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INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION II (Dr. Aitken) |
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COURSE PLANNING DOCUMENTS Companion Site (Textbook) click here - Expectations for Students - Handouts To search this page, use "Control F" and enter keyword.
A copy of the course webpage will be provided free to students by week 2 of the course. Please bring that handout to class each class. See this page for clarifications and updates: http://onlineacademics.org/CA301/ Expectations for students, http://onlineacademics.org/Guidelines.html
This page is my gift to you! -Dr. Joan E. Aitken, Professor, Communication Arts, Park University, 229 Copley, 8700 NW River Park Drive, Parkville, MO 64152, 816-584-6785 |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Core Assessment Portfolio_____ Core Assessment Rubric
Action Research Project_____ Assignment Weight - Course Description - Learning Outcomes_____ Presentations_____ Tentative Schedule_____Tentative Syllabus_____ Textbook & Course Materials_____ Weekly Assignments_____
APA Style Information - Course Expectations & Guidelines for Students - Grading - Late Policy - Library Database Tutorial - Naming Files - Revisions - Submitting Assignments
Assignment Submission and Gradebook in eCollege (eCompanion) - Copies of handouts for downloading - Student companion site: click here. Where you can access each chapter's "Tutorial Quiz" and "Try It Out" learning activities.
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Week 1 Jan. 13-15
Chapter 1 Read Case 1 and use collaborative teamwork answer online. Write in a word processor! Then cut and paste into the online box. MAKE A COPY and put into your electronic portfolio. Chapter 1 quiz and one Try It Out assignment. MAKE COPIES AND Add quiz results and the Try-It-Out to portfolio. |
Week Wood Preface and Chapter 1 Lecture
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Preface and Introduction |
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Theories are interesting and relevant to everyday life.
We'll consider a limited number of theories, which are relevant to interpersonal communication and relationships.
We learn the history of an intellectual discipline to appreciate its identity.
Theories that have charted the communication field's evolution and led to its current status as an intellectually vibrant, socially relevant area of study and practice.
You may develop an appreciation of the PROCESS of theorizing as an intellectual activity.
You should gain insight into the concerns and goals that motivate scholars to develop theories.
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Values of Studying Communication Theories |
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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.
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Agree or Disagree? Theories and theorists vary widely not only in what they study but also in the fundamental assumptions they make about human nature, knowledge, communication, and the goals of the theory. What is your theory of interpersonal communication? Debate: Set up argument(s) in favor and argument(s) against and be prepared to argue either side. |
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Chapter one: Communication as a Field of Study |
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In 1970, Frank Dance, a communication theorist, counted over 100 definitions of communication proposed by experts in the field.
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What do you think? We actively construct meaning.
Debate |
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Communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.
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Communication is a process, which means it is ongoing and always in motion.
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Systemic means that communication involves a group of interrelated parts that affect one another.
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Symbols are abstract, arbitrary, and ambiguous representations of other things.
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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.
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Apply Research Findings Can you think of an example or story from your personal experience that supports scholarly research findings? Heart disease is more common among people who lack strong interpersonal relationships. People in disturbed relationships tend to have low self-esteem and more headaches, alcoholism, cancer, and sleep disorders. Arthritis patients who have good relationships with friends and loved ones have less severe symptoms and live longer. There is a link between good relationships and physical and mental health. Social isolation and lack of intimates are correlated with increased problems in physical and psychological well-being |
Importance of Communication:
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Relationships
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Professional Impact
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Culture and Society
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Relationships |
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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.
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Professional Impact |
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Communication skills affect professional success.
No company is prepared to teach employees how to deal with people and communicate effectively.
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Cultural Impact |
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Communication skills are essential for a healthy society.
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Breadth of the Communication Field All areas can affect interpersonal communication! |
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Western traditions back to Aristotle who viewed communication as a practical art.
Intrapersonal communication
Our area of emphasis: Interpersonal communication.
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Small group and teams
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Public communication
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Performance, including stories (narratives).
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Media and new technologies. Media reinforce cultural stereotypes about race and ethnicity. Media can distort reality.
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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).
