interactive communication Model: communications is a process involving senders and receivers. However accordin to this model, transmission is influenced by 2 additional factors: feedback and field of experience
• Transactional communication Model: suggests that communication is fundamentally multidirectional. That is, each participant equally influences the communication behavior from the other participants.
• McCornack’s def. of IPC
a dynamic form of communication between 2 or more people in which the messages exchanged significantly influence their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships
4 important implications (McCornack’s def. of IPC)
its dynamic (always in motion and changing over time)
is transactional, both parties contribute to the meaning
is primarily dyadic—it involves pairs of people, or dyads.
•
creates impact: it changes participants thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships
• M&S’s 3 levels of information on which people base predictions
o 3 levels of analysis are used in making predictions: cultural, sociological, and psychological
o
Cultural level of analysis: culture is the sum of characteristics, beliefs, habits, practices, and language shared by a large group of people, usually living in a definable geographic area. people in a culture are united through norms and values
Sociological level of analysis: groups contain fewer members than an entire culture so the rules are more specific
Psychological level of analysis: when predictions of others responses to our communication behaviors are based on analysis of unique individual learning experiences, they are grounded in a psychological level of analysis.
• M&S’s def. of IPC
when people communicate, they make predictions about the effects, or outcomes, of their communication behavior, that is, they choose among various communicative strategies on the basis of predictions about how the person receiving the message they respond
o I-thou
when we embrace the fundamental similarities that connect us with others, strive to see things from others points of views, and communicate in ways that emphasize honesty and kindness, we feel closer to others. We don’t have to completely agree with everything that everyone says , but we need to approach them with an open mind giving them the same respect that we expect
o I-it
when we focus on our differences, refuse to accept or even acknowledge rival view points as legitimate, and communicate in ways that emphasize our own supposed superiority over others, the distance between us and others “thickens” to the point where it becomes impenetrable
• Content & relationship dimensions of IPC
during every interpersonal encounter, people simultaneously exchange 2 types of info:
o Content information: actual meaning of the words
o Relationship information: consists of signals indicating how each of you views your relationship
o You convey content information directly through spoken or written words, but you communicate relationship information primarily through nonverbal cues
• Metacommunication
communication about communication. Includes any message, that has as its central focus the meaning of communication. Everything from discussion of previous comments to exchanged glances between friends questioning how a message should be interpreted
• Inevitability, irreversibility, & dyanamic nature of IPC
o During interpersonal encounters, people attach meaning to nearly everything you say and do—weather you intend to send a message or not
o Irreversible: Everytime you communicate interpersonally, you and the other person affect you future communication and the quality of your relationship
o Dynamic: when you interact with others, your communication and all that influences it—perceptions, thoughs, feelings, and emotions—are constantly in flux
• Goals: self-presentation, instrumental, & relationship (def. & implications for IPC)
o self-presentation: desires you have to present yourself in certain ways so that others perceive you as being a particular type of person
o instrumental: practical aims you want to achieve or tasks you want to accomplish througha particular interpersonal encounter
o relationship: building, maintaining, or terminating bonds with others
• Components of IPC competence
o Appropriate: communication follows accepted norms
o Effective: your communication enables you to achieve your goals
o Ethical: you communication treats people fairly
• Self-monitoring
the process of observing our own communication and the norms of the situation in order to make appropriate communication choices
• Self
evolving composite of self-awareness, self-concept, and self-esteem. Self is made of 3 distinct yet integrated, components that evolve continually over time, based on life experiences
• Self-awareness
the ability to step outside yourself, view yourself as a unique person distinct from your surrounding environment; and reflect on your thoughts, feelings and behaviors
• Self-concept
overall perception of who you are. Based on the beliefs, attitudes, and values you have about yourself
o Beliefs: convictions that certain things are true
o Attitudes: evaluative appraisals
o Values: represent enduring principals that guide your interpersonal actions
• Looking-glass self
defining our self-concepts through thinking about how others see us
• Self-fulfilling prophecies: predictions about future interactions that lead us to behave in ways that ensure the interaction unfolds as we predicted
• Self-esteem
the overall value, positive or negative, that we assign to ourselves
• Self-discrepancy theory
: ideal self, ought self, & how these interact to explain self-esteem: suggests that your self-esteem is determined by how you compare 2 mental standards.
o The first is ideal self: the characteristics you want to possess based on your desires
o Ought self: the person others wish and expect you to be
• Attachment anxiety & avoidance (def. & how dimensions combine to create secure, preoccupied, dismissive, & fearful attachment styles):
o Attachment anxiety: the degree to which a person fears rejection by relationship partners. If you experience high attachment anxiety, you perceive yourself as unlovable and unworthy
o Attachment avoidance: The degree to which someone desires close interpersonal ties. If you have high attachment avoidance, you’ll likely experience little interest in intimacy, preferring solitude instead
Secure attachment: individuals are low on both anxiety and avoidance: they are comfortable with intimacy and seek close ties with others
Preoccupied attachment: people that are high in anxiety and low in avoidance. They desire closeness but are plagued by fear of rejection.
Dismissive attachment: people with low anxiety but low avoidance. They view close relationships as comparatively unimportant, instead prizing and prioritizing self-reliance
Fearful attachment: people high in both attachment and anxiety. They fear rejection and tend to shun relationships
• Face
public self, what you want others to see and know
• Mask
a public self designed to strategically veil your private self
• Warranting theory
degree to which the informations is supported by other people and outside evidence
• Social penetration theory (basic concepts & how they explains relationship development):
the idea that revealing the self to others involves pealing back or penetrating layers
o Peripheral layers: outermost, demographic characteristics including birthplace, age, gender, and ethnicity.
o Intermediate layer: reside your attitudes and opinions about music, politics, food, entertainment and other such matters
o Central layers: core characteristics such as self-awareness, self-concept, self-esteem, personal values, fears and distinctive personality traits
• Self-disclosure
when we reveal private information about ourselves to others
• Johari Window
some “quadrants” of our selves are open to self-reflection and sharing with other people, while others remain hid-den
The Johari Window thus provides us with a useful alternative meta-phor to social penetration
• Perception (def. & explain components of def., i.e., selection, organization, punctuation, interpretation):
o Perception: the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information from our senses.
o Perception begins when we select information on which to focus our attention. We thenorganize the information into an understandable pattern inside our minds and interpret its meaning. Each activity influences the other:our mental organization of information shapes how we interpret it, and our inter-pretation of information influences how we mentally organize it.
o The first step of perception, selection, involves focusing attention on certain sights, sounds, tastes, touches, or smells in our environment
The degree to which particular people or aspects of their communication attract our attention is known as salience
o Once you have selected something as the focuas of your attention, you take that information and structure into a coherent pattern inside your mind this is known as organization
During organization, you engage in punctuation, structuring the information you’ve selected into a chronological sequence that matches how you experienced the order of events
o As we organize information we have selected into a coherent mental model, we also engage in interpretation, assigning meaning to that information
• Schemata
the knowledge we draw on when interpreting interpersonal communication resides in schemata, mental structures that contain information defining the characteristics of various concepts, as well as those characteristics are related to each other
• Attributions
we create explanations for others comments or behaviors, known as attributions
• Fundamental attribution error
the tendency to attribute others behavior solely to internal causes rather than the social or environmental forces affecting them.
• Actor-observer effects
the tendency of people to make external attributions regarding their own behavior
• Self-serving bias
we typically take credit for the success by making an internal attribution
