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CHAPTER 1:
THINKING ABOUT COMMUNICATION: DEFINITIONS, MODELS AND
ETHICS
• KEY TERMS:
o Communication: a social process in which individuals employ
symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment
o Social: the notion that people and interactions are part of the
communication process
o Process: ongoing, dynamic, and unending occurrence
o Symbol: arbitrary label given to a phenomenon
o Concrete symbol: symbol representing an object
o Abstract symbol: symbol representing an idea or thought
o Meaning: what people extract from a message
o Environment: situation or context in which communication occurs
o Palo Alto team: a group of scholars who believed that a person
“cannot not communicate”
o Models: simplified representations of the communication process
o Lineal model of communication: one-‐‑way-‐‑view of communication
that assumes a message is sent by a source to a receiver through a
channel
o Source: originator of a message
o Message: words, sounds, actions, or gestures in an interaction
o Receiver: recipient of a message
o Channel: pathway to communication
o Noise: distortion in channel not intended by the source
o Semantic noise: linguistic influences on reception of message
o Physical (external) noise: bodily influences on reception of
message
o Psychological noise: cognitive influences on reception of message
o Physiological noise: biological influences on reception of message
o Interactional model of communication: view of communication as
the sharing of meaning with feedback that links source and
receiver
o Feedback: communication given to the source by the receiver to
indicate understanding (meaning)
o Field of experience: overlap of sender’s and receiver’s culture,
experiences, and heredity in communication
o Transactional model of communication: view of communication
as the simultaneous sending and receiving of messages
•
•
•
•
o Ethics: perceived rightness or wrongness of an action or behavior
NOTES:
THE INTENTIONALITY DEBATE
What “counts” as communication?
o Differing views include:
§ Only intentional acts are communicative
§ A person “cannot not communicate” (Palo Alto team)
§ It is possible to not communicate, but all interactive
behavior is communication
Models of Communication
o Communication as action à the linear model
o Communication as interaction à the interactional model
o Communication as transaction à the transactional model
§ Emphasizes simultaneous sending and receiving messages
§ Recognizes that sender and receiver build shared meaning
§ Sender and receiver attend to verbal and nonverbal
elements of a message
§ Shared field of experience is critical to achieving shared
meaning
Ethics and communication
o Ethics is the perceived rightness or wrongness of action or
behavior
o Ethics is essential to the study of communication, particularly
when messages potentially influence others
o Filed immersed in discussions of ethics and communication:
§ Business and industry
§ Religion/faith
§ Entertainment
§ Education
§ Medicine
§ Politics
§ Technology
Ethical strategies & communication theory
o Remain open to being persuaded
o Remain willing to try out new ideas
o Accept that multiple perspectives of reality are likely
o Test tentatively held knowledge
o Live with ambiguity
o Evaluate knowledge claims
o Delve into the explanation, especially if it is difficult to understand
• The value of understanding communication theory
o Improved critical thinking skills
o Appreciation for the richness of the research
o Application to your life experiences
o Increased self-‐‑awareness
CHAPTER 2:
THINKING ABOUT THE FIELD: TRADITIONS AND CONTEXTS
• KEY TERMS
o Semiotics: the study of signs
o Phenomenology: a personal interpretation of everyday life and
activities
o Contexts: environments in which communication takes place
o Situational contexts: environments that are limited by such
factors as the number of people present, the feedback, the space
between communication among others
o Intrapersonal communication: communication with oneself
o Self-‐‑esteem: the degree of positive orientation people have about
themselves
o Interpersonal communication: face-‐‑to-‐‑face communication
between people
o Small group communication: communication among at least three
individuals
o Cohesiveness: the degree of togetherness between and among
communicators
o Synergy: the intersection of multiple perspectives in a small group
o Networks: communication patterns through which information
flows
o Roles: positions of group members and their relationship to the
group
o Organizational communication: communication within and among
large, extended environments
o Hierarchy: an organizing principle whereby things or people are
ranked one above the other
o Hawthorne experiments: a set of investigations that ushered in a
human relations approach to organizations
o Public communication: the dissemination of information from one
person to many others (audience)
o Rhetoric: a speaker’s available means of persuasion
o Communication apprehension: a general sense of fear of speaking
before an audience
o Mass media: channels or delivery modes for mass messages
o Mass communication: communication to a large audience via
various channels (radio, Internet, television, etc
...
