Comm & Society

The giving up of one culture's ways for those of another culture

Assimilation

A casual account that explains why a thing happened or why someone acted in a certain way

Attribution

The number of constructs used, how abstract they are, and how elaborately they interact to create perceptions

Cognitive Complexity

Evolving and changing overtime

Dynamic

Defines the beginning and ending of an interaction

Punctuation

A word or phrase that limits the scope of a claim. (most, usually, and in general are examples)

Qualifier

Removed from concrete reality. Symbols are this because they are influences and generalizations derived from a total reality.

Abstract

Subject to more than one interpretation. Meanings vary from person to person and context to context.

Ambigious

Listening carefully in order to attack a speaker

Ambushing

Random; not determined by necessity. Symbols are _____ because there is no particular reason for any one symbol to stand for a certain referent.

Arbitrary

A type of nonverbal communication concerned with time

Chronemics

An assertion. Requires grounds and warrants.

Claim

_____ refers to the number, abstractness, and elaborateness of constructs we use to perceive phenomena

Cognitive Complexity

A decision to remain with a relationship. On of three dimensions of enduring romantic relationships. _____ has more impact on relational continuity than does love alone.

Commitment

The systematic process in which people interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings

Communication

Shared understanding of what communication means and what behaviors are appropriate in various situations

Communication Rules

Communication rules that define what communication means by specifying how certain communicative acts are to be counted. Often grow from habits/norms

Constitutive Rules

A theory that claims we organize and interpret experience by applying cognitive structures called schemata

Constructivism

One of two levels of meaning in communication. The _____ (level of meaning) is the literal, or denotative, information in a message

Content (level of meaning)

The perception that a person is informed and trustworthy.

Credibility

Attending to communication to analyze and evaluate the content

Critical Listening

Examining ideas reflectively and carefully to decide what you should believe/think/do

Critical Thinking

The idea that cultures vary in how they think, act, and behave as well as in what they believe and value. Not the same as moral relativism.

Cultural Relativism

Beliefs, understandings, practices, and ways of interpreting experience that are shared by a number of people

Culture

A form of reasoning in which a general premise followed by a specific claim establishes a conclusion.

Deductive Reasoning

Perceiving personal attacks, criticisms, or hostility in communication where there is no offense intended

Defensive Listening

The expertise and trustworthiness that listeners attribute to a speaker as a result of how the speaker communicates during a presentation.

Derived Credibility

The ability to understand another person's perspective, beliefs, throughs, or feelings

Dual Perspective

The fallacy of suggesting or assuming that only two options or courses of action exist when there could be more

Either-Or Logic

The ability to feel with or what another person is feeling

Empathy

The tendency to regard ourselves and our way of life as superior to other people

Ethnocentrism

The perceived personal character of the speaker

Ethos

Responses to a message are called

Feedback

The tendency to assume that an expert in one area is also an expert in other unrelated areas

Halo Effect

Nonverbal communication that involves physical touch

Haptics

The physiological activity that occurs when sound waves hit our eardrums. It is a passive process

Hearing

The indirect and undetailed communication favored in collectivist cultures

High-Context Communication Style

Cognitive awareness of experiences and ideas that are not part of the concrete, present situation

Hypothetical Thought

The recognition and enlargement of common ground between communicators

Identification

A guide to action based on rules for living and identity. Initially communicated in families, _____ define our roles, how we are to play with them, and basic elements in the plot of our lives.

Identity Script

A technique of noting that statements reflect specific times and circumstances and may not apply at other times or circumstances

Indexing

Refers to the extent of which members of a culture understand themselves as part of and connected to their families, groups, cultures. One of five dimensions of variation among cultures.

Individualism/Collectivism

A form of reasoning that begins with specific instances and forms general conclusions based on them

Inductive Reasoning

Listening to gain knowledge and understand information; tends to focus on content level of meaning

Informational Listening

The expertise and trustworthiness that listeners attribute to a speaker before they even begin presenting based on the speaker's titles, positions, experiences, or achievements known to the listener prior to hearing the presentation.

Initial Credibility

Communication between people, usually in close relationships such as friendship and romance.

Interpersonal Communication

Something put into a relationship that cannot be recovered should the relationship end. Increase commitment

Investments

Body position or body motions, including those of the face

Kinesics

A complex process that consists of being mindful, physically receiving messages, selecting and organizing information, interpreting, responding, and remembering

Listening

Listening only to the content level of meaning and ignoring the relational level of meaning

Literal Listening

An extreme form of evaluative language that relies on words that strongly slant perspectives

Loaded Language

Rational or logical proofs

Logos

The direct, precise, and detailed communication favored in individualistic cultures

Long-Term/Short-Term Communication Style

Refers to the extent to which a culture values aggressiveness, competitiveness, looking out for yourself, and dominating others and nature. One of five dimensions of variation among cultures.

Masculinity/Feminity

Assuming we understand how another person thinks or perceives without asking that person is _____

Mind Reading

Being fully present in the moment, the first step of listening, and the foundation of all other steps. Zen Buddhism

Mindfulness

Communication that, by expressing interest in hearing more, gently invites the other person to elaborate

Minimal Encourages

Involves balancing or finding a compromise between two dialectal poles. One of four responses to relational dialects.

