COMM 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Dog Eat Dog (1964 Film), Uncertainty Reduction Theory, Leon Festinger
12 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Uncertainty reduction theory (berger and calabrese-social scientists, law theorists) What happens when people meet each other for the first time. First interpersonal communication theory grounded in the discipline. At this time, researchers were interested in social interaction, relationships, self-disclosure. Urt was inspired by leon festinger (social psychologist) Goal: to explain: how uncertainty in initial encounters between strangers is reduced by communication, to predict: communication behavior of strangers in initial encounters, urt is a lwas theory- look at things in terms of stimulus and. Theory"s boundary conditions: interested in explaining and predicting communication behavior during the initial encounter response. Key concepts: cognitions- beliefs and attitudes, uncertainty. Cognitive uncertainty: doubts people harbor about their own beliefs/attitudes and those of others. Behavioral uncertainty: doubts about their own actions as well as the actions of others. 7 related concepts- help develop the laws (axiom) of the theory.
