CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Explain why it is important to study human communication.

- Communications is an innate skill that lets us meet new people, develop personal and
professional relationships, terminate dissatisfying relationships, establish yourself to
others, and transform your life
- Key to successful communication
- Identify the assertion or action
- Evaluate your interpretation and beliefs
- What does the bulk of evidence points towards
- What other conclusions are possible
- Keep an open mind and evaluate new information as it is presented
1.2 Name and describe the seven primary components of communication.
- Message Creations
- Encoding and decoding, symbols
- Meaning Creations
- Contents meaning
- Relationship meanings
- Setting of communication
- Location, environmental conditions, time of the day/week, and proximity of
communicators
- Participants
- Number of and their characteristics
- Channels components
- Face to face, written, or electronic formatting
- Noise component
- External signals, internal stimuli, or semantic interferences
- Feedback component
1.3 Explain how the Synergetic Model of Communication differs from previous models.
- The synergetic model is a transactional model and has two or more people create
meaning as they respond to one another and their environment
- Individual, societal forces, context, and culture plays a role
- Communication is transactional
- Each person is a sender and receiver at the same time and meaning is made
- An ongoing process that is influenced by previous events and relationship
influences
- Linear vs Synergetic
- Linear model is you speaking to someone and them listening, while synergetic is
when you and the other person converse and listen to each other. It also includes
many factors that could lead the conversation like your culture, field of
experience, and individual/societal forces
- Communication Is Influenced by Individual Forces
- Demographics, Personality, Cognitive ability, Physical ability, Field of experience
- Communication Is Influenced by Societal Forces
- Values, Political, historical, economic, and social structures of a society
 - Communication Is Influenced by Culture
- Cultures change over time
- Members of cultural groups do not all think and behave alike
- Participants bring beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes to interaction
- Communication Is Influenced by Context
- Setting
- Which and how many participants are present
- Specific occasion
1.4 Formulate your own communication ethic.
- Important to formulate own communication ethic because it helps sustain professional
success, vital for personal relationship, and helpful for hard choices
- Defining communication ethics
- Truthfulness
- Others expect messages to be truthful
- Messages have consequences
- Sharing or withholding information
- Privacy
- Secrecy
- Benefit and harm of messages
- Absolutism versus relativism
1.5 Articulate what makes a communicator competent.
- Communication Competence
- Appropriateness
- Effectiveness
- Goals of an Interaction
- Content goals
- Relationship goals
- Identity goals

CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Identify six reasons identity is important to communication.
1. Affects all communication
2. Created and shaped by communication
3. Plays an important role in intercultural communication
4. U.S. life is organized around and geared toward specific identities
5. Key site in which individual and societal forces come together to shape communication
experiences
6. Important part of how we send and receive messages
2.2 Define identity.
- Our communication with others helps us understand who we are and how others
perceive us
- Identity is your individual and societal levels, fixed and dynamic, created through
interactions with others
- tied to historical, social, and cultural environments
2.3 Clarify how reflected appraisals, social comparisons,self-fulfilling prophecies, and
self-concept contribute to identity development.
- Our self image arise from how others communicate and interact with us
- If someone flirted to you, you may be influenced by that type of communication
- Symbolic interactionism
- Reflected appraisal (looking glass self)
- Particular through others and generalized other people
- Children’s self-images are affected by their teachers’ reflected appraisals.
- The teachers in your life are particular others.
- Social comparisons
- Evaluating ourselves compared to others
- We compare ourselves with others in our reference group and decide how we
measure up.
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- Stereotype threat
- Self-concept
- Understanding of self based on interactions with others
- Self-esteem and Self-respect
- Performance of individual identity
- Self presentations, enacting identities (scripts for actors), Role expectation
(expectations paired with a roles)
- Identities are mutable
2.4 Identify examples of racial, national, ethnic, gender, sexual, age, social class, disability, and
religious identities.
