SCOM 122 FINAL (JMU)

What are the most common myths about communication?

1. Communication is a cure all

2. Communicating is just common sense

3. Communication quantity equals quality

Explain the differences between the three models of communication: linear, interactive, and transactional.

Linear: one way, sender sends a message through a channel to a receiver in atmosphere of noise

Interactive: back and forth; different from linear because it has feedback, also the different fields of experience of people effects this model

Transactional: says that everyone is a sender and a receiver at the same time

Define the basic communication elements contained in the communication models.

channel: medium a message is sent through

sender: person sending the message

receiver: person getting the message

message: what the senders want the receivers to get

encode: putting ideas into spoken language

decode: translating the spoken ideas

context:a circumstance that forms a setting so an idea or statement can be easily understood

fields of experience: include our cultural background, ethnicity, geographic location, extent of travel, and general personal experiences accumulated over a lifetime

noise: interference with effective transmission and reception of a message

physical noise: external, environmental distractions

physiological noise: biological influences ex. sweaty palms

psychological noise: preconceptions, biases, and assumptions

semantic noise: reflected in word choice that is confusing or distracting

feedback: the receiver's verbal and nonverbal response to the message

Explain the two aspects of every message: content and relationship

content: what is actually being said or done

relationship: how the message defines or redefines the association between individuals

What differentiates a constructive communication climate from a destructive communication climate?

Constructive: openness, and supportiveness

Destructive: closed offness, and defensiveness

Define communication competence and describe the skills needed to be an effective and appropriate communicator.

Communication competence is engaging in communication with others that is perceived to be both effective and appropriate in a given context.

Skills needed:

1. to progress towards the achievement of their goal

2. know that even the best communicators make errors

3. communication focuses on the "we" aspect instead of the "me"

Explain the role of the rules in communication contexts.

Rules create expectations regarding appropriate behavior. Some rules are explicitly stated, where other rules are merely implied.

List the characteristics of an ethical communicator.

Respect, honesty, fairness, choice, and responsibility

Explain the three elements of the perceptual process.

selecting: one must select a stimuli and focus on that one and block out all the others

organizing: now you can organize the data you collect and create schemas

interpreting: now you are able to make sense of the stimuli, or interpret the information collected and react to it

What is the perceptual schema.

Mental framework that creates meaningful patterns from stimuli

prototype: is the best example of something

stereotype: a generalization about a group or category of people

script: a predictable sequence of events that indicates what we are expected to do in a given situation

Define self-concept and describe how it is formed.

Self-concept is knowing ourselves and how we are different from all other individuals. This can be formed by what others say about you or how you feel about yourself or if you see yourself in a specific group.

What are some of the influences on perception.

Gender, culture, past experiences, mood, context, self-esteem, bias, ect.

What is self-disclosure.

process of purposefully revealing to others personal information about yourself that is significant and others would not know unless you told them

How do depth and breadth of self-disclosure influence the building of relationships.

Breadth refers to the range of subjects that could be discussed between persons.

Depth refers to how personal you become when discussing a particular subject.

What are the rules for constructively and appropriately self-disclosing and responding to self-disclosure.

1. have trust to avoid being hurt or damaged

2. have reciprocity that way risk and trust is shared

3. understand that some cultures are not as open as others

4. make sure appropriate for the situation

5. do incremental disclosure to avoid an overload of information

Why is reciprocal sharing important.

because you want to have the same trust and risk as the person sharing and also know that they are comfortable with you in sharing personal information

Explain what a self-serving bias is and how it influences our interactions.

Self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute our successful behavior to ourselves but to assign external circumstances to our unsuccessful behavior.

Explain how our perceptions of others can influence our communication with them.

First impressions can be vulnerable to biased influenced but can also be very accurate

Primacy effect is the tendency to be more influenced by initial information about a person than by information gathered later.

Negativity bias adds to the primacy effect which can distort your view of others.

Attribution error is the tendency to overemphasize personal traits and under emphasizing situations as causes of other people's behavior.

Stereotyping is using rapid judgement when instant decisions are required.

Self-fulfilling prophecy is acting on an erroneous expectation that produces the expected behavior and confirms the original impression.

Describe the three dimensions related to communicating "empathy."

Perspective taking: seeing as others see and understand it (not agree)

Emotional Understanding: You participate in the feelings of others

Concern for Others: You care what happens to them

Define what culture is.

a learned set of enduring values, beliefs, and practices all have things that mean something different

Explain how culture influences communication.

different cultures that have a different set of values, beliefs, and practices all have things that mean something different

Define ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, and multiculturalism.

