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Interpersonal Communications
Dr. Holly Kruse
Midterm Exam Study Guide
Spring 2017
Course Introduction
1)Can you define interpersonal communication? How is it contrasted with other forms of communication? How is it different from “impersonal” communication? How much time do people devote to communicating?
2)What are the basic differences between intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, organizational, public, and mass communication?
3)What are the elements of the message transfer model, message exchange model, and message transaction model of communication in the textbook? What are the main differences among these models?
4)What is encoding? Decoding?
Verbal Communication
1)Why can there be ambiguity in verbal communication? What is semiotics? How does Peirce’s notion of semiotics differ from Saussure’s? How are words “arbitrary”? What is connotation? What is denotation?
2)What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
3)What are the three levels of meaning in verbal communication that were presented in class? What does each of these three levels mean?
4)From the e-campus “Language Log: Gabby Guys” reading who in general dominates in conversations between the sexes? Are more words spoken by women in same-sex or in cross-sex conversations?
Nonverbal Communication
1)What is a “code”?
2)What is NVC good at communicating? What are general characteristics of nonverbal communication described in your book?
3)What sorts of things does NVC not communicate? What are difficulties in interpreting NVC?
4)What are the main codes of NVC? What are examples of each of the main codes of NVC? What are the key kinds of gestures?
5)What are the four zones of space defined by Edward T. Hall?
6)What is gender? What is sex?
7)How, according to the e-campus reading “Gender Differences in Nonverbal Communication,” do men and women differ in their use of eye gaze? What are some other key ways in which men and women differ in their nonverbal communication?
8)What is uptalk? Vocal fry? With which group are these most commonly associated, and why?
Social Rules, Norms, and Roles
1)What are social rules? What are some examples?
2)When are we most aware of social rules and norms? Why do you think this is?
3)What are implicit and explicit social rules? What are some examples of each?
4)What is meant by the term “social role”? What does the Stanford Prison Experiment tell us about social roles? The Milgram Experiment?
Culture and Intercultural Communication
1)How do we define the word “culture”?
2)What is a “co-culture”?
3)What role does culture play in interpersonal communication? What key factors of generation, gender, race, and ethnicity are discussed in the textbook?
4)What are the dimensions of cultural difference presented in class and in the textbook?What are examples of each of these dimensions?
5)What are examples of cultures that are found at different ends of the continuums in the dimensions of cultural difference?
6)What are effective ways given in the book of communicating with someone from a different cultural background?
7)What, according to the text, do we call the belief that our culture is superior to other cultures?
8)What is intercultural communication? What are some of the barriers to effective intercultural communication discussed in the textbook? What strategies can we use to improve intercultural communication?
Perception
1)What does the term “social cognition” mean?
2)What are the elements/stages of perception presented in class and discussed in the book?
3)What is involved in the physiological process of perception?
4)What is meant by “selective attention”? What influences what we are likely to pay attention to? What are some ways in which we might check our perception, according to the textbook?
5)What are constructs? What are schema? What role do they play in the process of perception?
6)Why do we tend to go beyond what we see in the perception process?
7)What is inference? What is attribution?
8)What are the three strategies we pursue to gain information about/form impressions of other people?What is a trait? What is a disposition? What are some biases we employ in assessing other people? Why do we stereotype people?