Interpersonal Communication Exam 3

Approach Behaviors

Communication behaviors that signal one's interest in getting to know someone.

Avoidance Behaviors

Communication behaviors that signal one's lack of interest in getting to know someone.

Avoiding Stage

The stage of relationship dissolution when partners create physical and emotional distance between each other.

Bonding Stage

The stage of relationship development when people publicly announce their commitment to each other.

Catfishing

Using false information, including stolen or edited photos, to create a fake online persona.

Circumscribing Stage

The stage of relationship dissolution characterized by decreased quality and quantity of communication between partners.

Commitment

A desire to stay in a relationship.

Comparison Level

A person's realistic expectation of what the person wants and thinks he or she deserves from a relationship.

Comparison Level for Alternatives

A person's assessment of how good or bad his or her current relationship is, compared with other options.

Dialectical Tensions

Conflicts between two important but opposing needs or desires.

Differentiating Stage

The stage of relationship dissolution when partners begin to see their differences as undesirable or annoying.

Divorce

The legal discontinuation of a marriage.

Equity Theory

A theory predicting that a good relationship is one in which a person's ratio of costs and rewards is equal to that of the person's partner.

Experimenting Stage

The stage of relationship development when individuals have conversations to learn more about each other.

Forgiveness

The process by which a wronged person stops feeling angry or resentful about an offense.

Ghosting

Occurs when someone suddenly stops all contact over social media.

Initiating Stage

The stage of relationship development when people meet and interact for the first time.

Integrating Stage

The stage of relationship development when a deep commitment has formed, and there is a strong sense that the relationship has its own identity.

Intensifying Stage

The stage of relationship development when individuals move from being acquaintances to being friends.

Interdependence

A state in which each person's behaviors affect everyone else in the relationship.

Interpersonal Attraction

Any force that draws people together to form a relationship.

Investment

The resources we put into our relationships.

Investment Model of Commitment Processes

A theoretic model proposing that relationship commitment is a function of satisfaction, resources (or investments), and the perceived quality of relational alternatives.

Need to Belong Thoery

A theory that says each of us is born with a fundamental drive to seek, form, maintain, and protect strong relationships.

Orbiting

The practice of continuing social media interactions with a person you have ghosted.

Over-Benefited

The state in which one's relational rewards exceed one's relational costs.

Physical Attraction

Attraction to someone's physical appearance.

Predicted Outcome Value Theory

A theory predicting that we form relationships when we think the effort will be worth it.

Relational Maintenance Behaviors

Behaviors used to maintain and strengthen personal relationships.

Relational Repair

Efforts to fix problems in a relationship so that the relationship can continue.

Relational Transgression

A behavior that violates an important expectation in a relationship.

Social Attraction

Attraction to someone's personality.

Social Exchange Theory

A theory predicting that people seek to form and maintain relationships in which the benefits outweigh the costs.

Stagnating Stage

The stage of relationship dissolution when the relationship stops growing and the partners are barely communicating with each other.

Task Attraction

Attraction to someone's abilities and dependability.

Terminating Stage

The stage of relationship dissolution when the relationship is deemed to be officially over.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

A theory suggesting that people are motivated to reduce their uncertainty about others.

Under-Benefited

The state in which one's relational costs exceed one's relational rewards.

conformity orientation

the degree to which a family enforces a uniformity of attitudes, values, and beliefs

conversation orientation

the degree of openness a family has in discussing a range of topics

family communication pattern

a model of family interaction that involves a blending of conversation and conformity orientations. These include consensual, pluralistic, protective, and laissez-faire patterns.

family system

a group of interdependent individuals who interact and adapt together as a whole

friends with benefits (FWB)

a popular term for nonromantic heterosexual friendships that include sexual activity

initmacy

a state of closeness arising from physical, intellectual, or emotional contact or sometimes from shared activities

love languages

modes of communicating affection in romantic relationships. These include words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, act of service, and physical touch.

relational commitment

a promise-sometimes implied and sometimes explicit- to remain in a relationship and to make that relationship successful

relational turning point

transformative event that alters a relationship in a fundamental way

role

a set of expectations about how to communicate

triangular theory of love

love that has three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment

consensual family

high in conversation and conformity orientation (decision rests on parents, open talking)

pluralistic

high in orientation and low in conformity (consensus emerges from discussion)

protective

low in conversation and high in conformity (little discussion, the parents would decide and word is final)

laissez-faire

low in orientation and conformity (indifferent whatever)

Interpersonal conflict

An expressed struggle between interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scare resources, and interference from one another.

Reframing

Changing the way you think about an interpersonal situation.

Direct conflict

An open, straightforward approach to engaging in conflict.

Indirect conflict

The expression of conflict through negative behaviors that ignore the underlying disagreement.

Metaconflict

Conflict about conflict.

Passive aggression

A pattern of behaving vengefully while denying that one has aggressive feelings.

Demand-withdraw pattern

A pattern of behavior in which one party makes demands and the other party withdraws from the conversation.

Disinhibition effect

The tendency to say or do things in one environment (such as online) that one would not say or do in most other environments.

Power

The ability to manipulate, influence, or control other people or events.

Symmetrical relationship

A relationship between parties of equal power.

Complementary relationship

A relationship between parties of unequal power.

One-up message

A verbal message through which the speaker attempts to exert dominance or gain control over the listener.

One-down message

A verbal message that reflects acceptance of, or submission to, another person's power.

One-across message

A verbal message that seeks to neutralize relational control and power.

Reward power

Power that derives from the ability to reward.

Coercive power

Power based on the ability to punish.

Referent power

Power that derives from one's attraction to or admiration for another.

Legitimate power

Power based on one's legitimate status or position.

Expert power

Power that derives from one's expertise, talent, training, specialized knowledge, or experience.

Patriarchy

A social system in which men exercise a majority of the power.

Criticism

The expression of complaints about another party.

Contemptuous behaviors

The expression of insults and attacks on another's self-worth.

Defensive behaviors

Tactics that cast the self as a victim and deny responsibility for one's own role in a conflict.

Stonewalling

Withdrawing from a conversation or an interaction.

Competing

A strategy for managing conflict in which one's goal is to win while the other party loses.

Avoiding

A strategy for managing conflict that involves ignoring or failing to deal with the conflict.

Accommodating

A strategy for managing conflict that involves giving in to the other party's needs and desires while subordinating one's own.

Compromising

A strategy for managing conflict in which both parties give up something they want so that both can receive something they want.

Collaborating

A strategy for managing conflict that involves working toward a solution that meets both parties' needs.

Deception

The knowing and intentional transmission of information to create a false belief in the hearer.

Acts of simulation

Forms of deception that involve fabricating information or exaggerating facts for the purpose of misleading others.

Falsification

A form of deception that involves presenting false, fabricated information as though it were true.

Exaggeration

A form of deception that involves inflating or overstating facts.

Acts of dissimulation

Forms of deception that involve omitting certain details that would change the nature of the story if they were known.

Omission

A form of deception that involves leaving consequential details out of one's story.

Equivocation

A form of deception that involves giving vague, ambiguous answers to a question to create the false impression that one has answered it.

Truth bias

The tendency to believe what someone says, in the absence of a reason not to.

Motivation impairment effect

A hypothesis that motivation to succeed in a high-stakes lie will impair a deceiver's nonverbal performance, making the lie less likely to be believed.

Interactive context

A context for communicating in which participants can see and/or hear each other and react to each other in real time.

Noninteractive context

A context for communicating in which the participants cannot reach to each other in real time.