PSYC1100

Linear Models (Communication)

• Sender, message, channel, and receiver (Smcr model)

• environmental noise can impact how a message is received

Interactional Model (Communication)

• same elements as smcr model

• receiver can send a message back

Transactional Model (Communication)

• communication is simultaneous

• sender and receiver at the same time

Westely and Maclean Model

Dances Helical Spiral

• Frank Dance

• communication is a never-ending expanding spiral

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

• self-awareness

• self-regulation

• motivation

• empathy

• social skills

Troth, Jordan and Lawrence (2012) Four Dimension Scale of EQ

• awareness of own emotions

• management of own emotions

• awareness of others’ emotions

• management of others’ emotions

Emotional Experssivity (Social Skills)

Ability to spontaneously and accurately express one’s attitudes, emotional states, and interpersonal feelings

Emotional Sensitivity (Social Skills)

• ability to quickly decode and understand others’ non-verbal communications

• relates to empathy and emotional identification in measurement of EQ

Emotional Control (Social Skills)

• ability to really control what emotions you display

Social expressivity (Social Skills)

• verbal skill

• ability to engage others in interaction

Social Sensitivity (Social Skills)

Ability to understand others’ verbal communication and what is appropriate for social situatons

Social Control (Social Skills)

• ability to control yourself in social situations

• self-presentation skill

Social Manipulation (Social Skills)

• index of how often we skillfully use social skills to manipulate people to achieve an end

• related to a personality variable often termed “machiavellianism”

Riggio 1986 Social Skills

• not all social skills are positively related to eachother

• not all skills are related to the same things

• emotional and social expressivity significantly predicted likeability

Preoccupation (Listening)

Drifting off about our own problems or ideas while others are speaking

Prejudgement (Listening)

Thinking we know what someone is going to say or an implied meaning which stops us from listening to their actual words or ideas

Reactivity (Listening)

We don’t just listen to words, we listen for emotional content and the way people are speaking; we often react to the emotion rather than the message itself

Lack of Motivation or Effort (Listening)

Often aren’t motivated to listen or put in the effort listen

Pseudolistening (Non-Listening)

Pretending to listen but not actually, being physically present but not paying attention

Monopolising (Non-Listening)

Focusing the conversation continually back to oneself rather than conversational partner

Selective Listening (Non-Listening)

Only attend to a fraction of the conversation or the parts we find interesting

Defensive Listening (Non-Listening)

Selectively listening for attacks, criticism, hostility, and to take offense, even when there is nothing to be offended by (usually happens when conversing with someone with differing opinions)

Ambushing (Non-Listening)

LIstening for points to attack and to criticise what others are saying

Literal Listening (Non-Listening)

Listening to the words being said but not the emotional tone said with the words resulting in misinterpretation

Projection Bias

the cognitive tendency to assume that our current preferences, emotions, or beliefs will remain the same into the future, or that other people share our exact state of mind

Ways to Show Listening

• affirmative

• paraphrasing

• active listening

Affirmatives (Listening)

Agreeing with speaker

Paraphrasing (Listening)

Restating own understanding of what was being said

Active Listening (Listening)

• paraphrasing

• asking questions where appropriate

• maintaining moderate to high non-verbale conversational involvement

Rewarding and Reinforcing (Communication Skills)

• talk to others to get rewards

  • praises

  • nods

  • verbal agreement

• praise is only good when appropriate and genuine

Questioning (Communication Skills)

• closed questions ilicit a single piece of information

  • e.g., “do you like cats?

