Coms Exam 1

Verbal messages

Involve the use of words

Existentialism

believe that although we come to see the world as we do by the people who influence us through socialization, this neither has to be nor should be so

Social Constructionism

believe that because each person experiences the world in a unique way, no two persons can come to see the world in exactly the same way, no matter how hard they may try to do so

Belief barriers

differences of belief

Euphemism

use of a mild term in place of a harsh term to relay the same basic idea in a more tasteful form

Chronemics

use of time to impact a recipient's interpretation of his ir her message and motives

Literal words

used forthrightly to signify the person, place, thing, idea, action, state of being that the words or combination of words evidently symbolize

Firgurative words

used indirectly to signify a secondary meaning that is not patently obvious when the words are taken at face value

Linguistic barriers

verbal/nonverbal symbols that senders and recipients use to encode and decode expressions of attitudes, values, beliefs, or feelings.

Monochronic cultures

view time in a highly structuresd manner, reducing life to a series of tasks that are generally accomplished, one at a time, in a designated sequence

Autonomous worldview

worldviews are systems of belief that people develop on their own, primarily in response to what human standards have taught them to deem believable or acceptable

What are the seven core principles that define the Biblically Christian worldview?

1) God alone- the timeless, changeless source and sustainer of the universe and our creator- knows everything that can be known 2) Still, God has made known or knowable to us essential facts about the universe He created and our place in it, facts that must be considered in our attempts to make sense of things 3) People are corrupted by autonomy and do not seek after the God by Whom and for Whom we were created 4) Thus, people live in a self-inflicted state of corruption, having divorced ourselves the very One for Whom we were created and in Whose restored fellowship we find our completion 5) Despite the stifling effects of our corruption, our sense that we are made for something perfect unlike anything in this world, lingers in our souls 6) Instead of humbly acknowledging our limitations and turning for guidance to the all-knowing Creator Whose restored presence alone can fill this void, we often anesthetize the pain within us by chasing empty alternatives that, in some cases, temporarily create false feelings of satisfaction 7) The only real solution to this crisis begins when we sincerely acknowledge that our own we are hopelessly autonomous, that our hearts and minds are helplessly impaired by this corruption, and that our only hope for escaping our brokeness and seeing anything as it truly is must be God-centered (theocentric) and God-initiated.

James Sire's revealed truths

1) God is infinite and personal, triune, transcendent and immanent, omniscient, sovereign and good 2) God created the cosmos ex nihilo to operate with a uniformity of cause and effect in an open system 3) Human beings are created in the image of God and thus possess personality, self-transcendence, intelligence, morality, gregariousness, and creativity. 4) Human beings can know both the world around them and God Himself because God as built into them the capacity to do so and because He takes an active role in communicating with them. 5) Human beings were created good, but through the Fall the image of God become defaced, though not so ruined as not to be capable of restoration; through the work of Christ, God redeemed humanity and began the process of restoring people to goodness, though some choose to reject that redemption 6) For each person death is either the gate to life with God and His people or the gate to eternal separation from the only thing that will ultimately fulfill human aspirations 7) Ethics is transcendent and is based on the character of God as good (holy and loving) 8) History is linear, a meaningful sequence of events leading to the fulfillment of God's purposes for humanity

What are the expressions of authentic love for Him that is promoted through a person's communications?