Ethnocentrism: the notion that one's own culture is superior to any other, it is the idea that other cultures should be measured by the degree to which they live up to our cultural standards

Cultural Relativism: views cultures as merely different, not deficient

Multiculturalism: social intellectual movement that promotes the value of diversity as a core principle and insists that all cultural group be treated with respect and as equals

Explain the major difference between low-context and high-context communication styles.

Low-context: straightforward, precise, explicit, ad direct, open expression of point of view

High-context: indirect, forces you to use context clues to figure out meaning in the message, pay attention to relationship, situation, setting, and time

Explain the major differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Individualistic: huge emphasis on self, motivated by personal achievement and initiative, strongly favors individual preferences, goals, and needs

Collectivistic: focused on groups, not "me" but "we", people belong to more than one group and commitment to these groups is vital, personal goals are downplayed for favor o the group

Explain the major differences between low-power distance and high-power distance cultures.

Low-power: horizontal, shares power equally and doesn't favor classes, social status, or a societal rank

High-power: vertical, emphasize maintaining power differences, authorities barely challenged, caste, class, ad organizational systems are accepted

Explain the major differences between feminism and masculine cultures.

Masculine: exhibits stereotypical masculine traits such as male dominance, ambitiousness, assertiveness, competitiveness, and drive for achievement

Feminine: exhibits stereotypical feminine traits such as affection, nurturance, sensitivity compassion, and emotional expressiveness

How does culture influence nonverbal communication.

universal emotions such as happiness, fear, sadness, are expressed in a similar nonverbal way throughout the world, some nonverbal cues may be a source of confusion for foreigners though, such as, middle east openly express sadness while Asian countries believe it is unacceptable to show emotion openly

Explain the four elements common to all languages.

Structure: a form or shape characterized by an interrelationship among its part, foundations of a language

Productivity: capacity of language to transform a small number of phonemes into whatever words, phrases, and sentences that we require to communicate our abundance of thoughts, ideas, and feelings

Displacement: the human ability to use language to talk about objects, ideas, events, and relations that do not just exist in the here and now and may not exist at all except in our minds

Self-reflexiveness: the ability to use language to talk about the language

Explain the abstracting process.

Sense experience: inherently selective and limited

Descriptions: verbal reports that sketch what we perceive from our senses

Inference: the conclusions about the unknown based on the known like guesses or already known language

Judgment: the subjective evaluations of objects, events, or ideas

Explain the two versions of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and their relationship to culture.

Linguistic Determinism: claims that we are prisoners of our native language, unable to think certain thoughts or perceive in certain ways because of the grammatical structure and lexicon of our language

Linguistic Relativity: claims that the grammar and lexicon of our native language powerfully influences but does not imprison our thinking and perception

Explain how connotative meaning differs from denotative meaning.

connotative meaning is your own personal meaning of a word while denotative meaning is the shared meaning among people

What is the difference between fact and inference.

fact is the absolute truth while inference is an educated guess

How might the use of slang, jargon, and euphemisms influence the understanding of a communication message.

Jargon: verbal shorthand, allows people to communicate quickly and effectively

Euphemisms: soften the meaning of words or phrases that would be otherwise hard to process of abrasive

Slang: is informal words used with a common understanding of the meaning

Explain how nonverbal channels of communication differ from verbal channels.

Verbal: single channeled, emotional expressed through words

Nonverbal: multi-channeled, expressed visually through expression

Explain how nonverbal communication functions in relationship with verbal communication.

Repetition: the constant action of verbal and nonverbal communication makes the message clearer, understandable, and gives it credibility

Accentuation: adding emphasis to the situation, using emotion, which enhances the power and seriousness of the verbal message

Substitution: Using nonverbal actions to replace verbal messages

Regulation: able to rotate/switch and recognize the speaker

Contradiction: including mixed messages, words say one thing but gestures and facial expressions say another

Explain the major types of nonverbal communication.

Kinesics: study of both facial communication and gestures

Paralanguage: using vocal cues, such as, vocal characterizers, vocal qualifiers, and vocal segregates

Territoriality: a predisposition to defend a fixed geographic area, or territory, as one's domain; ex. keep out sign on yard

Proxemics: influences of distance and territoriality on human communication

Haptics: the study of touch

Define listening by its basic elements.

Comprehending: how we understand what is being said

Retaining: keeping that information in our brains and remembering it for later

Responding: simply how we respond to those verbal or nonverbal messages

Define the three types of listening.

Informational: when one tries to comprehend the information and learn from it

Critical: the process of evaluating the merits of claims as they are heard

Empathetic: understands the perspective of the other person and knowing how they feel and try to help them get what they need

Explain the problems that can interfere with competent informational listening .

