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Terms Definitions

Interpersonal the verbal and nonverbal interaction between two


communication interdependent people

Ambiguity The condition in which a message or relationship may be


interpreted as having more than one meaning

Asynchronous Communication in which the individuals send and receive


communication messages at different times (as in email)

Channel The vehicle of medium through which signals are sent, for
example, the vocal-auditory channel

Complementary A relationship in which the behavior of one person serves as


relationship the stimulus for the complementary relationships behavior of
the other

Choice points Moments when you have to make a choice about whom you
communicate with, what you say, what you don't say, how you
phrase what you want to say, and so on

Code switching Using different language styles depending on the situation;


changing from one language or style to another, often in the
same sentence

Competence is a speaker's ability to use the language; it is knowledge of the


elements and rules of the language

Context of The physical, psychological, social, and temporal environment


communication in which communication takes place
Decoding The act of understanding messages

Encoding The act of producing messages

Ethics The branch of philosophy that deals with the rightness or


wrongness of actions

Feedback Information that is given back to the source

Feed forward Information that is given before a regular message

Inevitability A principle of communication holding that communication


cannot be avoided

Irreversibility A principle of communication holding that communications


cannot be reversed once it has been communicated

Messages Any signal combination of signals that serves as a stimulus for


a receiver

Meta messages A message that makes reference to another message

Mindfulness A state of awareness in which you are conscious of the logic


and rationality of your behaviors and of the logical connections
existing among elements

Mindlessness A lack of conscious awareness of the logic or reasons behind


your thoughts or behaviors

Noise Anything that interferes with your receiving a message as the


source intended the message to be received

Punctuation of The breaking up of continuous communication sequences into


communication short sequences with identifiable beginnings and endings or
stimuli and responses

Source-receiver A communication term that emphasizes that both functions are


performed by each individual in an interpersonal message
Strategic Deliberate ambiguity designed to achieve a variety of specific
ambiguity purposes

Symmetrical A relationship between two or more persons in which one


relationship person's behavior serves as a stimulus for the same type of
behavior in the other person

Synchronous Communication that takes place in real time; sending and


communication receiving take place at the same time (face to face
communication)

Transactional A view of communication as an ongoing process in which all


perspective elements are interdependent and influence each other

Unrepeatability A characteristic of communication referring to the fact that all


communication acts are unique and can never be repeated
exactly

Content and Two aspects to which messages may refer: the world external
relationship to both the speaker and listener (content) and the connections
dimension existing between the individuals who are interacting
(relationship) [Listen to both the content and the relationship
aspects of messages, distinguish between them, and respond to
both. Analyze conflict messages in terms of content and
relationship dimensions, and respond to each accordingly]

Research a systematic process of discovering an answer (or answers) to a


question (in scientific terms, an hypothesis)

Theory A general statement or principle applicable to related


phenomena
Chapter Two

Culture and Interpersonal Communication

Term Definition

Accent Emphasis or stress placed on various syllables

Acculturation learning a different culture

Ambiguity degree to which members of a culture feel comfortable with


tolerance uncertainty

Assimilation process by which people leave behind their culture of origin


and take on the values and beliefs of another culture

Collectivist culture that teaches importance of group values such as


culture benevolence, tradition, and conformity

Cultural approach that holds as human species evolved from earlier life
evolution forms to Homo sapiens, culture also evolves

Cultural theory that all cultures are different but no culture is either
relativism superior or inferior to any other

Culture relatively specialized lifestyle of a group of people that is


passed on from one generation to the next through
communication, not genes

Dialect variations in a language, semantics and grammar

Enculturation Culture is transmitted from one generation to another

ethnic identity an identification and adoption of the beliefs and customs of the
culture
Ethnocentrism tendency to see others and their behaviors through your own
cultural filters, tendency to evaluate your own culture as
superior

Feminine a culture that values modesty, concern for relationships and the
culture quality of life, and tenderness

Gender refers to the social construction of masculinity and femininity;


attitudes, beliefs, values and ways of communicating and
relating to one another

High-context where much of the information in communication is in the


culture context or in the person, implied or understood

High-power- Power is concentrated in the hands of a few, there is a great


distance difference between people who hold the power and the
cultures ordinary citizen, i.e. great power distance between teacher and
student

Individualist teaches members importance of individual values such as


culture power, achievement, hedonism, and stimulation

Indulgence emphasizes the gratification of desires, focus on having fun


and enjoying life

Intercultural communication between persons who have different cultural


communication beliefs, values, or ways of behaving

Long-term promotes the importance of future rewards, more apt to save


orientation and prepare for future

Low-context Most of the information is explicitly stated in the verbal


Culture message; in contract form

low-power distance cultures

Power is more evenly distributed throughout the citizenry, ie.


students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and
command of the subject, discuss and even challenge the
teacher

Masculine values aggressiveness, material success, and strength


culture

Power distance refers to how power is distributed in a society

Restraint cultures that foster the curbing of such gratification and its
regulation by social norms

Sex Refers to the biological distinction between male and female,


determined by genes

Short-term A culture where people look more to the past and present;
orientation spend their resources for the present and want quick results
from their efforts

Stereotype A fixed impression of a group of people

Chapter Three

Self, Perception and Communication

Self-concept Your feelings and thoughts about your strengths, weaknesses,


abilities and limitations, and your aspirations and worldview.