)
NOTES
• Seven traditions
o Rhetoric
§ Emphasizes talk as a practical art
§ Reflects an interest in public speaking and its societal
functions
§ Involves elements pertaining to language
§ Acknowledges audience appeals
o Semiotic
§ Emphasizes rethinking what is natural
§ Involves the study of signs
§ Meaning is achieved when we share a common language
§ Values and belief structures are passed down from previous
generations
o Phenomenological
§ Emphasizes experiencing otherness
§ Reflects the personal interpretation of everyday life and
activities
§ Involves communication as attaining authenticity
§ Acknowledges the impact of one’s biases
o Cybernetic
§ Emphasizes information processing
§ Reflects communication as information science
§ Involves a broader, systemic viewpoint of communication
§ Acknowledges differing levels of ability
o Socio-‐‑psychological
§ Emphasizes causal linking
§ Reflects the notion that behavior is influenced by one or
more variables
§ Acknowledges that patterns vary across people but can be
detected
§ Uses experimental research
o Socio-‐‑cultural
§ Emphasizes seeing from another’s view
§ Acknowledges that shared cultural patterns and social
structures influence communication
§ Involves viewing social order and reality as co-‐‑created
o Critical
§ Reflects a concern for injustice, oppression, power, and
inequality
§ Involves a critique of the social order
§ Acknowledges the importance of openly questioning
assumptions
• Seven contexts of communication
o Intrapersonal
§ Communication with oneself
§ Focuses on the role of cognition in behavior
§ Includes imagining, perceiving, daydreaming, and problem-‐‑
solving
§ Includes attributions you make about another’s character
and yourself
§ May bolster self-‐‑esteem
o Interpersonal
§ Face-‐‑to-‐‑face communication between people
§ Investigates how various types of relationships begin, are
maintained, and dissolve
§ Sub-‐‑contexts include family, friendships, long-‐‑term
marriages, workplace, etc
...
o Small group
§ Three or more people working toward a common task-‐‑
related purpose
§ Concerned with the dynamic nature of groups
§ Disagreement about what number constitutes a small group
§ People are influenced by the presence of others
§ Networking and role behavior
o Organizational
§ Communication within and among large, extended
environments
§ Concerned with climate, rules, personnel, etc
...
o Public/rhetoric
§ Dissemination of information from one person to a large
group
§ Goals of public speaking: to inform, to entertain, or to
persuade
§ Early rhetoric principles of Aristotle applied to texts of
speeches
§ Research has shifted from textual analysis to analysis of
themes and issues
§ Communication apprehension
o Mass/media
§ Mass media refers to the channels for mass messages,
including newspapers, radio, television, the Internet, etc
...
trained scientists
§ Naïve scientists follow inductive logic, relying on one/few
observations and generalizing
§ Trained scientists do not rush to generalize on the basis of
too few observations
Reliability and validity
§ Reliability is the ability to get the same results over time
§ Validity refers to the fact that the observation method
actually captures what it is supposed to
CHAPTER 6
COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING
• KEY TERMS
o Social construction: belief that people co-‐‑construct their social
reality in conversations
o Social reality: a person’s beliefs about how meaning and action fit
within an interpersonal interaction
o Personal meaning: the meaning achieved when a person brings
his or her unique experiences to an interaction
o Interpersonal meaning: the result when two people agree on each
other’s interpretations of an interaction
o Content: the conversion of raw data into meaning
o Speech act: action we perform by speaking (e
...
, questioning,
complimenting, or threatening)
o Episodes: communication routines that have recognized
beginnings, middles and endings
o Punctuate: how individuals interpret or emphasize an episode
o Relationship: agreement and understanding between two people
o Enmeshment: extent to which partners identify themselves as
part of a system
o Life scripts: clusters of past or present episodes that create a
system of manageable meanings with others
o Cultural patterns: images of the world and a person’s relationship
to it
o Individualism: prioritizing personal needs or values over the
needs or values of a group (I-‐‑Identity)
o Collectivism: prioritizing group needs or values over the needs or
values of an individual (we-‐‑identity)
o Loop: the reflexiveness of levels in the hierarchy of meaning
o Charmed loop: rules of meaning are consistent throughout the
loop
o Strange loop: rules of meaning change within the loop
o Coordination: trying to make sense of message sequencing
o Resources: stories, symbols, and images that people use to make
sense of their world
o Constitutive rules: organize behavior and help us to understand
how meaning should be interpreted regulative rules: guidelines
for people’s behavior
o Unwanted repetitive patterns (URPs): recurring, undesirable
conflicts in a relationship
NOTES
• CDT as a glance
o Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort resulting from
inconsistent attitudes, thoughts and behaviors
o People are motivated to reduce dissonance and will:
§ Ignore opposing viewpoints
§ Change their beliefs to match their actions (or vice versa)
§ Seek reassurances after making a difficult decision
• Principles of consistency theories
o Mind is intermediary between stimulus and response
o New stimuli are organized into a pattern with other previously
encountered stimuli
o If the new stimulus is inconsistent, then people feel discomfort
• Types of cognitive relationships
o Constant relationships
§ Belief that fitness is important/working out regularly
o Dissonant relationships
•
•
•
•
•
•
§ Practicing Catholic/belief in a woman’s right to choose
abortion
o Irrelevant relationships
§ Belief that the speed limit should be raised/belief that
women should have equal rights
Assumptions of CDT
