Enhance your insight into the issues, principles, and problems that characterize the discipline today.

Enlarge your understanding of experiences in your personal life and lives of those around you.

In 1970, Frank Dance, a communication theorist, counted over 100 definitions of communication proposed by experts in the field.

Communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.

• Communication is a process, which means it is ongoing and always in motion.

• Systemic means that communication involves a group of interrelated parts that affect one another.

• Symbols are abstract, arbitrary, and ambiguous representations of other things.

• Meaning is the heart of communication because we create it.  

Communication with others not only affects our sense of identity but also directly influences our physical well-being.  People who lack close friends have greater levels of anxiety and depression than people who are close to others.

Importance of Communication:

• Relationships

• Professional Impact

• Culture and Society

Communication critically affects our relationships.  We build connections with others by revealing our private identities, remembering shared history planning a future, and working out problems and tensions.

Communication is essential for healthy and enduring relationships.

Good communication in intimate relationships involves listening skillfully, expressing your own ideas clearly, and responding with empathy and understanding.

Good relationships are about more than the big moments, but the mundane, small talk, routine talk that weaves lives together is essential.

For couples involved in long-distance romances, the biggest problems are missing the nonverbal communication that occurs in face-to-face interaction and not being able to share small talk.

Communication skills affect professional success.

No company is prepared to teach employees how to deal with people and communicate effectively.

Communication skills are essential for a healthy society.

Western traditions back to Aristotle who viewed communication as a practical art.

Intrapersonal communication

Our area of emphasis:  Interpersonal communication.

• Small group and teams

• Public communication

• Performance, including stories (narratives).

• Media and new technologies.  Media reinforce cultural stereotypes about race and ethnicity.  Media can distort reality.

• Organizational communication, including the personal relationships among coworkers, organizational culture (identity and codes of thought and action that are shared by members of an organization).

• Intercultural communication.  Less obvious are cultural differences between people who speak the "same" language.  Within the US there are distinct communication cultures based on race, gender, affectional preferences, and ethnicity.

Careers in Communication

• Research

• Public Relations

• Advertising

• Education

• Human Relations

• Management

Case 1 Thought and Reflection

1. What are the reasons Madeline and Martin give for their married-name preferences?

2. Considering both Madeline’s and Martin’s perspectives, what are the possible decisions this couple might make?

3. In what ways do married-name choices suggest different types or styles of marriage relationships? Identify the characteristics of marriage for Martin and for Madeline.

4. To what degree can cultural issues affect married-name choices?

5. In this relationship what role does self-disclosure play in defining power and control in the process of decision making?

DETERMINISM-------------FREE WILL

Determinism assumes that human behavior is governed by forces beyond individual control, usually the twin forces of biology and environment.

On the other end of the ontological spectrum is the belief that humans have free will and that they make choices about how to act.

For Heidegger, thrownness refers to the fact that we are thrown into a multitude of arbitrary conditions that influence our lives and opportunities.

TRY IT OUT  p. 55

WAYS OF KNOWING

Epistemology:  the branch of philosophy that deals with knowledge, and is concerned with how we know.

DISCOVERING TRUTH

There is a singular truth.  Objectivism is the belief that reality is material and external to the human mind.

Objectivity the quality of being uninfluenced by values, biases, personal feelings, and other subjective factors when perceiving material reality.

PURPOSES OF THEORY

University Laws

A law is an inviolate, unalterable fact that holds true across time and space.

Universal laws may be more applicable to natural science than to human behavior, including communication.

Situated Rules

There are no laws that explain human communication across all time and circumstances. 

We seek theories as the articulation of rules that describe patterns in human behavior.

Behaviorism:  A form of science that focuses on observable behaviors and that assumes meanings, motives, and other subjective phenomena either don't exist or are irrelevant. 

Behaviorists believe that scientists can study only concrete behaviors, such as what people do or say.

Human motives, meanings, and intentions are beyond the realm of behavioristic investigation.

Skinner believed that human behavior is a response to external stimuli.  He was well known for referring to the mind as a "black box," the contents of which cannot be known and which are irrelevant to science.

All that can be measured is concrete, objective behavior.

MEANINGS

Many scholars aren't convinced that behaviorism is desirable.  Theorists who reject behavioral views of science believe that the crux of human activity is meaning, not behaviors themselves.  What is distinctively human is free will or the ability to make choices and the capacity to create meanings (crucial to humanists).

John Searle wrote about brute facts, which are the objective, concrete phenomena or observable behaviors that behaviorists study.  Institutional facts are what brute facts MEAN, what humanists wish to study.

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS use numbers to describe human behavior.

Social desirability bias is when subjects give responses that they think are socially acceptable but which may not be totally honest.