Self-awareness Represents the extent to which you know yourself

Downward Comparing yourself to those you know are inferior to you


social
comparison

Upward social Comparing yourself to those who you think are better than you
comparison

Johari Window 4 selves: Open self, blind self, hidden self, unknown self. If
one is changed, everything else changes
Open self information of self that you and others know

Blind self information that you don't know about self but others do know

Hidden self information about yourself but is not shown to others

Unknown self no one, even yourself knows this about you (i.e. hidden talents)

5 questions to 1. Ask about yourself about yourself 2. Listen to others 3.


increase self- Actively seek information about self-4. See your different
awareness selves 5. Increase your open self

Self esteem a measure of how valuable you think you are

Self-destructive Ideas you have about yourself that are unproductive or make it
beliefs more difficult to achieve your goals. (i.e. needing to be perfect
and trying to perform unrealistically high levels of work)

Affirmation Used to refer to positive statements about yourself, statements


asserting that something good or positive is true of you.

Perception The process by which you become aware of objects, events,


and people through your sense: sight, smell, taste, touch,
hearing. An active, not passive, process

Selective a term stating that you do not engage in everything


perception surrounding you

Selective Attend to those that you anticipate will fulfill your needs or
attention will prove enjoyable. i.e. daydreaming in class until your name
is called

Selective expose yourself to people or messages that will confirm your


exposure existing beliefs, contribute to your objectives, or prove
satisfying in some way (i.e. buying a car, pay attention to ads
about that type of car instead of other car ads)
Proximity physical closeness; things that are physical close to each other
are perceived as a unit

Similarity Things that are physically similar (look alike) are perceived as
belonging together

Contrast Opposite of similarity: items that are very different from each
other are believed to not belong together

Schema (pl. Mental templates that help you organize information that you
schemata) come in contact with every day. (i.e. stereotype)

Script A type of schema. An organized body of information about


some action, event or procedure. (i.e. the restaurant routine)

Interpretation- Influenced by rules, schemata, and scripts; experiences, needs,


evaluation wants, values, and beliefs about the way things are or should
be.

Recall Accessing the information you have stored in memory.


Information meaningful to you and reconstructed by what you
heard or saw.

Impression a variety of processes that you go through in forming an


information impression of another person

Self-fulfilling a prediction that comes true because you act on it as if you


prophecy were true (i.e. saying you hate parties and then not be social at
a party)

Implicit the system of rules that tells you which characteristics go


personality together (i.e. a person you believe to be eager and intelligent
theory would not be stupid)

Halo effect A function of the implicit personality theory. If you believe


that they have good qualities, they will have more good
qualities
Reverse (horns) If you find that someone has some negative qualities, you will
effect think they have more negative qualities. Leads you to see what
you expect or want to see.

primacy effect when whatever is said first exerts the most influence

Recency effect when whatever is said last or most recently exerts the most
influence

Consistency the tendency to maintain a balance among perceptions or


attitudes

Attribution How we control our first impressions (internal/external) (i.e.


she's lazy vs. she probably had a busy night)

Self-serving when we take credit for the positive and deny responsibility for
bias the negative (i.e. if you get a D on a text, you'll blame the
difficulty, while if you get an A you attribute your intelligence

The tendency to single out one or two obvious characteristics


of a person and attribute everything that person does to this
Over attribution one or these two characteristics.

fundamental when we assess someone's behavior but overvalue the


attribution error contribution of internal factors (personality) and undervalue
the influence of external factors (content or situation)

Perception a way to reduce uncertainty and to make perceptions more


checking accurate

Ways to Analyze Impressions,


Increase
Check perceptions,
Accuracy in
Impression Reduce Uncertainty,
Formation Increase Cultural Sensitivity
Impression The processes you go through to communicate the image of
management yourself that you want others to have of you.

Immediacy immediacy strategies


strategies connect you to the other person

Affinity- the use of these techniques is likely to increase your chances of


seeking being liked
strategies

Politeness used to make ourselves appear likable, in terms of negative and


strategies

Positive types desire to be viewed positively by others, to be thought of


favorably
Positive face

Negative face the desire to be autonomous, to have the right to do as we wish

Credibility a concept that seeks to establish your competence, character,


strategies and charisma

Self- set up barriers or obstacles to make the task impossible so that


handicapping when you fail, you will not be blamed or thought ineffective
strategies since the task is impossible.

Self- a way to be taken care of, protected, or the desire for someone
deprecating to come to your aid
strategies

Self-monitoring suppressing negative image and presenting a positive image;


strategies hiding unfavorable parts of you, censoring your behavior

Influencing the attempt to get people to see you as a leader and to be


strategies followed in thought and (perhaps) behavior
Image- telling people who you are and behave as you want to be
confirming seen...confirming your self-image (i.e. claiming you're the life
strategies of the party and telling jokes and amusing people to prove it)

Cultural an attitude and way of behaving in which you're aware of and


sensitivity acknowledge cultural differences

Imposter the tendency to disregard outward signs of success and


phenomenon consider oneself an "imposter," a fake, a fraud, one who
doesn't really deserve to be considered successful

Impression the process by which you perceive another person and


formation ultimately come to some kind of evaluation or interpretation of
this person
Other- a quality of interpersonal effectiveness involving a person's
orientation
willingness (1) to interact openly with others, self-disclosing as
appropriate; (2) to react honestly to incoming stimuli; and (3)
to own his or her own feelings and thoughts
Personality a theory of personality, complete with rules about what
theor characteristics go with what other characteristics, that you
maintain and through which you perceive others

Pygmalion the condition in which you make a prediction of success, act as


effect if it is true, and thereby make it come true (for example, acting
toward students as if they'll be successful influences them to
become successful); a type of self-fulfilling prophecy
Primacy Effect look at primacy and recency effect

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