- Racial Identity
- Results of societal forces
- Varies from country to country
- Influenced by communication
- Multiracial identity acknowledges that some have more than one race identity
- National Identity
- Citizenship to a country
- Most people do not actively choose and mostly highlighted during the olympics
- Ethnic Identity
- based on social groups
- Does not require and government recognitions
- Racial group may contain a number of ethnic groups
- Gender Identity
- Constructed through communication
- Gender is the cultural difference between masculinity and femininity
- Sex is the biological difference between a male and a female
- Sexual Identity
- No set number and Various categories of sexuality
- Heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual, Gender fluid
- People make communication choices about communicating identities to others
 - Age Identity
- Combination of how you feel about your age
- What others understand that age to mean
- Categories for age groups are relative
- Age-related concepts are culturally determined
- Social Class Identity
- Based on income, occupation, education, dwelling, child-rearing habits, and other
factors
- Similar world views
- Influences socialization and leisure activities
- U.S. belief in meritocracy
- Disability Identity
- Impairment of some kind and Legal definition may be helpful or has limitations
- Not all are visible or evident to others
- Americans with Disabilities Act
- Performed, and People may become disabled, impacting identity
- Religious Identity
- Rapidly changing in the U.S.
- Spiritual beliefs
- Correlates with political views and attitudes
- Influenced by virtual environment
- Intersectionality
- Various identities come together in different contexts to shape communication
experiences
- We cannot understand communication through the lens of any single identity
- Identities work together
2.5 Discuss three ethical considerations for communicating in a sensitive manner to and about
others’ identities.
- Identities are value-laden
- Consider language that denigrates or puts down others based on identity
- Beware of reducing people to stereotypes based on identity.
2.6 Explain three ways to communicate more effectively about identities.
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- There are many ways to perform a particular identity
- People change over time

CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Explain why understanding perception is important.
- Our response to people, objects, and environments depends largely on perceptions.
- Identities are influenced by and influence perception
3.2 Describe the three procedures people use in order to understand information collected
through the senses.
- Perception is the process of selection, organization, and interpretation
- Collect and understand information through your sense
 - Selection Process of Communication
- Selective attention allows narrow range of available sensory information
- Select stimuli based on:
1. Aspects of our identity
2. Features of the person
3. Our own goals
- Primacy and recency effects
- Organization Process of Communication
- Allows us to recognize the sensory input to which we will attend
- Cognitive representation
- Mental models and cognitive maps of the world
- Schemas, prototypes, and interpersonal scripts
- Categorization: inherent to all languages, represent larger categories, and can
lead to labels and stereotypes
- Interpretation Process of Communication
- Frames assumption and attitude we use to filter perceptions to create a meaning
- Influenced by experience, interaction, and innate personality
- Helps up critique our own interpretation
- Attribution theory
- Drawing inferences and can be internal or external
- Could lead to errors
- Attributional bias
- Self Serving bias
3.3 Name three individual factors that affect one’s perceptual processes.
- Physical differences
- Acuity of senses
- Difference in physical endurance
- Ability to navigate indoor/outdoor space; move easily
- Personality and Individual Characteristics
- Emotional state, Outlook, and Knowledge
- Cognitive Complexity
- Greater interest and experience yield greater complexity of constructs.
- Greater cognitive complexity yields a larger set of alternative explanations for
situations.
- Cognitively complex individuals can develop a large number of explanations for
the late arrival of a dinner date.
3.4 Articulate how power, culture, social comparisons, and historical time period influences
perception.
- The Role of Power
- Relative position of power or lack thereof influences perception
- Perceptual reality of low-power people is likely to differ from those in higher
power hierarchy
- One’s individual experiences within a hierarchy may lead one to accept or reject
dominant perceptions and Affects beliefs about racial bias
 - The Role of Culture
- Every culture has its own sensory model
- A culture’s shared practices, norms, values, and beliefs shape individuals’
thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors
- Cultural background influences communication
- Cultural norms, values, and expectations provide a backdrop of familiarity
- The Role of Social Comparison
- Leads to specific expectations about how others should behave
- Ethnocentrism
- Stereotypes
- Can lead to polarized understandings of the world
- Prejudice
- Ego-defensive function
- Value-expressive function
- The Role of Historical Time Period
- Influences perception and communication
- Living through specific historical events can affect individuals’ perceptions
- Social Roles
- Specific position you hold in society
- Offer specific expectations
- Others’ expectations influence our communication
- Education, training, and socialization related to roles affects perception
- Individuals share perceptual realities with others in their power position in
society’s hierarchy, culture, and social role groups
- Differing realities and power positions can lead to prejudicial and
intolerant thinking and communication
3.5 Explain why ethics is relevant to the perception process.
- What we select to attend to, categories of people, and attributions we make influence
what we believe, say, and do
- When speakers perceive and label groups of people negatively, derogatory terms may
be used, which reinforce negative responses to those group members
- We have control and responsibility for perceptions and cognitions
3.6 Identify three ways you can improve your perception skills.
- Methods of Improving Perception Skills
- Engage in mindfulness
- Before assuming your perceptions are accurate, question your perceptions
- Was your focus too narrow?
- What organizational pattern did you use?
- Have you considered all possible interpretations?
- Before assuming your perceptions are accurate, question your perceptions
- Were you influenced by physical condition?
- Were you influenced by cultural background?
- Were you influenced by social roles?
- Were you influenced by social position?
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Identify three reasons for learning about verbal communication.
- Foundation on which meaning is created
- Plays role in identity and relationship development
- Language is tied to identity
4.2 Describe the functions and components of language.
- Instrumental Function: This function is used to satisfy a need or obtain a desired object
or situation. For example, a child might say "I want a toy" to obtain a toy they desire.
- Regulatory Function: This function is used to control or influence the behavior of others.
For example, a teacher might say "Please sit down and open your books" to regulate the
behavior of their students.
- Informative Function: This function is used to convey information about the world, to
describe events or situations, or to explain something. For example, a news reporter
might say "The hurricane made landfall at 3pm and caused extensive damage" to inform
the public about the impact of the hurricane.
- Heuristic Function: This function is used to explore and discover new information or to
solve problems. For example, a scientist might use language to investigate a hypothesis
or to understand the results of an experiment.
- Interactional Function: This function is used to establish and maintain social relationships
and to interact with others in a friendly way. For example, friends might use language to
chat and catch up with each other.
- Personal Language Function: This function is used to express individual identity,
personality, and emotions. For example, a person might use language to express their
likes and dislikes, values, beliefs, and feelings.
- Imaginative Function: This function is used to express creativity, to tell stories, to
entertain, and to express ideas that may not be true or real. For example, a writer might
use language to create a fictional world with characters, plots, and themes.
- Components of Language
- Rules of grammar
- Phonology (basic sounds units), syntax (allows formation of
understandable clauses), semantics (denotative and connotative
meaning), and pragmatics (speech patterns, conversational, contextual
rules, and speech act theory
4.3 Identify examples of several major influences on verbal communication.
- Dialects
- Distinguished by lexical choice, grammar, and pronunciation
- Influenced by gender, age, regionality, ethnicity and race, education, and
occupation
- Gender
- Men and women are socialized to communicate in specific ways
- Gender-based perceptions are hard to change
- stereotypes can create differential treatment at work and in social situations
- Many differences stem from power, status, and expectations in communication
situations
 - Age of the person
- Affects word choice leading to Cohort effect
- Affects communication skills and meanings they attribute
- Older people are more cognitively developed
- Regionality
- Influences pronunciation, Separated by geographical boundary
- More isolated groups have more distinct dialects
- Immigration has effect
- People all over the country and the world speak frequently and have access to
similar media
- Ethnicity and Race
- Influence syntax, accent, and word choice
- Vary in verbal style
- African American Vernacular English
- Code switching
- Education and Occupation
- Similarities across education levels and occupations
- Jargon encourages similarities
4.4 Describe the relationships between language, perception, and power.
Language and perception
- Nominalists
- Any idea can be expressed in any language
- Does not affect perceptions
- Relativists
- Language shapes ideas as well as gives voice to ideas
- Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that the structure and content of a language
can shape the way people perceive and think about the world
Language and Power
- Cocultural theory
1. Hierarchies privilege certain groups.
2. Privileged groups set the norms.
3. Languages maintain and reinforce power.
4. Society values a more female communication style; men may be criticized for
failing to communicate appropriately.