• Open questions allow for greater elaboration

Reflecting (Communication Skills)

• can involve

  • paraphrasing

  • repeating

  • reflecting on some information previously given in conversation

Self-Disclosure (Communication Skills)

• sharing information about self to others

• can be objective/factual information or internal thoughts and feelings

• caveat

  • intimate self-discolure to strangers is seen as inappropriate

Explaining (Communication Skills)

• get our message across clearly

• give information about what we think, what we know, what we need, and why we feel and do things

Norm of Reciprocity

• people reciprocate and expect others to reciprocate

• survival value

• social norm

  • denotes appropriate conduct for individuals and groups

  • Descriptive norms

  • Injunctive norms

Descriptive norms

What people do

Injunctive norms

What people ought to do

Justify (Dodging Criticism)

• providing an excuse or explanation for events

• may seem positive

  • doesn’t deny that the criticism is warrented, but implies that the person being criticised shouldn’t be held accountable

Deny (Dodging Criticism)

• saying that the criticism is wrong

• refusing to take in the criticism

Counter Complain (Dodging Criticism)

• leveling criticism back at the critic

• changing focus from own behaviour to partners behaviour

Pass (Dodging Criticism)

• failing to respond to the criticism

• ignore or avoid

Agreeing (Dodging Criticism)

• acknowledged the criticism and its legitimacy

• apologised and made plans to improve

• not the most common response

Positive Face Threat (Criticism)

• criticism hurts things we value and feel positive about

• criticism undermines our desire to be accepted, respected, valued by others

• criticism threatens relationship face

Negative Face Threat (Criticism)

• criticism makes look bad in the eyes of others, exposes us

• criticism constrains our choices

Relational Complains (Target of Criticism)

Criticise someone about what they are doing within the relationship, or how the relationship is going

Behavioural Complaints (Target of Criticism)

Criticise someone about something that they did, or are doing

Dispositional Complaints (Target of Criticism)

Criticising someone about who they are as a person

Cultural Self- Constructs

• independent (typical of Western cultures)

• interdependent (typical of Eastern cultures)

Approach (Posture)

• attentative posture

• characterised by leaning forward

Withdrawal (Posture)

• characterised by drawing back or moving away

• interpreted to be negative behaviour

• may indicate refusal, disgust

Expansion (Posture)

• characterised by expanded chest, erect, or backward leaning posture

• associated with pride, arrogance, distain

Contraction (Posture)

• communicates depression, being down cast

• characterised by bowed head, drooping shoulders, sunken chest

Touch (Body Language)

• signals affection, support, unity

• physical touch linked to relationship strength

Oxytocin

• released when

  • cradle/breastfeed infants

  • hug others

  • have sex

• love hormone

• touch triggers the release of oxytocin

Touch and Emotion

• Love → stroking, finger interlocking

• Anger → hitting, squeezing

• Fear → trembling

• Happiness → swinging/shaking arms

• Disgust → pushing

Halo Effect

A cognitive bias where a positive impression of a person, brand, or product in one specific area influences opinions about their unrelated traits or overall quality

Stereotype Threat

• women keenly aware of feminine stereotype

• concerned they will be judged based on that stereotype, they adjust behaviour accordingly

Talkativeness (Aspects of Communication)

• general communicative competence

• gender diferences driven by

  • girls being more talkative to adults than boys

  • girls and boys being equally talkative peers

• Gender difference largest in children aged 3 or younger

  • probably because girls’ speech develops earlier than boys on average

Affiliative Speech (Aspects of Communication)

• speech used to establish/maintain connection with others

• gender difference largest on

  • general measures

  • responsiveness

• no gender difference on

  • praise

  • agreement

  • acknowledgememt

Assertive Speech (Aspects of Communication)

• speech used to influence others

• gender difference largest on

  • general measures

  • directive language

• no gender difference on

  • negative statements

  • giving information

• gender difference largest when

  • boys were in all-boys groups

  • boys were talking to strangers

Nurture (Gendered Communication)

• men and women are socialised differently

• pressured to communicate differently

Nature (Gendered Communication)

• evolution has pressured men and women to communicate differently

• hard-wired differences between men and women shape their communication

Stated Preferences (Dating)

• who we think we want and like

• who we tell friends, families, and ourselves we want

Revealed Preferences (Dating)

• who we actually choose

• what we do as opposed to what we say

Confidence (Relationships)

• communicated confidence is important for attracting mates

• draws in mates

• deters rivals

• confidence is only good when it does not come off as arrogance

Conformity (Relationships)

• women tend to emphasise they are conformists

• men tend to make efforts to stand out

Intelligence (Relationships)

communicated through words, ideas and conversation

Kindness (Relationships)