An experiment is a controlled study that systematically manipulates one thing (called an independent variable) to determine how that affects another thing (called a dependent variable, for what it does depends on the independent variable).

Dependent variable affects independent variable.

QUALITATIVE METHODS

Valuable when we wish not to count or measure phenomena but to understand the character of experience, particularly how people perceive and make sense of their communication experience.

Textual analysis--also called interpretative analysis--involves describing communication texts and interpreting their meaning. 

Ethnography attempts to discover what things mean to others by sensitive observation of human activity.   They rely on unobtrusive methods, which are means of gathering data that intrude minimally on naturally occurring interaction.

Critical analysis suggests that research should make a real difference in the lives of human beings.  Critical scholarship is one important way to change oppressive or wrong practices in the world.

ASSESSING RESEARCH

Validity refers to the truth or accuracy of a theory in measuring what it claims to measure.

External validity refers to the generalizability of a theory.  Internal validity is that the theory's design and methods do what they claim to do.

Reliability is the consistency.

Significance is the conceptual or pragmatic importance of a theory.

Even though general semantics is no longer influential in the field of communication, it made and makes valuable contributions to our understanding of what happens when people talk to one another.

CHARACTER OF SYMBOLS

Symbols are arbitrary.

Symbols are abstract.

Symbols are ambiguous.

Extension-al orientations are based on observation and attention to objective particulars that distinguish phenomena from one another.

Remedies for Misunderstanding

Etc.

Indexing

Feedforward--anticipate effects of communication and adapt to the anticipated effects in advance.

Critical Assessment of General Semantics

• Too simplistic.

• Misrepresents the character of symbols and language.

• Lacks applied value.

Case 4 Thought and Reflection

Mind is the ability to use symbols that have common social meanings.

Self is the ability to reflect on ourselves from the perspective of others.

Looking glass self.  Symbolic interactionists explain that we learn to see ourselves mirrored in others' eyes.  Our perception of how others see us are lenses through which we perceive ourselves.

Self-fulfilling prophecy is when individuals live up to the labels others impose on them.

Humans have the distinctive ability to be both the subjects and the objects of their experience.

Symbolic interactionists claim that our meanings for things reflect the perspectives of both particular others and the generalized other.  Individuals also use the perspective of the generalized other to decide what things mean.

HOW PEOPLE CREATE MEANING

People act on the basis of what things mean to them.  Thus, meanings are the basis of behavior, including communication.

Symbolic interactionist claim that meanings are formed in the process of interacting symbolically with others in a society. 

Symbolic interactionists believe that the meanings individuals confer on experiences, feelings, events, activities, other people, and themselves reflect the internalized perspectives of particular others and the generalized other.

Symbolic interactionists believe that people act on the basis of what things mean to them AND that meanings are formed in the process of interacting symbolically with others in a society.

Blumer insists that individuals construct their action through a process of personal interpretation.

Life is a drama, which involves conflict and division that threatens some existing form of order.

All things have substance, which is the general nature or essence of a thing.

Consubstantiality is identification with each other.  Consubstantiality is what makes communication possible.  We can understand one another only because there is some overlap in individuals' substances (experiences, language, goals). 

Communication can't be perfects, because there are also differences and divisions that keep individuals from being completely consubstantial.

Communication is the primary way that we increase our identification, or consubstantiality, with others and diminish our division, or separateness, from others.

Division is always present and is the impetus for communication that seeks to build identification.

Guilt is the central motive for human action, specifically communication.

Any tension, discomfort, sense of shame, or other unpleasant feeling that humans experience is guilt. 

In Burke's judgment, we continuously feel guilt and are continually attempting to purge ourselves of the discomfort it causes.

Language allows us to create categories and evaluations that are the basis of social hierarchies, such as socioeconomic classes, title in organizations, and degrees of status and power.

Our symbols allow us to conceive and name perfect forms or ideals that are at the top of the hierarchy:  a flawless relationship, a completely egalitarian society, your ideal weight, a perfect LSAT score, a world free of war.

Guilt arises because of the gap between what is in the case (personal shortcomings, imperfections in relationships, social inequities) and the perfection that we can imagine.

The moral capacity to say "no," "not," and "thou shalt not."  Moral judgments.

Purging guilt becomes the principal goal of communication.

First, we may engage in mortification, which is blaming ourselves.

Victimage is identifying an external source for some apparent failing or sin.

Victimage often takes the form of scapegoating, the placing of sins into a sacrificial vessel whose destruction serves to cleanse an individual or group of sin.

1. ACT is what is done by a person.

2. SCENE is the context.

3. AGENT is the individual or group that performs an act.

4. AGENCY is the means an agent uses to accomplish an act (channel).

5. PURPOSE is the goal of the act.

6. ATTITUDE is how an actor positions herself or himself relative to others and the contexts in which she or he operates.  Added later, thus the hexad.

