Communication 30 Final Study Guide

The collaborating style of conflict management includes

ALL OF THE ABOVE (Confrontation, integration, & smoothing)

Minority rule in groups can take which of the following forms?

ALL OF THE ABOVE (Designated authority, executive committee, & forceful faction)

Standard Agenda includes which of the following steps

ALL OF THE ABOVE (Problem analysis, solution criteria, & solution implementation)

True group consensus requires

ALL OF THE ABOVE (commitment to group decision, member satisfaction with the decision making process, & member satisfaction with participation in decision making)

Which of the following is a way to combat resistance strategies in groups?

ALL OF THE ABOVE (confront the strategy directly, refuse to enable the resistance by providing consequences when resistance is used, & give clear directions for specific tasks)

Which of the following is a consequence of information overload?

ALL OF THE ABOVE (it impedes critical thinking, it promotes indecisiveness, it makes concentration on any one idea, concept, or problem extremely difficult)

Constructive participation is group decisions making can be increased by

ALL OF THE ABOVE (making issues and problems relevant to the interests of low-participators, & valuing the contributions of low participators)

Which of the following is a benefit of brainstorming?

ALL OF THE ABOVE (reinforcement of an organization culture, significant creative idea generation, & a change of pace from regular tasks)

Expertise is a power resource when

ALL OF THE ABOVE (the person is viewed as a real expert, the person demonstrates trustworthiness, & the person knows how to use the information to accomplish a goal)

Group discussion promotes highers quality decision making when

ALL OF THE ABOVE (the validity of inferences are carefully examined, inferences are grounded in valid information, at least one member of the group exerts influence to guide the group toward higher, & quality decisions)

The forms of power include

ALL OF THE ABOVE (prevention, empowerment, & dominance)

Constructive conflicts differs from destructive conflicts because constructive conflict

B & C (is characterized by supportive communication patterns & seeking a solution to a disagreement that benefits all parties)

One of the members of your project group doesn't know how to navigate certain Internet sites to do research for the group project. When group members offer to teach her some simple ways to do this, she appear to be interested, but never pays much attentions to instructions given by other members and she consistently makes simple errors whenever trying to use the Internet with guidance from others. She actually hopes that eventually she'll he given other duties because teaching her is just too labor intensive and time consuming for other group members. She doesn't feel conformable telling the group directly that she won't learn to use the Internet because that might get her ostracized by the group. Instead, she pretends to try to learn but never seems to grasp how to use it. This is an example of

B & C (resistance strategy & strategic stupidity strategy)

A BATNA is

Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement

Construction and destructive anger can be distinguished from each other by which of the following variables?

C&D (Duration of the anger & intensity of the anger )

Individualist and collectivist cultures differ in their preferred approach to conflict management in which of the following ways?

Collectivist culture favor avoiding; individualist cultures favor power-forcing style

Conformity and obedience differs in which of the following ways?

Conformity in the group pressuring the individual to comply and obedience is an individual pressuring other individuals or groups to comply

Your group brainstorms several ways to raise additional funds for a campus project beyond what is offered by the college administration. This is an example of which integrative problem solving technique?

Expanding the pie

"I don't understand. Please explain what you mean" is a statement typical of a high-context communication style.

False

As communication technologies become ever more widespread and sophisticated, the problem of information overload should begin to diminish in importance.

False

As groups grow larger, consensus becomes easier to attain because you have more voices to support it.

False

Assertiveness is primarily a strategy of resistance

False

Consensus is a form of majority rule

False

Cultures vary in their attitudes concerning the appropriateness of power imbalances. This variation is called the conformity-obedience dimension

False

Despite wishing otherwise, some group members can be totally powerless and unable to affect a group in any way.

False

Group polarization is manifested when the points of view and opinions among a group's members becomes more divergent (differ from each other)

False

Groups consistently take greater risks than do individuals

False

Information underload is usually a problem of too much opening in a system.

False

Making inferences is a serious problem for group decision making, so group members should be discouraged from making inferences.

False

Murphy's Law stipulates that anything that can go wrong likely will be avoided by a group

False

Punishment can be powerful means of influencing behavior of group members if used often and together with rewards

False

Specialization is a pattern recognition means of screening information in order to cope with information overload.

False

The most fundamental lesson the the Milgram studies is that when the destructive effects of people's behavior become clear and when individuals are ordered by authority figures to carry out actions that are viewed as objectionable, most individuals will defy legitimate authority figures

False

The values places on verbal participation in group decision making is perceived similarly across all cultures

False

To provide structure and organization to all group meetings you should use parliamentary procedure

False

We tend to overvalue vivid, concrete information when making decisions

False

Whenever a group member arrives late to a meeting it is an example of the tactical tardiness resistance strategy

False

Whenever a group member puts off completing a task necessary for the group to function effectively it is a clear instance of the purposeful procrastination resistance strategy

False

"You have consistently lied to us and distorted the facts during these negotiations " is an example of

NONE OF THE ABOVE

A position is difference from an interest in negotiation in which of the following ways?

Positions are the concrete things we want, interest answer the question why we want what we want

Which of the following is a general indicator of power?

The more powerful define the less powerful

A glut of information makes it very difficult to ascertain useless from useful information

True

A group should establish criteria for evaluating solutions to problems before solutions are suggested

True

A true consensus requires a unanimous agreement, commitment of all parties to defend the decision to outsiders, and satisfaction with the process used to make the decision and the degree of participation from all group members

True

Despite a general dislike for meetings, group meetings can save time and increase productivity of groups.

True

Effective group decision making requires analysis and understanding of a problem before members search for solutions.

True

Faulty inferential leaps are more likely when the issues are emotionally charged

True

Group discussions that follow some systematic procedure tend to be more productive than relatively unstructured discussions.

