Review for Exam 2 Comm 250 Introduction to Communication Theory General Comments and Guidelines The exam will cover Chapters 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 and 12 in your text West Turner I would like you to know names associated with the theories Dates are less important i e I will not test you on dates The exam will require you to know more than just class terms and definitions although you must know these You will be asked 1 to identify examples of the theories acting in real life situations and 2 to apply your understanding of the topics learned for the first exam i e metatheoretical as sumptions theory building and testing to the theories we discussed up until this point Symbolic Interaction Theory SIT Humanist Originated by George Herbert Mead 1934 the foundation of SI Was fascinated by humans ability to use symbols After his death his students wrote Mind Self and Society based on his lectures and contains Herbert Blumer was one of Mead s students and the first person to coin the term Symbolic In To understand how humans through interaction with one another create symbolic words and under teraction Goal stand how these words affect behavior Assumptions People act based on symbolic meaning created between them Meaning is created through interaction between people Meaning is modified through an interpretive process 1 communicators point out the things that have meaning engaging in communication with 2 communicators select check and transform the meaning in the context in which they find yourself themselves Created meaning affects behavior Self fulfilling prophecy Key Concepts Mind the ability to use symbols that have common social meanings Develop minds through interaction with others We can not interact with others until we learn language shared system of verbal and nonver bal symbols organized in patterns to express thoughts and feelings Language depends on significant symbols symbols with shared meaning Through language we share meanings and anticipate responses of others Mind reflects and creates society Affects and creates norms in society Mind allows thought inner conversation Without social interaction we cant think B c language develops through interaction and we use language to think Thought allows role taking taking perspective of others Leads to empathy and development of self Self ability to reflect on ourselves from the perspective of others Self develops from role taking Imagining how we come across to others Looking glass self is imagining how we look to another person Cooley 1912 We learn about ourselves from the ways others treat us view us and label us The Pygmalion Effect refers to the expectations of others governing one s actions Tested in an elementary school where 20 were told they were gifted and within 8 months actually showed significant gains in IQ compared to the rest of the children Society the web of social relationships humans create Exists prior to individuals but is also created and shaped by he individual Created by individuals interacting Creates individual selfs Particular others are the people in society who are important to us Generalized others refers to the viewpoint of a social group or the culture as a whole Mead Blumer advocated the use of case studies histories and non directive interviews for Manford Kuhn and students affirmed the original ideas of theory but were considered eccen societies pressures Research Mind Self and Society 1934 Chicago School now UChicago Iowa School U of Iowa studies tric New Iowa School the statement tests Advocated for more quantitative studies twenty statements self attitudes Carl Couch was one example of Kuhn s students that broke away when they disagreed with Studied interaction behavior through videotapes of conversations rather than the tests Irving Goffman 1967 1974 Trevino Lengel Draft 1987 LaRossa Reitzes 1993 suggested that SI is essentially a frame of reference for understand ing how humans in concert with one another create symbolic worlds and how these worlds in turn shape human behavior Examined SI as it relates to the study of families Interdependency between individual and society How do symbolic interactionist theorists define communication Definition Problems Ontological Too broad Ignores important concepts emotions self esteem Metatheoretical Assumptions Do humans make real choices Is human experience basically individual or social Is human experience contextualized Epistemological Axiological Evaluation Scope too broad covers too much ground needs to be refined Utility 1 focuses too much on the individual 2 ignores some important concepts and doesn t ex plain the emotional dimension of human interaction nor covers how we evaluate ourselves Testability because of its broad scope it s concepts are vague The Coordinated Management of Meaning CMM humanist Cronen Pearce Harris 1982 CMM theory describes human actors as attempting to achieve coordination by managing the ways messages take on meaning Theatre metaphor Goal To explain how people co create meaning in conversation Explanation CMM explains what happens in conversation as a result of the following rules What happens when different roles meet People use rules to create and interpret meaning Use different rules get different meaning Meaning is constantly coordinated Assumptions reality People create systems of meaning organize meaning hierarchically and temporarily People co create a social reality Social constructionism is the belief that people in conversations co construct their social Social worlds require an understanding of social reality a person s beliefs about how mean ing and action fit within his or her interpersonal encounters Behavior is uninterpretable except in context of larger system Information transactions depend on personal and interpersonal meaning Personal Meaning is the meaning achieved when a person interacts with another and brings into the interaction his or her own unique experiences Interpersonal Meaning is when 2 people agree on each other s interpretation Hierarchy of Meaning Content level specifies the first step of converting raw data into some meaning Speech Acts are a class of very familiar things such as promises threats insults speculations Actions we perform by speaking that communicate the intention of the speaker and indicate how a particular communication should be taken Co constructed must be made by two people non verbal communication included Message without context guesses and compliments Contract
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