Interpersonal Communication Chapter 2 Vocabulary Flashcards
Foundations and Purposes of Interpersonal Communication
Definition of Interpersonal Communication: Interpersonal communication occurs when individuals share information with one another mutually. It encompasses both informal interactions (such as conversations in a grocery checkout line) and formal interactions (such as communication within a lecture classroom).
Contextual Characteristics: Interpersonal interactions are predominantly face-to-face, spontaneous, unplanned, and ungrammatical. While public speaking is commonly required in higher education, daily human life relies far more consistently on interpersonal communication with individuals.
Connection to Happiness and Social Well-Being:
A study involving over college students investigated the relationship between social activity and personal happiness.
Findings revealed that the happiest participants had highly active social lives. There were no statistically significant differences in happiness based on exercise frequency, religious participation, or other solitary activities, confirming that effective interpersonal communication directly fosters emotional well-being.
Fulfillment of Dreams and Professional Needs:
Goal Achievement: Personal visions, dreams, and professional aspirations require articulation to others who can provide assistance. Historical figures across art, music, politics, and business depended on communicating their ideas to build support.
Professional Application: Healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses) must actively listen to patient concerns to diagnose issues accurately and clearly convey treatment protocols. Clear communication ensures patient compliance and confidence.
Relational Well-Being: Couples who practice effective communication consistently report higher levels of relationship satisfaction and happiness.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in Communication
Sequential Emergence of Needs: Abraham Maslow postulated that human motives emerge in a hierarchical progression. Lower-level basic survival needs must be satisfied before individuals can address higher-order psychological and self-actualization needs.
Hierarchical Levels:
Physiological Needs: The foundational level required for biological survival, including breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, and excretion.
Safety Needs: Security regarding body, employment, resources, morality, health, family, and property.
Love and Belonging Needs: Social connections, including friendship, family, and sexual intimacy.
Esteem Needs: Evaluative self-worth, encompassing self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect from others, and respect for others.
Self-Actualization Needs: Realizing individual potential, characterized by morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem-solving, lack of prejudice, and acceptance of facts.
Communication Alignment across Need Levels:
Physiological and Safety Levels: Communication focuses on cooperative survival—growing food, constructing shelter, creating safe communities, and protective behaviors.
Community Support Example: Initiatives like free or reduced school lunch programs, "backpack" food collections, and university drives (such as a campaign targeting pudding cups for local children via Blessings in a Backpack) reflect collective communication to meet physiological needs so children can learn.
Love/Belonging Level: Communication transitions from survival to relationship-building, discussing friendship value, and seeking emotional or physical intimacy.
Esteem Level: Communication centers on offering praise, sharing goal progress, evaluating strengths, and reinforcing positive self-worth.
Self-Actualization Level: Communication expands to innovative ideas, societal contributions, expression of compassion, and mentorship.
Theoretical Critiques and Cultural Limitations:
Non-Absolute Hierarchy: Critics observe that individuals can exhibit self-actualized behaviors without lower-level needs being met. For instance, a parent facing severe food scarcity may sacrifice their meal for their child, demonstrating self-actualized moral behavior despite unfulfilled physiological needs.
Cultural Bias: Maslow's model reflects Western, individualistic cultural values focused on personal growth. It may not accurately reflect collectivist cultures where group, family, and community needs take precedence over individual fulfillment.
Relational Friction Example: Misaligned need levels create communication strain. For example, if Dee wishes to discuss long-term relational milestones (love/belonging) while Shaun is consumed by financial instability and covering basic living costs (physiological/safety), Dee may misinterpret Shaun's stress as lack of affection, while Shaun feels misunderstood regarding pressing survival needs.
Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Social Comparison
Definitions:
Self-Concept: A relatively stable set of perceptions an individual holds about themselves, including preferences, talents, emotional tendencies, pet peeves, and foundational beliefs.
Self-Esteem: The evaluative element of self-concept involving subjective judgments of personal self-worth.
Developmental Trajectory: Self-concept is not innate at birth; it develops over time through social interaction. Children learn biological boundaries (e.g., songs identifying bodily features) and progressively build self-understanding through communication feedback.
