ch 1 - what is interpersonal comm

• What three components overlap to form communication competence?

Motivation, skill, and knowledge.

• What is interpersonal communication?

• Using symbols (words/language) to represent ideas in order to share meanings and create personal bonds between people.

• What does the transactional model of communication demonstrate?

• : The various layers and components that contribute to message formation in an interpersonal interaction.

• Name two key characteristics of interpersonal communication.

• Continuous process and dynamic process.

• What is the difference between content messages and relational messages?

• Content messages are literal, clear, and culturally based words, while relational messages depend on the type and context of the relationship.

• List three contexts where interpersonal communication may occur.

• Organizations, health settings, family, friends, computer-mediated communication, bureaucratic interactions.

• What are five principles that make for good communication?

• Fidelity, appropriateness, satisfaction, effectiveness, efficiency, and ethics.

• What are some factors that impact how you communicate?

• Culture, setting, and age.

• What is a theory in communication studies?

• : A description of relationships among concepts that helps understand a phenomenon, always incomplete and supported by evidence.

• Name the four main paradigms in communication research.

• Critical modern, critical postmodern, interpretive, and post-positivist.

• What kind of methodologies are used in communication research?

• Interviews, ethnography, surveys/questionnaires, interaction studies, and experiments.

• What are the key values of science?

empiricsim, truth, and publicness

• What is the primary purpose of universities?

• Knowledge production and learning through asking questions that have no known answers.

• Explain the "publish or perish" principle.

• Academics must continuously publish high-quality research to earn tenure and status, as publication is essential to knowledge production.

• What are the typical steps to become a tenured professor?

• Graduate school producing original research, obtaining a tenure-track job, publishing extensively during 6-7 years, and then earning tenure.

Becoming a Professor 

• To become a professor, you must demonstrate knowledge production + ask/answer questions 

  • Teaching ability is taken into consideration (and varies depending on what kind of school) but is not the priority when hiring a researcher 

  • You have to convince the university you are someone who is going to undertake research with the goal of producing new knowledge 

How is research used? 

• Students are taught and discover research that is already out there (consumption) 

• Professors/Researchers answer unanswered questions through producing academic articles and eventually books (production) 

Academic Science Production Step 1 - grad school 

Step 1 - grad school 

• You shift from learning stuff you already knew to learning stuff you don't 

• Produce a thesis for MS, dissertation (book) for PhD

• You are awarded your Doctorate for teaching your professors something they did not know already 

Academic Science Production Step 2 - Tenure track job 

Step 2- Tenure track job 

• PhD does not equal - immediately getting a tenure track job 

• You have 6-7 years to publish as much high quality research as possible, they you are evaluated on how good of a job you did 

• After passing this mark, you are awarded TENURE, making it most impossible to get fired 

  • Tenure ensured researchers can explore the things they want in the way they want