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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.
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The Heart of Communication Research
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Careers in Communication
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Research
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Public Relations
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Advertising
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Education
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Human Relations
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Management
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Review chapter 1 |
Explain in your own words or give a personal example! |
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communication |
A systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings. |
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fantasy theme |
An idea that spins out in a group and captures its social and task foci. |
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intercultural communication |
The branch of communication field that studies communication among people from different cultures, including distinct cultures within a single country. |
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interpersonal communication |
Communication between people. Interpersonal communication exists on a continuum ranging from impersonal (between social roles) to highly personal. |
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intrapersonal communication |
Communication with oneself, including self-talk, planning, and reflections. |
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meaning |
The significance conferred on experiences and phenomena; meaning is constructed, not intrinsic to communication. In general systems theory, communication has two levels of meaning: the content level, which concerns the information in a message; and the relationship level, which concerns what the message implies about the power, liking, and responsiveness between the communicators. |
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monitoring |
Observing and managing our own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Monitoring is possible because humans are symbol users. |
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organizational culture |
Understandings about identity and codes of thought and action that are shared by members of an organization. |
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process |
The quality of being ongoing, in flux, ever changing. Communication is a process. |
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symbol |
An arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract representation of other phenomena. Symbols are the basis of language, much nonverbal behavior, and human thought. |
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systemic |
Related to systems, which are organized and interacting wholes in which all parts interrelate. Communication is systemic. |
Case 1 Thought and Reflection
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What are the reasons Madeline and Martin give for their married-name preferences?
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Considering both Madeline’s and Martin’s perspectives, what are the possible decisions this couple might make?
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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.
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To what degree can cultural issues affect married-name choices?
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In this relationship what role does self-disclosure play in defining power and control in the process of decision making?
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Based on a case study, discuss or write a summary of each of the following concepts:
Responsibilities in a Small Group*
Be committed to the group’s goals
Fulfill individual assignments
Avoid interpersonal conflicts
Encourage full participation
Keep the discussion on track *Lucas, S. E. (2004). The art of public speaking. (8th ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. |
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COME PREPARED FOR OUR NEXT CLASS MEETING!
Learning theory suggests that students learn more if they review what they have just learned and if they preview and prepare for what they plan to learn.
1. Take several minutes to talk with your partner or group about what you have learned today.
2. Also, look ahead to what you need to do to prepare for the next class meeting. What do you already know about the next course topic? Discuss your experiences related to this topic. What assignment do you need to prepare for the next class meeting (e.g., reading, writing, speech)? If there is no specific assignment, what do you need to do to mentally prepare before class so you are an active learner?
"The sad truth is that excellence makes
people nervous." |
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Week 2 Jan. 20-22
Read chapter 11 Read Case 2 & 10 and discuss collaboratively.. Chapter 11 quiz and one Try It Out assignment. Add quiz results and the Try-It-Out to portfolio. |
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Chapter 11 Lecture
Theories of Mass Communication Relevant to Interpersonal Communication
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How
do media influence interpersonal communication?
Technological Determinism claims that some single cause determines other aspects of life (McLuhan).
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Expectation of immediate answer, resolution, information.
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Less careful checking of details.
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Hurried approach.
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Multitasking.
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Shortened attention span.
Cultivation Theory claims that technology--particularly television--has a cumulative effect in shaping our view of reality.
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Children's sex-role stereotypes seem directly related to the amount of commercial television they watch.
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Television can make people think more alike.
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Mean world syndrome: The belief that the world is a dangerous place full of people who cannot be trusted and who are likely to harm us.
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Media tend to support and normalize established cultural practices and values.
Do media affect our relationships?
Do you sit and watch television or play on the Internet instead of talk?
Do you become bored with people?
Do you expect problems to be resolved quickly?
Do dialectical tensions seem bad? Does conflict seem bad?
Do we think rudeness is appropriate because of what we see on television?
Case Studies About Relationships (from the Internet)
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Knowledge Checklist Consider this list of concepts. Imagine that you have a test where you have to write a paragraph about a possible interpersonal communication influence of each of these mass communication concepts.