Peer Influence and Adolescent Feedback:
Peer evaluation in educational settings strongly shapes self-concept. Positive feedback reinforces positive academic identity.
Research by René M. Dailey indicates that adolescent self-concept is continuously modulated through daily conversations that balance social acceptance with interpersonal challenges.
Differences Based on Self-Esteem Levels:
High Self-Esteem: Individuals view themselves and others positively, focus on achievements, and perceive constructive feedback as beneficial.
Low Self-Esteem: Individuals dwell on failures, interpret neutral comments as hostile criticism, and prefer mediated, indirect communication channels (such as text or email) over face-to-face interactions.
Self-Concept Reflective Framework: Determining self-concept involves addressing reflexive questions:
Where did you grow up?
What activities did you enjoy as a child?
What specific qualities did others recognize in you during development (e.g., reliability, humor)?
What role do you adopt in group settings (e.g., active listener, logistics coordinator, initiator)?
Social Comparison Theory: Individuals evaluate their worth by comparing themselves to peers.
Early Socialization: Comparisons begin in childhood through structural activities (e.g., lining up by height in school) and academic benchmarks (e.g., comparing test scores).
Perceptual Evolution Anecdote: Childhood perceptions may value higher weight or height as indicators of growth, whereas adult social comparison shifts values toward alternative fitness ideals.
Uncertainty Reduction Theory and Digital Interaction
Theoretical Foundation: Formulated by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese (), Uncertainty Reduction Theory posits that during initial encounters, individuals experience cognitive and behavioral uncertainty and actively seek to reduce it to manage anxiety.
Cognitive Uncertainty: Unsureness regarding the beliefs, values, and attitudes of another person.
Behavioral Uncertainty: Unsureness regarding how another person will act in a given situation.
Information-Gathering Strategies:
Passive Strategies: Unobtrusive observation of the target individual in social contexts without direct engagement.
Active Strategies: Seeking information about the individual from third parties or viewing online profiles across platforms (e.g., Facebook, X, Instagram).
Interactive Strategies: Direct face-to-face or text-based communication with the person.
Mechanisms of Initial Evaluation:
Uncertainty is primarily reduced through reciprocal self-disclosure.
Upon meeting, individuals rapidly evaluate three factors: the person's ability to reward or punish, the degree to which they conform to or violate social expectations, and the probability of future re-encounters.
Snap decisions are formed via expectancy biases based on prior experiences, creating initial assumptions that are resistant to change.
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Dynamics:
Consumer Behavior Study: Chang et al. () demonstrated that online product review credibility increases when the reviewer's vocabulary aligns with the shopper's linguistic style and confirms pre-existing beliefs.
Email Interpretation: Research indicates that the receiver's personal traits are the single largest determinant of how text-based messages are interpreted. The absence of nonverbal cues heightens reliance on subjective assumptions.
Online Dating and Deception Research:
Online Dating Landscape: Approximately of young adults have utilized digital dating services.
Markowitz and Hancock () Study: Investigated deception during the "discovery phase" (the period after a mutual match/swipe right but prior to an initial face-to-face meeting) across participants.
Findings: Deception was identified in of analyzed messages and fell into two specific categories:
Self-Presentation Lies: Deceptions designed to enhance personal attractiveness, such as exaggerating gym attendance, church involvement, or shared interests.
Availability Maintenance Lies: Deceptions surrounding current availability or excuses for delayed communication (e.g., claiming a dead phone battery).
Rationalization: Participants avoided major fabrications during the discovery phase because severe lies create irreconcilable conflicts during future face-to-face interactions.
Elements of the Communication Transaction
Cyclical Nature of Communication: Communication is an ongoing, dynamic process where participants act as senders and receivers simultaneously.
Core Transactional Components:
Sender (Source/Encoder): The party who conceives an intentional or unintentional message, selects symbols, and encodes thoughts into language based on internal feelings, perceptions, and past experiences.
Receiver (Decoder): The target who acquires and decodes the message, filtering meaning through their personal attitudes, beliefs, values, cultural background, and prejudices.
Message: The combination of verbal, nonverbal, and textual cues from which participants derive meaning. Meaning does not reside inherently in words but is constructed by individuals (e.g., evaluating whether an apology for unreturned money is sincere or disingenuous).
