Human Communications Final Test

Defensive listening:

Always prepares to attack the speaker by using the speaker's words against the speaker.

Which of the following is NOT a guideline for effective use of testimony?

Always use direct rather than paraphrased testimony.

Which of the following is NOT a method of refutation as suggested in the textbook?

Addition

"Systematic affinity" refers to:

Affinity that one has with one's own cultural group.

The functional theory by Hirokawa contends that:

An effective group must fulfill important communication functions.

The "flow" experience means that:

An individual is so well engrossed and synchronized with his or her work that the person becomes oblivious to physical surroundings or the elapse of time.

If the summated value of the DAST factors is negative, which of the following generally occurs:

Antagonism

Which of the following is NOT a function of a good speech beginning?

Apologize for inadequate preparation

"Idiosyncratic desires" refer to those that:

Are often products from the clash between innate and instructed desires, and can be of great value for achieving affinity in unique communication scenarios.

"Background population" refers to people who:

Are the group against whom an individual benchmarks his or her own experience.

The two dimensions along which DiSanza and Legge classify audience types are:

Audience's knowledge level about and attitude toward speaker/topic.

Which of the following may help a poised and confident posture?

Be rigid

Synaesthesia refers to:

Blending of two or more senses as a rhetorical device.

Which of the following is NOT one of the stages in Noe's (2008) concept of career development:

Breakthrough

The power of eloquent speaking has always been positive.

Fase

Regarding the functional roles of group communication, "self-centered functions" refer to those that:

Focus on a specific member's own agenda and desires.

"Proxemics" refers to the study of

How interpersonal distance affects communicational behaviors.

"Organizational identification" refers to:

How strongly members feel that they belong to or are a part of their organization.

Which of the following has to do with the clarity of speaking the sounds of a word.

Enunciation

Better humor is often used against others than against oneself.

False

Breathing from the throat or from the belly makes no difference for effective use of the voice.

False

Celebrity testimony, due to its popularity, is always better than expert testimony.

False

Children, compared with adults, tend to be more future-oriented in their time paradigm.

False

Cohesiveness, even when inordinate, is always good in a group.

False

Communicative messages and strategic messages often work in harmony.

False

Compared with Chinese culture, American culture tends to be of long-term gratification.

False

Compared with physical experience, perception plays a lesser role in persuasion.

False

Contemporary time paradigm is characterized more by natural time and has largely obliterated different time orientations.

False

Credibility is a permanent thing. Once you have it, you have it always. Or, you do not possess it.

False

Culture cultivates innate desires rather than instructed desires.

False

DAST agrees with the uncertainty reduction theory that communication will occur as long as there exists a certain degree of uncertainty between the communicators involved.

False

DAST argues that the contemporary design of time helps give employees a more pleasant work experience.

False

DAST believes that cultural relativism and cultural absolutism can never be reconciled.

False

DAST believes that desire may be a more important factor than knowledge in emotionally-charged communication scenarios.

False

DAST believes that the phenomenon of heroism is rarely affected by the factor of time.

False

Determinants of human experience are largely materialistic, leaving little significance to issues such as intrapersonal communication and perception.

False

Different time paradigms do not seem to affect communication behaviors differently.

False

Different time paradigms in stranger communication clarify such communication.

False

Effective public speaking is used only by leaders but rarely by ordinary people in daily life.

False

For a public speaker, a bad voice is of no concern as it is but the carrier of the message. What's important is the content of the speech.

False

Groups tend to always make better decisions than individuals.

False

Human perception is hardly fallible and thus not malleable.

False

If you want to add depth to your narration of human experience, use statistics rather than stories.

False

In the "Problem-Causes-Solution" organizing scheme, solution to a problem should be addressed the first.

False

Influence of "collocation" informs that a communicator's individual voice is often silenced by the vast majority of the national population rather than by members within one's local group.

False

Intra-departmental affinity does not affect the objectivity of members' evaluation of each other within the department.

False

It is better to use "speech-fillers" or "verbal tics" such as "like" to give the impression that the speaker is conversational and relaxed, than to use pauses.

False

It is useless to study "patterns of thinking".

False

Language is a science but not so much an art.

False

Listening rarely helps stranger communication because when you listen, you are not disclosing about yourself.

False

Most novice speakers should talk fast in order to give the impression of energy and excitement.

False

Negotiating one's "geography of organizational affinity" is never tricky, regardless of how many different group memberships an organizational member may have.