How many do you know?
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Debate!
Television and films have a strong influence on interpersonal communication. Televisions and films give people ideas about what to say and how to act in relationships.
versus
Television and films have no influence on interpersonal communication.
People behave as they were taught by family and friends who model
interpersonal relationships. |
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Review Chapter 11 |
Explain in your own words or give a personal example! |
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cool media |
McLuhan's term for media that include incomplete sensory data and thus require human involvement and participation. |
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cultivation |
In cultivation theory, the cumulative process by which television fosters beliefs about social reality, including the belief that the world is more dangerous and violent than it actually is. |
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cultivation theory |
The point of view that television promotes a view of social reality that may be inaccurate but that viewers nonetheless assume reflects real life. |
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cultural mainstream |
In cultivation theory, the general view of social life that television constructs. |
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determinism |
The belief that human behavior is governed by forces beyond individual control, usually biology, environment, or a combination of the two. |
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electronic epoch |
The fourth era in McLuhan's media history of civilization, ushered in by the invention of the telegraph, which made it possible for people to communicate personally across distance. |
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hot media |
McLuhan's term for media that include relatively complete sensory data and hence do not require significant human participation. |
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literate epoch |
The second era in McLuhan's media history of civilization, inaugurated by invention of the phonetic alphabet and during which common symbols allowed people to communicate in writing. |
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mainstreaming |
In cultivation theory, the effect of television in stabilizing and homogenizing views within a society; one of two processes used to explain television's cultivation of synthetic world views. |
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mass communication |
Collective term for forms of communication aimed at large audiences. |
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mean world syndrome |
In cultivation theory, the belief that the world is a dangerous place full of selfish, mean people who cannot be trusted and who are likely to harm others. Cultivation theorists assert that the mean world syndrome is fostered by heavy viewing of television. |
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multitasking |
Engaging in two or more activities at once or in interacting, overlapping ways. |
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print epoch |
The third era in McLuhan's media history of civilization, in which invention of the printing press made it possible to mass-produce written materials so that reading was no longer restricted to elite members of society. |
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resonance |
In cultivation theory, the extent to which something (specifically, phenomena on television) is congruent with personal experience; one of two mechanisms used to explain television's ability to cultivate synthetic world views. |
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technological determinism |
The point of view that media decisively influence how individuals think, feel, and act, as well as how they view collective life. |
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tribal epoch |
The first era in McLuhan's media history of civilization, during which the oral tradition reigned and face- to-face talking and listening were primary forms of communication. |
Case 2 For Further Thought and Reflection
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In what ways are disabled people stigmatized by their disabilities? How do others treat them and communicate with them?
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What kinds of situations are particularly problematic for persons with disabilities, especially in regard to helping and maintaining privacy?
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Some of the other cases in this book identify competing dialectical tensions that exist within relationships—independence—dependence, openness—closedness, stability—change. Which of these dialectical tensions do we see in Steve’s and Jim’s experiences?
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What experiences have you had with individuals with disabilities? Does this case help you think about alternative ways of communicating with disabled people? How do you think they would like you to interact with them?
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What impact do disability and communication patterns, as they are affected by disability, have on identity and self-esteem?
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Do you think Steve’s parents made the best decision when they elected to keep Steve at home rather than institutionalizing him?
Case 10 Thought and Reflection
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It is said that communication rules help prescribe rules for behavior. What general communication rules do you see operating throughout this case?
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It is said that communication rules are used to evaluate, justify, correct, predict, and/or explain behavior. How do communication rules in this case function to evaluate, justify, correct, predict and explain behaviors?
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What implicit (unstated prescriptions for behavior) and explicit (clearly stated prescriptions for behavior) rules did you see? Which appear to have more importance?
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When is it appropriate to break rules? How were rules broken in this case?
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Rules of organizational socialization (e.g., learning the ropes of how to behave in a new situation) are discussed in this case. How might the types of socialization rules identified here apply to other situations and contexts?
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Sororities and other organizations often have relatively formal rules for when and how to communicate. In more casual relationships, rules tend to be less formal, conscious and explicit but equally present. Identify rules that guide how you and others act when your family has dinner, or when you and friends go out to dinner together.