1) God values His rightful authority over all things, including our bodies, our minds, and His creation 2) God values truth as that which actually is the case. Truth sometimes can be legitimately applied in a variety of ways 3) God values His exclusive right to our worship 4) God values human life. This includes preborn human life, older human life, and impaired human life. 5) God values animal life, albeit less than he values human life 6)) God values the earth.. He values human's care of the earth. 7) God values justice 8) God values mercy 9) God values humility. This humility shows, among other ways, when a person limits his or her freedom out of respect for another person's sensitivities 10) God values peace although there are times when He authorizes war. He loathes interpersonal discord 11) God values honesty. 12) God values self-control 13) God values family. He values reproduction 14) God values monogamous, heterosexual marriage. He loathes divorce 15) God values sexual purity. He loathes sexual activity tat is premarital, adulterous, homosexual, or perverse. Including lust. 16) God values te Church as an equipper of believers for doing God's redemptive work in the world. 17) God values government as an executor of Hi righteousness. He values His authority over government. 18) God values personal property rights 19) God values our faith in Him 20) God values our love for others 21)God values our compassion for others. This includes the poor and oppressed, children, employees, prisoners, widows and the fatherless, strangers, and the sick 22) God values our hospitality to others 23) God values our impartiality. He loathes prejudice against the poor, against employees, against foreigners, against people of different races/ethnicities, or against the opposite sex. 24) God values human creativity that expresses truthful or righteous principles 25) God values sound reasoning that expresses truthful or righteous peoples 26) God values our attempts to liberate the wrongly oppressed via speech 27) God values our attempts to communicate His gospel of forgiveness and redemption to those who do not know Him 28) God values our attempts to help others in their efforts to promote the things Go values according to Scripture.

What are the three objections Alban raises to the view that no people can ever see things in exactly the same way?

1) It is self-discrediting: critics would have had to use this in order to define the rule 2) Humans come into the world with some shared knowledge 3) The degree of difference in perspectives can work to both extremes- not just that people cannot truly share experiences

How can the study and practice of communication honor God?

1) Redemptive criticism- the attempt to make sense of human communicative behavior and specific human communications in the light of divine revelation 2) Redemptive communication- when he/her verbal and/or nonverbal behavior manifest God's love to others in a way that promotes what God values in the world

What are the two criticisms of existentialism?

1) Self-refuting: because its thinkers, who argue that individuals should resist having their thoughts assigned to them by other people- attempted through their writings to assign their own thoughts to other people 2) It provides a bleak picture of human existence by giving people so little a reason for living and so little a motive for behaving ethically toward others

Foundational questions of the study of communication

1) Where did communication come from? 2) What is it's purpose, if indeed it has a purpose? 3) What meaningful difference can it make in individual lives and in the world? 4) What, if anything, makes a communicative act or communicational message moral or good? 5) What, if anything, makes it immoral or evil?

Why does Biblically Christian thinking regard communication to be significant?

1) Why did God place us here? 2) What is the purpose for humanity as a whole? 3) What is His purpose for your life and for mine? 4) What must you or I do in order to realize this purpose? 5) What are the implications of this for our communication practices?

What percent of our communication is said to be nonverbal?

93 percent

The definition of communication from the textbook blends concepts from which twentieth century theorists?

Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, Wilbur Schramm

What does communis mean in English?

Common, general, universal, public

What does Alban mean when he says communication is personal?

Communication is a spiritual idea or process- meaning humans, angels, demons, and God can communicate/send and receive messages on this spiritual level, and nothing else can.

What Latin root word does the word communication come from?

Communis

What Bible passages do Biblically Christian Theologians point to indicate their agreement with Natural Law Theorists that people enter the world with the knowledge of some things already present rather than gained through human experience?

Ecclesiastes 3:11 and Romans 2:14-15

Group

Interaction among three or more people who come together for a common purpose

According to Alban, can communication occur if the messge is received but not understood?

No- the recipient must be able to understand and decode the message so that both parties come to an equal understanding.

What are the three types of barriers that can disrupt meaningful transmissions of information between senders and potential recipients?

Physical, Linguistic, Belief

Interpersonal

Social interaction among two or more people, usually in a face-to-face environment, but possibly also in real-time environments

Transmitting

The act of a human sending a message to a recipient

What concept unifies English derivatives of communis?

The idea of oneness

Decoding

The means of figuring out and understanding the message through the senses

How does the textbook define communication?

The transmission of meaningful information from one person or group of persons to another person or group of persons in a way that generates shared attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors between the sender and recipient.

