COMM1101 Test 1 Study Guide: Key Concepts and Definitions in Attribution, Labeling, and Self-Esteem

Why do we study communication?

1. Necessary for relationships

2. Necessary for goal achievements

3. Necessary for identity development and identity management.

Define Critical thinking

Critical Thinking: Reflecting on your own and others' communication, behavior, and ideas before responding.

What are messages and what is shared meaning?

Messages: Building blocks of communication - Messages are symbols - both words and nonverbal communication

Shared Meaning: The goal of communication - Sender and Receiver interpret the message the same

What is the difference between content level and relational level meaning?

Content level: based on the words and nonverbal cues the messenger is receiving, you understand what they say

Relationship level: you run their message through another filter based on the relationship with that person

Seven components of communication process

setting, participants, message creation, meaning creation, channel, noise, feedback

Can you name/define/explain participants

Who are the people interacting during the communication

Can you name/define/explain Setting

Setting: Physical surroundings

(location, daytime, proximity)

Can you name/define/explain message creation

Encoding/decoding - saying and interpreting the communication

Encoding: converting ideas into messages

Decoding: receiving a message and interpreting its meaning

Can you name/define/explain meaning creation

content/relationship

Can you name/define/explain channel

Through which the message is being transmitted

(face-to-face, zoom, etc.)

Can you name/define/explain noise

Interferes with/degrades the quality of a message

(audible distractions, psychological noise, computer distractions)

Can you name/define/explain feedback

Response to a message

linear model of communication

one person transmits, the other listens

transactional model of communication

both people share meaning simultaneously

Synergetic Model of Communication

Transactional model + individual, cultural, and societal forces

What individual forces influence communication?

Demographics, personality, cognitive ability, physical ability, field of experience

Can you define communication competence?

The ability to react appropriately and reach the goal intended with your message.

What are the goals that are studied in interactions? What do they mean?

Content Goals: What you want to achieve or learn in a specific context

Relationship Goals: How you want to be perceived by others and how you want to interact with them

Identity Goals: How you want to perceive yourself and how you want to express your identity to others

What is the definition of communication according to Alberts, Nakayama, and Martin?

"A transactional process in which people generate meaning through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages in specific contexts, influenced by individual and social forces, and embedded in culture."

How are communication and identity connected?

1. Your identity comes with you with every communication encounter.

2. Communication helps shape and create identity.

3. Identity is important when it comes to intercultural communication

Can you define and provide characteristics of identity?

Identity: the combination of self-concept and social categories

Identities exist on an individual(personal) and societal level

Identities can change and stay the same, also created through communication

Can you define and explain Reflected appraisals

Your opinion of yourself is determined by how others see you

Can you define and explain Social comparisons:

All things become meaningful through comparisons

Can you define and explain Self-fulfilling prophecies:

When you expect something to happen, it more likely will.

Self-fulfilling prophecies affect performance.

Can you define and explain self concept:

how you see yourself - affects the image you project externally

Learned through reflected appraisal and social comparisons

Can you define and explain self-esteem

Your evaluation of your worth - affects how you communicate

Can be inconsistent with how others see you

Performance of Identity:

the process or means by which we show the world who we think we are.

EX: clothing, jewelry, names

Self-Presentation:

influencing others' impressions by creating an image that is consistent with one's personal identity

Enacting Identities:

using scripts for the roles we're playing at that moment

Role Expectations:

the expectation that one will perform in a particular way because of the social role occupied

Can you identify the difference between primary and secondary identities?

Primary Identity: identities that have the most consistent and enduring impact on our lives

- EX: Race, gender, nationality

Secondary Identity: more fluid and often dependent on the situation

- EX: College major, relationship status, occupation, sports team

Can you identify the difference between racial, national, and ethnic identity?

Racial identity: the identification with a particular racial group, develops as a result of societal forces - because society defines what a race is and what it is called

National identity: a person's citizenship

Ethnicity identity: identification with a particular group with which they share some or all of these characteristics: national or tribal affiliation, religious beliefs, language, and/or cultural and traditional origins and background - Most complex

Racial Identity:

Identification with a particular racial group, developed from societal forces

National Identity:

Refers to citizenship

Ethnic Identity:

Identification with a particular group with which they share some or all of these characteristics: national or tribal affination, religious beliefs, language, and/or cultural and traditional origins and background

Gender Identity:

To what extent one identifies with the social construction of masculinity and femininity

Sexual Identity:

Refers to the various categories of sexuality one identifies with

Age Identity:

Self-perception of age along with what others understand age to mean

Social Class Identity:

based on income, occupation, and education.