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Collaborative Teamwork DIscuss or write a summary of each of the following concepts:
Responsibilities in a Small Group*
Be committed to the group’s goals
Fulfill individual assignments
Avoid interpersonal conflicts
Encourage full participation
Keep the discussion on track *Lucas, S. E. (2004). The art of public speaking. (8th ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. |
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COME PREPARED FOR OUR NEXT CLASS MEETING!
Learning theory suggests that students learn more if they review what they have just learned and if they preview and prepare for what they plan to learn.
1. Take several minutes to talk with your partner or group about what you have learned today.
2. Also, look ahead to what you need to do to prepare for the next class meeting. What do you already know about the next course topic? Discuss your experiences related to this topic. What assignment do you need to prepare for the next class meeting (e.g., reading, writing, speech)? If there is no specific assignment, what do you need to do to mentally prepare before class so you are an active learner?
"The sad truth is that excellence makes
people nervous." |
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Week 3 Jan. 27-29
Read chapter 2 Chapter 2 quiz and one Try It Out assignment. Add quiz results and the Try-It-Out to portfolio. |
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Chapter
2 Lecture |
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People act on theories, often without realizing it in their everyday lives.
Theories are attempts to make sense of things.
A theory offers an account of what something is, how it operates.
Theories are human constructions--symbolic ways we represent phenomena.
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Goals of theories
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Teamwork! Complete this learning activity collaborating with other students in the class. Each student needs to be actively engaged and carry his or her share of the work responsibility. Have one person act as the recorder, who type your answer after class, email it to the group members, who then can modify the assignment and put it in their ePortfolios. See p. 39, Try it Out ASSIGNMENT: Develop a theory of communication for your classroom.
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Standards for evaluating theories:
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SCOPE
Scope refers to the range of phenomena a theory describes and explains. -
Some theories focus on very narrow realms of communication, and others advance grand perspectives.
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How well does a theory answer questions: The WHAT question and the HOW or WHY question?
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A theory clarifies what it considers ESSENTIAL in communication.
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Laws-based explanations argument that anytime x happens, y will follow, or that x and y are usually related. Laws-based explanations may be either causal or correlational.
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There are no universal laws in communication.
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Rules-based explanations aim to articulate the patterns that describe and explain what happens in a specific type of communication situation or relationship. Thus, RULES have a more restricted scope than LAWS. Rules are regularities.
TESTABILITY
Can the theory be tested?
PARSIMONY
Parsimony refers to appropriate simplicity.
UTILITY
Is there practical value? Kurt Lewin said that there is nothing so
practical as a good theory.
HEURISM
Provokes new ideas, insights, thinking, and research.
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BALANCING CRITERIA |
A particular theory may fare well on some of the above criteria and poorly on others.
Theories, like foods, can be assessed in different ways that lead us to different conclusions about their merit.
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PERSPECTIVE FOR STUDYING POINTS OF VIEW |
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Theorists choose which kind of communication to focus on. Theorists make different choices about what they will focus on in studying a particular kind of communication.
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Theorists also vary in the goals they pursue.
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Theorists differ in what they regard as a good explanation.
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Some theories cannot work together because they reflect fundamentally opposed views of human beings or of knowledge (p. 47).
A theory asks particular questions.