RATIO is a proportion that shows the emphasis of an element in the pentad.

"Humans are by nature storytelling beings and that the narrative capacity is what is most basic and most distinctive about humans.  According to Fisher, humans are storytelling animals.  Fisher (1987) believed that we make sense of our experiences in life by transforming them into stories, or narrative form. . . .Storytelling, in other words, is an ongoing human activity, one as natural and nearly as continuous breathing" (Wood, 2004, p. 105).

"Humans are wonderfully creative and imaginative beings. . . .We are able to invent and accept new stories when they better explain our lives or offer better directions for future living than the stories we have grown up hearing and believing" (p. 113). 

NARRATIVE RATIONALITY

Not all stories are equally compelling.  We judge stories on the basis of a distinctively narrative form of rationality, thought to be quite different from conventional criteria of rationality.  The two standards for assessing narrative rationality are coherence and fidelity.

COHERENCE:  Do all parts of the story seem to fit together believable?

FIDELITY:  The extent to which a story resonates with listeners' personal experiences and beliefs.
 

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT

Incomplete description.

Too broad.

Conservative bias (preservation of existing or established values and practices).

ACTIVITY:  Tell a story that demonstrates the importance of storytelling in communication.  To make sense of the content of this course, students are encouraged to tell stories from their experience, relay stories from reading autobiographic or biographic information, discuss case studies, and listen to the stories of others.  When you tell the story, be sure to explain how you think the story relates to the course content.

Case 5 Thought and Reflection

1. How does Reece’s intrapersonal communication about her weight affect her self-esteem? What messages does she send herself repeatedly that affect her self-esteem? Where do these messages come from?

2. How does your communication with yourself and with others affect your identity? What role does communication play in shaping your identity?

3. Not all people feel the same pressure to be thin. How much pressure do you and your friends feel to be thin? Do you hear people talking about wanting to be thin and measuring themselves against impossible standards? What might account for some people feeling an intense amount of pressure and others not feeling any pressure?

4. In this case, Reece strongly wants to lose weight and expresses her willingness to "do whatever it takes" to be thin. Do you think her desire and her behavior are unhealthy? Does her friend Emma have a responsibility to say something to Reece about her behavior? What do you think Emma should do to keep her friend from hurting herself?

5. What racial/ethnic differences in views toward weight can you see in the students’ questions and comments in class? What might explain the racial/ethnic differences in views toward weight?

Case 8 Thought and Reflection

1. When Katherine and her parents are getting ready to leave for college, Katherine chooses not to respond to her father’s self-disclosing statements.  She also chooses several times not to disclose to Kim, her roommate, or to Russ. What are the drawbacks to disclosing that might have motivated her to remain private?

2. During her first few days at Western State University, Katherine makes decisions about disclosing to her mother, Kim, Russ, and Dr. O’Neill. What are the possible benefits for Katherine of self-disclosing? Why did it seem easier for her to self-disclose to her mother, Kim, and Dr. O’Neill than to Russ?

3. Dr. O’Neill’s four guidelines for considering when to self-disclose were provided in the context of whether Katherine should disclose to Russ. How do the guidelines apply to Katherine and Kim’s relationship?

4. How do Kim and Katherine use self-disclosure to create impressions with each other and with others on campus?

5. Self-disclosing communication can vary in intensity, in the degree to which it is personal. How does self-disclosure reflect the way in which Katherine and Kim’s relationship develops, and how does it help them create a more trusting and intimate relationship?

Goffman:  "It is social situations that provide the natural theatre in which all bodily displays are enacted and in which all bodily displays are read."

FRAMES are models we rely on to make sense of experience.

Frames typically reflect cultural knowledge; they vary from culture to culture.

"IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT is the process of managing setting, words, nonverbal communication, and dress in an effort to create a particular image of individuals and situations.  According to Goffman (1959), our efforts to create and project certain impressions may be either highly calculated or unintentional" (Wood, 2004, p. 119-120).   In this class, you are in-training to be a communication or business professional, so you need to pay attention to how you are managing your image and impression, particularly when making a presentation to the class.

Front stage is what is visible to an audience, whereas the back stage includes all that is not visible to an audience.  The back stage is where people behave in ways that might undermine their front stage performances.

To fully appreciate how social interaction works as drama, we must recognize both the front stage and the back stage of the theater.

Communicators know how to keep backstage behaviors out of view of the audience so they don't invalidate the front stage performance.

Knowing there is a backstage where we can let our hair down and relax helps us tolerate the sometimes stressful front stage work we do.

