Speech Communication Key Terms

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts in communication perspectives, self and social perception, and intercultural communication.

Communication

Complex process through which people express, interpret, and coordinate messages with others.

Encoding

Process of creating messages.

Decoding

Process of interpreting messages.

Feedback

Verbal and nonverbal messages sent by receivers to let senders know how the message is being interpreted.

Canned plan

Mental library of scripts that individuals draw from to create messages based on what has worked for them or others in the past.

Script

Actual text of what to say and do in a specific situation.

Physical context

Location of a communication encounter and the environmental conditions surrounding it.

Social context

Nature of the relationship that already exists between participants.

Historical context

Background provided by previous communication between participants.

Psychological context

Moods and feelings each person brings to a communication encounter.

Cultural context

Beliefs, values, orientations, underlying assumptions, and rituals that belong to a specific culture.

Media richness

Amount and the kinds of information transmitted via a particular channel.

Synchronicity

Extent to which a channel allows for immediate feedback.

Index

Measure of the emotional temperature of one's relationship at a particular time.

Complementary feedback

Message that signals agreement about who is in control.

Symmetrical feedback

Message that signals disagreement about who is in control.

Communication competence

Impression that communicative behavior is both appropriate and effective in a given situation.

Communication Apprehension (CA)

Fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with others.

Perception

Process of selectively attending and assigning meaning to information.

Automatic processing

Subconscious approach that draws on previous experience to make sense of what one is encountering.

Heuristics

Short-cut rules of thumb for understanding how to perceive something based on past experience with similar stimuli.

Conscious processing

Slow, deliberative approach to perceiving where one examines and reflects about stimuli.

Self-concept

Perception one has about one's skills, abilities, knowledge, competencies, and personality traits.

Self-esteem

Evaluation one makes about one's personal worthiness based on one's self-concept.

Independent self-perceptions

Perceptions based on the belief that traits and abilities are internal to the person and are universally applicable to all situations.

Interdependent self-perceptions

Perceptions based on the belief that abilities and traits are specific to a particular concept or relationship.

Incongruence

Gap between self-perception and reality.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Inaccurate perception of a skill, characteristic, or situation that leads to behaviors that perpetuate the false perception as true.

Self-monitoring

Awareness of how one comes across to others and adjusting one's behavior accordingly.

Uncertainty reduction

Communication theory that explains how individuals monitor their social environment to know more about themselves and others.

Situational attribution

Attributing behavior to a cause that is beyond one's control.

Dispositional attribution

Attributing behavior to a cause that is under one's control.

Social presence

Sense of being there with another person at a particular moment in time.

Selective perception

Paying attention only to what one expects to see or hear and ignoring what is not expected.

Forced consistency

Inaccurate attempt to make several perceptions about an individual agree with each other.

Prejudice

Judging a person based on the characteristics of a group he or she is part of with no consideration given as to how the individual might vary from the group characteristic.

Culture

System of shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and norms that guides what is considered appropriate among an identifiable group of people.

Ideal values

Values that members of a culture profess to hold.

Real values

Values that guide actual behavior.

Dominant culture

Learned system of norms held by the majority group of empowered people in a society.

Co-culture

Group of people within the larger culture who hold common values, beliefs, attitudes, and customs that differ from those of the dominant culture.

Code switch

Altering linguistic and nonverbal patterns to conform to the dominant or co-culture.

Individualistic cultures

Cultures that value personal rights and responsibilities, privacy, voicing one's opinion, freedom, innovation, and self-expression.

Collectivist cultures

Cultures that value community, collaboration, shared interests, harmony, the public good, and avoiding embarrassment.

Low-context cultures

Cultures where speakers use words to convey most of the meaning.

High-context cultures

Cultures where the speaker's message is understood from the context.

Chronemics

Study of how the perception of time differs among cultures.

Monochronic cultures

Cultures that view time as a series of small units that occur sequentially.

Polychronic cultures

Cultures that view time as a continuous flow.

Intercultural empathy

Imaginatively placing oneself in another person's cultural world and attempting to experience what he or she is experiencing.