Channel: The physical or technological medium through which a message travels. Modern channels include face-to-face interaction, letters, phone calls, and digital platforms (Facebook, X, Email, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Vox).
Channel Impact: The selection of channel directly alters message interpretation. For example, a professional athlete proposed marriage by mailing a ring alongside a pre-recorded audio message; the recipient rejected the proposal and kept the ring, illustrating channel mismatch.
Student Preferences Study: College students prefer face-to-face channels for delivering positive news, but select mediated channels (text, email) for delivering negative news.
Feedback: The receiver's visible or audible response confirming message receipt and understanding.
Positive Feedback: Indicates successful reception and comprehension of the message (does not imply agreement).
Negative Feedback: Signals that the message was not received or understood, prompting encoding adjustments.
Ambiguous Feedback: Undefined responses (e.g., "hmmm", "interesting") that leave message comprehension uncertain.
Internal Feedback: Self-monitoring wherein a speaker or writer evaluates their own words and adjusts their message mid-delivery.
Environment: the physical, social, and psychological context surrounding an interaction. It includes shared or distinct fields of experience (e.g., first-generation college students vs. students from multi-generational college families).
Noise: Any factor that interferes with, distorts, or impedes successful message reception.
Physical Noise: External stimuli within the environment (e.g., lawnmowers, traffic noise, ringing cell phones, bright lights).
Psychological Noise: Cognitive or emotional internal distractions (e.g., anxiety, anger, grief, daydreaming).
Semantic Noise: Linguistic barriers, including unknown jargon, heavy accents, or ambiguous slang (e.g., interpreting the phrase "this party is lit").
Physiological Noise: Biological or physiological physical limitations (e.g., hearing impairment, visual impairment, extreme hunger, physical exhaustion).
Mindfulness and Distraction Management: Developing mindful awareness of environmental noise enables communicators to filter external disruptions selectively, enhancing attentional focus during interpersonal exchanges.
The Perception Process in Interpersonal Communication
Definition of Perception: The cognitive process of acquiring, organizing, and interpreting sensory information gathered through the five senses. Perceptions dictate emotional responses and communicative behavior.
Perceptual Ambiguity in Visual Art:
Rubin Vase (Edgar John Rubin, ): Illustrates figure-ground ambiguity where viewers perceive either two black silhouette profiles facing each other or a central white vase.
All is Vanity (Charles Allan Gilbert, ): Depicts a woman seated before a vanity mirror that simultaneously forms the imagery of a human skull.
My Wife and My Mother-in-Law (William Ely Hill, ): An ambiguous artwork (adapted from an German postcard) that alternates between a young woman looking away and an elderly woman in profile.
Stage 1: Attending (Selection):
Mechanism: The process of filtering sensory stimuli to select specific inputs for conscious focus while ignoring others (selective perception).
Five Attentional Factors:
Intensity/Extremity: Stimuli that are exceptionally loud, large, bright, or visually striking (e.g., neon signs, attractive individuals).
Difference/Contrast: Stimuli that deviate from expectations or social norms (e.g., an individual standing with their back to elevator doors; acute awareness of loss following a bereavement).
Repetition: Stimuli encountered frequently (e.g., repeated commercial jingles, daily affirmations of affection).
Motives: Personal goals or needs that prime perception (e.g., noticing exercise equipment advertisements when seeking weight loss).
Emotional State: Moods dictate sensitivity to external cues (e.g., irritability highlighting minor annoyances; romantic infatuation overlooking partner flaws).
Stage 2: Organizing:
Mechanism: Sorting selected sensory data into cognitive frameworks (perceptual schemas) to make structural sense of inputs.
Four Perceptual Schemas:
Physical Constructs: Classification based on appearance (e.g., tall/short, young/old, heavy/slender).
Role Constructs: Classification based on social position or profession (e.g., parent, doctor, teacher, friend).
Interaction Constructs: Classification based on observed social behavior (e.g., friendly, aggressive, aloof, dismissive).
Psychological Constructs: Classification based on inferred internal dispositions and mental states (e.g., confident, insecure, happy, depressed).
Stage 3: Interpreting:
Mechanism: Assigning explicit meaning to organized sensory information.
