What is Uncertainty Reduction Theory?
Increased knowledge of what kind of person another is, which provides an improved forecast of how a future ineraction will turn out
What three prior conditions drive to reduce uncertainty?
- Anticipation of future interaction
- Incentive value
- Deviance (what is wrong with them?)
What are the two types of uncertainty and how are they defined?
- Behavioral questions: What will they do?
- Cognitive questions (What will they think?)
What is Heiders attribution Theory?
People draw inferences about character of others based on observed behavior
What is uncertainty reduction?
Improves forecast of how a future interaction will turn out
What is Axiom One of verbal communication?
- High level of uncertainty present at inset of entry phase
- As verbal communication increases, level of uncertainty will decrease
- As uncertainty decrease, amount of verbal communication will increase
What is Axiom Two of nonverbal warmth?
- As nonverbal expressiveness increases, uncertainty levels will decrease
- Body language
- Decreases in uncertainty level causes increases in nonverbal expressiveness
- We become more comfortable
What is Axiom Three of information seeking?
- High levels of uncertainty increases in information seeking behavior
- As uncertainty levels decline, information seeking decreases
What is Axiom Four of self disclosure?
- High levels of uncertainty decreases in the intimacy level of communication content
- Low levels of of uncertainty produce high levels of intimacy
What is Axiom Five of reciprocity?
- High levels of uncertainty produce high rates of reciprocity
- Low levels of uncertainty produce low rates of reciprocity
What is Axiom Six of similarity?
- Similarities reduce uncertainty, while dissimilarities increase uncertainty
What is Axiom Seven of liking?
- Increases in uncertainty level produce decreases in liking
- To know someone is to like or dislike
What is Axiom Eight of shared networks?
- Shared communication networks reduce uncertainty
- What people do we both know?
What are message plans?
Mental representations of action sequences that may e used to achieve goals
What are methods of coping with uncertainty?
- Seeking information
- Passive strategy
- Active strategy
- Interactive strategy
- Extractive Strategy
- Choosing plan complexity
- Hedging
- Hierarchy hypothesis
What are passive, active and extractive strategies?
Passive: Observing the person interacting with others
Active: Searching the internet for information about the person
Extractive: Searching the internet for information about the person
What is choosing plan complexity?
Message plan based on level of detail it provides and number of contingencies it covers
What is hedging?
Use of strategic ambiguity and humor when a message fails to to achieve its goals
What is hierarchy hypotheses?
When people are thwarted in attempt to achieve goals, they alter lower-level elements of their message
What is relational turbulence?
- Uncertainty leaders close partners to relationship turbulence
- Negative emotions arising from perceived problems
- Direct attempts to resolve uncertainty reduction might help relational turbulence
