COMM 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Metatheory, Positivism, Shyness

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Communication
• Course: COMM 250
• Professor: Susan Hubbard

Document Summary

Paradigm: a set of assumptions that guide scholarly activity. Sets of metatheoretical assumptions that guide the theory building and theory testing of those scholars who adhere to that particular paradigm. There are three paradigms: laws approach, rules approach, and systems approach. All three lean more towards social scientists. Transcend time and space (ex: hard sciences: water will always boil at (cid:883)(cid:882)(cid:882) degree celsius(cid:524) context doesn"t matter. Most laws are predictions about communication behavior. If x, then y: laws based on relationships between phenomenon. Types of laws: positivistic laws- hard to have in social sciences b/c dealing with human behavior which means there are always exceptions to the law. Ex: increased source credibility causes increased persuasion, Shyness causes conversational incoherence (um, uh, ah: probabilistic laws- social scientists are more interested in. Ex: if you flatter me, i will probably like you but only if i am. If x, then probably y under certain conditions z attracted to you.