Chapter 1 What is interpersonal communication Defining interpersonal comm between people o Using symbols to represent ideas in order to share meanings and create a personal bond Characteristics o Continuous o Dynamic o Consequential o Irreversible o Imperfect Types of messages o Content o Relational Literal message and meanings of symbols What the interactions say about the relationship Sources of information about relational messages o Symbols o Relationship history Examples I hate you and I loved working with you Examples Saying I love you for the first time it is a milestone vs at your 50th wedding anniversary it is out of habit o Context I love you after a fight means I am sorry I love you before going away means goodbye Contexts for studying o Organizations Work place o Health settings Doctor s office o Computer Mediated Comm CMC Social media Features o Fidelity How clear your message is o Appropriateness o Satisfaction o Effectiveness Social rules how you email you teacher Knowing you have been understood or are being listened to Understood by others o Efficiency o Ethics Social norms Example if you go back and forth with someone for an hour and don t make your point your conversation is not efficient A theory is a description of the relationships among concepts that promote an understanding of a phenomenon o Highlights specific concepts o Describes how concepts are related o Is always incomplete o Is tested against the experiences of people Research Methods o Interviews o Ethnography o Surveys questionnaires o Interaction studies o Experiments Ethics o Considering moral responsibilities to other people and relationships when making communication decisions Chapter 2 Culture and Interpersonal Communication What is culture particular cultural group Layers of culture o Cultural institutions o Values beliefs and conditions that we share with a group of people o Cultural groups have shared norms which refer to the expectations for behavior within a Bring people together on a large scale o Standpoint o Speech community o Subcultures Viewpoints from the eyes of certain groups or with a particular set of experiences People have regular contact with each other their own language Rutgers shares things that are specific to just us How Cultures Form Change o Selectivitiy Socialization change Never ending cycle o Socialization 1 Transmit information about the culture to new comers 2 Newcomers adopt cultural practice o Individualistic culture Each person is distinct from others Value personal freedom rights independence Self reliance accomplishment o Collective culture Sharing ex living with others and everything is everyone s Comm Reflects Culture o Boundary markers o Myths o Rituals Signal that something is inappropriate or off limits Sacred stories that embody core cultural themes Carefully scripted performances Manifestations of Sex Differences in Comm o Infancy and childhood Pinks vs blues ballerina vs baseball player o Dating o Work Relationship Guys call the girl and pay for the date Men make more than women doing the exact same job women who are successful are questioned for how they got there The belief that what we do is right and anyone who does things differently is doing it wrong Barriers o Ethnocentrism Chapter 3 Characteristics of self o Subjective o Dynamic o Multi faceted Facets of self are more or less visible You behave differently as a student that you do as a friend employee daughter Cognition Perception Stages of perception o Selection o Organization o Interpretation Attribution Johari Window Information you know about your self Information about you that you aren t aware of yourself Information about you that is known by others Open self aware and share with others Blind self other people are aware and you are not Information about you that is not known by others Hidden self info that you keep from others Unknown self info that you don t know about yourself and others do not know Chapter 4 Perception and Interpersonal Communication o The mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension o The process by which a person filters things o Example What do you perceive in this class room Most people will list things that they hear or see but you also perceive smell and can feel how warm a room is etc Directing attention to a subset of info Based on POV intensity of the stimuli personal relevance consistency with expectations inconsistency with norms Arranging info into patterns that make sense Assigning meaning to the information we have selected and organized o Explanations for why something happened o Dimensions of attribution Internal vs external Controllable vs uncontrollable Stable vs unstable o Attribution Biases Cognitive Complexity o How we view smaller details observe more specific things o Example How we view smaller details observe more specific things Attributional Complexity Kind or temperamental o Whether explanations are simple or not Refers to distortions in the conclusions we reach about the causes of events o Example bar How I Met Your Mother has very high complexity versus just saying we met at a Chapter 5 Language and Interpersonal Communication Language and Verbal messages o Abstract Words have general meanings but refer to broad categories fruit Vs Concrete language golden delicious apple granny smith apple etc o Arbitrary Not intrinsically connected Hoagie hero sub those words don t necessarily mean sandwich o Related to culture o Consequential Totalizing Reveal values and norms Changes with new developments Can influence the world Neglecting details Reification going to the gym vs stating every single thing you will do there Reacting to words as though they are an accurate and complete representation of reality infertile as in you can absolutely never have kids which is not the case necessarily The Rules of Language o Syntactic Rules Guidelines for structuring words and phrases within message Example I put my clothes the washer in dinner after vs I put my clothes in the washer after dinner o Semantic Rules o Pragmatic Rules Using words in phrases based on meaning Speech acts propose insult etc Guidelines for performing actions using language Example Ordained minister can marry two people a random person walking down the street most likely cannot Language and Conversation o Cooperative Principle Suggests that people who are talking to each other are working together to advance the conversation o Maxims of Conversation Quantity how