True

Men typically are more verbally aggressive, direct, opinionated, judgmental, and argumentative than women in mixed-sex groups.

True

Participation from all group members during group discussions should always be encouraged

True

Pattern recognition is potentially the more effective means of coping with information overload.

True

Powerful forms of verbal communication are not always appropriate.

True

Space is a strong indicator of power

True

Women typically use take question, disclaimers, and hedges more often than men in mixed- sex groups

True

Dominance is

a competitive form of power

Resistance is

a concert strategy to prevent dominance from others

A correlation is

a consistent relationship between two variables

The Standard Agenda is

a direct outgrowth of John Dewey's reflective thinking process

"I don't understand. Please explain what you mean " is a statement typical of

a low-context communication style

"What changes, if any, should be made in the priority process used to distribute parking permits on campus" is an example of a

a question of policy

A "stand aside" is

a request by a group that a lone dissenter, despite remaining reservations, agree not to prevent a consensus decision by the group

Assertiveness is

an empowering skill

Inferences

are generalization about the unknown based on the known

Confrontation should be used

as a style of first, not last resort

"We don't want to deal with the issue" is an example of ________ style of conflict management?

avoiding

Rules for discussion when groups seek a consensus include

avoiding switching positions simply to sidestep conflict

Several group members believe in the power of Therapeutic Touch. They see a program on the Discovery channel that shows examples of TT in action. They are now even more convinced than ever that TT heals people. Another program on PBS, however, announces that it show TT is a fraudulent, worthless therapy. Group members refuse to watch this program because it casts doubt on their belief in TT. This is an example of

confirmation bias

You energetically seek information that agrees with your point of view when researching a group project and you ignore information that contradicts your point of view. You are exhibiting

confirmation bias

Constructive conflict in groups means that

conflicting parties work to de-escalate the conflict

An effective way to address passive aggressive resistance strategies is

conforming the strategy directly

The 2015 rankings of U.S. colleges by U.S. News & World Report magazine used SAT/ACT scores, graduation rates, scholarship and grants availability, amont others, to rank colleges. These serve as ________ for making such decisions?

criteria

Majority rule may be advantageous when

decisions must be made relatively quickly

"What you're telling me to do is simple unethical, and you're despicable for even suggesting such behavior, so don't hold your breath waiting for me to follow you orders" is an example of

defiance

You want to prevent groupthink from becoming a problem in your group. To do this you should

develop a norm in the group that legitimizes disagreement

Potentially the group's best means of coping effectively with information overload is

discerning patterns to identify irrelevant information

Margin of error

estimates the degree of sampling error accounted for by imperfections in selecting a sample for study

Groupthink is a process whereby

excessive cohesiveness discourages dissent in the group

When groups become more risk-taking or cautious after discussion has occurred than the initial preferences of group members would indicates, this is called

group polarization

Someone is using the competing, power-forcing style of conflict management shows

high concern for task but low concern for relationships in groups

The Milgram studies on "Obedience" demonstrate that

individuals are inclined to obey legitimate authority

Collective inferential error is a group's tendency to

make inferences based on very limited and faulty information

Your group engages in discussion of a significant problem. It begins by considering possible solutions and finally chooses one of the alternatives. Your group exhibits which of the following paths to reaching decision according to the multiple sequence model of decision emergence?

none of the above

Dialectical inquiry is

one method of preventing groupthink

Possible integrative solutions to conflicts of interest in groups include

parties in conflict should just accept that a conflict exists as a first step

The power-forcing style of conflict management

places primary emphasis on the task dimension and little focus on the social dimension of groups

Force field analysis is a method used to

plan implementation of a group solution or decision

PERT is a structured group process of decision making that

provides step-by-step structure for implementing group decisions once the decisions are made

"What are the advantages and disadvantages of a textbook rental program on campus?" is a

question of fact

You're the leader of the Interstellar Dark Beer Drinking Doomsday cult. You predict that the world will end when consumption of dark beer declines by 5% or more in a year. Consumption declines 7%, but the world does not end. When this fact is pointed out to you, your response is, "Members of the IDDBDD drank mass quantities of dark beet, so they saved the world from extinction, providing the validity of my teachings." This is an example of

rationalization of disconfiirmation

A friend of yours has joined a controversial doomsday group headed by an individual who claims to be a prophet with divine powers. The head of this group predicts that the world will end on Christmas Eve. When this prophecy proves to be wrong the explanation provided by the head of the group claims, "This was just a dress rehearsal for the real thing- testing our faith." This is

rationalization of disconfirmation

Which of the following negotiation strategies is characterized by initially competing or acting tough, then cooperating and relaxing demands?

reformed sinner

Passive aggression is a form of

resistance

Strategic stupidity is a type of

resistance strategy

Competing (power-forcing) style of conflict management in groups

should be the style of last resort except perhaps in emergency situations

"We apologized for our previous comments that characterized your leader as dishonest" is an example of

smoothing

You have had a headed disagreement with members of your study group. Emotions are raw, and feelings have been hurt. You approach your group after a belief silence: "I'm sorry I attached you like that. I got angry and said things I didn't mean." This is an example of the collaborating tactic called

smoothing

"Our discussion of this issue will begin in half an hour, okay?" This is an example of a relatively powerless form of verbal communication called a

tag question

As group leader, you are anxious to produce change in several areas. Before attempting to implement changes, you should consider primary factors that produce resistance to change, such as, changes are less likely to a accepted by group members when

they threaten the security of group members

Rationalization of disconfirmation means

we invent superficial alternative explanations for information that disconfirms our beliefs

Proper brainstorming technique requires

withholding evaluation of ideas until brainstorming has been completed