False

Only use true stories, as hypothetical stories have no place in public speaking.

False

Paradox and oxymoron should never be used in effective public speaking.

False

Perception is rarely selective but often accurately reflects true reality.

False

Provisionalism means that you never have your own ideas and emotions and always yield to others.

False

Repetition is wordy and thus has no place in effective public speaking.

False

Research finds that how we define space on the highway has little effect on driving behaviors.

False

Social networking sites such as Facebook have largely eradicated the phenomenon of "strangers," as defined by the DAST theory.

False

Spatiality should not be used as an organizing pattern in public speaking as it is only a geographical concept.

False

Speech accommodation theory argues against the need to change one's speech habits.

False

Speech beginnings are difficult simply because there are not many known ways to properly begin a speech.

False

Stage fright has to do only with lack of experience, but not with the speaker's desire.

False

Stage fright is generally manifested physically, but rarely mentally or psychologically.

False

Stage fright only plagues beginning speakers.

False

Statistics, however used, will enhance the credibility of your speech.

False

Technology has decreased managers' panoptic supervision of their employees.

False

The DAST theory agrees with the uncertainty reduction theory that when we are uncertain about someone, even strangers, we tend to initiate communication in order to reduce that uncertainty.

False

The concept of "territory" in DAST does not include a figurative meaning.

False

The concept of "time" in DAST contends that certain aspects of time (e.g., frequency and duration) have value for communication studies while other aspects (e.g., sequencing and co-temporality) do not.

False

The decrescendo effect is often used to end a speech that calls upon the audience for an action.

False

The epidemic of impatience in family communication has nothing to do with one's time paradigm.

False

The factor of time is well-researched in group studies.

False

The following statement represents a positive association: "So my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

False

The idea of "group polarization" holds that the group's idea tends to gravitate only to the most radical viewpoint in the group.

False

The use of imagism often distracts the listener and thus should not be used for effective speaking.

False

The wording of your questions to strangers rarely matters as long as you carefully sequence them.

False

To be an effective public speaker, you need to concentrate more on your own thoughts rather than on what the audience may think.

False

Unlike speech beginnings, speech endings are not essential for a good speech.

False

You should avoid the use of linguistic devices in a eulogy, which represents a solemn occasions.

False

Consonance:

Shares the same consonants at the ending of two or more words or sentences.

Alliteration:

Shares the same sound at the beginning of two or more words.

Which of the follow may NOT help properly warm up the vocal apparatus.

Sing high-pitched notes.

Strategic messages are those that:

Skillfully maneuvers the expression of an message to fulfill a pragmatic purpose.

"Beaver tail" as a name for a type of cactus represents "positive association."

True

A "personal constitution" is a list of fundamental values that people with the importance-oriented paradigm of employing time use to guide their prioritization of their time.

True

A low-context culture tends to be individualistic.

True

A speech of presentation should comprise at least two components: introduction of the award and explanation of why the recipient wins the award.

True

According to our book, there are two methods to get others to do what you wish them to do: the sword and the word.

True

Always try to use refereed rather than non-refereed evidence.

True

An adequate volume is the physical foundation for enunciation.

True

An effective communicator often has to confront the hard choice between one's momentary desires and the long-term strategic results one seeks.

True

An individual's understanding of reality may be affected by this individual's perceptual scope.

True

Analogy adds to the vitality of an idea.

True

As with the printed word, effective use of voice also needs proper "punctuation marks" to achieve clarity.

True

Audience analysis and adaptation should be practiced before, during, and after the speaking event.

True

Barbara Bush in her 1990 commencement speech at Wellesley College complimented the audience.

True

Basic forms of logic include induction and deduction.

True

Both active and favorable audiences hold a positive attitude toward the speaker/topic.

True

Cognitive alerts somewhat resemble traffic signs; both help direct their target audience's attention.

True

Contemporary time paradigm is characterized more by efficiency than by effectiveness.

True

Cultural absolutism may lead to the "coercive syndrome."

True

DAST believes that affinity among organizational members may bias their evaluation of each other, causing invalid results in such evaluation.

True

DAST believes that the bulk of human misery derives not from lack of materialistic things, but from the difficulty in anchoring one's affinity.

True

DAST believes that volitional communication occurs only when the value of all the four DAST factors is non-zero.

True

DAST contends that both collectivistic and individualistic manners of using space may pose challenges to family communication and recommends a balanced approach between the two.

True

DAST contends that relational dialectics may not exist in all stages of relational development and tends to be the strongest during the "plateau" stage.