Performance Ethnography (Conquergood)

Cultural performances are an intimate, universal aspect of human experiences; thus, studying them gives us insight into cultural life.

Ethnography is a method of interpreting actions in a manner that generates understanding in the terms of those performing the actions.

Geertz describes thick description as giving a fuller account by working to understand the meanings of activities from the perspective of those engaged in them.

Glassie insists that "ethnography is interaction, collaboration."

Conquergood explains that in ethnography, "instead of speaking about them, one speaks to and with them."

Direct, Bodily Experience

Participant-observation is a distinctive method of ethnography.  By being not only an observer but also an active participant in a culture and sometimes even an activist on behalf of that culture.

Hermeneutic circle consists of near-experience and distance experience concepts and meanings.  Distance experience meanings have meaning to people outside of that particular culture or social community.

Personal Narrative

Some performance studies scholars are interested in understanding and performing personal and oral histories, including ones told by regular people in everyday contexts about ordinary events.

Personal narratives entail testimony which consists of statements based on personal experience about what someone, some activity, or something is, did, believes, feels like, or means.

Case 6 Thought and Reflection

1. What was it about John’s behavior that made Susan so uncomfortable?

2. Have you ever had a situation where you still felt like "you" on the inside, but others began treating you differently? How did this affect your self-image?

3. Imagine six months from now. How will Susan and John interact together? What factors might affect the future of this relationship? Imagine a year from now. Do you think John will be "back to normal" with his other family members and friends?

4. Put yourself in Susan’s position. How would you interact with your friends when John is around? Put yourself in John’s position. Are there ways you can communicate the changes in your life without causing your family or friend discomfort? If so, how? Can discomfort ever be positive in a relation

5. Have you ever taken a position or held a belief that put you at odds with the majority of your peers? If so, how did you handle it? How did they react?

6. What were the turning points in John’s relationships with his family? His friends? What types of turning points could occur that would strengthen or weaken his current relationships?

     2.  The most basic claim of the theory is that uncertainty is uncomfortable so people communicate to reduce uncertainty.

     3.  These same axioms also appear to apply to intercultural communication.

II.  There are two major criticisms of uncertainty reduction theory.

  A.  The theory is narrow in scope.

     1.  It focuses only on uncertainty, which is not the only influence on how relationships develop.

     2.  Other influences may be more important in the growth and decay of relationships.

  B.  The theory is invalid.

     1.  Critics assert that some of the basic axioms on which the theory rests are invalid.

     2.  If axioms are not true, then the laws derived from axioms are not reliable.

  C.  Proponents of uncertainty reduction theory admit that some of the theory's axioms are of dubious validity.

     1.  Proponents say the theory can be developed and refined to be valid.

     2.  Defenses of uncertainty reduction theory have been neither strong nor convincing.

III.  Social exchange theory is actually a group of theories that share three common assumptions.

  A.  Humans evaluate their relationships by making cost-benefit analyses designed to maximize individual profit.

     1.  We measure rewards, which are positively valued phenomena we get from being in relationships.

     2.  We measure costs, which are negatively valued phenomena we incur from being in relationships.

     3.  The net outcome (O) of a relationship is rewards minus costs:  R - C.

 
Photo credit

B.  We use standards of comparison to assess the meaning of net outcomes of relationships.

  C.  People prefer equitable relationships to inequitable relationships.

     1.  Equity concerns whether a relationship is fair over time.

     2.  Both feeling under-benefited and over-benefited in a relationship cause dissatisfaction and relational stress.

     3.  Equity in terms of housework and caregiving is of primary importance in most dual-worker families.

IV.  There are four major criticisms of social exchange theories.

  A.  The theory has little heuristic value.

  B.  The theory is not testable.

  C.  The theory is inappropriate for humans and human relationships.

  D.  Research fails to confirm some of the key claims of social exchange theories.

V.  Developmental theories focus on how relationships develop, grow, and decline over time.

  A.  First generation developmental theories had serious limitations.

     1.  They were excessively and inappropriately linear.

     2.  They implied an inevitability to relational development.

     3.  They did not include, nor apply to, a number of intimate relationships, such as gay and lesbian commitments.

     4.  They focused on external, observable phenomena to define stages in relational life.

  B.  Second generation developmental models are more sophisticated and useful.  James Honeycutt emphasized that relationships develop not because of events themselves, but because of how we interpret events.

 C.  Individual have "imagined trajectories," which are their understandings and expectations of the typical paths relationships follow.

     1.  They are a type of knowledge schemata that guides how we think about what is happening between us and others.

     2.  Relationships may also have turning points, which exist when we interpret certain relational events or moments as significant in changing the direction or nature of a relationship.

VI.  Second generation developmental theories have not been seriously criticized.

Case 13 Thought and Reflection