Interpersonal Comm Test 2

*Culture

an established, coherent set of beleifs, attitudes, values, and practices shared by a large group of people 

Enculturation

the process of acquiring a culture through direct instruction and imitation

Co-Cultural Communication Theory

asserts that the people who have more power within society determine the dominant culture, because they get to decide the prevailing views, values, and traditions of the society

Co-Cultures

formed by members of a society who don’t conform to the dominant culture by way of language, values, life style, or even physical appearance.

Assimilation

trying to be accepted into the dominant culture

*Stereotypes

a way to categorize people into a social group and then evaluate them based on information you have related to this group 

*Prejudice

results when stereotypes reflect rigid attitudes toward groups and their members 

Stereotype Content Model (Benevolent and Hostile Prejudice)

Benevolent: leads to condescending and disrespectful communication

Hostile: at the root of every exclusionary “ism” : racism, sexism, ageism, classism, ableism, and so on. 

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Uncertainty Avoidance

a measure of how different cultures tolerate and accept unpredictability 

Power distance

the degree to which people in a particular culture view the unequal distribution of power as acceptable 

High vs low context cultures

high: people in high context cultures use relatively vague and ambiguous language to convey important meanings 

low: people in low context cultures tend not to presume that others share their beliefs, attitudes and values. they strive to be informative, clear, and direct in communication.

Display rules

the cultural guidelines for when, where, and how people should and shouldn’t express emotion

Masculinity vs. femininity

Masculine cultural values: the accumulation of personal wealth as an indicator of success, assertiveness, and personal acheivement

Feminine cultural values: emphasize personal connections, compassion, cooperation, relationship health, quality of life and concern for the poor and elderly.

Monochronic vs. polychronic time orientaion 

Mono: view time as a precious resource that can be saved, spent, wasted, lost, or made up 

Poly: view time as a flexible, not as a resource to be spent, saved, or gaurded

*Intercultural competence

the ability to communicate appropriately, effectively, and ethically with people from diverse backgrounds 

*World-mindedness

the ability to accept and respect other cultures’ beliefs, values, and customs 

*Ethnocentrism

the belief that one’s own cultural beliefs, values, attitudes and practices are superior to others’ 

Communication Accommodation

*Communication Accommodation Theory

people are motivated to adapt their communication when they seek social approval, when they wish to establish relationships, and when they veiw others’ language use as appropriate.

Stages of Listening (*Receiving, attending, understanding, responding, recalling)

listening: the active process of making meaning out of another person’s spoken message

recieving: the first stage of listening, combines the physiological processes of seeing and hearing

attending: devoting attention to the information you’ve received

understanding: interpreting the meaning of another person’s communication by comparing newly received information against our past knowledge

responding: clearly and constructively providing feedback to the speaker

recalling: remembering information after you’ve received, attended to, understood, and responded to the information 

*Mental bracketing

systematically putting aside thoughts that are not relevant to the interaction at hand

Feedback (positive vs negative feedback)

positive: supports a speaker’s confidence

negative: disrupts communication

Back-channel cues

a form of positive feedback, comprise verbal and nonverbal behaviors that signal youre paying attention and understanding specefic comments 

*Paraphrasing

summarizing others’ comments after they have finished speaking

Mnemonics

devices that aid memory by focusing on particular sensory cues that will trigger our memory of the encounter

Listening styles (action-oriented, time-oriented, people-oriented, content-oriented)

action: want brief, accurate messages from others — information the listeners can use to make decisions or initiate courses of action

time: prefer breif and concise encounters

people: view listening as an opportunity to establish commonalities between themselves and others

content: prefer to be intellectually challenged by messages

Functions of Listening

comprehending: try to accurately interpret and store the information received so that you can correctly recall it later

discernment: focus on distinguishing specefic sounds from each other, as muscians do when tuning their instruments 

analyze: carefully evaluate a message in order to judge it

appreciate: goal is to enjoy and respond to sounds

support: aim to provide comfort to a conversational partner

*Selective listening

taking in only bits of information (those that are immeadiately salient) during an interpersonal encounter and dismissing the rest