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Review Chapter 2 |
Explain in your own words or give a personal example! |
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causal |
A form of explanation that asserts that one phenomenon directly determines another. |
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control |
The use of explanations and predictions to govern what a phenomenon actually does. |
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correlational |
A form of explanation that asserts that two things go together but not that one causes the other. |
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description |
One goal of theory; the use of symbols to represent something and to identify its parts. |
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explanation |
One goal of theorizing; an effort to account for why and/or how something works. |
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heurism |
A criterion for evaluating theories; the capacity of a theory to provoke new insights, thoughts, and understandings. |
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laws-based explanation |
A theoretical explanation of the form," Anytime x happens, y will invariably or probably follow, "or "x and y always or almost always go together." |
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parsimony |
One criterion for evaluating theories; the appropriate simplicity of a theory. |
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prediction |
Projecting what will happen to a phenomenon under specified conditions or exposure to particular stimuli. |
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reform |
One goal of theorizing; the use of theory to instigate change in pragmatic life. Also called "producing positive social change." |
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rules-based explanation |
A form of theoretical explanation that articulates regularities, or patterns, in human behavior that are routinely followed in particular types of communication situations and relationships. |
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scope |
One criterion for evaluating theories; the range of phenomena a theory describes and explains. |
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testability |
The extent to which a theory's claims can be appraised. Testability is one criterion for evaluating a theory. |
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theory |
An account of what something is, how it works, what it produces or causes to happen, and what can change how it operates. Theories are points of view, human constructions. |
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understanding |
One goal of theorizing; gaining insight into a process, situation, or phenomenon, not necessarily with the goal of predicting or controlling it. |
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utility |
A criterion for evaluating theories; practical merit or applied value of a theory. |
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Week 4 Feb. 3-5
Read Case 3 and discuss collaboratively.. Chapter 3 quiz and one Try It Out assignment. Add quiz results and the Try-It-Out to portfolio. |
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Chapter 3 Lecture Building and Testing Theory |
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Question!
Do theories of human communication describe how humans actually communicate?
Or do they reflect individual theorists' perceptions and perspectives?
What do you think?!?! |
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VIEWS OF HUMAN NATURE
Ontology are assumptions about human nature. The assumptions theorists make about humans can't be proved or disproved scientifically; they are matters of faith or belief.
DETERMINISM--------
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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.
Believers in objective truth presume that the true nature, or meaning of any act of communication can be determined.
CREATING MEANING
Those who believe that there are multiple realities would regard it as
entirely reasonable that different people interpret communication in
varying ways.
Standpoint theory--the material, social, and symbolic circumstances of a social group shape what its members experience, as well as how they think, act, and feel.
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Is knowledge based on the existence of phenomena (the falling tree) or on human perceptions (hearing it fall). There are different opinions about what counts as knowledge and how we come to know what we think we know.
POSITION ONE:
OBJECTIVITY
Debate! |
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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.
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Question! What should the focus be for theorists? Behavior? Meanings behind behavior? A combination of behavior and meaning? What do you think?!?! |
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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.
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Agree or Disagree? Theories and theorists vary widely not only in what they study but also in the fundamental assumptions they make about human nature, knowledge, communication, and the goals of the theory. Meaning, motive, and intentions, even if they exist, aren't measurable, so they aren't within the province of science (p. 62) |
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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.
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Teamwork! Complete this learning activity collaborating with other students in the class. Each student needs to be actively engaged and carry his or her share of the work responsibility.
TRY IT OUT p. 63 Provide a description based on
only brute facts and a second description based on institutional facts. A marriage
ceremony. A person
interacting in a chat room. Two
friends engaging in a game of friendly insults and put-downs.
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TESTING THEORIES
HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Hypotheses are testable predictions about relationships between communication phenomena.
If you don't have a clear basis for making a prediction, generate a research question. Use research questions in your action research.
DEFINE TERMS: Operational definitions are precise descriptions that specify the phenomena of interest.
QUANTITATIVE METHODS gather information that can be quantified and then interpret eh data to make arguments about what the numbers reveal about communication behaviors and relationships among communication phenomena.
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS use numbers to describe human behavior.
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Apply Research Findings Can you think of an example or story from your personal experience that supports scholarly research findings?
Husbands interrupt wives far more often than wives interrupt husbands.
Women are more active than men in doing what is called "conversational maintenance," which is involving others in conversations. |
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.
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Apply Research Findings Can you think of an example or story from your personal experience that supports scholarly research findings? Acitelli found that both partners found it satisfying to talk about the relationship when there was a problem. When no conflict or difficulty existed, however, the wives in the scenarios were perceived as being more satisfied with conversation about the relationship. |
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.
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Apply Research Findings Can you think of an example or story from your personal experience that supports scholarly research findings? Men often interrupt to challenge others or to assert themselves. Women's interruptions are more likely to support others or to indicate interest in what others are saying. |
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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.