Five Interpretive Influences:
Personal Experience: Past interactions shape current expectations (e.g., previous relational betrayal inducing trust issues in future partnerships).
Involvement: The depth of relationship with the communicator (e.g., excusing tardiness in a close friend while penalizing a new acquaintance).
Expectations: Pre-existing rumors or preconceptions bias evaluations (e.g., anticipating hostility from a professor based on peer warnings).
Assumptions About Human Behavior: Core beliefs regarding human nature (e.g., believing people naturally enjoy fitness vs. view exercise as an unpleasant obligation).
Relational Satisfaction: Current relationship quality biases attribution. Unhappy couples tend to attribute negative motives to their partner's mistakes, whereas satisfied couples attribute mistakes to temporary external circumstances.
Theoretical Models of Interpersonal Communication
Purposes of Communication Models:
To simplify complex systems by removing unnecessary components.
To facilitate decision-making by simulating hypothetical scenarios.
To explain, control, and predict communicative interactions based on observed patterns.
Action Models (Linear Communication)
Core Concept: View communication as a one-directional transfer of a message from a sender to a passive receiver.
Shannon-Weaver Model (Weaver & Shannon, ): Developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers. Conceptualizes communication linearly: Source Encoder Signal/Channel (distorted by Noise) Decoder/Receiver. Lacks real-time feedback loops (typical of traditional mass media like radio, print, and television).
Early Schramm Model (Wilbur Schramm, ): Introduced the participant's field of experience as a critical factor in message interpretation. Asserts that communication is incomplete without receiver feedback.
Berlo's SMCR Model (David K. Berlo, ): Identifies four essential components—Source, Message, Channel, Receiver:
Source & Receiver Factors: Communication Skills, Attitudes, Knowledge Level, Social System, Culture.
Message Components: Content, Elements, Treatment, Structure, Code.
Channel Categories: The five physical senses (Seeing, Hearing, Touching, Smelling, Tasting).
Interaction Models (Two-Way Circular Exchange)
Core Concept: Depict communication as a bidirectional, interactive process involving sequential feedback loops.
Osgood-Schramm Model: A circular framework illustrating that participants continually alternate between encoding, decoding, and interpreting messages in a reciprocal exchange.
Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson Model: Emphasizes continuous communication governed by Five Axioms:
One cannot not communicate: All behavior carries communicative value.
Content and Relationship dimensions: Messages convey explicit information (content) and define relational dynamics (relationship).
Punctuation of sequence: Communicators structure interactions into cause-and-effect sequences (stimulus, response, reinforcement).
Digital and Analogic communication: Digital refers to explicit verbal words; analogic refers to nonverbal behaviors and vocalics.
Symmetrical or Complementary interaction: Dynamics based on equal power balances (symmetrical) or power differentials (complementary).
Transactional Models (Simultaneous Exchange)
Barnlund's Transactional Model (Dean C. Barnlund, ): Asserts that individuals send and receive verbal and nonverbal messages simultaneously in real time within overlapping environments.
Structural Cues:
Public Cues: Environmental and physical stimuli.
Private Cues: Internal sensory feelings and orientations.
Behavioral Cues: Nonverbal and verbal actions.
Coexisting Interaction Contexts:
Social Context: Explicit rules and cultural norms guiding interaction.
Cultural Context: Social identities (e.g., ethnicity, age, gender identity, race, social class).
Relational Context: The history and bond between participants (e.g., parent-child, close friends, manager-employee).
Contextual Noise Domains:
Physical Context: Physical setting characteristics (e.g., hard plastic seating and bright lighting in fast-food restaurants promote rapid turnover, whereas cushioned seating and low lighting in fine dining establishments encourage prolonged interaction).
Physiological Context: Biological internal states (headaches, hunger) or external environmental reactions (room temperature).
Psychological Context: Internal mental processing (emotional states, distress).
Semantic Context: Language understanding, vocabulary range, and grammar fluency.
Core Transaction Principles: Communication is Complex (interpreted differently across individuals), Continuous (unceasing behavioral flow), and Dynamic (evolving alongside technology and societal norms).
Toward a Model of Mindful Communication
Integration Framework: Combines transactional communication models with Shauna Shapiro and Linda Carlson's three core components of mindfulness: Attention, Intention, and Attitude.