Conversational Narcissism- the tendency of listeners "to turn the topics of ordinary conversations to themselves without showing sustained interest in others' topics." Basically somebody who loves to talk about themselves

Competitive Interrupting- happens when we dominate the conversation by taking over the floor from others who are speaking. This can cause a back and forth battle between those who are trying to speak.

Glazing Over- occurs when listeners' attention is lost and wanders. You become uninterested and tend to begin daydreaming.

Pseudo-Listening- This is also known as pretend listening. The listener doesn't really engage and uses responses such as "mmhmm," "really," or "uh huh."

Ambushing- when we listen for weaknesses and ignore strengths of a speaker's message. Ambushers may attack or distort what a speaker has to say because they have some sort of prejudice towards the speaker or what the speaker is saying.

Explain the problems that can interfere with competent critical listening (skepticism, true belief, and cynicism).

Skepticism- process of listening to claims, evaluating evidence and reasoning supporting those claims, and drawing conclusions based on probabilities. A skeptic listener will be more inclined to ask many questions and may be hard to persuade.

True Belief- a willingness to accept claims without solid reasoning or valid evidence and to hold these beliefs tenaciously even if a lot of contradictory evidence disputes them. These listeners will believe anything the speaker has to say.

Cynicism- a listener who only looks for the faults in what the speaker has to say.

Describe the listening response styles associated with empathic listening and non-empathic listening.

Empathic listening response styles include probing, supporting, and Understanding. All three put focus on the speaker and are therefore confirming responses-they enhance a person's self-esteem and confidence.

Non-empathic response styles include evaluating, advising, interpreting, and content-only. These responses tend to be disconfirming- they diminish the person and reduce confidence.

What are the components of doing an audience analysis, and how is a speech adapted based on those components.

Attitude- a learned predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably toward some attitude object

Beliefs- what a person thinks is true or probable

Values- the most deeply felt, shared view of what is deemed acceptable, right, worthwhile thinking or behavior

Demographics- characteristics such as age, gender, culture and ethnicity, and group affiliations

Usually the speaker must make a guess using demographics to know which attitude to use, and beliefs or values to stay clear of or support. With younger/older audiences, gender, ethnicity and culture, and group affiliation the speaker must be cautious on how he/she presents their speech by focusing on what kind of attitude they use toward certain topics, what values or beliefs that audience has so the speaker does not offend anyone, and with group affiliation providing helpful information without assuming too much.

How are the preparation and presentation of a speech influenced by audience analysis?

In public speaking the audience is the most important aspect of the presentation. When giving a speech one must adhere to the audience in what they find interesting and understandable. The audience influences the preparation and presentation of a speech by deciding which topics capture their attention and their reaction to how you present said topic. Always make sure to have a topic that interests your audience and grabs their attention. Second, always have a way of capturing the audience's attention so your presentation will be well received.

Define the general purpose, specific purpose, and central idea in public speaking.

General Purpose is the overall goal of your speech and it tells the audience why you are giving your speech.

Specific purpose statement is a concise, precise infinitive phrase composed of simple, clear language that encompasses both the general purpose and the central idea and indicates what the speaker hopes to accomplish with the speech.

Central idea identifies the main concept, point, issue, or conclusion that you want the audience to understand, believe, or feel.

What should be considered when choosing a topic (speaker, subject, occasion, and audience)

When choosing a topic, the speaker should choose a topic that they are interested in, so that they can enjoy the research and delivery of the speech. They should also think about the audience, so the topic will be appropriate and effective. Speakers should choose a topic related to the occasion, so that it intrigues the crowd.

How does one avoid plagiarism?

One can avoid plagiarism by not copying and pasting others work or stealing speeches. You should always have supporting materials to back up what you say and make yourself credible to avoid any type of plagiarism.

What are the main types of supporting materials used in speeches?

Supporting materials are the examples, statistics, and testimonies of authorities.

What are the criteria for evaluating supporting material?

The three criteria for evaluating supporting material are credibility, relevance, and sufficiency.

What are the components of a competent presentation body?

The body presentation should have full sentences that create a sense of completeness and should be balanced. The main points should be equally discussed. All of the main points should also have sub-points further explaining the main point with examples.

Identify the organizational pattern used in speeches (topical, spatial, causal, chronological, problem-solution, and Monroe's Motivated Sequence).

Topical patterns arrange information according to types, classifications, or parts of a whole. Chronological patterns follow a specific sequence of events.

Spatial patterns provide information based on a location. It requires a visualization of where things are spatially in order to explain the position.

Casual patterns are causes-effects patterns that explain why something happens and discusses the consequences.

Problem-Solution patterns explore the nature of a problem and gives solutions.

Monroe's motivated sequence has 5 steps:

1. Attention: creating interest

2. Need: present a problem to be solved and relate to the audience

3. Satisfaction: Provide a solution to problem that will satisfy the audience

4. Visualization: Create a picture for what would happen if the plan worked

5. Action: Make the audience involved and committed

What are some guidelines for managing speech anxiety?