Vocalics

The use of volume, tone, pitch, accent, speaking pace and silence to impact a recipient's interpretation of his or her message and motives

Public

When a speaker formally addresses a group of typically 10 or more individuals in a face-to-face environment where interactivity is possible but generally not practiced

Mass

When people use a media technology to distribute information to a large group of physically detached people

Mediated

When senders use technologies too channel messages to recipients, whether synchronously or asynchronously

Postmodernism

agree with existentialists that people act as they do and become what they become primarily, if not exclusively, as a reaction to their lifetime of conditioning experiences, but they respond to this with a two-fold goal- exposition and emancipation

Synecdoche

alludes to something by either highlighting only one aspect of it or something broader that includes it

Informed Generalization

an educated speculation about then sender's motives and message meanings, one that is based on credible evidence that these are, in fact, very likely what you suppose they are

Rhetorical approach

concentrate on how communicators deliberately use information, particularly verbal information, in their quests to convince others to adopt their own attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors

Pragmatist

considers whether the particular communication is something personally meaningful for the individual communicator, regardless of how it affects other people

Special grace

denotes God's extension to humans of a remedy for their spiritual alienation from Him. It benefits only those by faith acknowledge His Lordship and submit to it repentantly before they die physically

Common grace

denotes God's undeserved act of giving humans immeasurable blessings that they, because of their corruption, have no right to expect from Him

Utilitarian

determines whether a particular communication is significant by evaluating whether it promotes something that is in society's best interest

Utilitarian truth standards

hold that a belief, feeling, or behavior is acceptable if it promotes the greatest good not for the individual, but for humanity as a whole

Pragmatic truth standards

hold that a belief, feeling, or behavior is acceptable if it simply "works" for the person holds it, regardless of whether it logically consists with anyone else's experiences and standards

Rationalistic and empirical truth standards

hold that a belief, feeling, or behavior is unacceptable if it is illogical or if it is at odds with what common human observations tell us it true

What is the criticism of postmodernism?

if each person's moral values are personally constructed and if one person's values are not necessarily better than the next person's values, as postmodernists assume why must we protect the have-nots, as postmodernists content?

Polychronic cultures

less structured and have fewer rules governing the use of time

Physical barriers

material obstacles that block communication

Emancipation

promoting remedies for these supposed misuses of power

Theocentric worldview

recognizes that God, the timeless, changeless source and sustainer of the universe and the source of all knowledge, discloses otherwise indiscernible foundational truths through Scripture, and these otherwise hidden disclosures rightly frame and give direction to human questions to make sense of anything, including communication

Physical determinism

sees the universe as a self-created, self-sustaining machine, consisting of material particles and processes and nothing more than these, that invariably follow the course that physics has blindly programmed it to follow

Exposition

showing how social influencers can impact what people become and how privileged groups use this to promote themselves at other's expense

Physical constitution

the bodily dynamics that help to shape someone's personality and, by extension, his or her openness to certain types of ideas, feelings, and behaviors

Personification

the figurative ascription of human qualities to something that is not human

Dysphemism

the figurative use of a harsh term instead of a mild term for an intended effect

Socialization

the person's history of interactions with people whose input helps to shape the way he or she sees and acts toward the world

Encoding

the sender's act, intentional or unintentional, of expressing his or her attitude, value, belief, or feeling in tangible forms

Artifacts

the sender's use of material objects to impact a recipients' interpretation of his or her message and motives

Appearance

the sender's use of physical traits to impact a recipient's interpretation of his or her message

Spiritual constitution

the state of spiritual brokenness into which people are born and which conditions them to seek things that are God-like rather than God himself

Kinesics

the use of gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact to impact a recipient's interpretation of his or her message and motives

Proxemics

the use of space to impact a recipient's interpretation of his or her message and motives

Haptics

the use of touch to impact a recipient's interpretation of his or her message or motives

Stereotype

to form careless beliefs about people based on their features or group identities

Expositional approach

to identify, analyze, and attempt to explain the existence of attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors that unify people as a whole or that come to unify particular groups of people