FOCS Interpersonal Communication

Question 1

Facts Interpersonal Communication Part 1

Answer 1

• Creates a connection between people such that one person’s actions affect and reflect the other person’s actions
• Involves paying attention to the characteristics and circumstances that makes the participants unique individuals
• Can include more than two people
  
  • Occurs between two people is aka Dyad

Question 2

Facts Interpersonal Communication Part 2

Answer 2

• Interpersonal communication isn’t about the number of people present but the personal interaction involved
  
  • Communicate with a group in a personal and involving the connection of everyone
• Face to face interaction
  
  • Isn’t about the tools used to communicate but the presence of personal interaction

Question 3

Interperson communication is a….

Answer 3

• Continuous process
  
  • When one is speaking, the other is communicating through body position, eye contact and facial expression
  • Channel depends on the medium these people use

Question 4

Interperson communication is a….

Answer 4

• Dynamic process
  
  • Meanings change and unfold over time
  • Previous messages set contextualises how subsequent messages are created and understood

Question 5

Interperson communication is a….

Answer 5

• Consequential
  
  • Produces outcomes
  • Whether deliberate or unintentional

Question 6

Interperson communication is a….

Answer 6

• Irreversible
  
  • Can’t take bak the messages you communicated
  • Part of shared history
  • Never recapture the moment when your response would have been most appropriate

Question 7

Interperson communication is a….

Answer 7

• Imperfect
  
  • My thoughts can never be completely communicated to another person

Question 8

Why care about interpersonal communication?

Answer 8

• Keeps us healthy
• Helps us build successful relationships and careers
• Not innate. Needs to be learned

Question 9

Isn’t all communication interpersonal

Answer 9

• Communication that occurs between people and creates a personal bond between them
• Occurs between two or more people whose lives are interdependent and mutually influence one another in unique ways

Question 10

Types of messages

Answer 10

• Content messages
  
  • Literal and typical meanings
• Relational messages
  
  • Symbols people have for the relationship between communicators

Question 11

Misconception about interpersonal communication

Answer 11

• Not a natural ability
  
  • Human need to understand how a situation is shaped, and this requires effort and practice to develop
• Does not always solve problems
  
  • Can produce greater misunderstanding
• Does not always build close relationships
  
  • Can damage relationships
• Does not always advance pro-social goals
  
  • Can advance positive outcome but does not always do so

Question 12

Goals for interpersonal communication

Answer 12

• Instrumental
  
  • Getting things done
• Relationship-maintenance
  
  • Define and maintain relationships
• Self presentation
  
  • Controlling how self is perceived by others

Question 12

Practising interpersonal communication

Answer 12

• Necessary as you cannot avoid exchanging messages with people
• Engage in interpersonal communication without a lot of practice or knowledge
• Skill like soccer or music

Question 13

Communication Competence

Answer 13

• Ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in personal relationships
• Knowledge of effective and appropriate communication patterns
• Ability to use and adapt that knowledge in various texts
• Communicating “well”

Question 14

Measurement Standards

Answer 14

Fidelity, Appropriateness, Satisfaction, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Ethics

Question 15

Measurement Standards Fidelity

Answer 15

• Clarity of a message
• Exists when a receiver can hear the messages and interpret meanings accurately
• Can be undermined by noise in the environment

Question 16

Measurement Standards Appropriateness

Answer 16

• Messages produced match the requirements of situation
• Guided by social rules
• Guidelines that specify the actions that are expected, preferred and off-limits

Question 17

Measurement Standards Satisfaction

Answer 17

• Enjoyable
• Feelings after a good conversation vs Feelings after a bad one
• In workplace → High quality content messages

Question 18

Measurement Standards Effectiveness

Answer 18

• Meeting the goals
• Produce outcomes that you want

Question 19

Measurement Standards Efficiency

Answer 19

• If you can produce the outcomes you seek
• If you request was granted after just a little effort → Efficient communication