• kindness in mates seen as essential

• communicated in multiple ways

  • through dating profile self-descriptions

  • how we listen/respond to others

  • how we treat those in our sphere

Interest (Relationships)

• displaying interest → reciprocal liking

• want someone who likes us but specifically us

• indiscriminate interest is a turn-off

• communicated through

  • displayed interewst in who the person is

  • sharing romantic interest

Similarity (Relationships)

• law belief that “opposite attract” (looking for what we don’t have ourselves)

• couples tend to be similar on

  • social attitudes

  • age

  • religiously

  • intelligence

  • political

  • attractiveness

• honest communication is essential

Conflicts (Relationships)

• conflicting goals, motives, and preferences can lead to stress in relationships

• common sources of conflict

  • sexual intimacy problems

  • domestic and family responsibilities

  • bad habits

  • infidelity

  • financial difficulties

  • power inequalities

  • unmet expectations

  • jealousy

  • disagreements

Communication Strategies

Reciprocity (Persuasion)

• norm of reciprocity

• people may be open to persuasion if

  • persuader gives them something

  • persuader makes concessions in an argument

Consistency (Persuasion)

• prefer to be consistent in their attitudes and behaviour

• open to persuasion if it means consistency with their attitudes, values, or hoe thwy have behaved in the past

Consensus

• compelled to conform to those around them

• people may be more open to persuasion if they see that others agreeing

Authority (Persuasion)

• easily influenced by authority figures

• more open to persuasion if

  • persuader is in a position of power/authority

  • persuader is considered an expert

Attitude Bolstering (Resisting Persuasion)

• generating thoughts that support one’s original attitude

• without actually counterarguing the opposing message or persuasion attempt

Counterarguing (Resisting Persuasion)

Directly rebutting persuader’s arguments

Negative Affect (Resisting Persuasion)

Responding to persuasion attempt by getting angry, upset, or irritated

Selective Exposure (Resisting Persuasion)

Turning out, ignoring, or walking away from the persuasion attempt

Social Validation (Resisting Persuasion)

Thinking of others who support and share one’s original attitude

Source Derogation (Resisting Persuasion)

Dismissing the persuader - rejecting their expertise, validity, trustworthiness

Social Compensation Hypothesis

• for people with less developed offline social networks

  • more introverted

  • lower self-esteem

  • higher in social anxiety

• online communication can be used to compensate lack of existing networks

Trolling

Malicious online behaviour, intended to disrupt interactions, aggravate interactional partners and lure them into fruitless argumentation

Benign Disinhibition (Online Disinhibition Effect)

• reveal vulnerabilities to others

• be kind to complete strangers

Toxic Disinhibition (Online Disinhibition Effect)

• hostile

• inappropriate

Dissociative Anonymity

Can avoid identifying information about ourselves online

Invisibility

• trolls are invisible to their targets and do not have to face the effects of their actions

• no facial expressions or body language

Asynchrony

• no instant feedback from targets

• people may respond instantlty or make take along break

• allows hit and run trolling

Solipsistic Introjection

• Solipsistic → self-centred, egocentric

• Introjection → unconscious adoption of the attitudes of others

Dissasociative Imagination (Trolling)

• disconnect their targets from being real people

• trolling may become a game to the trolls

Attributional Style

When bad or good things happen to us, we tend to look for reasons why

Locus - Internal (Attributional Style)

Attributing things to internal qualities

Locus - External (Attributional Style)

Attributing things to situation factors

Stability (Attributional Style)

• stable → factors are not likely to change

• unstable → factors are not likely to change

Positive Attributional Style

• good events → internal, stable

• bad events → external, unstable

Negative Attributional Style

• bad events → internal, stable

• good events → external, unstable

Subjectivity

• we all face same rewards and punishments

• we all experience good and bad punishments

• people differ in interpretation (focusing negatively on ourselves is not a reflection of reality)

Principles of Organisational Communication

• timely

• clear

• accurate

• pertinent (relevance)

• credible

• responsibility

• concision

• professionalism

• sincerity