Communications Unit 1 Vocab Terms

Channel

the route traveled by the message and the means of transportation

Communication Apprehension

fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with others

Communication Competence

the impression that communicative behavior is both appropriate and effective in a given situation

Communication Process

a complex set of three different and interrelated activities intended to result in shared meaning

Constructed Message

formed carefully and thoughtfully when our known scripts are inadequate for the situation

Credibility

a perception of a speaker’s knowledge, trustworthiness, and warmth

Cultural Identity

how we perceive ourselves based on the cultural and social groups to which we belong

Cultural Situation

the beliefs, values, orientation, underlying assumptions, and rituals that belong to a specific culture

Culture

a system of shared beliefs, values, symbols, and behaviors

Dark Side Messages

not ethical and/or appropriate

Decoding

the process of interpreting another’s message

Encoding

the process of putting our thoughts and feelings into words and nonverbal behaviors

Feedback

responses to messages

Group Communication

3 to 20 people who come together for the specific purpose of solving a problem or arriving at a decision

Historical Situation

the background provided by previous communication between the participants

Interference/Noise

any stimulus that interferes with the process of achieving shared meaning

Interpersonal Communication

informal interaction between two people who have an identifiable relationships with each other

Intrapersonal Communication

the interactions that occur in a person’s mind when they are talking with themselves

Mass Communication

communication delivered through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time

Media Richness

how much and what kinds of information can be transmitted via a particular channel

Message Interpretation

what we do when we decide a message

Message Production

what we do when we encode a message

Messages

the verbal utterances, visual images, and nonverbal behaviors used to convey thoughts and feelings

Physical Noise

any external sight or sound that distracts us from the message

Positionality

the district world view a person bring to the occasion

Psychological Noise

thoughts and feelings that compete with the sender’s message for our attention

Public Communication

one participant, the speaker, delivers a message to a group of more than 20 people

Rhetorical Sensitivity

communicating in ways that express empathy with and compassion for diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and worldviews

Social Ease

communicating without appearing to be anxious or nervous

Social Presence

a sense of “being there” with another person virtually

Spontaneous Expressions

spoken without much conscious thought

Symmetrical Feedback

a message that signals disagreement about who is in control

Synchronicity

the extent to which a channel allows for immediate feedback

Assumed Similarity

assuming someone is similar to us in a variety of ways until we get information that contradicts this assumption

Attributions

reason we give for others’ and our own behavior

Automatic Processing

a subconscious approach to making sense of what we encounter

Conscious Processing

a slow deliberate process of examining and reflecting on the stimuli

Heuristics

shortcut rules of thumb for understanding how to perceive something based on past experience with similar stimuli

Implicit Personality Theory

tendency to assume that two or more personality characteristics go together

Impression Formation

processes we use to form perceptions of others

Incongruence

a gap between self-perception and reality

Perception

the process of selectively attending and assigning meaning to information

Perception

a message that reflects your understanding of the meaning of another person’s behavior and seeks clarification

Selective Perception

the perceptual distortion that arises from paying attention only to what we expect to see or hear and ignoring what we don’t expect

Self-concept

the perception we have of our skills, abilities, knowledge, competencies, and personality

Self-esteem

the evaluation we make about our personal worthiness based on our self-concept

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

an inaccurate perception of a skill, characteristic, or situation that leads to behaviors that perpetuate that false perception as true

Self-monitoring

the internal process of being aware how we are coming across to others and adjusting our behavior accordingly

Self-perception

the overall view we have of ourselves, which includes both our self-concept and self-esteem

Self-talk

the internal conversations we have with ourselves in our thoughts

Situational Attribution

a reason that is beyond the control of the person

Social construction of self

the phenomenon of presenting different aspects of our self-concept based on the situation and people involved

Stereotypes

exaggerated or oversimplified generalizations used to describe a group