True

DAST contends that violating another's personal space does not always lead to annoyance if there exists a mutual desire for affinity between the two communicators.

True

DAST contends that volitional communication does not occur unless the value of each of the DAST factors is non-zero.

True

Desire and knowledge may be two incompatible sources spurring actions that consequently are also incompatible.

True

Different time paradigms among different group members may cause procedural conflict.

True

Disasters ironically may strengthen a community by bringing neighbors into greater physical proximity.

True

Echoing or circling back to the beginning is an important method to conclude a speech.

True

Eloquent speaking played a tremendous role in historical movements.

True

Empathy seems to be of a radiating correlation with space—we tend to be more empathetic with people who are physically close to us and less empathetic with people that are geographically distant.

True

GDSS stands for "group decision support system."

True

If you feel awkward with the way you gesture, probably you should stabilize your hands somewhere.

True

Illogical conclusions could be derived from statistics.

True

It may help the speaker's credibility if the speaker mentions his / her relevant experience and research at the beginning of the speech.

True

Language is a fundamental tool in the speaker's effort to change audience perception.

True

Language is an important instrument of influence.

True

Malcom X used the circle effect to end his 1964 the Ballot or the Bullet speech.

True

Many believed that Mark Twain overstepped appropriateness in his after-dinner speech honoring the three literary luminaries: Longfellow, Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Homes.

True

Martin Luther King's "I've Been to the Mountaintop" ends with a crescendo effect.

True

One lesson from the study of perception is: "Life is not so much about what is possible or impossible or what an individual can or cannot do; life is more about what an individual chooses to experience via different perceptual lenses."

True

One touted strength of the DAST theory is that the four DAST factors do not fluctuate circumstantially as much as many factors emphasized in existing communication theory.

True

Onomatopoeia refers to the positive association wherein human language imitates the sounds of nature.

True

Pathos, than logos, may be a more potent agent influencing audience behaviors.

True

Pitch and inflection help give vocal variety and thus emotionality to the speaker's voice.

True

Private and popular desires may stand at odds with each other.

True

Reference to the past or tradition is an important method to begin the speech and may represent the first step in the temporal structure.

True

Research has found that different time paradigms seem to affect altruistic behaviors differently.

True

Robert Kennedy's eulogy to Martin Luther King used quotations.

True

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis contends that human language significantly impacts and even configures human perception of reality.

True

Seating arrangements may affect the communication dynamics in the group.

True

Skillful use of space may help achieve better collegiality within an organization.

True

Some suspense and drama may enhance the introductory speech.

True

Space design "contours" social interactions and encounters.

True

Space may be used as a "social control mechanism."

True

Speaking is often an important component in human rituals.

True

Assonance:

Is an imperfect form of rhyming in which words of the same or similar vowels are positioned in proximity.

"Phatic communication" refers to communication that

Is conducted for the sake of social decorum and contains little substantive information.

Prejudiced listening:

Is made inaccurate due to unduly negative perception of the speaker.

Rhyming:

Is the acoustic harmony between the ending sounds of different words or sentences.

Statistics concretizes and adds scope to an issue.

True

Stress is one of the results from the design of time in contemporary organizations.

True

Surveys indicate that almost half of the people fear public speaking more than death.

True

The DAST theory contends that affinity may play a more practical role than love in family communication because love, when misinterpreted and malpracticed, may lead to highly undesirable behaviors.

True

The communicator's desire may override many intermediate or non-terminal factors (e.g., one's culture or self-concept) in the determination of communication behaviors.

True

The desire for affinity with one group has bewitched humanity to commit atrocities against another group.

True

The final step in Monroe's Motivated Sequence is "action".

True

The following statement represents an emphatic contrast: "For all our joy and excitement, we must not save the world and lose our souls."

True

The functional perspective claims that a group, to be effective in its decision-making and problem-solving, needs to fulfill important functions.

True

The leader, by sitting at a non-conspicuous position around the table, may help the group become more democratic in its discussion.

True

The perception of reality in "I-it" terms means that you position yourself at the center of reality where everything else is "it" and exists for the purpose of serving you.

True

The temporal or time pattern of organizing often addresses the following: memory, struggle, and hope.

True

There are multiple cases of repetition in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

True

Toleration derives from cultural relativism.

True

Tuckman's terms that describe the developmental stages of a group are: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

True

Very often among a group of strangers, no one wishes to stand out and be different by initiating certain actions, even if these actions may improve uncomfortable conditions for all involved.