o Human beings desire consistency
o Dissonance is created by psychological inconsistencies
o Dissonance is an aversive state that drives people to action
o Dissonance motivates efforts to achieve consonance
Concepts and processes
o Magnitude of dissonance is the quantitative amount of discomfort
felt
o Magnitude of dissonance is influenced by three factors:
§ Degree of importance of the issue
§ Dissonance ratio
§ Rationale to justify the inconsistency
Magnitude of dissonance: importance
o Degree of importance is how significant the issue is to a person
§ Contradictory cognitions that are related to issues of less
importance create less dissonance (and vice versa)
Magnitude of dissonance: ratio
o Dissonance ratio is the amount of dissonance cognitions relative
to consonant ones
§ If more of the relevant cognitions are consistent with each
other and outnumber the few dissonant ones, there will be
less dissonance felt (and vice versa)
Magnitude of dissonance: rationale
o Rationale is the ease with which inconsistencies can be explained
or justified
§ The easier it is to explain or justify why the contradiction
exists, the less dissonance that will be felt (and vice versa)
Concepts and processes
o Techniques to cope with dissonance:
§ Reduce the importance of dissonant beliefs
§ Add to our consonant beliefs
§ Eliminate the dissonance
o Cognitive dissonance and perception
§ People will avoid information that increases dissonance
§ Selection process helps avoid dissonant information
• Selective exposure
• Selective attention
• Selective interpretation
• Selective retention
o Minimal justification is offering the least amount of incentive
necessary to obtain compliance
o Minimal justification requires more change on a person’s part to
reduce dissonance
o $1/$20 experiment (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1950)
• CDT and Persuasion
o Much of CDT research focuses on persuasion and decision making
o Studies focused on buyer’s remorse
§ Automobile purchases
§ Gambling
§ Quitting smoking
o Researchers studied a cult using CDT
§ Festinger, Riecken, & Schachter (1956)
§ Researchers joined and observed the cult
§ Cult leaders developed new justifications to assuage
dissonance when predicted events did not occur, which in
turn strengthened beliefs
o Research on the relationship of dissonance and communication
strategies
§ Family communication
• Integration
o Communication tradition
§ Socio-‐‑psychological
o Communication context
§ Intrapersonal
o Approach to knowing
§ Positivist/empirical
• Evaluating CDT
o Utility
§ CDT may not explain behavior as well as other frameworks
• Biased scanning
§ Conceptual fuzziness
• Self-‐‑concept; impression management
§ Self-‐‑perception and self-‐‑affirmation may motivate behavior
§ CDT may need some refinements
• Need more clarity about conditions under which
dissonance leads to change
• Should study the influence of group membership
• Cannot predict outcomes well because of multiple
ways to reduce dissonance
• Does not address individuals’ differences in tolerance
for dissonance
o Testability
§ Difficult to disprove because not acting can be explained as
a result of insufficient dissonance, rather than the theory
being inaccurate
CHAPTER 8
UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION THEORY
KEY TERMS
• Prediction: the ability to forecast one’s own and others’ behavioral
choices
• Explanation: the ability to interpret the meaning of behavioral choices
• Cognitive uncertainty: degree of uncertainty related to cognitions
• Behavioral uncertainty: degree of uncertainty related to behaviors
• Self-‐‑disclosure: personal messages about the self disclosed to another
• Entry phase: the beginning stage of an interaction between strangers
• Personal phase: the stage in a relationship when people begin to
communicate more spontaneously and personally
• Exit phase: the stage in a relationship when people decide whether to
continue or leave
• Axioms: truisms drawn from past research and common sense
• Reciprocity: communication that mirrors the previous communication
behavior
• Theorems: theoretical statements derived from axioms, positing a
relationship between two concepts
• Passive strategies: reducing uncertainties by unobtrusive observation
• Active strategies: reducing uncertainties by means other than direct
contact
• Interactive strategies: reducing uncertainties by engaging in
conversation
• Reactivity searching: a passive strategy involving watching a person
doing something
• Disinhibition searching: a passive strategy involving watching a
person’s natural or uninhibited behavior in an informal environment
• Relational uncertainty: a lack of certainty about the future and status of
a relationship
• Low-‐‑context cultures: cultures, like the United States, where most of the
meaning is in the code or message
• High-‐‑context cultures: cultures, like Japan where the meaning of a
message is in the context or internalized in listeners
• Uncertainty avoidance: an attempt to avoid ambiguous situations
NOTES
URT at a Glance
• When strangers meet, their primary focus is reducing their level of
uncertainty
• Uncertainty is uncomfortable
• Individuals make predictions in order to explain the outcomes of an
interaction
Introduction
• A primary goal of persons in initial interactions is to increase their
ability to predict and explain one another’s behavioral choices
• Prediction is the ability to forecast one’s own and others’ choices
• Explanation is the ability to interpret the meaning of behavioral choices
• Uncertainty exists whenever the number of possible alternatives is high,
and their likelihood relative equal
• Types of uncertainty
o Behavioral
o Cognitive
o Affected by self-‐‑disclosure
• Uncertainty reduction has
o Proactive processes
o Retroactive processes
Concepts Related to Uncertainty
• Verbal output
• Nonverbal warmth
• Information seeking
• Self-‐‑disclosure
• Reciprocity of disclosure
• Similarity
• Liking
Assumptions of URT
• People experience uncertainty in interpersonal settings, which
generates cognitive stress
• When strangers meet, their primary concern is to reduce their