5. Dominant language structures impede progress for less dominant groups.
- Power and words
- English is somewhat gendered
- Not harmful but reflects stereotypes
- Not about freedom of speech or political correctness, but about audience and
awareness
- Power and accents
- Dialects and accents associated with cultural attitudes
- Accents and variations set off stereotypes
- Depends on social forces of history and politics
 - Power and Identity Labels
- Labels offer messages about power relations
- Tend to mark and label minority differences
- Language labels can stigmatize
- Not everyone in an identity group shares the same denotative meaning of a label
- Labels change over time
4.5 Identify examples of confirming communication, disconfirming communication, and hate
speech.
- Hate Speech
- Unethical use of verbal communication and is used to attack a person or group of
people based on their identity
- Examples can be racial slurs and derogatory names or comments
- Confirming communication
- validates and affirms the feelings, thoughts, or beliefs of the person being
addressed.
- Examples is stating that you understand their feelings
- Disconfirming communication
- invalidates or ignores the feelings, thoughts, or beliefs of the person being
addressed.
- Examples include interruptions, dismissing opinions, and using sarcastic tones
4.6 Discuss ways to improve your own verbal communication skills.
- “I” Statements
- Describe other person’s behavior
- Describe your feelings about behavior
- Describe consequences other’s behavior has for you
- “You” Statements lead recipients to feel defensive or angry
- Become Aware of the Power of Language
- Language has consequences and ethical implications
- Negative or offensive identity terms deny labeled individuals their identities, even
if unintentional

CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Describe the important role of nonverbal communication in social interaction.
- Helps us express and interpret verbal messages
- Influences how we interpret messages
- Helps us navigate everyday life
- Can affect public policy decisions
- Nonverbal cues are ambiguous, continuous, and multi channeled
5.2 Define nonverbal communication.
- Sending and receiving of information through appearance, objects, environment, and
behavior
- Research: All nonverbal behavior is communicative, or not
- Symbolic meaning
- Communicated intentionally
5.3 Define nonverbal codes and explain the five functions of nonverbal messages.
- Culture, relationship, familiarity, and gender has an influence on nonverbal
communication
- Non Verbal Codes are distinct and organized means of expression of symbols and rules
for a person's use
- Kinesics
- Sent by the body
- Includes gestures, postures, movement, expressions, and eye behaviors
- The Body
- Gestures like illustrators, emblems, adaptors, and regulators
- Posture and movement like immediacy and relaxation
- The Face
- Primary channel for transmitting emotions
- Eyes convey important information about attraction and attention
- Paralinguistics
- Oral but not verbal like noises or coughs
- Voice quality like speed, pitch, rhythm, vocal range, and articulation
- Vocalizations like uttered sounds that do not form words
- Chronemics
- Monochronic time is a time orientation where people tend to do one thing
at a time, value punctuality and efficiency, and tend to divide time into
small, precise units.
- Polychronic time is a time orientation where people tend to do multiple
things at once, value relationships and social interactions, and see time
as a more fluid and less rigidly structured concept.
- Haptics
- Professional (functional) touch
- Social-polite touch
- Friendship touch
- Love-intimate touch
- Demand touching
- Appearance and Artifacts
- People’s looks are believed to communicate something about them
- Ideals of what constitutes beauty differ according to time period,
culture,class, and other factors.
- Function of Nonverbal Messages
- Communicating information
- Repeat a message, Highlight/emphasize a message,
Complement/reinforce a message, Contradict a message, and Substitute
for a message
- Regulating interactions, expressing and maintaining intimacy, and establishing
social control
- Signaling service task functions
- Telling someone to do thing thing
5.4 Explain how nonverbal communication can both trigger and express prejudice and
discrimination.
- Nonverbal Communication and Power
- Economic resources indicate power, status, and identity
- We include or exclude others, consciously and unconsciously, based on
interpretation of power displays
- Powerful segments of society define appropriate nonverbal communication
- Nonverbal Communication, Prejudice, and Discrimination
- Triggered by and expressed through nonverbal behavior
- Prompted by race, ethnicity, body shape, age, and style of dress
- Communicated overtly nonverbally through hate crimes
- Communicated covertly through averting gaze or not reciprocating a smile
- Microaggressions
- Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities,
whether intentional or unintentional
- Communicate hostile, derogatory, or prejudicial slights toward culturally
marginalized groups
- Mostly noticed by the person experiencing them
- Often happen unconsciously and unintentionally
5.5 Explain how nonverbal communication can be used to communicate unethically.
- Nonverbal communication can be used to communicate unethically in a number of ways.