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Review Chapter 3 |
Explain in your own words or give a personal example! |
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behaviorism |
A form of science that focuses on observable behaviors and that assumes human motives, meanings, feelings, and other subjective phenomena either don't exist or are irrelevant to behavior. |
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brute fact |
An objective, concrete phenomenon unadorned by interpretations of meaning. |
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critical analysis |
Research that goes beyond description and explanation to argue for changes in communicative practices that are judged to be oppressive, wrong, or otherwise undesirable. |
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descriptive statistics |
Numerical representations of human behavior that describe populations, proportions, and frequencies. |
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determinism |
The belief that human behavior is governed by forces beyond individual control, usually biology, environment, or a combination of the two. |
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epistemology |
The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of knowledge, or how we know what we know. |
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ethnography |
A qualitative method of research that interprets actions so as to generate understanding consistent with the frameworks of those who perform the actions. |
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experiment |
A controlled study that systematically manipulates one thing (called the independent variable) to determine how it affects another thing (called the dependent variable because what it does depends on the independent variable). |
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external validity |
The generalizability of a theory across contexts, especially those beyond the confines of experimental situations. |
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gender |
A socially created system of values, identities, and behaviors that are prescribed for women and men. Unlike sex, which is biologically determined, gender is socially constructed. |
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humanism |
A form of science that focuses on human choices, motives, and meanings and assumes that the reasons or causes of human behavior lie within humans, not outside of them. |
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hypothesis |
A carefully stated, testable prediction of a theoretical relationship or outcome. |
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institutional fact |
The meaning of an act, event, or other phenomenon; interpretations of brute facts. |
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internal validity |
The degree to which the design and methods used to test a theory actually measure what they claim to measure. |
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law |
An inviolate, unalterable fact that holds true across time and space. Also called universal law and covering law. |
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meaning |
The significance conferred on experiences and phenomena; meaning is constructed, not intrinsic to communication. In general systems theory, communication has two levels of meaning: the content level, which concerns the information in a message; and the relationship level, which concerns what the message implies about the power, liking, and responsiveness between the communicators. |
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objectivism |
The belief that reality is material, external to the human mind, and the same for everyone. |
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objectivity |
The quality of being uninfluenced by values, biases, personal feelings, and other subjective factors. |
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ontology |
The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of humans. |
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operational definition |
A precise description that specifies how to observe the phenomena of interest. Operational definitions provide clarity and precision to research hypotheses and research questions used to test theory. |
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qualitative methods |
Forms of research that involve probing and interpreting the subjective meanings of experience. |
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quantitative methods |
Forms of research that involve gathering quantifiable data. |
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reliability |
A criterion for evaluating theoretical research that concerns the consistency of particular behaviors, patterns, or relationships. |
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research question |
A question that specifies the phenomena of interest to a scholar but does not predict relationships between phenomena. Research questions are less formal than hypotheses. |
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sex |
The biological and genetic quality of maleness or femaleness; not the same as gender. |
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significance |
The conceptual or pragmatic importance of a theory. |
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social desirability bias |
A tendency for research participants to give responses that they perceive as socially acceptable, which may not be honest. |
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standpoint theory |
The view that the material, social, and symbolic circumstances of a social group shape what members of that group experience, as well as how they think, act, and feel. |
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survey |
A quantitative method of research that relies on instruments, questionnaires, or interviews to find out about feelings, experiences, and so forth. |
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text |
All symbolic activities, written, oral, or nonverbal; a form of data useful in qualitative research. |
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thrownness |
The arbitrary conditions of the particular time and place of an individual's life. |
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unobtrusive methods |
Means of gathering data that intrude minimally on naturally occurring interaction. |
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validity |
A criterion for evaluating a theory. Validity has both internal (the theory measures what it claims to measure) and external (the theory applies to real life beyond the laboratory) dimensions. |
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Coffee and Conversation In pairs, discuss case study 3. Discuss what you know and what you think with another person in the class. "Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying
what we know."
Case 3 Thought and Reflection
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