COM 216 Class Notes - Professor Basquiat PDF

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Professor Basquiat...

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Communication Theory Learning Adjectives 1. Analyze and definition of communication, articulating the definition's level of observation, intentionality, and normative judgment. 2. Recognize the various contexts in which communication takes place 3. Explain what is meant by communication competence 4. Differentiate a communication theory from a concept and a model 5. Discriminate between commonsense, working, and scholarly theories 6. Use criteria for evaluating theory to determine the relative usefulness of a communication theory. What is Communication?  Communication definition from the business perspective o Synonymous with information o The flow of information from one person to another (axley, 1984) o Viewed as simply one activity among many others, such as planning, controlling, and managing (Deetz, 1994).  Communication scholars definition o Disagree as to the scope of the process, whether a source or receiver orientation should be taken and whether message exchange need to be successful to count as communication What is theory?  Theory o An abstract understanding of the communication process (miller, 2002) o Move beyond describing a single event by providing a means by which all such events can be understood o Provide us with a lens by which to view the world  Can limit the span of what you see, especially when you try to look peripherally outside the range of the frames  Can distort the things you see. o Can illuminate an aspect of your communication so that you understand the process much more clearly o Can hide things from your understanding or distort the relative importance of things  Communication theory o Any systematic summary about the nature of the communication process o Other functions of theories are to focus attention on particular concepts, clarify observations, predict communication behavior, and generate personal and social change Table 1.1 Three Types of Theory Types of Theory

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Commonsense theory

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Never date someone you work with - it always ends up badly

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The squeaky wheel gets the grease The more incompetent you are, the higher you get

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promoted Working theory 

Audience analysis should be done prior to presenting a speech

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Scholarly theory  

To get a press release published, it should be newsworthy and written in journalistic style Effects of violations of expectations depend on the reward value of the violator (expectancy violations theory) The media do not tell us what to think, but what to think about (agenda-setting theory).

Commonsense theories o "theories-in-use" o Created by an individual's own personal experiences o Theories might reflect helpful hints that are passed on from family members, friends, or colleagues o Useful and basis for our decisions about how we communicate  Working theory o Generalizations made in particular professions about the best techniques for doing something o Commonsense theories may be based on scholarly theories o Different theories within this theory are taught within specific courses (public speaking, public relations, etc.)  Scholarly theory o The theory has undergone systematic research o Provide more thorough, accurate, and abstract explanations for communication than do commonsense or working theories The Theory-Research Link  Inductive theory development o Grounded theory o Scholars using this theory believe that the best theories emerge from the results of systematic study  Scholars study a particular topic, and based on their research, they develop a theory  Deductive theory development o Requires that a hypothesis be developed before any research is conducted o When theory is developed, theorists then collect data to test or refine the theory o What follows is a constant set of adjustments to the theory with additional research conducted until evidence in support of the theory is overwhelming o Development starts with the theory and then looks at the data 

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The result of the theory What is Research?  Frey, Botan, and Kreps (2002) o Research is a disciplined inquiry that involves studying something in a planned manner and reporting it so that other inquirers can potentially replicate the process if they choose" o Research  Methodical gathering of data as well as the careful reporting of the results of the data analysis  Primary research  Research reported by the person who conducted it  It's typically published in academic journals  Secondary research  Research reported by someone other than the person who conducted it  Reported in newspapers, popular or trade magazines, handbooks, and textbooks  Primary is better with research as a source of information  Secondary research is where readers risk the chance that the writers have misunderstood or distorted the results of the research Research Methods in Communication Experiments  Experimentation is ultimately concerned with causation and control  Experimental research o Allows researchers to determine causality because experiments are so controlled o Researcher is concerned with two variables  Variable  Any concept that has two or more values  Two variables  Independent variable  The presumed cause  Dependent variable  The presumed effect o

Evaluating theory Table 1.4 Criteria for Evaluating Theory Area of Evaluation

What to look for

Accuracy

Has research supported that the theory works the way it says it does?

Practicality

Have real-world applications been found for the theory?

Simplicity

Has the theory been formulated with the appropriate number (fewest possible) concepts or steps

Consistency

Does the theory demonstrate consistency within its own premises and with other theories?

Acuity

To what extent does the theory make clear an otherwise complex experience?

