CMN 3V - Midterm 1 Study Guide (Flashcards): Fall Quarter 2025
Week 2 Learning Objectives
1.2 The Communication Process
1. Identify and define the components of the transmission model of communication
- Include: participants, messages, encoding, decoding, and channels
- Participants: senders or receivers of messages in communication encounter
- Message: verbal or nonverbal content being conveyed from sender to receiver
- Encoding: process of turning thoughts into communication
- Encoded messages are sent through a channel: sensory route on which the
message travels to the receiver for decoding
- Decoding: process of turning communication into thoughts
- Example: You’re hungry and encode the following message
- “I am hungry. Do you want to get pizza tonight?”
- As the roommate receives the messages, he decodes your
communications and thoughts in order to make meaning out of it.
- Linear, one-way process in which a sender intentionally transmits a message to a
receiver
- Model focuses on the sender and message within a communication encounter
- Noise: anything that interferes with a message being sent between participants in a
communication encounter
- Environmental noise: any physical noise present in a communication encounter
- Semantic noise: refers to noise that occurs in encoding and decoding process when
participants do not understand a symbol
2. Identify and define the components of the interaction model of communication.
- Describes communication as a process in which participants alternate positions as
sender and receiver and generate meaning by sending messages and receiving
feedback within physical and psychological contexts
- This process is not linear, it instead incorporates feedback which makes communication
a more interactive, two way process
- Feedback includes messages sent to other messages
- Physical context: includes the environmental factor in a communication encounter: the
size, layout, temperature, and lighting of a space influences our communication
- Psychological context: includes the mental and emotional factors in a communication
encounter
- Stress, anxiety, and emotions
3. Identify and define the components of the transaction model of communication
- Transmission model views communication as a thing like an information packet
that is sent from one place to another
- From this view, communication as an interaction in which a message is sent and
then followed by a reaction
- A process in which communicators generate social realities within social,
relational, and cultural contexts
- this model we communicate to create relationships form intercultural alliances,
shape our self-concepts and
-Social context: refers to the stated rules or unstated norms that guide
communication
-Relationship context: includes the previous history and type of relationship we
have with a person
- We communicate differently with someone we just met versus someone
we've known for a long time
-Cultural Context: various aspects of identities such as race, gender, nationality,
sexual orientation, class and ability
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4. Compare and contrast the three models of communication.
5. Use the transaction model of communication to analyze a recent communication
encounter.
1.4 Communication Competence
1. Define communication competence.
- The knowledge of effective and appropriate communication patterns and the ability to
use and adapt that knowledge in various contexts
- Knowledge
- The ability to use
- Adapt to various contexts
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2. Explain each part of the definition of communication competence.
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3. Discuss strategies for developing communication competence.
4. Discuss communication apprehension and public speaking anxiety and employ
strategies to manage them.
- Communication apprehension(CA): fear or anxiety experienced by a person due
to actual or imagined communication with another person or persons
- Public speaking anxiety: type of CA, which means that addressing
communication anxiety in a class like the one you’re taking now stands to benefit
the majority of students
- public
Week 3 Learning Objectives
2.3 Principles of Verbal Communication
1. Identify and describe five key principles of verbal communication
2. Explain how the rules of syntax, semantics, and context govern language.
- 3 types of rules that govern or control our use of words
1. Syntactic rules: govern the order of words in a sentence
a. In other languages like german, syntax or word order is strictly prescribed
b. English syntax is relatively flexible and open to style
2. Semantic rules: govern the meaning of words and how to interpret them
a. Meaning in language
b. Considers what words mean, or are intended to mean as opposed to their sound,
spelling, grammatical function
3. Contextual rules: govern meaning and word choice according to context and social
custom
3. Describe how language serves to shape our experience of reality.
- Language itself ever changing and growing in many ways determines your reality
- Cannot escape language or culture completely and will always see the world
through a shade or a tint of what you've been taught, learned or experienced
-Paradigm: a clear point of view involving theories, law or generalizations that
provide a framework for understanding tend to form and become set around key
validity claims or statements of the way things work
- May be individual or collective
- Painful
- New ideas are always suspect usually opposed without any other reason
than because they are not already common
- Involve premises that are taken as fact
2 types of meanings
-Denotative: common meaning often found in the dictionary
-Connotative: often not found in the dictionary but in the community of users itself
- Both is necessary to reduce the possibility of misinterpretation
- Involve an emotional association with a word, positive or negative and can be
individual or collective but it is not universal
2.4 Language Can be an Obstacle to Communication
1. Demonstrate six ways in which language can be an obstacle or barrier to
communication.
2. Explain the differences between clichés, jargon, and slang.
- Cliche
- Once clever word or phrase that has lost its impact through overuse
- Problem: often sound silly or boring
- Symptom or lazy communication: the person using the cliche hasn’t bothered to
search for original words to convey the intended meanings
- Lose impact because readers and listeners gloss over them, assuming common
meaning and ignoring your specific use of them
- Jargon
- Occupation-specific language used by people in a given profession
- Focuses on the language people in a profession use to communicate with each
other
- Distinct group of terms that refer to common aspect in their field
- Set of terms to use within their professional community
- If we lack information or want our document to be understood by a variety of
readers it pays to use common words and avoid jargon
- Slang
- Existing or newly invented words to take the place of standard or traditional
words with the intent of adding an unconventional, nonstandard, humorous or
rebellious effect
3. Explain the difference between sexist or racist language and legitimate references to
gender or race in business communication.
