Perspectives and Communication Theory Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Robert Craig's Seven Traditions of Communication, key theorists, definitions of communication and theory, and theoretical components.

Socio-Psychological Tradition

The tradition that studies the individual as a social being, views communication as interpersonal influence, and is referred to as the 'science of communication.'

Carl Hovland

A seminal theorist in the socio-psychological tradition based at Yale University.

Cybernetic Tradition

The tradition of complex systems in which a system of parts or variables influence one another, shape the overall system, and achieve balance as well as change like an organism.

Norbert Wiener

The seminal theorist who coined the term 'cybernetics.'

Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver

Seminal theorists within the cybernetic tradition.

Rhetorical Tradition

The tradition where the communication discipline began, centered on human symbol use, persuasion, argument construction, speechmaking, and 'adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas.'

Five Canons of Rhetoric

The key components of the rhetorical tradition: invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory.

Rhetor

A symbol user who creates a text or artifact for a particular audience, subject to various situational constraints.

Six Eras of Rhetoric

The historical divisions of the rhetorical tradition: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Contemporary, and Post-Modern.

Semiotic Tradition

A tradition comprising theories about how signs come to represent objects, ideas, states, situations, feelings, and conditions outside of themselves.

Sign (Semiotic Tradition)

The basic concept of the semiotic tradition, defined as a stimulus designating something other than itself.

Three Areas of Semiotics

The three divisions of the study of signs: semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics.

Charles Saunders Pierce

Recognized as the first modern theorist of semiotics.

CK Ogden and IA Richards

Seminal theorists in the semiotic tradition who formulated the Meaning Triangle.

Sociocultural Tradition

The tradition addressing how our understandings, meanings, norms, roles, and rules are worked out interactively, operating on the assumption that reality is constructed through interaction in groups, communities, and cultures.

Contributing Lines of Work in Sociocultural Tradition

The three lines of work feeding into the sociocultural tradition: symbolic interactionism, constructionism, and sociolinguistics.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis of Language Relativity

A seminal sociocultural theory associated with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf.

Critical Tradition

A tradition housing questions of privilege and power that seeks to understand dominating systems, uncover oppressive social conditions, and consciously fuse theory and action.

Marxism

The originating branch of the critical tradition.

Frankfurt School

The group largely responsible for the emergence of the label 'critical theory.'

Phenomenological Tradition

A tradition concentrating on the conscious experience of the person, where actual lived experience serves as the basic data of reality.

Three Principles of Phenomenology

Formulated by Stan Deetz: 1) Knowledge is conscious; 2) The meaning of a thing consists of the potential of that thing in one's life; 3) Language is the vehicle of meaning.

Three Schools of Phenomenological Thought

Classical phenomenology (Husserl), phenomenology of perception (Merleau-Ponty), and hermeneutic phenomenology (Heidegger).

Barnett Pearce

A notable communication scholar who referred to the academic discipline of communication as a 'revolutionary discovery.'

Communication

The systemic process of interacting with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.

Theory

Derived from 'theoria,' defined as a way of organizing what we know and assume about some phenomenon.

Concepts (Theory Element)

The first and most basic aspect of a theory that describes a state of affairs at a particular place and time by labeling and defining.

Propositions (Theory Element)

Statements that include two or more concepts and show a relationship between those concepts.

Perspective

A point of view that comes from accepting and using a particular set of assumptions that gives us the ability to see relevant data in a meaningful way.

Themes of Assumptions

The three foundational themes in which our perspective assumptions are rooted: Epistemology, Ontology, and Axiology.