- Ex. Middle class, upper class

Disability Identity:

Having an impairment of some kind

Religious Identity:

One's spiritual beliefs in terms of a particular belief system and depth of belief

How does someone formulate their own communication ethic?

From all identity characteristics. What we decide ourselves based on our ethics

What is the definition of communication ethics?

the standards of right and wrong that one applies to messages that are sent and received.

What are some of the ways we judge ethical decisions in communication?

Truthfulness

Sharing/withholding information

Benefit and harm of messages

Can you define and identify the difference between absolutism and relativism?

Absolutism: the belief that there is a single correct moral standard that holds for everyone, everywhere, every time

Relativism: the belief that moral behavior varies among individuals, groups, cultures, and across situations

Can you define and identify the difference between utilitarianism and pragmatism?

Utilitarianism: Weighing the harm/benefits of communicative decisions (ex. lying).

- The goal is to bring the most happiness to the most people, if an action/message results in the most happiness for the most people, it is right.

Pragmatism: emphasizes the practical effects of speech.

- Use what works, discard what doesn't

What is the framework for ethical decision-making?

Recognize ethical issues

Get all the facts

Evaluate alternative actions

Make a decision and test it

Act and reflect on the outcome

Can you define perception and the perception process

Perception: the process of selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory information into a coherent or lucid depiction of the world around us

Perception Process: We collect and understand information through our senses

Selection: attending to stimuli

Organization: arranging stimuli

Interpretation: understanding stimuli

Can you define selection, organization, and interpretation?

Selection: the process of choosing which sensory information to focus on

Organization: the process by which one recognizes what sensory input represents

Interpretation: involves assigning meaning to stimuli that we have selected to attend to

What types of stimuli are we more likely to attend to?

We tend to select stimuli with certain characteristics

Stimuli with intensity

Stimuli that are large in size

Stimuli that contrast with surroundings

Stimuli that are repeated

Stimuli with sudden movement

We also notice stimuli that are negative, violate expectations, or occur in important situations

Primacy effect, recency effect

Primacy effect: the tendency to form a judgment or opinion based on the first information received

Recency Effect: the tendency to form a judgment or opinion on the most recent information received

What is the difference between cognitive representation and categorization?

Cognitive Representation: A mental model or map humans can create to represent their surroundings and can later refer to when circumstances call for them

- 3 types of maps: schemas, prototypes, scripts

Categorization: a process of grouping objects or categories of information together with linguistic symbols

Can you define Schemas(CR):

cognitive structures that help us organize information

Can you define Prototypes(CR):

a representative or idealized version of a concept

Can you define Scripts(CR):

a relatively fixed sequence of events that function as a guide or template for communication or behavior

Can you define Labeling(C):

name assigned to a category based on one's perception of that category (usually with other people)

Can you define Stereotyping(C):

creating schemas that overgeneralize attributes of a specific group

Can you define Frames(I):

function as lenses that shape how we create meaning and understanding

Can you explain and give an example of attribution theory?

Attribution Theory: We attribute behavior as being either internally caused (based on someone's personality or choices) or externally caused (based on the environment of the situation)

Classmate doesn't smile at me → She's rude (internal)

Classmate doesn't smile at me → She's having a rough day (external)

Can you explain attributional bias

my negative behaviors are because of external causes and my positive behaviors are because of my internal state (my being, focused on myself)

Can you explain self-serving bias

the tendency to give yourself more credit than is due when good things happen and accept very little responsibility when things go wrong (focused on yourself)

Can you explain fundamental attribution error

tendency to attribute others' negative behavior to internal causes and their positive behaviors to external causes (focused on others)

Can you explain overattribution?

selecting an individual's most obvious characteristic and using it to explain almost anything that person does

What are synesthesia, misophonia, and color blindness, and what are they examples of?

Physical Differences that influence the way ppl perceive their environment and the way they communicate about stimuli

Synesthesia: stimulation in one sense simultaneously produces sensation in a different sense

Misophonia: affected emotionally by common sounds

Color Blindness: seeing colors differently (usually harder to tell diff between colors)

What is cognitive complexity?