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Accuracy o The best theories correctly summarize the way communication actually works o Suggesting that systematic research supports the explanations provided by the theory o You should look at research studies that have used the theory and see whether the research supports the theory or fails to find support it Practicality o The best theories can be used to address real-world communication problems o Lewin (1951)  There is nothing so practical as a good theory o Theories that are accurate but can't be used in everyday life are not as good as theories that have great practical utility o A theory with more applications is better than a theory without practical uses o One should look for how the theory has been used in the research literature, as well as whether the theory has made the leap to professional practice Simplicity o A way to evaluate a good business or professional communication theory o Simplicity is that the theory is formulated as simply as possible  Theories with extra steps or include variables that don't help us to understand real-world experiences would be considered overly complex o Compare how much of communication is explained by the theory versus how many concepts are being used to explain it Consistency o Most useful theories have both internal and external consistency  Internal consistency  Ideas of the theory are logically built on one another  Theory that proposes at one point that cooperation among team members guarantees success and at a different point proposes that competition is more effective than cooperation has a logical flaw  Theories with skips don't have much internal consistency  A theory predicting that age is related to the experience of jealousy and that one's expression of jealousy affects the future of

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the relationship, but then fails to tell us how the experience of jealousy is related to the expression of jealousy, has a logical gap External consistency Refers to the theory's consistency with other widely held theories If we presume that the widely held theories are true, then the theory under evaluation that disagrees with those who believed supported theories also presents a logical problem Most useful theories are those that have a strong logical structure

Acuity Refers to the ability of a theory to provide insight into an otherwise intricate issue o A theory that explains a difficult problem is better than a theory that explains some thing less complex o Difficult problem theories show acuity o Those that focus on fairly obvious problems demonstrate superficiality

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Chapter 3 Cognition and Intrapersonal Communication  Meaning o Derived only after an individual perceives a message and gives it meaning o Resides in our interpretation of words or actions, not in the words or behaviors themselves. Cognitive Process  Behaviorism o Dominated American psychology in the 1900s  Behavior approach o A focus on external cause and behavioral effect  Psychological Figures o JB Watson & BF Skinner  Argued that we cannot observe mental processes, we should focus only on cause and effects  Cognitive o The mental processes used to process stimuli and generate particular effects o Includes processes of reducing, elaborating, transforming, and storing stimuli o What happens in the mind that causes us to behave in particular ways  Noam Chomsky o Spearheaded a significant critique of behaviorism  Attribution theory o The process by which individuals assign causation or motivation to their own and others' behavior  Uncertainty reduction theory o Strives to explain and predict initial encounters with peothe

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What drives you to initiate communication, and how do you go about reducing your uncertainty in a new situation  Expectancy violations theory o To predict and explain people's behavior when their expectations about what will happen are breached  Cognitive dissonance theory o Explains and predicts how persuasion may be understood as a self induced, intrapersonal event Attribution theory  According to attribution theorists o Human beings often work like naïve detectives, continually trying to understand and make sense of what inspired various events, personal mannerisms, and individuals' conduct  This theory explains the cognitive process one uses when trying to make causal explanations for behavior Attributions as Naïve Psychology  Heider; mid 1950s o Focused attention on the process of drawing inferences o Individuals act as "naïve psychologists" o Individuals try to determine whether a behavior in question was caused by dispositional or situational factors  Dispositional factors  Internal or personal features (personality, character, or biological traits)  Usually stable and unique to each individual  Situational factors  External dynamics that are relatively uncontrollable and determined by the environment or circumstance at hand Correspondent Inference Theory  Jones and Davis (1965) o Concerned with the intentionality of dispositional (internally driven) behavior o Referred to these judgments of intention as correspondent inferences  Texter (1995) o "before we can draw correspondent inferences from observing a person's behavior, we must make a determination about the person's intention: did the person intentionally act a certain way, knowing the effects the behavior would have? o When a dispositional inference mirrors an action and the perceiver labels the disposition and the action similarly, these inferences are said to "correspond."  Factors contributing to a person's behavior o Choice, assumed desirability, social role, prior expectations, hedonic relevance, and personalism o Choice  Individuals can assess an actor's intention by examining whether the actor in question had any alternatives

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Social desirability If a person behaves in a manner contrary to social conventions, you are more likely to infer that the behavior reflects the person's true character and not merely an attempt at social correctness o Social role  May help determine the intentionality of a behavior, particularly when this person behaves in a manner contrary to the prescribed role o Prior expectations  One's previous encounters with an actor, or knowledge about a person's background, may influence one's assessments about the actor's intentions o Hedonic relevance  The degree to which you believe an actor's behavior directly affects you  Also shapes your assessment of the actors intentions o Personalism  Belief that an actor specifically and intentionally behaves in ways to hurt or help you Kelley's Covariation Model  Kelley's Covariation Model (1967, 1973) o The causal nature of the complete attribution process o Has a greater scope than Jones and Davis's correspondent inference theory o This seeks to explain attributions overall  According to Kelley o Individuals judge the causality of another's behavior by examining four factors  Consensus  Consistency  Distinctiveness  Controllability o Consensus  Would other people react similarly if placed in the same situation?  High consensus  People agree and have the same reaction as you  Low consensus  People seem to disagree and have a completely different reaction than you o Consistency  Refers to whether the person in question engages in similar behaviors overtime  The more you observe an actor engaging in the same behavior, the greater your perception of consistency o Distinctiveness  The person acts differently depending on the situation  Decreases when the actor behaves similarly across many situations  Interior locus of control o When you believe the actor could have controlled the behavior 