- Deceptive Body Language: Nonverbal cues like facial expressions, posture, and
gestures can be used to deceive others.
- Intentional Eye Contact: Eye contact can be used to manipulate others.
- Disguising True Emotions: Nonverbal cues can be used to mask or disguise true
emotions.
- Sending Mixed Signals: Nonverbal cues can be used to send mixed signals,
confusing or misleading others.
- Consider whether your nonverbals:
1. Reflect real attitudes, beliefs, and feelings
2. Do not contradict the verbal message
3. Do not insult, ridicule, or demean others
4. Are not used to intimidate, coerce, or silence
5. Are those you would want everyone to observe
6. Are those you would want directed at you or a loved one
5.6 Explain how you can improve your ability to interpret nonverbal behavior.
- Examine congruency and contradictions
- Analyze the context
- Recognize that meanings of words could vary
- Be aware of individual, contextual, and cultural factors
- Ask for additional information for clarification of a nonverbal message, or if there is
contradiction
- Remember that not all nonverbal behavior is communicative
- Don’t emphasize fleeting nonverbal behaviors
CHAPTER SIX
6.1 Describe how in-person conversations differ from mediated conversations.
- in-person conversations tend to be more immediate, personal, and intimate than
mediated conversations, while mediated conversations tend to be more flexible,
convenient, and accessible.
- Limitation of Mediated Method
- Mediated methods do not substitute for in person conversations
- We do not see much of the other person
- Leaking, microexpressions, and olfaction
- Mediated communication takes place from technology like email, texts, social media, and
some forms of video calls
6.2 Define conversational interaction.
- Spoken and Interactive
- Involves an exchange of information
- Talk is not the same as conversation
- Discussing represents formal talk that focuses on one issue
- Text messages are communicative, but lack the spontaneity of a real-time conversation
6.3 Explain the fundamental skills necessary for effective in-person conversations.
- Perspective taking
- Improves our ability to understand others’ conversational contributions
- Allows us to frame messages that are clearer and more meaningful to others
- Most communicators fall short of accurately perceiving and understanding others
- Desire to think and respond
- Desire to enhance our sense of ourselves
- Improving Your Perspective-Taking Skills
- Examine your own biases, Naïve realism, Experience new viewpoints, Generate
multiple theories, and Collect new information
- Be humble
- Conversational Awareness
- Expectations for how people should communicate during conversation and
meeting those expectations
- Pay attention to how much/little we talk and adjust accordingly
- Listen actively and respond to others when they speak and the details
- Conversational Routines
1. Approach someone and introduce yourself.
2. Ask the person how they are, which can combine with you introducing yourself.
3. Ask the person a question.
4. Make a comment on something in the environment
5. Make a general complaint.
6. Offer a “social line.”
- Exiting conversations: End on an upbeat note that you don’t necessarily want to
- leave the interaction
- Shifting Conversations
- May seem impolite and try apologizing if you need to interrupt
 - Hurtful Messages
- Criticizes, teases, rejects, or otherwise causes emotional injury to another
- Criticism of another person’s behavior, physical appearance, ability, etc. that
suggest a deficiency
- Relatively common
- Focus on relationships, personality, and appearance
- Don’t always include what one says, but also what one doesn’t say
- Sexual Consent
- Most people want agreement and No one wants to feel forced
- Sex with an unwilling partner can constitute sexual assault legally
- Violating another’s boundaries and body is ethically and morally indefensible
- Conceptualization of sexual consent has changed in the past 50 years
- Consent is a process; each partner should engage in every step of the act
- Consent can be withdrawn at any time
6.4 Explain the role society plays in conversational interaction.
- Everyday interactions are influenced primarily by our own and the other party’s beliefs,
attitudes, and conversational style
- expected to conversate in a way that reflects our gender, status, and type of relationship
- Gatekeeping and Standard American English (SAE)
- Influence of Sex and Gender
- Maintains gender identities, create structural level inequality, affiliative and
assertive conversationalist
- People are socialized to use specific conversational styles based on gender
- Influence of Socioeconomic Class
- Conversational style contributes significantly to economic inequality in the U.S.