Cognitive complexity: refers to how detailed, involved, or numerous a person's constructs are

- The higher your cognitive complexity, the more ways you have of explaining, understanding, and perceiving interpersonal interactions

How can someone's personality characteristics influence perceptions?

Each person is a mix of personality, temperament, and experience

Individual characteristics influence perception

Factors to consider:

- Emotional state (our attitude influences perception)

-----Feeling happy vs. depressed → interpret and respond to sensory input differently

-----EX: feeling angry → hearing other people's music → irritated

-----EX: feeling happy → more likely to help others

Outlook (tend to interpret the world in consistent ways)

- Optimistic vs. Pessimistic

Knowledge (awareness and understanding)

- Ppl interpret what they perceive based on what they know

The Role of Power:

Your relative position of power or lack of power influences how others perceive you, how you perceive, others, and how you interpret events in the world

The Role of Culture:

Each person perceives or values the other based on expectations that were shaped by own cultural perceptions, values, and meanings typical for his or her own culture

- Helps shape individuals' thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors

----EX: East Asian cultures are highly interdependent and community-based over individual → anti bragging, self-critical

----Can view independent, self-confident Americans as arrogant and selfish

The Role of Social Comparison:

social categorization leads us to specific expectations about how others should or should not behave

- Shaped by our culture

----EX: US valuing youth over age vs. Korea celebrating aging and elders

----Koreans could see Americans as misguided and wrong in treatment of the elderly

The Role of Historical Time Period:

The historical period in which one grows up and lives influences perception and communication

- 9/11 → Those older than 5-6y/o during likely to have perceptions changed by the event

----Perceptions of air travel, safety, patriotism, Muslims

Cohort Effect:

the process by which historical events influence the perceptions of people who grew up in a given generation and time period

Social Roles:

the specific position or positions one holds in a society

- The role one plays socially can influence one's perception and communication

- Ex. job positions, familial roles, positions in society

Can you define and differentiate paradigm?

Paradigm: a belief system that represents a particular worldview

- Set of assumptions about knowledge, nature of reality, and human nature

Can you define and differentiate Theory:

a set of statements that explains a particular phenomenon

- Theories are developed over time, tested, and retested

Can you define and differentiate Hypothesis:

a supposition or proposed explanation

- Assumptions made before any research or experiments

Can you define and differentiate Methods:

the specific ways that scholars collect and analyze data which they then use to test hypotheses and prove or disprove their theories

Where and why was rhetoric first studied?

- It was first studied in Ancient Greece

- Greek citizenry, democracy, public sphere, language & persuasive skills were highly valued

Can you explain the difference between humanism and behaviorism? Can you identify the main divide?

Behaviorism: the focus on the study of behavior as a science

- Focuses on observable/external behavior

- Social Science Approach

- Quantitative Methods

- Goal = predicting human behavior

Humanism (I): celebrates human nature and potential

- Focuses on individual as a whole

- Interpretive & Critical Approach

- Qualitative Methods

- Goal= change society

What is the difference between the social science approach and the interpretive approach, and which is humanist and which is behaviorist?

Social science approach: Behaviorist

- Predictions are possible if you observe behavior in a controlled environment (lab) or a naturalistic setting

- Often use surveys, focused interviews, and observation to collect data

Interpretive approach: Humanist

- Researchers study naturally occurring communication rather than assembling data

- Focuses on how reality is constructed through communication

Can you identify the difference between quantitative research and qualitative research, and which approach is associated with each?

Quantitative Methods: methods that convert data to numerical indicators, which are then analyzed using statistics to establish relationships among the concepts

- EX: observing subjects in a lab or naturalistic setting, surveys, conducting interviews

Qualitative Methods: methods in which researchers study naturally occurring communication rather than assembling data and converting it to numbers

- EX: Ethnography: active engagement with participants

- EX: participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, Steve's dissertation

- Content analysis: focusing on the specific aspects of content of a text or group of texts

- EX: conversation analysis, media analysis, narrative

What is the critical approach?

Aims to change society through an understanding of power and other forces affecting communication and human behavior

- Typically use textual analysis and observations

What are the goals of each approach (social science, interpretive, critical)?

Social Science Approach Goal: predicting future behavior

Interpretive Approach Goal: explore and explain the world around us

Critical Approach Goal: to change society