True

You are practicing uncritical listening if you habitually buy what advertisers pitch to you.

True

Which of the following is NOT true about "false scarcity":

It motivates all members in the organization for greater productivity and excellence.

Which of the following is a bad practice if you want to speak more effectively?

Mix various patterns of organization for variety.

The letters in the "N-A-R" structure stand for:

Narration, Argumentation, Refutation.

Cultural relativism means that

No cultural practice is absolutely wrong; cultural practices are just different from each other.

Ethnocentrism refers to the idea that

One places one's own ethnic group above other ethnic groups and uses the former to benchmark the behaviors of the latter.

The three important periods in using time as an organizing pattern are:

Past, present, and future in that order.

"Anchorage of affinity" means:

People or things with whom or which one attaches affinity or identifies.

Which of the following is not listed in DAST's typology of time paradigms as seen in different cultures:

Personal vs. professional time.

Which of the following has to do with the correctness of speaking the sounds of a word.

Pronunciation

"Self-fulfilling prophecy" means that:

Prophecies tend to unconsciously guide an individual's experience, with an accumulative effect that eventually fulfills these prophecies.

Which of the following is NOT true about "strategic ambiguity":

Strategic ambiguity is rarely used in organizations.

Which of the following is NOT included in Gibb's "defensiveness reducers":

Superiority

The "affective" side of communication refers to elements:

That involve emotion rather than cognition.

"Urgency-oriented" employment of time means:

That you do the most urgent first.

"Mental vagrancy" means:

That, when you are physically engaged with automatic or semiautomatic actions (e.g., washing your face), you don't have a focused and specific agenda for your mind so that it randomly roams with no clear train of thoughts.

Ethos concerns:

The character

"Affinity substances" refer to substances:

The collective consumption of which facilitates affinity with others.

Allusion refers to:

The connection between a well-known fact or statement and one's own discussion.

The "flow" experience refers to:

The experience wherein time and space no longer matter as the person is so engrossed in his or her current activity.

"Passive addiction" refers to:

The fact that you addictively engage in things that are easy, that you neither truly enjoy nor see much significance in but do them anyway as a passive way to escape tasks you don't feel like doing.

The structuration theory claims that:

The gradual and collective process of group communication may eventually create the group's structure or culture.

Pathos concerns:

The heart

The Chinese proverb "the best virtue is like water" means that

The person with the best virtue is flexible and adaptable like the fluidity of water.

The term "phenomenology" refers to:

The study of subjective experience due to perception of outward phenomena.

DAST contends which of the following regarding space and culture:

There exists a mutual relationship between the two.

The author of the DAST theory chooses the four factors designated by the DAST acronym because:

These four factors appear to be the ultimate determinants of communication behaviors.

Uncritical listening:

Completely accepts whatever the speaker says due to an over-positive perception of the speaker.

Which of the following is NOT a guideline for an introductory speech.

To advertise the introducer.

Which of the following usually should NOT be a function of an after-dinner speech.

To discuss grave and serious issues.

Which of the following is an example of antithesis:

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Which of the following is an example of parallelism:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Which of the following is asyndeton:

"Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man."

The concept of relational dialectics (Baxter & Montgomery) refers to the fact that

Conflicting desires (e.g., connection vs. separation) may exist within the same relationship, leading to potential tension in that relationship.

Monroe's Motivated Sequence includes how many steps?

5

Spatial expansiveness referenced in our textbook is used as:

A method to indicate that an idea is important in many locations.

Which of the following is NOT an audience type in DiSanza and Legge's classification?

Careless audience

Which of the following is a euphemism?

Collateral damage

The social penetration theory argues that:

Communicators are like onions and gradually peel to reveal their intimate cores to each other.

Negative association:

Connects ideas that oppose each other, for contrastive emphasis.

"Positive association":

Connects ideas that share a certain degree of similarity.

"Concertive control" means:

Control that the majority of a group collectively exert upon a member who gives super-normative performance.

Which of the following usually is NOT a step in a eulogy?

Criticism of the dead

Cultural absolutism refers to the idea that

Cultural behaviors are either absolutely right or absolutely wrong.

DAST stands for:

Desire, affinity, space, and time.

"Instructed desires" refer to:

Desires that are acquired through cultural inheritance.

"Family members need to learn to give time to each other's time" means that

Different time paradigms need to be respected in the family.

Groupthink means that:

Dissenting members in the group yield to the majority view and unconsciously silence themselves.

