CMN 120 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Interpersonal Communication, Cooperative Principle, Paralanguage
364 views10 pages
CMN 120 Exam 1 Study Guide – Winter 2017
The majority of questions come from lecture/videos. While most of the readings
supplement lecture, there are a few concepts covered in readings that are not
discussed in lectures. Approximately 20-25% (10-12) of the questions will be
strictly from the reading.
The exam questions will include definitional questions, application questions, and
synthesizing questions (understanding connections between concepts across
lectures). Many questions are very specific. To maximize your test score you
should study all of the lecture notes, video handouts, and readings from the
course.
The exam will be 43 multiple choice/matching questions and 2 short answer
questions.
Please remember to bring a scantron to class (UCD 2000) and a pencil.
Questions to study from lecture
1. Why are lies successful? What is true lying? Are there instances that
aren’t lies? Explain.
• Lies are successful because we want to believe people aren’t lying.
• True lying is when you purposely lie to deceit/hurt someone.
• Some instances that aren’t lies is like poker--you are being “tactful” which
is part of the deception of the game or sometimes lying just to help
someone
o Tactful when you are being polite, trying to help someone save
face, not intentionally deceive someone to harm them
2. What are the stages of love? (3)
• 1) Lust: sexual craving; based off of physical appearances mostly;
temporary
• 2) Infatuation: thinking about them at least 85% of your day;
focused/obsessive about the person
• 3) Attachment: depending on each other & couple bonding; deep sense of
calm
3. What are the predictors of divorce?
• Gottman’s 4 horsemen of apocalypse:
o Criticism
o Defensive
o Contempt
o withdrawal
→ fighting and anger are NOT predictors of divorce
4. Why are attractive people assumed to have other valued characteristics?
Because attractive ppl appear to us as physically healthy & have the potential to
carry on genes → survival of the fittest for maximum offsprings (evolution)
5. What do the situational and developmental approaches to interpersonal
communication argue? What’s the difference between them? What are the
core ideas of each?
Situational Approach: distinguishes IPC based on the situation (context) in which
the various kinds of communication takes place
- Number of Communicators: 2/small number
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Degree of Physical Proximity: close, face-to-face situation
- Different Senses Available: permits the use of maximum numbers of
sensory channels
- Availability of Feedback: immediate, high feedback
Developmental Approach: believes that the defining feature of IPC is the
predictive power of a partner’s behavior
- goal: believes that ppl make predictions about the effects of their
communication behavior as they get to know someone → contributes to
development of relationship
6. What are the proxemics zones? (FOUR)
• Intimate: physical contact up to 18 inches
• Personal: 1 ½ feet to 4 feet
• Social: 4 feet to 12 feet
• Public: 12 feet or more
7. What are the temporal and vocal qualities of paralanguage?
Paralanguage = study of vocal characteristics
Temporal qualities (use of time): (FIVE)
• Phonetic pause: less than ¼ of a second; ears cannot hear it
• Silent Pause: greater than ¼ of a second; ears can hear it
• Filled pause: greater than ¼ of a second with sound (Ex: UMMMMMM…)
• Response latency: amount of time between speaking turns
• Speech rate: how fast you speak
Vocal qualities: (FOUR)
• Articulation: how well we move our tongues, lips, teeth when formulating
sounds in the words
• Loudness: how loud/soft in our volume
• Pitch: determines if you’re angry, happy or sad
• Stress: different words stressed differently suggests different meaning
o Ex: Hello? HELLO!
8. What factors impact attraction? (FOUR)
• Proximity: the more you’re physically close/around someone, the more
you’re attracted to them
• Mere exposure: the more we’re exposed/familiarized to a particular
person, the more we become attracted to them
• Isolation Anxiety: we’re attracted to ppl that want to be around others
too/don’t wanna be alone
• Similarities: we’re attracted to ppl who have similarities with us
(background, interests) → provides sense of predictability and sense of
self-validation
9. What are the core components of politeness theory? What are the
assumptions? What is face? What is a face-threatening act? What makes a
face-threatening act more or less face-threatening? What are politeness
strategies?
Politeness Theory = shows us how we can be an effective communicator by
being polite → predicts how we interpret language
- Politeness Assumptions (3):
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• All people have face wants
• It is in everybody’s best interests to cooperate in satisfying each other’s
face needs
• People are rational, so they choose means that will satisfy their ends
- Face (2):
• Positive Face = we want to have our identity/public self-image/mental
construct accepted & praised by others
• Negative Face = we have a desire to have our face to be respected for our
right to make our own choices & demonstrate that we have
freedom&autonomy
- Face-Threatening Act: statements/requests/criticisms that violates a person’s
positive or negative face (Ex: criticisms, requests, or threats)
• The degree to which an act is face-threatening depends upon (FOUR):
• 1) social distance (the less similar, the more FT; more similar, less FT)
• 2) power or status of the listener relative to the speaker
• 3) degree of imposition (more face threatening if asking for a bigger favor)
• 4) rank (some topics, culturally-dependent, are gonna be more face-
threatening)
- Politeness Strategies (FIVE):
-------MOST POLITE---------------(High Face Threat)
1) Do not say anything at all
2) Off-record Strategy: give hint at request/criticism; don’t say it explicitly or
verbally
3) Negative Face Redress: acknowledge their autonomy/independence & that
you respect it before making a request
4) Positive Face Redress: acknowledge their connection with you before making
a request
5) Bald-on record Strategy: tell them clearly/directly; does not appeal to
negative/positive face
-------------LEAST POLITE------------- (Low Face Threat)
10. What are the elements of interpersonal communication? (FOUR)
• Intentionality: we must purposefully make a choice to communicate with
the other person
• Shared Information: whether verbal or nonverbal, the communicated
message is understood by both parties
• Transmission: msg has to be transferred from you to another person
(cannot be left inside your head)
• Bond = recognize some sort of relationship between you & the other
person
11. What are the axioms of interpersonal communication (THREE)? Can
you explain and differentiate between each one?
• One cannot not communicate (everything we do have some sort of
communicative value → CONTROVERSIAL)
• Every communication has a direct (w/ content) & implied (a relationship)
meaning
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com