Interpersonal Communication Midterm

Interpersonal Communication Effectiveness can be Learned

If you aren't born with a natural talent, you can work on it and become better at it... just like communication.

Interpersonal Communication is Irreversible

What you say cannot be unsaid. You also cannot un-hear what somebody said to you.

Remembering

the process of retaining what you have heard

Environmental Factors

are elements of settings that affect how we feel and act. ex. we respond to architecture, colors, room design, temperature, sounds, smells, and lighting.

Artifacts

are personal objects we use to announce our identities and heritage and to personalize our environments.

Pseudolistening

is pretending to listen

External Obstacles to Listening

Message Overload and Message Complexity

Interactive Model

A model that represents communication as a feedback process, in which listeners and speakers both simultaneously send and receive messages. One to Many.

Linear Model

A model that represents communication as a one-way process that flows in one direction, from sender to receiver. These models do not capture the dynamism of communication or the active participation of all communicators.

People Construct Meanings in Interpersonal Communication

"You're sick...?!" Can mean a hundred different things due to context, situation, people talking, inflection in the voice, and all feelings and emotions. It's like spoken punctuation or symbols.

The Johari Window

1. Open or public information is known both to us and others. 2. The blind area contains information that others know about us but we don't know about ourselves. 3. Hidden information is what we know about ourselves but choose not to reveal to most others. 4. The unknown area is made up of information about ourselves that neither we nor other know.

Physical Noise

Actual noise happening around you and others around you. noise in your surroundings.

Mindfulness

Devoting your entire mind and thinking process to listening

Semantic Noise

Dialects, accents, or other speak impediments

Physically Receive Messages

Hearing, hearing is a physiological process in which sound waves hit our eardrums so that we become aware of noises, such as music, traffic, or human voices.

Interpersonal Communication is not a Panacea

It's not a remedy or cure all. Just because you bring up a topic doesn't mean it's going to fix itself. You can't just say something and expect it to change all things. You must have action or more evidence from that point on.

Metacommunication Affects Meanings

Metacommunication is communication about communication. Your mood can affect how you say and/or how you say it. Somebody with a sour attitude and negative body language would come off as mad or it can be "Hey are you okay?" due to somebodies mood/problems. Talking about feelings is a big way of this too.

The Listening Process

Mindfulness, Physically Receive Messages (hearing), Selecting and Organizing Material, Interpreting Communication, Responding, and Remembering

Psychological Noise

Noise in your head. Ex. A headache, something else on your mind.

Internal Obstacles to Listening

Preoccupation, Prejudgment, Reacting to Emotionally Loaded Language, Lack of Effort, and Failure to Adapt Listening Styles.

Nonlistening

Pseudolistening, Monopolizing, Selective Listening, Defensive Listening, Ambushing, Literal Listening,

Interpersonal Communication Involves Ethical Choices

Somethings can be taken in another way even when they weren't at all mean to be. "You lost so much weight! How?" "I'm anorexic."

The Principles of Communication

We Cannot Not Communicate, Interpersonal Communication is Irreversible, Interpersonal Communication Involves Ethical Choices, People Construct Meanings in Interpersonal Communication, Metacommunication Affects Meanings, Interpersonal Communication Develops and Sustains Relationships Interpersonal Communication is not a Panacea, Interpersonal Communication Effectiveness Can Be Learned.

Selecting and Organizing Material

We don't perceive everything around us. We selectively attend to only some messages and elements of our environments.

Interpersonal Communication Develops and Sustains Relationships

You get closer to people by interacting and communicating with them.

Interpreting Communication

You must make an earnest effort to understand fully what the other person is saying

We Cannot Not Communicate

You're always communicating whether you're saying words or not.

Hearing

a physiological activity that occurs when sound waves hit our eardrums.

Listening

an active, complex process that consists of being mindful; hearing, selecting and organizing information; interpreting communication; responding; and remembering.

Responding

communicating attention and interest

Paralanguage

communication that is vocal but does not use words. Ex. sounds such as murmurs and gasps, and vocal qualities such as volume, pitch, and inflection.

Physical Appearance

in face-to-face interactions we tend to notice how others look, and we often base our initial evaluations of others on their appearance.

Mindfulness

is being fully present in the moment.

Monopolizing

is continuously focusing communication on ourselves instead of listening to the person who is talking.

Ambushing

is listening carefully for the purpose of attacking a speaker.

Kinesics

refers to body position and body motions, including those of the face. Ex. body language

Chronemics

refers to how we perceive and use time to define identities and interaction.

Proxemics and Personal Space

refers to space and how we use it. Each culture has norms that prescribe how people should use space, how close people should be to one another, and how much space different people are entitled to have

Haptics

the sense of touch.

Physiological Noise

when you have a pain (like growing pains) but it's not psychological noise because it's within your body

Selective Listening

which involves focusing only on particular parts of communication

Literal Listening

which involves listening only for content and ignoring the relationship level of meaning.

Defensive Listening

which is perceiving personal attacks, criticism, or hostility in communication that is not critical or mean-spirited.