uncertainty and increase predictability
• Interpersonal communication is a developmental process that occurs in
stages, and it is the primary means of uncertainty reduction
• The quantity and nature of information that people share changes
through time
• It is possible to predict people’s behavior in a law-‐‑like fashion
Axioms of URT
• Axioms are truisms drawn from past research and common sense
o Axioms are the foundation of URT
o Require no further proof; must be accepted as valid
o Indicate the relationship between uncertainty and other concepts
• Negative relationship between uncertainty and verbal communication
• Negative relationship between uncertainty and nonverbal affiliate
expressiveness
• Positive relationship between uncertainty and information-‐‑seeking
behavior
• Negative relationship between uncertainty and levels of intimacy
• Positive relationship between uncertainty and rate of reciprocity
• Negative relationship between uncertainty and similarities between
people
• Negative relationship between uncertainty and liking
Theorems of URT
• Theorems are theoretical statements derived from axioms, positing a
relationship between two concepts
o All axioms were combined to create twenty-‐‑one theorems
o If A is related to B, and B is related to C, then A must be related to
C
Additional Axioms of URT
• Negative relationship between uncertainty and interaction with social
networks
• Negative relationship uncertainty and communication satisfaction
Expansions of URT
• Antecedent conditions when one seeks to reduce uncertainty:
o Potential to reward or punish
o Deviation from expectations
o Anticipation of future interactions
• Strategies to reduce uncertainty
• Berger (1995) posited three tactics
o Passive
§ Reactivity searching
§ Disinhibition searching
o Active
o Interactive
• Emmers and Canary (1996) added another
o Uncertainty acceptance in established relationships
• Uncertainty in developed relationships
o Can be functional in developed relationships
o In established relationships, can lead to more negative
conversation evaluation
o When uncertainty increases, so does motivation to reduce it
o Social networks can provide information about a relational
partner
o Relational uncertainty about future, status
§ For example, in long-‐‑distance relationships
• Social media
o Online information seeking uses different strategies than face-‐‑to-‐‑
face communication
o Extractive strategies use online searches to obtain information
o Online disclosures do not need to be symmetrical
o Online information seeking may use triangulation, comparing a
person’s self-‐‑disclosure with information in the public record
• Intercultural context
o Uncertainty varies across cultures
§ In Japan, Korea, and the U
...
, attraction reduces uncertainty
in relationships
§ Frequency of communication predicts uncertainty in low-‐‑
context cultures only
§ URT does not apply within the African American community
• Other contexts
o Mass communication
o Workplace
Integration
• Communication tradition
o Socio-‐‑psychological
• Communication contexts
o Intrapersonal
o Interpersonal
• Approach to knowing
o Positivist/empirical
Evaluating URT
• Utility
o UR may not be primary concern; rather, maximizing relational
outcomes
o Validity issues, especially with third axiom: want knowledge, not
lacking in it
• Heurism
o Integrated into research in a variety of communication contexts
CHAPTER 9
SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY
KEY TERMS
• Costs: elements of relational life with negative value
• Rewards: elements of relational life with positive value
• Outcome: whether people continue in a relationship or terminate it
• Comparison level (CL): a standard for what a person thinks he or she
should get in a relationship
• Comparison level for alternatives (CLalt): how people evaluate a
relationship based on what their alternatives to the relationship are
• Behavioral sequences: a series of actions designed to achieve a goal
• Power: the degree of dependence a person has on another for outcomes
• Fate control: the ability to affect a partner’s outcomes
• Behavioral control: the power to change another’s behavior
• Given matrix: the constraints on your choices due to the environment
and/or your own skill levels
• Effective matrix: the transformation you are able to make to your given
matrix, by learning a new skill, for example
• Dispositional matrix: the beliefs you have about relationships
• Direct exchange: an exchange where two people reciprocate costs and
rewards
• Generalized exchange: an exchange where reciprocation involves the
social network and isn’t confined to two individuals
• Productive exchange: an exchange where both partners incur costs and
benefits simultaneously
NOTES
SET at a Glance
• Major force in interpersonal relationships is the satisfaction of both
people’s self-‐‑interest
• Self-‐‑interest can enhance relationships
• Interpersonal relationships are similar to economic exchanges
Introduction
• People evaluate their relationships in terms of costs and rewards
• Rewards – costs = worth of a relationship
• Context indicates whether something is a reward or cost
• All relationships require some time and effort from the parties involved
• Worth of a relationship predicts its outcome
• Marketplace metaphor and social exchange
Assumptions of SET
• Assumptions about human nature
o Humans seek reward and avoid punishments
o Humans are rational beings
o The standards that humans use to evaluate costs and rewards
vary overtime and from person to person
• Assumptions about the nature of relationships
o Relationships are interdependent
§ Game theory
§ The Prisoner’s Dilemma
o Relational life is a process
Evaluation of a Relationship
• Types of comparisons for evaluating relationships:
o Comparison level (CL) represents what a people think they should
get in a relationship
o Comparison level for alternatives (CLalt) is how people evaluate a
relationship based on what their alternatives to the relationship
are
How Outcome, CL and CLalt Affect the State of a Relationship