- Sexist language: uses gender as a discriminating factor
- Racist language: discriminates against members of a given race or ethnic group
- Subtle references like “those people” or “you know how they are”
2.6 Improving Verbal Communication
1. List and explain the use of six strategies for improving verbal communication.
2. Demonstrate the appropriate use of definitions in an oral or written presentation.
3. Understand how to assess the audience, choose an appropriate tone, and check for
understanding and results in an oral or written presentation.
Week 4 Learning Objectives
11.1 Principles of Nonverbal Communication
1. Demonstrate nonverbal communication and describe its role in the communication
process.
2. Understand and explain the principles of nonverbal communication.
11.2 Types of Nonverbal Communication
1. Describe the similarities and differences among eight general types of nonverbal
communication
8 types of nonverbal communication
1. Space
2. Time
3. Physical characteristics
4. Body movements
5. Touch
6. Paralanguage
7. Artifacts
8. Environments
Space
- Associated with social rank and is an important part of business communication
- People from diverse cultures may have different normative space expectations
- Proxemics: study of the human use of space and distance in communication
- 2 aspects of space: territory and personal space
- Territory: space you claim as your own and are responsible for or willing to
defend
- Personal space: Bubble of space surrounding an individual
- Normative expectations for space very greatly by culture
Time
- How aware are we of time varies by culture and normative expectations of adherence (or
ignorance of time)
- Chronemics: study of how we refer to and perceive time
Physical Characteristics
- Did Not choose your birth, eye color the natural color of your hair or height
- We make judgments about a person's personality or a behavior based on physical
characteristics and researchers are quick to note that those judgments are often
inaccurate
Body Movements
- Kinesics: study of body movements understanding nonverbal communication
- Actions will significantly contribute to the effectiveness of your business interactions
- 4 distinct ways body movements that complement, repeat, regulate, or replace your
verbal messages
- Can complement the verbal message by reinforcing the main idea
- Providing an orientation presentation to a customer about a software program
- Body movements can also regulate a conversations
- Body movements also substitute or replace verbal messages
- Facial features communicate to others our feelings but our body movements often reveal
how intensely we experience those feelings
Touch
- haptics
1. Functional professional touch : medical examination, physical therapy, sports,
coach, music teach
2. Social-polite touch: handshake
3. Friendship-warmth touch : hug
4. Love-intimacy touch : kiss between family members or romantic partners
5. Sexual - arousal touch: sexual caressing and intercourse
Paralanguage
- Exception to the definition of nonverbal; communication
- We defined nonverbal communication as not involving words but paralanguage exist
when we are using words
- Paralanguage: involves verbal and nonverbal aspects of speech that influence ,
including tone,, intensity, pausing, and even silence
- Pregnant pause: silence between verbal message that is full of meaning
- Silence or vocal pauses can communicate hesitation which is the need to gather thought
or serve as a sign of respect
Artifacts
- Expectations vary a great deal, but body art or tattoos are still controversial in the
workplace
- artifactsL forms of decorative ornamentation that are chosen to represent self-concept
Environment
- Involves the physical and psychological aspects of the communication context
- More than the tables and chairs in an office environment is an important part of the
dynamic communication communication process
4.4 Nonverbal Communication in Context
1. Discuss the role of nonverbal communication in relational contexts.
2. Discuss the role of nonverbal communication in professional contexts.
3. Provide examples of cultural differences in nonverbal communication.
4. Provide examples of gender differences in nonverbal communication.
4.3 Nonverbal Communication
1. Identify and employ strategies for improving competence with sending nonverbal
messages.
2. Identify and employ strategies for improving competence with interpreting nonverbal
messages
Week 5 Learning Objectives
2.1 Perception Process
1. Define perception.
- Perception: process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information
2. Discuss how salience influences the selection of perceptual information.
3. Explain the ways in which we organize perceptual information.
4. Discuss the role of schemata in the interpretation of perceptual information.
2.2 Perceiving Others
1. Differentiate between internal and external attributions.
2. Explain two common perceptual errors: the fundamental attribution error and the
self-serving bias.
3. Discuss how the primacy and recency effects relate to first and last impressions.
4. Discuss how physical and environmental factors influence perception.
5. Explain the horn and halo effects.
6. Recognize the roles that culture and personality play in the perception of others.
2.4 Improving Perception
1. discuss strategies for improving self-perception.
2. Discuss strategies for improving perception of others.
3. Employ perception checking to improve perception of self and others
16.3 Interpersonal Needs
1. Understand the role of interpersonal needs in the communication process.
6.4 Self-Disclosure and Interpersonal Communication
1. Define self-disclosure.
2. Explain the connection between social penetration theory, social comparison theory,
and self-disclosure.
3. Discuss the process of self-disclosure, including how we make decisions about what,
where, when, and how to disclose.
4. Explain how self-disclosure affects relationships.