Some guidelines for managing speech anxiety include being prepared and practicing beforehand, gaining perspective, developing the communication orientation, creating positive visualizations, and using relaxation techniques.

What are the critical elements of a competent speech introduction?

The critical elements of a competent speech introduction include gaining attention from the audience, a preview of the main points, making a clear purpose statement, and establishing the significance of the topic.

How does a speaker create credibility and identification in an introduction?

A speaker can create credibility and identification in an introduction by creating a purpose with reason and supporting information throughout the body of the speech.

What are the critical elements of a competent speech conclusion?

The critical elements of a competent speech conclusion include summarizing the main points, referring to the introduction and making a memorable finish.

How does the oral style of communication differ from a written style?

The differences between oral and written styles are that when we speak we usually use simpler sentences than when we write. In addition, oral style is highly interactive, while written style is not. Finally, oral style is usually less formal than written style.

What impact do various delivery considerations have on an audience (eye contact, vocal variety, verbal fluency, poise, dynamism)?

Eye Contact: Gets the audience engaged visually, and shows that speaker is not afraid.

Vocal Variety: Allows the audience's mood to be influenced by the tone. Additionally, speaking loudly can help emphasis, important facts. When the speaker becomes softer, that helps renew the audience's interest when they strain to hear.

Verbal Fluency: When, using vocal filters (like, um) that may take away from the value of the speech because the audience gets distracted by the repeated use of them. Speaking swiftly helps the audience's perception of the speaker as intelligent, confident and effective.

Poise: It may make the audience uncomfortable if one is stiff as a board or moving excessively. A speaker would benefit from standing straight up.

Dynamism: if the speech performance is too bizarre, then it may be counterproductive.

Explain the differences between the major delivery styles (manuscript, memorized, extemporaneous, and impromptu).

Manuscript speaking has a distinct sound and rhythm; it takes extensive practice to present a manuscript speech effectively.

Memorized speaking can be very difficult and can take a lot of energy, and making memorized speeches sound natural takes considerable experience.

Impromptu speaking is speaking delivered without preparation.

Extemporaneous speaking is delivered from a prepared outline or notes.

What distinguishes informative speaking from persuasive speaking?

The purpose of informative speaking is to teach the audience something. The purpose of persuasive speaking is to convince your audience to change their viewpoint and behavior.

What are signposts and transitions, and how are they used in constructing a presentation?

Signposts are points in a speech that let the audience know when something is about to said. Transitions are what connect different points together.They help keep the presentation organized and feel smoother and make it easier for the audience to follow and stay intrigued.

Describe the characteristics of an appropriate or effective oral citation.

Appropriate citation is a citation that is used correctly and states the origin of that point. Effective citations make it clear to people exactly where you got the information from and it gets through to the audience with ease.

What are the types of visual aids that can be used during a speech?

Objects, Models, Graphs, Maps, Tables, Photographs, Drawings, Chalkboard and Whiteboard, Poster Board, Handouts, Video Excerpts, Projection Equipment, and PowerPoints

What are guidelines for the competent usage of visual aids?

Keep aids simple, make aids visible, make aids neat, attractive, and accurate, don't block the audience's view, keep aids close to you, put the aid out of sight when not in use, practice with aids, don't circulate your aids, don't talk in the dark, and anticipate problems.

Define persuasion.

the process of basically convincing someone to change their attitude or behavior on a certain topic

What are the primary dimensions of credibility (competence trustworthiness, dynamism, and composure)?

Competence- is the audience's view on how knowledgeable you are as a speaker

Trustworthiness- is how truth we as the audience perceive the speak to be

Dynamism- enthusiasm, energy, and forcefulness

Composure- the confidence level of the speaker (emotionally stable)/ can control themselves

Identify and discuss how the three Aristotelian modes of proof (ethos, logos, and pathos) are used in persuasive speeches.

Ethos- credibility (judgments made by the perceiver)

Pathos- Emotional appeals (powerful motivators)

Logos- Logic and Evidence (specific focus on persuasion)

These are a factor in persuasive speeches because you need all of these elements to make a solid speech. You want a speaker who is credible and a reliable source, which is ethos. You want pathos to draw the audience in and make them feel a connection to your speech. Lastly you want there to be evidence so that they know it is true and you can prove to them it is true.

Identify and discuss how propositions of fact, value, and policy are used in persuasive speeches.

Fact causes the audience to be more open to believe the point you are trying to address. If you state a fact it makes your statement more relevant and gives it purpose.

Value discusses the worth of the idea being stated.

Policy states how we can change the solution to problems