COMM 305 1nd EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 10Lecture 1 (January 14)Theory is an imperfect explanation (this is a good thing). Theory is a story of how or why something works the way it does. It’s an abstraction. Metatheory is theory about theory. It is important to remember that “the map is not the territory”, the map is just a representation, notthe actual territory. Theories are made to focus our attention to certain things, usually at the expense of other things. The principle of abstraction says theories are not actually what we’re trying to describe, they are representations. (Hierarchy is adhered to with higher levels of abstraction placed near the top with more specific concepts underneath)The point of theory is to understand the real/observed world you’ve been living in this whole time. Lay Theory says that theory making is something that is fundamentally human. The only distinction is that Formal Theory is more systematic and written down.Lecture 2 (January 16)There are 2 ways of generating theory, induction (going out into the world and to make a theorybased of what you observe; beginning with the specific to the general) and deduction (before going out into the world, we can make some guesses. You can make your theory and then test it. Begin with the general to the specific). The point is to determine what the starting place is todetermine whether you are generating a theory based on induction or deduction.Theories typically include a description of the phenomena, relationships among the phenomena, a story about the process captured in the relationship among phenomena and links to the empirical world. You can think of the maps example because maps have this too. A map has a picture, shows distance, maps tell stories, and describe what you’d see in a specific place. Theories should solve empirical problems (what’s actually happening), conceptual problems (refining the theory itself, with new definitions, jargon, language to use in the theory, in a way that helps us understand more; it’s like a different labeling), and practical problems (helping people solve the problem; they help us do things to better the “problem”).When thinking about theory, we should as a few questions: “How are the pieces telling the storyof phenomena of the theory?” and “what are the problems with the phenomena?” Do answer these questions, we look at scope (what is the theory about), appropriateness (are the assumptions made by the theory a fit for what we’re trying to do), heuristic value (will or hasthe theory generate new theory, research, or ideas?), parsimony (is it just complicated enough?), validity (is it true and true about the right things?), and openness/accessibility (is the theory open to the community interested in it? Can we access the theory?). There are tradeoffs and connections between the above connections. The more broad you make the theory, the less true it will be.There are 3 key theoretical assumptions and subsets of each assumption: Ontology- the nature of being/ the nature of reality. This asks “Can our senses can be believed?”, and “Is the world as we perceive it to be?” Realist ontology- believe the world around us is as we perceive it (if you touch your desk, you’re really touching your desk) Their goal is to understand the methods of communication. We know they’re out there we just have to be smart enough to understand them. Nominalist- believe the world is as we decide it is. We all have our own unique experience of the world. Their goal is to come up with better names. Social constructionist- believe that people create reality together (as a collective). Where nominalists believe what’s mine is mine and I can connect with no one at any point, social constructionists believe that people’s ideas of the world can come together at some common ground. Epistemology- related to the questions of the nature of knowing; what counts as knowledge? How is knowledge produced? How should knowledge be judged? Is knowledge accumulated or not? Objectivist stance- the real world can be systematically known; we can and should try to observe without bias Subjectivist stance- the real world can’t be separated from our perceptions of it. The goal should be to admit that and try to learn as much as we can about each of our subjective self of knowing Axiology- value or worth, treats questions of how our own values, (sense of what’s worthy or not), should or shouldn’t influence our thinking about the world. Comes down to 2 things: Awareness- to what degree can we be aware of our values? Control- to what degree can or should we control those values? The faucet problem: if you’re laying in bed and can hear the faucet dripping, objectivist would simply turn it off. They think they can and should be in control. Subjectivist think that it’s broken. They are painfully aware, but they can’t control it. The slab leak stance: is when we not only can we not control but we can’t be aware. Radical Axiology- “fire hose”. Instead of worrying about keeping values out of your research, embrace them. What you’re looking for is determined specifically by what you think is important.Lecture 3 (January 21)The key communication assumptions include, communication as a process (communication unfolds over time), communication as transactional (say communication is transaction is to remember that communication involves feedback), communication as symbolic (communication involves the use of signs), communication as social (to say that communicationis social is to limit the phenomena to at least 2 people or more), and communication as intentional (“One can not not communicate” –Watzowick).Social Penetration Theory (SPT) involves relationship development which is the process of sharing more and more information. There are 4 steps also called the onion model of communication: Orientation- scripted conversation Exploratory Affective (relating to emotion) Exchange- going beyond the scripted conversations. The information exchanged will be more intimate and cover in more depth. Affective Exchange Stable Exchange- marked by openness and richness in informationAccording to SPT, it takes time to move from one stage to another with no