• Relative Value: O, CL, CLalt à State of the Relationship
o Outcome > CL > CLalt à Satisfying and stable
o Outcome > CLalt > CL à Satisfying and stable
o CLalt > CL > Outcome à unsatisfying and unstable
o CLalt > Outcome > CL à satisfying and unstable
o CL > CLalt > Outcome à unsatisfying and unstable
o CL > Outcome > Clalt à unsatisfying and stable
Exchange Patterns
• People adjust their behaviors in a relationship
o Assume people are driven to achieve goals in their interactions
with others
o Behavioral sequences
• Patterns of exchange allow individuals to cope with:
o Power differentials
o Costs associated with exercising power
• Types of matrices describe exchange patterns
o Given matrix
o Effective matrix
o Dispositional matrix
Exchange Structures
• Forms of exchanges within the matrices
o Direct exchange
o Generalized exchange
o Productive exchange
Integration
• Communication tradition
o Socio-‐‑psychological
• Communication contexts
o Intrapersonal
o Interpersonal
• Approach to knowing
o Positivist/empirical
Evaluating SET
• Scope
o Failure to focus on the importance of group solidarity
• Utility
o View of humans as rational calculators of relationships has been
questioned
o People may not be as self-‐‑interested as SET implies
• Testability
o Costs and rewards are not clearly defined
• Heurism
o Generated a great deal of diverse research
CHAPTER 10
SOCIAL PENETRATION THEORY
KEY TERMS
• Social penetration: process of bonding that moves a relationship from
superficial to more intimate
• Trajectory: pathway to closeness
• Depenetrate: slow deterioration of relationship
• Transgression: a violation of relational rules, practices, and expectations
• Self-‐‑disclosure: purposeful process of revealing information about
oneself
• Stranger-‐‑on-‐‑the-‐‑train: revealing personal information to strangers in
public places
• Public image: outer layer of a person; what is available to others
• Reciprocity: the return of openness from one person to another
• Breadth: number of topics discussed in a relationship
• Breadth time: amount of time spent by relational partners discussing
various topics
• Depth: degree of intimacy guiding topic discussion
• Reward/cost ratio: balance between positive and negative relationship
experiences
• Orientation stage: stage of social penetration that includes revealing
small parts of ourselves
• Exploratory affective exchange stage: stage of social penetration that
results in the emergence of our personality to others
• Affective exchange stage: stage of social penetration that is spontaneous
and quite comfortable for relational partners
• Personal idioms: private, intimate expressions stated in a relationship
• Stable exchange stage: stage of social penetration that results in
complete openness and spontaneity for relational partners
• Dyadic uniqueness: distinctive relationship qualities
NOTES
SPT at a Glance
• Developed to understand the relational closeness between two people
• Interpersonal relationships evolve gradually and predictably
• Superficial relationships progress to intimate relationships through self-‐‑
disclosure
• Self-‐‑disclosure leads to more intimate relationships and vulnerability
Introduction
• Social penetration is the process of bonding that moves a relationship
from superficial to more intimate
o Includes verbal, nonverbal, and environmentally oriented
behaviors
• Dimensions of intimacy:
o Physical
o Intellectual
o Emotional
o Shared activities
• Discussions about social penetration began in the 1960s and 1970s
when open and candid communication was highly valued
Assumptions of SPT
• Relationships progress from nonintimate to intimate
• Relational development is generally systematic and predictable
• Relational development includes depenetration and dissolution
o Relationships can experience transgressions
• Self-‐‑disclosure is that the core of relationship development
o Strategic (planned) disclosures
o Nonstrategic (spontaneous) disclosures
“Tearing Up” the Relationship
• Onion analogy represents various aspects of an individual’s personality
o Outer layer represents the public image
o Central layers represent aspects of the self-‐‑revealed through self-‐‑
disclosure
Self-‐‑Disclosure
• Reciprocity refers to the process whereby one person’s openness leads
to another’s openness
• Dimensions of self-‐‑disclosure:
o Breadth
o Depth
• As relationships move toward intimacy, the breadth and depth of
disclosure increases
• The greater the depth of disclosure, the greater the feeling of
vulnerability
• Self-‐‑disclosure in relationships is a result of trust
• Too much inappropriate disclosure may result in relationship
dissolution
A Social Exchange: Relational Costs and Rewards
• Relationships can be viewed as the exchange of rewards and costs
• A reward/cost ration is calculated and analyzed to determine if a
relationship is more positive or negative
Stages of the Social Penetration Process
• Stage 1: Orientation
o Reveal small parts of ourselves
o Public level
o Communication is superficial
o Norms of appropriateness are followed
• Stage 2: Exploratory Affective Exchange
o Aspects of one’s personality emerge
o Some private aspects become public
o More spontaneous communication
o More nonverbal communication
o Common with casual acquaintances
• Stage 3: affective exchange
o Spontaneous and comfortable communication
o Individuals make quick decisions about communication
o Personal idioms used
o Positive and negative exchanges are possible
o Common between close friends and intimate partners
• Stage 4: stable exchange
o Complete openness and spontaneity
o Partners are highly intimate and synchronized
o Fewer misinterpretations
o Distinctive relationship quantities emerge
o Few relationships reach this stage
Integration
• Communication tradition
o Socio-‐‑psychological
• Communication context
o Interpersonal
• Approach to knowing
o Positivist/empirical
Evaluating SPT
• Scope
o Self-‐‑disclosure is too narrowly interpreted
o View of relationship development is too linear
o A relationship is more than self-‐‑disclosure
o View of relationship disengagement is too linear