Mindful Communication Definition: As defined by Levine Tatkin, mindful communication involves conscious, present awareness during daily interpersonal exchanges, deliberately managing attentional focus and emotional responses.
Comparative Behavioral Analysis:
Mindless Behaviors: Frequently checking smartphones during conversations; formulating responses while the partner is speaking; interrupting or cutting off speakers; showing impatience; imposing unrequested solutions; exhibiting immediate prejudice; engaging in unprovoked escalation or screaming.
Mindful Behaviors: Present listening without digital distraction; managing emotional escalation; maintaining a non-judgmental stance during conflict; validating partner perspectives; demonstrating self-validation.
Interpersonal Communication Skills and Ethics
Mindful Listening: Giving careful, deliberate, and undivided attention to incoming messages. Effective listening requires avoiding common behavioral traps.
Five Listening Pitfalls (Harvard Business Review):
Haste: Demonstrating impatience during speaker delivery.
Invisibility: Failing to provide nonverbal presence cues (e.g., eye contact, head nods).
Defensiveness: Reacting with immediate hostility rather than maintaining openness.
Exhaustion: Attempting complex communication when physically or mentally fatigued.
Inaction: Failing to summarize main takeaways or execute follow-up steps.
People Skills and Emotional Intelligence (EQ):
People Skills: Interpersonal traits facilitating social cooperation, empathy, and relationship building.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ): The ability to perceive, label, process, and manage personal and emotional states in self and others. High EQ correlates with professional success, superior conflict resolution, and enhanced mental health.
Contextual Adaptability: Adjusting communication skills, tone, and behavioral choices to match specific situational norms and emotional settings.
Ethical Communication Credo (National Communication Association - NCA):
Advocating truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason.
Endorsing freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent.
Striving to understand and respect communicators prior to evaluating and responding.
Promoting access to communication resources and developmental opportunities.
Fostering communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect individual needs.
Condemning communication that degrades individuals through distortion, intimidation, coercion, violence, intolerance, or hatred.
Committing to courageous expression of convictions in pursuit of fairness and justice.
Sharing information, opinions, and feelings while maintaining privacy and confidentiality.
Accepting responsibility for short- and long-term consequences of communication.
Rhetorical Sensitivity (Rodrick Hart & Don Burks):
Definition: Conscious awareness of how communicative choices affect others.
Five Characteristics of the Rhetorically Sensitive Individual:
Accepts role-taking as an essential part of the human condition.
Avoids stylized, rigid verbal behaviors.
Willingly undergoes the personal strain of social adaptation.
Distinguishes between all available information and information appropriate for disclosure.
Understands that a single idea can be expressed in multiple forms.
Key Terms Glossary
Action Model: A linear communication framework depicting message transmission as a one-way flow from sender to receiver.
Attending: The initial perception stage involving selective focus on specific sensory input.
Channel: The physical or technological medium through which a message is transmitted.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ): The ability to monitor, label, and manage emotional states in oneself and others.
Environment: The physical setting, context, and background fields of experience surrounding a communication exchange.
Ethics: Moral principles guiding honesty, respect, and responsibility in human communication.
Feedback: The receiver's response to a message that informs the sender of reception and understanding.
Interaction Model: A circular communication framework emphasizing two-way exchanges and sequential feedback loops.
Interpreting: The final perception stage where meaning is assigned to organized sensory data.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: A psychological framework arranging human motives sequentially from basic survival to self-actualization.
Model: A simplified, visual representation of a system designed to explain, predict, or analyze real-world processes.
Noise: Any physical, psychological, semantic, or physiological distraction that interferes with accurate message transmission.
Organizing: The second perception stage involving the structural categorization of sensory input into perceptual schemas.
Perception: The cognitive process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information.
Receiver: The participant who decodes and interprets incoming messages.
Self-Concept: The relatively stable set of self-perceptions held by an individual.
Source: The participant who conceives, encodes, and transmits a message.
Transactional Model: A communication framework depicting simultaneous message sending, receiving, and context creation.
Uncertainty Reduction Theory: A theoretical model explaining how individuals gather information to reduce cognitive and behavioral anxiety during initial encounters.