Pseudo-listening

occurs when you behave as if you’re paying attention though you’re really not doing so

Aggressive listening

(ambush listening) focusing on what conversational patterns say for the sole purpose of identifying opportunities to attack them

*Narcissistic listening

(stagehogging) self-absorbed listening: the individual ignores what others have to say and redirects the conversation to his or her own interests

*Verbal Communication

the exchange of spoken language with others during interactions 

*symbols

words are the primary symbols we use to represent people, objects, events and ideas

Personal idioms

words and phrases that have unique meanings within groups and/ or pairs of people 

*Denotative meaning

the literal meaning of words, as agreed on by conventional use in your culture

Connotative meaning

comprises additional understandings that are implied, suggested, or hinted at by the words yu choose while communicating with others, based on knowledge and situation or context 

Speech acts ( representative, directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative)

representative: commit the speaker to the truth of what has been said (ex: its sure is a beautiful day)

directive: attempt to get listeners to do things (ex: can i borrow your textbook?)

commissive: commit the speaker to future actions. promises and threats. 

expressive: convey a physiological or emotional state that the speaker is expressing. thanks apologies and congradulations (ex: thank you so much for the wonderful gift)

declarative: produce dramatic and observable effects. marriage pronounciations, firing declarations (ex: from this point onward, you are no longer an employee here) 

Characteristics of conversations

interactive, involve local managment, universal, follow scripts

Cooperative verbal communication

producing easily understood messages, taking ownership for what you say, and making others feel included

Cooperative Principle

basic principles of cooperative communication include being informative, honest, relevant, and clear, given the purposes and directions of the encounters in which you’re involved

You, I, and we language

avoid you language, phrases that place focus of attention and blame on other people

instead use I language to assume responsibility for what you are saying and your own perceptions 

using we language also indicates cooperation, conveys closeness, and is a way of emphasizing inclusion 

*Concealment

leaving important information out of messages, leading to deception

Defensive Communication (dogmatic, superiority, indifference, control messages)

dogmatic: messages that dismiss suggestions for improvement and/or constructive criticism by expressing refusal to consider other views 

superiority: a speaker suggests that he/she posesses special knowledge, ability, or status far beyond that of the other individual

indifference: messages that imply that the suggestion or criticism being offered is irrelevant, uninteresting, or unimportant

control messages: messages that seek to squelch criticism by controlling the other individul or the encounter

*Communication Apprehension

the fear or anxiety associated with interaction that keeps some people from being able to communicate cooperatively 

Communication plans (plan actions, plan contingencies)

plan actions: the “moves” you anticipate during the exchange

plan contingencies: the messages you think the other person will say during the exchange 

*Nonverbal communication

the intentional or unintentional transmission of meaning through an individual’s nonspoken physical and behavioral cues 

*Mixed messages

occur when verbal and nonverbal messages contradict each other 

*Kinesics

refers to most of the behaviors we associate with nonverbal communication: facila expression, eye contact, gestures, and body postures

Gestures (emblems, illustrators, regulators, adaptors)

emblems: gestures representing specefic verbal meanings

illustrators: accent or illustrate verbal messages

regulators: control the exchange of conversational turns during interpersonal encounters

adaptors: touching gestures that serve a physiological or physical purpose

*Vocalics

vocal characteristics we use to communicate nonverbal messages, have communicative power

*Haptics (types of touch)

functional-professional: accomplishes some type of task

social-polite: stems from social norms and expectations 

friendship-warmth: expresses liking for another person

love-intimacy: conveys deep emotional feelings

sexual-arousal: intended to physically stimulate another persom

aggressive-hostile: physical violence

*Proxemics (communication distances)

intimate: 0-18 inches

personal: 18-4 feet, distance with friends

social: 4-12 feet, common in the workplace

public: 12+ feet 

Artifacts

the things we use to express our identity to others, such as cars, electronic gadgets, and watches

Environment

the physicsl features of our surroundings

Affect displays

intentional or unintentional nonverbal behaviors that display actual or freigned emotions