• Heurism
o SPT has yielded hundred of studies
o Various types of relationships have been studied
§ Families
§ Teachers
§ Marriages
§ Physician-‐‑patient
o Effects of culture on the penetration process
CHAPTER 11
RELATIONAL DIALECTICS THEORY
KEY TERMS
• Monologic approach: an approach framing contradiction as either/or
• Dualistic approach: an approach framing contradiction as two separate
entities
• Dialectic approach: an approach framing contradiction as both/and
• Totality: acknowledges the interdependence of people in a relationship
• Contradiction: the central feature of the dialectic approach; refers to
oppositions
• Motion: refers to the processual nature of relationships
• Praxis: refers to the choice-‐‑making capacity of humans
• Autonomy and connection: an important relational tension that shows
our conflicting desires to be close and to be separate
• Openness and protection: an important relational tension that shows
our conflicting desires to tell our secrets and to keep them hidden
• Novelty and predictability: an important relational tension that shows
our conflicting desires to have stability and change
• Interactional dialects: tensions resulting from and constructed by
communication
• Contextual dialects: tensions resulting from the place of the relationship
within the culture
• Public and private dialect: a contextual dialect resulting from a private
relationship and public life
• Real and ideal dialect: a contextual dialectic resulting from the
difference between idealized relationships and lived relationships
• Cyclic alternation: a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to
changes over time
• Segmentation: a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to
changes due to context
• Selection: a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to prioritizing
oppositions
• Integration: a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to
synthesizing the opposition; composed of three sub-‐‑strategies
• Neutralizing: a substrategy of integration; refers to compromising
between the opposition
• Disqualifying: a substrategy of integration; refers to exempting certain
issues from the general pattern
• Reframing: a substrategy of integration; refers to transforming the
oppositions
NOTES
RDT as a Glance
• Relational life is in constant motion
• Partners in relationships have conflicting desires throughout the
relationship
• People try to reconcile their conflicting desires
Introduction
• RDT takes a dialectical approach in explaining the ongoing tensions
between contradictory relational impulses
o Monologic: contradictions as either/or
o Dualistic: contradictions as separate
o Dialectic: contradictions as both/and
Assumptions of RDT
• Relationships are not linear
o Individuals swing back and forth between contradictory desires
o View relationships in terms of complexity, not with regard to their
progress
• Relational life is characterized by change
o As people experience new life events, they and their relationships
change
• Contradiction is the fundamental fact of relational life
o Tensions are constant and ongoing
• Communication is central to organizing and negotiating relational
contradictions
o RDT gives communication a central role in relational life
Elements of Dialectics
• Totality
o Interdependence with each other and contexts
• Contradiction
o Dialectics result from the oppositions experienced in
relationships
• Motion
o Relationships change over time
• Praxis
o Humans as rational decision-‐‑makers
Basic Relational Dialectics
• Three major types of interactional dialectics
o Autonomy and connection
§ Simultaneous desires to maintain independence and to be
intimate
o Openness and protection
§ Conflicting desires to be open but to maintain a sense of
privacy
o Novelty and predictability
§ Conflicting desires to experience the comfort of stability and
the excitement of change
• Two major types of contextual dialectics
o Public and private dialectic
§ The tension experienced from having a private relationship
in a public life
§ Public expectations favor kin relationships over friendships
§ Double agency
o Real and ideal dialectic
§ Contrasting expectations with realities of a relationship
§ Expectations may be idealized
Beyond Basic Relational Dialectics
• Interactional Dialectic à Context Where Found
o Judgement-‐‑acceptance à friendship
o Subordinate-‐‑equal à workplace
o Group-‐‑individual à community group
o Ordered activities-‐‑emergent activities à community group
o Inclusion-‐‑exclusion à community group
o Acceptable behavior-‐‑unacceptable behavior à community group
o Presence-‐‑absence à families/stepfamilies
o Joy-‐‑grief à families
o Informing-‐‑constituting identity à televised friendship
o One parent-‐‑two parent authority à stepfamilies
o Control-‐‑restraint à stepfamilies
Responses to Dialectics
• Primary strategies to manage dialectical tensions
o Cyclic alternation
o Segmentation
o Selection
o Integration
§ Neutralizing
§ Disqualifying
§ Reframing
• Characteristics of strategies that manage dialectical tensions
o Improvisational
o Affected by time
o Complicated by unintended consequences
Integration
• Communication tradition
o Socio-‐‑cultural
• Communication context
o Interpersonal
• Approach to knowing
o Interpretive
Evaluating RDT
• Parsimony
o Too few dialectics
o Some new dialectics could fit into existing structure, preserving
parsimony
• Utility
o Explains the push and pull of relational life better than other
models
o Views relationships as dynamic rather than static
• Heurism
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
o Already stimulated several studies
MIDTERM REVIEW FROM ADOBE CONNECT
Shannon and Weaver describe the communication process
o As linear
From a communication perspective, ethical issues surface
o When messages potentially influence people
As a “stage” theory, Social Penetration Theory (SPT) believes
relationship development occurs in a(n)
o Systemic fashion
In what stage do partners start to feel willing to engage in criticism
because they are not typically viewed as a threat to the relationship?