- We judge interaction partners differently, depending on our own and the partner’s
social class
- These evaluations affect our desire for social interaction or connection
6.5 Explain why manipulative conversational strategies are unethical.
- Influencing Others
- Persuasion
- Conversational manipulation
- Difference
- Your intent
- Your truthfulness and transparency of the interaction
- Who benefits by your interactions
- Five Primary Conversational Strategies of Manipulation
- Lying, minimization, evasion, feeling guilt, bandwagon effect
6.6 Describe the characteristics of an effective apology.
- Behaviors to Display So the Offended Party Will Listen:
- Don’t wait and Be genuine. Accept the other person’s anger.
- To Effectively Express Remorse
- Don’t offer justifications or excuses.
- Explain how you will ensure the injury does not occur again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
7.1 Identify six reasons why listening is important.
1. We spend so much time doing it
2. Improves memory, offers broader knowledge base, and increases attention span
3. Can enhance academic performance
4. Can enhance personal relationships
5. Highly desirable workplace skill
6. Can lead to improved physical health
7.2 Describe the four stages of listening.
- Process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and
- responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages
- Four stages
- Hearing is when take in a auditory stimuli
- Understanding is when we process the information and interpret it
- Evaluating is when we are analyzing its relevance and importance. This can
involve assessing the credibility of the speaker, and deciding whether to accept
or reject what they are saying.
- Responding is the reaction from us
7.3 Describe the influences on listening and barriers to effective listening.
- Many forms of listening
- Listening styles
- Critical listening style
- Focuses on content accuracy, error-free and well-organized speaking
- When requiring attention to veracity and organization:
1. Consider the speaker’s credibility
2. Listen between the lines
3. Weigh the evidence
- Task-oriented listening style
- Reflects an interest in listening as a simple transaction, focusing on substance,
the point of the content
- Requires details, efficiency, clarity
- Requires informational listening skills:
1. Attend to what the speaker is saying
2. Paraphrase
3. Clarify
4. Review and summarize
- Analytical listening style
- Focuses on the facts, systematic thinking, rather than enjoyment of error-free
information
- Requires task-oriented and additional systematic analytical listening skills:
1. Listen between the lines
2. Don’t judge the speaker prematurely
3. Evaluate the messages being sent and their implications
4. Periodically review and summarize
 - Relational listening style
- Friendly, open communication, interest in establishing ties.
- Use active-empathic listening (AEL) skills:
1. Put the other person at ease
2. Remove distractions
3. Empathize with the other person
4. Be patient
5. Be aware of your own emotions
- Gender
- Some scholars think women are better listeners, others, no gender differences
- Gender stereotypes
- Men: logical, judgmental, interrupting, inattentive, self-centered
- Women: emotional, attentive, other-centered, responsive, patient
- Most behavioral differences influenced more by cultural norms than biology
- Age
- Young children are developing skills; patience is required
- Older individuals may be hard of hearing; not all have diminished abilities
- Nationality
- Norms vary by culture
- Different cultures may use distinct, implicit assumptions, which could cause
misunderstandings and confusion
- Barrier to Listening
- Poor listening habits
- Wandering, Rejecting, Judging, Predicting, and Rehearsing
7.4 Understand the role of societal forces (hierarchy,contexts, and community) in listening.
- Social Hierarchy
- Social status
- More attentive to someone with equal or greater social status
- Physical appearance
- Less likely to listen to people with disabilities or physical challenges
- Vocal cues
- Trigger judgments, which affect likelihood of listening
- Listening in Context
- We focus on content or critical listening in professional contexts
- We focus on people and relationship affirmation in social contexts
- Societal forces, such as prejudice, discrimination, or bullying, affect listening
behavior
- Listening and Community
- Soundscapes contribute to community identity
7.5 Describe ethical challenges in listening.
- Listening to other conversations LOL, listening selectively, not listening
7.6 Discuss two ways to improve your own listening behavior.
- Identify poor habits and take on honest inventory of listening behaviors
- Strive for mindful listening