COMM 250 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Stress Management, Jargon, Social Science
21 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
What is Communication Inquiry?
Asking questions about communication to learn
Process of learning about communication; how people do it
Three state Model of Communication Inquiry
1. Stage 1: observing communication phenomena
•ask appropriate questions
2. Stage 2: develop theoretical explanations
3. Stage 3: test theoretical explanations
Issues in defining communication
Issues in Defining Communication: Must Communication…
• Be Intentional?
• Watzlawick, Beavin & Jackson (1967)
• Have Correspondence? (does message sent have to equal message recieved?)
• Be Successful?
• Be Ethical? Honest?
• Include Symbolic Actions? (ex. Stomach growling)
• Nonverbal symbols
• Verbal symbols
• Confided symbols: have commonly understood meanings (middle finger)
• Include Cognition, Thought, Perception?
• Be Human to Human?
Define communication:
communication— a process in which individuals use symbols to establish and interpret
meaning in their environment
•process shows that it has parts, communication is moving
transactional process of creating meaning
reflects the transactional model
•you cannot not communicate— even in nonverbal communication, there is still
communication
•both the sender and the receiver are mutually responsible for the creation of the
meaning.
•communication is taking place in a context or an environment
•created by Barnlund
Linear model of communication:
created by Shannon and Weaver
one way
the sender encodes the message, messages are sent through the channel, the meaning lies
within the message, the receiver decodes the message.
examples: watching a movie, listening to the radio, or being in a class lecture
Interactional model of communication:
created by Schramm
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
similar to linear—>the sender sends the message, gets the feedback, modifies what they have
to say, sends another message, waits for the feedback.
Types of noise:
physical (external)- anything that interferes with the sending and receivers of the message
semantic- has to do with the meaning of the word if you cannot understand what a word
means than a message cannot be sent or received (slang, jargon, specialized language)
psychological (internal)- has to do with the cognitive noise that is happening in our mind. This
could be prejudices, biases, and predispositions towards the topic or people in the
communication path
physiological- if you are tired, hungry, or sick you may or may not be able to comprehend the
message of the meaning. Therefore the message is not perceived or perceived in correctly,
there will not be successful communication
Define Communication Theory
any conceptual representation or explanation of a phenomenon
•inclusive or interpretation of theory
•Because we are in the communication field, our theories are conceptual representations or
explanations of communication phenomenon.
•So, our theories try to describe, explain, predict, and/or control communication events,
situations, or conversations/discourse in general
a way to describe, explain, predict, and/or control human communication theory
•hits all four goals
Difference between a theory, a model, and a taxonomy
Theory: Any conceptional representation or explanation of a phenomenon (concept of
explanation
Taxonomy: a conceptual representation of categories of a phenomenon (representation of
categories)
Model: a simplified representation of reality that specifies relationships between concepts in a
temporal order (representation of relationships between concepts)
Goals of Theory
1. to describe communication phenomenon
•put into an “intelligible frame”
•take something we know to describe what we don't know
•intelligence frame taxonomy
•Taxonomy-a conceptual representation of categories of a phenomenon (representation of
categories)
2. to explain communication phenomenon
•how people create meaning
•have to describe in order to explain
3. to predict
•human behavior, communication, strategies
4. to control
•to achieve social change
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
•attitudes and behaviors at societal level
•critical theorist (tradition) advocate fairness
How to build theories (four step model)
1. Observe phenomenon
2. Develop explanation/theory for phenomenon
•Define concepts
•Create logical explanation
3. Test your explanation/theory of that phenomenon
4. Refine/modify/change your theory
OBSERVE, DEVELOP (define / create logical explanation), TEST, MODIFY
Definition of Metatheory
Metatheory-
•theorizing about theory
•theorizing about theory means its more philosophical than theory
•What this means is that scholars sit around and talk about the best ways to build and test
theories in our field
different metatheoretical assumptions w/ regard of how to build and test theory —>The meta-
theoretical assumptions are simply assumptions or opinions different scholars have with
regard to the best ways to build and test theories of communication.
Metatheoretical Assumptions
Methatheoretical Assumptions
•The meta-theoretical assumptions are simply assumptions or opinions different scholars
have with regard to the best ways to build and test theories of communication.
Three metaphorical assumptions: ontological, epistemological, axiological
•ontological— identifying what communication looks like in the real world
•epistemological— looks at the way knowledge is acquired
•axiological— look at the role of a researcher’s values in the theory building and testing
process
Ontological Assumptions- identify what comm looks like in real world
three questions that dictate debates:
1. Is communication a matter of choice?
2. Is communication an individual endeavor or a social endeavor?
• Social endeavor— interested in how people work together to create meaning in
communication (ex. how someone slapping you effects your psyche)
• Individual endeavor- looking at what individuals do
• Do they create a message and how to they create that message?
• Instead of looking at interaction between two people they look at individuals
and how they function and operate in the real world
• Look at how individuals behave and try to generalize that all individuals will
behave in the same way (ex. when someone insults you, you slap them in the
face)
3. Does the context matter?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Process of learning about communication; how people do it. Three state model of communication inquiry: stage 1: observing communication phenomena, ask appropriate questions, stage 2: develop theoretical explanations, stage 3: test theoretical explanations. Stomach growling: nonverbal symbols, verbal symbols, con ded symbols: have commonly understood meanings (middle nger) Interactional model of communication: created by schramm similar to linear >the sender sends the message, gets the feedback, modi es what they have to say, sends another message, waits for the feedback. This could be prejudices, biases, and predispositions towards the topic or people in the communication path physiological- if you are tired, hungry, or sick you may or may not be able to comprehend the message of the meaning. Therefore the message is not perceived or perceived in correctly, there will not be successful communication. Difference between a theory, a model, and a taxonomy. Theory: any conceptional representation or explanation of a phenomenon (concept of explanation.