o Affective exchange (first time you’d feel comfortable doing this)
The basic philosophical difference between Iowa and Chicago schools of
thought on Symbolic Interaction Theory centered on the role of
generalized other
...
The Iowa school had a more quantitative
approach, and the Chicago school had a more qualitative
approach
When dealing with tensions, partners make communication choices
based on what has happened in the past as they communication in the
present about the future of the relationship
...
o False
According to the Wallace’s wheel of science, most researchers tend to
strictly adhere to either deductive or inductive logic, but never use both
...
o True
§ Certain images that are prevalent in society (ads,
commercials, etc
...
§ They become reproduced and perpetuated – and not always
on purpose
• When arousal occurs, we tend to pay more attention to the message in
order to understand the source of the arousal
...
Privacy has importance for us because it lets us feel
separate from others
...
There are risks that include making private disclosures to the wrong people, disclosing at a bad time, telling too much about
ourselves, or compromising others
...
[We may] increase social control, validate our
perspectives, and become more intimate with our relational partners when
we disclose
...
(pp
...
S
...
S
...
Would you
talk or not talk about the topic to the person?
• Findings
o Supporters of the dominant opinion are more willing to speak out
o People refrain from speaking their opinion when they perceive it
will attract laughter or mockery
o Men from large cities aged 45-‐‑59 are more willing to speak out
o Various ways of speaking out exist
o People will voice an opinion if it agrees with their own convictions
and fits with current trends
o People will voice an opinion if it aligns with societal views
o People share their opinions more with those who agree
o People draw the strength of their convictions from a variety of
sources
o People engage in “last-‐‑minute swings”
The Hard Core
• If the majority opinion becomes large enough, the majority voice
becomes less powerful because alternative opinions no longer exist
• Recent examples of “hard-‐‑core” groups include the Tea Party and
Occupy Wall Street
Integration
• Communication traditions
o Cybernetic
o Socio-‐‑psychological
• Communication context
o Mass/media
• Approach to knowing
o Positivistic/empirical
Critical Strengths of SST
• Logical Consistency
o Fails to acknowledge ego involvement
o Avoids the issue of selectivity
o Failure to test fear of isolation assumption
o May be too reliant on West German media
• Heurism
o Attracts scholars
o Employed in studies on many topics
CHAPTER 25
CULTURAL STUDIES
KEY TERMS
• Alienation: perception that one has little control over his or her future
• Frankfurt School theorists: a group of scholars who believed that the
media were more concerned with making money than with presenting
news
• Neo-‐‑Marxist: limited embracement of Marxism
• Ideology: framework used to make sense of our existence
• Culture wars: cultural struggles over meaning, identity, and influence
• Hegemony: the domination of one group over another, usually weaker,
group
• False consciousness: Gramsci’s belief that people are unaware of the
domination in their lives
• Theatre of struggle: competition of various cultural ideologies
• Counter-‐‑hegemony: when, at times, people use hegemonic behaviors to
challenge the domination in their lives
• Decoding: receiving and comparing messages
• Dominant-‐‑hegemonic position: operating within a code that allows one
person to have control over another
• Negotiated position: accepting dominant ideologies, but allowing for
cultural exceptions
• Oppositional position: substituting alternative messages presented by
the media
NOTES
CS at a Glance
• Media represents ideologies of the dominant class
• Media is controlled by corporations
o Information is consequently targeted with a profit in mind
• Media’s influence must be considered when interpreting a culture
Introduction
• Culture is influenced by powerful, dominant groups
• Cultural studies does not refer to a single doctrine of human behavior
• Attitudes that critique a culture are blended
• The media shapes public opinion of marginalized populations
• Media serves to communicate dominant ways of thinking
• Media keeps the powerful in control
The Marxist Legacy
• Cultural studies is neo-‐‑Marxist
o Roots are in writings of Karl Marx
§ The powerful exploit the powerless
§ Powerlessness can lead to alienation
Assumptions of Cultural Studies
• Culture pervades all facets of human behavior
o Culture’s ideology
o Culture wars
o Meaning is shaped by the media
• People are part of a hierarchical structure of power
o Power held by social groups
o Power differentials between groups
o Subordinate groups
o The media
Hegemony: The Influence on the Masses
• Hegemony is the influence, power, or dominance of one social group
over another
o Based on false consciousness
o Today’s corporate culture
o Theater of struggle
Counter-‐‑Hegemony
• Counter hegemony is the use of the same strategies and resources as the
dominant group to challenge that domination
o Audiences are not always compliant
o Allows understanding of history from other lenses
• Television shows as examples of this phenomenon
o The Cosby Show
o The Simpsons
Audience Decoding
• An audience decodes a message from a position
o Dominant-‐‑hegemonic
§ Professional codes
o Negotiated
§ Application of “local condition”
o Oppositional