Neutralization

_____ is anything that interferes with intended communication

Noise

Ways of thinking, acting, and understanding work that are shared by members of an organization that reflect an organizations distinct identity.

Organizational Culture

Vocal communication that does not include actual words. Ex. Sounds, vocal qualities, accents, and inflection

Paralanguage

A response to cultural diversity in which people incorporate some practices, customs, and traditions of other groups into their own lives

Participation

One source of social perspectives that people use to define themselves and guide how they think, act, and feel. Viewpoints of people who are significant to the self.

Particular Other

Intensely positive feelings and desires for another person. Based on the rewards of involvement and is not equivalent to commitment

Passion

Emotional proofs for claims

Pathos

_____ is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting people, objects, events, situations, and activities

Perception

The ability to perceive another as a unique and distinct individual apart from social roles and generalizations

Person-Centered Perception

A bipolar mental yardstick that allows us to measure people and situations along specific dimensions of judgement

Personal Construct

A relationship defined by uniqueness, rules, and relational dialects, and commitment and affected by contexts. These are irreplaceable.

Personal Relationship

The collection of rules, roles, and attitudes endorsed by the whole social community in which we live

Perspective of the Generalized Other

Refers to the size of the gap between people with high and low power and the extent to which that gap is regarded as normal. One of five dimensions of variation among cultures.

Power Distance

Something that is ongoing and continuously in motion, the beginnings and endings of which are difficult to identify. Communication is a _____

Process

A knowledge structure that defines the clearest or most representative example of some category

Prototype

Space and how we use it

Proxemics

The responsibility for remembering, planning, and coordinating domestic work and childcare. In general women assume this position

Psychological Responsiblity

A response to listeners' reservations about a claim made by the speaker.

Rebuttal

Our perceptions of others' views of us

Reflected Appraisal

The _____ response transcends the apparent contradiction between two dialectical poles and reinterprets them as not in tension. One of four responses to relational dialects.

Reframing

Specify when, how, where, and with whom to talk about things.

Regulative Rules

A private world of rules, understandings, and patterns of acting and interpreting that partners create to give meaning to their relationship; the nucleus of intimacy

Relational Culture

Opposing forces or tensions that are normal parts of all relationships. The three dialects are autonomy/connectedness, novelty/predictability, and openness/closedness

Relational Dialects

Listening to support another person or to understand another person's feelings and perceptions. Focuses on the relational level of meaning as much on the content level of meaning

Relational Listening

One of two levels of meaning in communication; expresses the relationship between communicators

Relationship Level of Meaning

A response to cultural diversity in which the cultural practices of others are attacked or the superiority of one's own cultural traditions is proclaimed.

Resistance

Patterned ways of behaving and interpreting behavior; all relationships develop _____.

Rules

Cognitive structures we use to organize and interpret experiences. 4 types: prototypes, personal constructs, stereotypes, and scripts.

Schemata

A _____ defines an expected or appropriate sequence of action in a particular setting.

Script

_____ responses meet one dialectal need while ignoring or not satisfying the contradictory dialectal need. One of four responses to relational dialects.

Segmentation

Focusing only on selected parts of communication. Screen out parts of a message that don't interest us.

Selective Listening

A multidimensional process in which the individual forms and acts from social perspectives that arise and evolve in communication with him/herself

Self

Revelation of information about ourselves that others are unlikely to discover on their own

Self-Disclosure

An expectation or judgement of ourselves brought about by our own actions

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Self-talk that communicates that we're no good, we can't do something, we can't change, etc. Undermines belief in ourselves and motivation to change and grow

Self-Sabotage

The tendency to attribute our positive actions and successes to stable, global, and international influences that we control and to attribute negative actions and failures to unstable, specific, external influences beyond our control.

Self-Serving Bias

The fallacy of suggesting or assuming that once a certain step is taken, other steps will inevitably follow that will lead to some unacceptable consequence.

Slippery Slope

Groups of people who live within a dominant culture yet who also have common distinctive experiences and patterns of communicating

Social Communities

Comparing ourselves with others to form judgements of our own talents, abilities, qualities, etc.

Social Comparason

The theory that culture influences a number of social groups that differently shape the knowledge, identities, and opportunities of members of those groups.

Standpoint Theory

Assessments that suggest something is unchanging or _____. "Bob is impatient"

Static Evaluation

A predictive generalization about people and situations

Stereotype

Refusal to discuss issues that are creating tension in a relationship. ______ is especially corrosive in relationships because it blocks the possibility of resolving conflicts.

Stonewalling

Abstract, arbitrary and ambiguous representations for other things.

Symbols

A group of interrelated elements that affect one another. Communication is _____(-atic)

System

The cumulative expertise and trustworthiness listeners attribute to a speaker as the result of the speaker's initial and derived credibility; may be greater or less than initial credibility, depending on how effectively a speaker communicates.

Terminal Credibility

A response to diversity in which one accepts differences even though one may not approve or understand them

Tolerance

Responding to people as if one aspect of them were the sum total of who they are

Totalizing

Refers to the extent of which people try to avoid ambiguity and vagueness. One of five dimensions of variation among cultures.

Uncertainty Avoidance

A response to cultural diversity in which it is assumed that differences are rooted in cultural teachings and that no traditions, customs, and behaviors, are intrinsically more valuable than others

Understanding

The subjective process of evaluating and explaining perceptions

interpretation