Question 20

Measurement Standard Ethics

Answer 20

• Consideration of what constitutes right versus wrong or good versus evil
• Using values as a moral guide when you interact with other people

Question 21

Promoting Communication Competence

Answer 21

Motivation Knowledge Skills

Question 22

Promoting Communication Competence- Motivation

Answer 22

• Motivation
  
  • Competent communication takes effort
  • Pay attention to what is and what is not appropriate
  • Desire to communicate well

Question 23

Promoting Communication Competence- Knowledge

Answer 23

• Knowledge
  
  • Knowing what communication behaviours are best for situation
  • Knowing the needs and wants of others

Question 24

Promoting Communication Competence- Skills

Answer 24

• Skill to act upon the motivation and knowledge
• Ability to create and perform behaviours that are appropriate and effective in a given social situation

Question 25

The role of culture, setting and age

Answer 25

Cultural Difference , Setting , Age , What should we do?

Question 26

The role of culture, setting and age: Cultural Difference

Answer 26

• Cultural difference
  
  • Reason that perception of communication competence vary
  • Shapes fidelity, rules for appropriateness, factors leading to satisfaction

Question 27

The role of culture, setting and age: Setting

Answer 27

• Setting
  
  • Depend on the setting in which the interaction takes place
  • Subtle variations between settings can have dramatic consequences for evaluations of messages

Question 28

The role of culture, setting and age: Age

Answer 28

• Age
  
  • Differences in age

Question 29

The role of culture, setting and age: What should we do???

Answer 29

Practice, practice and practice

Question 30

• Theory: Description of the relationships among concepts that helps us to understand a phenomenon

Answer 30

• Highlights specific concepts
  - Focuses on some parts and ignore other details
  
  • Relationships of concepts
    
    • Does more than identify relevant concepts
    • Create own relationships
  • Incomplete
    
    • Pieces of theory are missing
  • Tested against the experiences of people
    
    • We use them to test our hypotheses on people

Question 31

Research: Systemic way of observing reality with an aim to test theory

Answer 31

• Interviews → Ask people questions about their communicators
• Ethnography → Observe a group of people
• Surveys/Questionnaires → Short answer or MCQ
• Interaction Studies → Records conversations and examines of patterns of communication
• Experiments → Manipulates some aspect of situation and records behaviours under those conditions

Question 32

ICC Theory 1: Social Penetration Theory

Answer 32

• The “onion model”
  
  • Social penetration as a process of “peeling” layers of personal information
  • Takes time to get to “core self”
  • Stages
    
    • Orientation, Exploratory-Affective, Affective, Stable Exchange
• Social penetration is accomplished through self-disclosure
• Self-disclosure
  
  • Purposeful process of revealing information about oneself
  • Increases intimacy to a certain degree
  • Involves rewards and risks
• Some tips
  
  • Take “baby steps” (usually…)
  • Go layer by layer
  • Be mindful of reciprocation

Question 33

ICC Theory 2: Politeness Theory

Answer 33

• Assumption: Each individual has “face”
• Rational capacities
• Face, two types:
  
  • Positive Face → The positive and consistent image people have of themselves, and their desire for approval, appreciation
  • Negative Face → Basic claim to territories, personal preserves, and rights to non-distraction, freedom from imposition
• Politeness strategies
  
  • Satisfying positive face
  • Satisfying negative face
  • Mitigating impact of “Face Threatening Acts” (FTAs)
    
    • FTAs vary in importance depending on power, distance, rank (subject sensitivity)

Question 34

ICC Theory 3: Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Answer 34

• Key concepts
  
  • Uncertainty: Having a number of possible alternative predictions or explanations
  • Uncertainty Reduction: Making sense of something to increase our ability to accurately predict of explain
• Key propositions (theorems)
  
  • Communication between strangers decreases uncertainty
  • High levels of uncertainty increases information seeking behaviour
  • Low levels of uncertainty increases intimacy
  • Similarity between persons reduces uncertainty