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Exterior locus of control o When the behavior appears to have been unavoidable  Combinations of the judgements allow the perceiver to predict with greater accuracy the controllability of the actor's behavior as either internally or externally motivated  External attribution is made about the individual when consensus is high, consistency is low, and distinctiveness is high  Attribution theorists have emphasized various explanations for the attributions you make in assigning the causes and motivations of your own and other's behavior  Consensus o "do other people act this way?" o If yes, an external attribution is likely o If no, an internal attribution is likely  consistency o "has this person behaved similarly many times before? o If yes, an internal attribution is likely o If no, an external attribution is likely  Distinctiveness o "has this person behaved similarly in other types of situation" o If yes, an internal attribution is likely o If no, an external attribution is likely Uncertainty reduction theory  Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) o Berger and Calabrese (1975) o Holds that social life is filled with ambiguities o Examples  Not knowing what to wear on the first day of a new job  Uncertainty as to how to greet a new boss  Wondering whether you will get along with the new office mate who just transferred from another location  Axioms o Seeks to explain and predict when, why, and how individuals use communication to minimize their doubts when interacting with others  Three assumptions guide the uncertainty reduction framework o Berge and Calabrese (1975)  Maintained that the primary goal of communication is to minimize uncertainties humans have about the world and the people therein  They proposed that individuals experience uncertainty on a regular basis and that the experience of uncertainty is an unpleasant one  Assumed that communication is the primary vehicle for reducing uncertainty o Berger (1979)  Admitted individuals couldn't possibly reduce uncertainty about all of these new people or situations

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Argued there are three possible preceding conditions that influence whether people have the motivation necessary to reduce their uncertainty Reducing Uncertainty  Berger (1979) o Argued individuals are motivated to reduce uncertainty only under one of three specific antecedent conditions 1. Anticipation of future interaction suggests you are more motivated to reduce uncertainty about someone you are likely to see again 1. More inclined to use uncertainty reduction behaviors when a new office mate joins the team because you'll know you'll be working with this person on a daily 2. Incentive value 1. Includes the notion that you are prompted to learn more about someone when the individual in question has the potential to provide you with rewards or even punishments a. What can this person do for or to you? 2. Deviance 1. If a person is odd, eccentric, bizarre, or unusual in some way that counters your expectations, URT suggests individuals will be more likely to reduce their uncertainty about the individual Types of Uncertainty  Berger and Bradac (1982) o Two distinct variations of uncertainty  Behavioral uncertainty  Takes into account your insecurity about which actions are appropriate in a given situation  Example  When starting a job at a new company, there's some ambiguity about the hours "required."  Cognitive uncertainty  Individuals experiencing behavioral uncertainty question how they should act in a given situation, those who experience cognitive uncertainty are unsure as to what to think about someone or something  Emphasizes the doubts in your ability to pinpoint the attitudes and beliefs of others Axioms Explaining the Uncertainty Reduction Process  Axiom 1 o As your verbal communication with a communication partner increases, your level of uncertainty about that person decreases; as a result, verbal communication continues to increase  Axiom 2 o As welcoming nonverbal expressions increase, uncertainty decreases and vice versa  Axiom 3

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The greater your uncertainty, the more information-seeking behaviors you use. Conversely, as your uncertainty lessons, you seek less information  Axiom 4 o When uncertainty in a relationship is high, the intimacy level of communication content will be low. On the other hand, the reduction of uncertainty leads to greater intimacy  Axiom 5 o The more uncertain you are, the more you will use reciprocal communication strategies and vice versa  Axiom 6 o The more similarities you perceive to share with the target person(s), the more your uncertainty is reduced. Alternatively, perceiving dissimilarities leads to increase uncertainty  Axiom 7 o As uncertainty decreases, liking increases. Conversely, if your uncertainty rises, your liking of the person will decrease  Axiom 8 o Shared communication networks, or shared ties, lessons your uncertainty. On the other hand, if you share no common relations, your uncertainty intensifies Uncertainty reduction strategies  Berger and Calabrese (1975) o Uncertainty reduction is central to all social relations o Berger ('95-'97)  Much of social interaction is goal driven  You communicate for a reason, and you create cognitive plans that guide individuals' social interaction  When seeking info about social realities, individuals create and use plans that vary in complexity  Three overarching strategies typify most uncertain-reduction communication o Passive o Active o Interactive  Passive o Individuals observe their surroundings and surreptitiously gather clues about which behaviors are appropriate as well as which attitudes and beliefs others hold o Playing detective  Active o Seeking info from the third party o You go to someone else who may know more about the person or situation in question  Interactive strategy o Going straight to the source in question and ask for as much info as possible Expectancy Violations Theory  Judee Burgoon ('78, '94)

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Expectancy violations theory explains the meanings people attribute to the violation, or infringement, of their personal space  Personal space can refer to psychological or emotional space  EVT is derived from a series of assumptions and axioms Assumptions  Humans all need a certain amount of personal space (distance or privacy)  People desire a certain amount of closeness with oth...