Unit 1

Question 1

Communication

Answer 1

Systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings - Julia Wood

Question 2

Objective Theories

Answer 2

○ “Scientific” in the classic sense - scientific method, hypothesis, variables
○ Quantitative Methodologies
○ Surveys
○ Truth is singular
○ Focus on cause and effect
○ Deterministic: behavior seen as influenced by factors or forces beyond level of awareness
○ Search for generalizability
○ Search for predictability and control
○ Methodologies designed to be “value free”

Question 3

Axiology

Answer 3

the study of values
Explain data
Predict future events
Relative simplicity
Hypothesis can be tested
Practical utility
Single truth
Objective
Faithful representation of reality
Distinction between knower and known
Separation of is and ought to be
Effectiveness in focus
Participation in background
Universal laws
One size fits all
Hunch - tightly worded hypothesis - never really proven

Question 4

Interpretive Theories

Answer 4

“Rhetorical” or “Humanistic”
Concerned with meaning
Assume the impossibility of separating the knower from the known
Voluntaristic: assume that behavior is often the product of conscious choice
Nominalism: perception is everything
The world is made up of the symbols and labels that we assign to it
“Value Laden” - Axiology
Reification: we make real what we want to be real
Consider significant decisions value-laden
Interest in emancipation
Comfortable making sense of unique events
Qualitative methodologies
Provide guides for interpretation of communication behavior

Question 5

Interpersonal Communication Continuum

Answer 5

Martin Buber

- It—I-You—I-Thou

Question 6

Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 6

George Herbert Mead and Blumer
3 Core Principles: Meaning, Language, and Thought
1. MEANING: Humans act towards people or things on the basis of he meanings they assign
2. LANGUAGE: the source of meaning
3. THOUGHT: the process of taking the role of the other

Question 7

CMM

Answer 7

Cronen and Pearce
Was originally an interpretive theory
Practical
Multiple Applications
Constitutive, Reality is Constructed
Coherence, Coordination, Mystery
Coherence requires the use of Hierarchal Communication elements.
Coordination focuses on the power of the story
Meaning management results from story tension
Mystery allows for cosmopolitan communication

Question 8

Expectancy Violations Theory

Answer 8

Judee Burgoon
Proxemics
Haptics
Olfactory
Expectancy 
Violation Valence
Communicator Reward Valence

Question 9

Interactional View

Answer 9

Paul Watzlawick
Individuals must be understood as part of a family system
Systemic factors are more important than personality traits and motives in understanding family communication
Focus on how individual behavior affects group behavior
Rules of the Game
Power Axiom
Content + Relationship Axiom
Crisis Axiom
Punctuate Axiom
Demand/ Withdraw Axiom
Symmetry/Asymmetry
Double Bind
Reframing

Question 10

Social Penetration Theory

Answer 10

Altman & Taylor
Closeness develops if only individuals proceed in a gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecast outcomes
Depth and Breadth of Self-Disclosure

Question 11

Relational Dialectics

Answer 11

Baxter and Montgomery
Personal Relationships are a ceaseless interplay between contrary or opposing tendencies
Relational dialectics highlight the tensions in close personal ties
Natural product of our conversation
Inevitable constructive
Describes contradictions that are located in the relationship between parties
Draws on Bakhtin’s “Already Spokens”
3 Dialectics within Relationships
1. Integration and separation
2. Stability and Change
3. Expression and Non-expression