Non-volitional communication refers to communication that the communicator:

Does unwillingly and performs anyway due to external pressure such as social decorum.

Which of the following is NOT a method to prove the practicality of a solution or policy as suggested by the textbook?

Emotional approach

Communicative messages are those that:

Faithfully and spontaneously communicate the communicator's thoughts and emotions.

"Mental vagrancy" is a great method of people who use their time effectively to become productive with their life.

False

"One cannot not communicate" means that communication is so important in life that you simply cannot continue your life without communication.

False

"Paraproxemics" means fake proximity and exerts no effect on the group's communication behaviors.

False

"Patterns of thinking" are rather easy to derive.

False

"Yes-no" questions and abstract questions always work great in stranger communication.

False

A high-context culture values explicit communication so that meaning is explicit even without contextual references.

False

A member's seniority is rarely used as a factor in the decision about resource allocations.

False

A persuasive speaker should avoid looking at unfriendly faces among the audience, because they are distractive and annoying.

False

A poker face or an expressionless face is a good thing because it helps the speaker give a poised impression.

False

According to DAST, the effective sequence of questioning in stranger communication requires that you ask big and personal questions first and then small impersonal questions.

False

According to Gibb, the attitude of neutrality helps reduce defensiveness in family communication.

False

According to Giddens (1990), time-space distanciation has made our globe feel like expanding.

False

After-dinner speeches always happen after the dinner.

False

Age seems to affect perception in a positive way. That is, the older you are, the better your perception of the world becomes.

False

Ambiguity as a rhetorical device has no place in any type of public speaking.

False

American culture tends to be feminine because it values success.

False

An active audience is tougher to deal with than an apathetic audience.

False

An individual's desires can be either random or determined by predictable forces.

False

An individual's different desires are often straightforward and compatible with each other.

False

An uncertainty-rejecting culture treasures innovation and new ideas.

False

Anacoluthon is an effective use of syntax.

False

At a press conference, the speaker should attack those asking hostile questions.

False

Barbara Bush failed to adapt to the audience in her 1990 commencement speech at Wellesley College.

False

Which of the following is NOT true about GDSS:

GDSS gives greater salience to the leader's viewpoints.

Which of the following is generally not a characteristic of an acceptance speech?

Grandiloquence

Which of the following is not an essential attribute of eloquence?

Grandiloquent words

Regarding the functional roles of group communication, "maintenance functions" refer to those that:

Help maintain the group's social relations.

Regarding the functional roles of group communication, "task functions" refer to those that:

Help the group complete its tasks.

Which of the following is NOT a principle for clear organization as suggested by the textbook?

Imagination

"Trained incapacity" refers to

Incapable or narrowed perception due to long-term cultural training.

According to Schutz (1976), the three desires that spur people into interpersonal relationships are:

Inclusion, affection, and control

Desires are complex because:

Incompatible forces exert incompatible desires upon the same individual.

By "productive communication," Lu (2012) refers to communication that:

Intends to impress upon others the productivity in one's performance.

"Semantic distraction" means:

Language that, being emotionally laden, distracts the listener from the what the language-user intends for the listener to do.

Which of the following is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as ""the divine wisdom manifest in the creation, government, and redemption of the world"?

Logos

Humor mainly helps which of the following functions:

Maintenance functions.

Social construction means that:

Many human realities become "realities" only when they are collectively created and accepted as realities whereas in truth they may be little more than myths.

The following may help relieve the tension due to relational dialectics:

Segmentation and reframing.

Which of the following is NOT a type of testimony as introduced in our textbook:

Solid testimony

"Trained incapacity" in human perception means that:

Some incapacities in our perception derive from our cultural training.

The "stranger effect" in connection with self-disclosure means that:

Some people disclose their secrets to strangers on the ground that strangers quickly disappear from one's personal lives and thus carry little effect.

Which of the following may NOT be an important factor in audience analysis?

Speaker's habits.

Which of the following is NOT one of the methods that a minority culture may employ in its dealings with a majority culture.

Uncertainty.

A high power distance culture is one that

Values power as reflected in a hierarchical social system.

"Empathic perception" refers to the ability to:

Vicariously comprehend the experience of others via empathy.

Which of the following my not help alleviate stage fright?

Visualization of potential failures in the speaking experience.

Which of the following is polysyndeton:

We must change that deleterious environment of the 80's, that environment which was characterized by greed and hatred and selfishness and mega-mergers and debt overhang....