§ Image of beauty
Integration
• Communication tradition
o Critical
• Communication context
o Mass/media
• Approach to knowing
o Interpretive
Critical Strengths of Cultural Studies
• Logical Consistency
o Audiences and counter-‐‑hegemony
• Utility
o Translates into daily life and practice
• Heurism
o Concepts applied to various studies
CHAPTER 23
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
KEY TERMS
• Mass Society Theory: the idea that average people are the victims of the
powerful forces of mass media (24)
• Limited effects: the perspective replacing Mass Society Theory; holds
that media effects are limited by aspects of the audience’s personal and
social lives
• Individual Differences Perspective: a specific approach to the idea of
limited effects; concentrates on the limits posed by personal
characteristics
• Social Categories Model: a specific approach to the idea of limited
effects; concentrates on the limits posed by group membership
• Faction of selection: Schramm’s idea of how media choices are made:
the expectation of reward divided by the effort required
• Parasocial interaction: the relationship we feel we have with people we
know only through the media
• Diversion: a category of gratifications coming from media use; involves
escaping from routines and problems
• Personal relationships: a category of gratifications coming from media
use; involves substituting media for companionship
• Personal identity: a category of gratifications coming from media use;
involves ways to reinforce individual values
• Surveillance: a category of gratifications coming from media use;
involves collecting needed information
• Utility: using the media to accomplish specific tasks
• Intentionality: occurs when people’s prior motives determine use of
media
• Selectivity: audience members’ use of media reflects their existing
interests
• Imperviousness to influence: refers to audience members’ constructing
their own meaning from media content
• Activity: refers to how much the media consumer does
• Activeness: refers to how much freedom the audience really has in the
face of mass media
NOTES
UGT at a Glance
• People choose media to satisfy needs
• Media has a limited effect because of user control
• People are self-‐‑aware
• “What do people do with media?”
Introduction
• Early mass communication theories used
o Mass society thinking
o “Limited effects” theories
• UGT shifter the focus toward
o Audience members’ roles in the mass communication process
o People’s tendency to actively seek out specific media for specific
gratifications
Stages in U&G Research
• Stage One
o Extending the Needs and Motivation Theory (Maslow, 1998)
§ People actively seek to satisfy a hierarchy of needs
§ Once goals of one level are achieved, people are able to
move to the next level
§ Fraction of selection (Schramm, 1954)
• Expectation of Reward/Effort Required
§ Classifications of reasons people engage in different media
behavior (Herzog, 1944)
• Stage Two
o Typologies representing reasons for media use
§ Rubin, 1981
§ Blumler & McQuail, 1969
§ McQuail, Blumler, & Brown, 1972
§ Katz, Gurevitch, & Hass, 1973
• Stage Three
o Linking specific reasons for media use with variables
§ Faber, 2000
§ Greene & Krcmar, 2005
§ Haridakis & Rubin, 2005
§ Rubin, 1994
§ Rubin & Step, 2000
• Reasons for acceptance
o Limited effects researchers
o Failure of limited effects paradigm
o Desirability and achievement of specific media effects
o Lack of research on those outside of the dominant paradigm
Assumptions of UGT
• The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented (26)
• The initiative in linking need gratification to a specific media choice
rests with the audience member
• The media compete with other sources for need satisfaction
• People have enough self-‐‑awareness of their own media use, interests,
and motives to be able to provide researchers with an accurate picture
of that use
• Value judgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience
• Ways to classify audience needs and gratifications
o Diversion
o Personal relationships
o Personal identity
o Surveillance
• Methodologies used in uses and gratifications studies include
o Interviews
o Direct observation
o Surveys
The Active Audience
• Types of audience activity associated with media consumption
o Utility
o Intentionality
o Selectivity
o Imperviousness
• Activity: What the media consumer does
• Activeness: The audience’s freedom and autonomy in the mass
communication situation
Media Effects
• How could researchers maintain limited effects concepts with so much
evidence of media influence?
• Uses and effects model (Windahl, 1981)
• Media and gratifications are intertwined with the world
• Ways social situations and media are intertwined (Katz et al
...
, 1974)
o Are the mass media instrumental in:
§ Creating this social situation?
§ Making the satisfaction of this situation’s needs so crucial?
§ Making the media seem the most effective means to gratify
our needs?
Uses and Gratifications and the New Media
• Cellular phone (Leung and Ran Wei, 2000)
• Video game playing (Sherry et al
...
S
...
TRUE
• The primary concern related to Groupthink is that the group may arrive
at a flawed decision if the desire for unanimity overrides the desire for a
thorough consideration of all relevant information
...
TRUE
• According to Weick, organizations and their environments change so
rapidly that it is unrealistic to show what they are like now, because
that’s not the way they’re going to be later
...
TRUE