Midterm

Altruistic, supportive, and affirming communication exchanges between people.

An ethical system, based on the work of philosopher Immanuel Kant, in which individuals follow moral absolutes. The underlying tenet in this ethical system suggests that we should act as an example to others.

A pathway through which a message is sent.

The acceptance of another person as an equal partner in achieving meaning during communication.

A fear or an anxiety pertaining to the communication process.

The ability to communicate with knowledge, skills, and thoughtfulness.

Visual, simplified representations of complex relationships in the communication process.

The verbal and nonverbal information contained in a message that indicates the topic of the message.

The environment in which a message is sent.

The cultural environment in which communication occurs.

Negative communication exchanges between people, such as manipulation, deceit, and verbal aggression.

An ethical system, based on the concepts of Carol Gilligan, that is concerned with the connections among people and the moral consequences of decisions.

The perceived rightness or wrongness of an action or behavior, determined in large part by society.

The feedback we receive from other people.

A verbal or nonverbal response to a message. See also internal feedback and external feedback.

The influence of a person's culture, past experiences, personal history, and heredity on the communication process.

An ethical system, articulated by Aristotle, that proposes a person's moral virtue stands between two vices, with the middle, or the mean, being the foundation for a rational society.

A type of context in which messages are understood in relationship to previously sent messages.

A characterization of communication as a two-way process in which a message is sent from sender to receiver and from receiver to sender.

A fear or anxiety pertaining to communication with people from different cultural backgrounds.

The feedback we give ourselves when we assess our own communication.

The process of message transaction between two people to create and sustain shared meaning.

The fact that our communication with others cannot be unsaid or reversed.

A characterization of communication as a one-way process that transmit a message from a sender to a receiver.

What the sender intends to convey with a message, and what the receiver extracts from a message.

Spoken, written, or unspoken information sent from a sender to a receiver.

The transaction of verbal and nonverbal messages being sent simultaneously between two people.

Anything that interferes with accurate transmission or reception of a message. See also physical noise, physiological noise, psychological noise, and semantic noise.

The tangible environment in which communication occurs.

Any stimuli outside of a sender or a receiver that interfere with the transmission or reception of a message. Also called external noise.

Biological influences on a sender or a receiver that interfere with the transmission or reception of a message.

When used to describe interpersonal communication, an ongoing, unending, vibrant activity that always changes.

Biases, prejudices, and feelings that interfere with the accurate transmission or reception of a message. Also called internal noise.

The intended target of a message.

The prior relationship experiences two people share.

Negotiable rules that indicate what two relational partners expect and allow when they talk to each other.

The ways in which the particular relationship of two relational partners stands apart from other relationships they experience.

The information contained in a message that indicates how the sender wants the receiver to interpret the message.

A prescribed guide that indicates what behavior is obligated, preferred, or prohibited in certain contexts.

The process of gaining information about ourselves in an effort to tap our full potential, our spontaneity, and our talents, and to cultivate our strengths and eliminate our shortcomings.

Occurs when senders and receivers apply different meanings to the same message. Semantic noise may take the form of jargon, technical language, and other words and phrases that are familiar to the sender but that are not understood by the receiver.

The study of signs and symbols in relation to their form and content.

The source of a message.

An ethical system, conceptualized by Thomas Nilsen, in which communication is ethical to the extent that it maximizes our ability to exercise free choice. In this system, information should be given to others in a noncoercive way so that people can make free and informed decisions.

The relational and emotional environment in which communication occurs.

Arbitrary labels or representations (such as words) for feelings, concepts, objects, or events.

A characterization of communication as the reciprocal sending and receiving of messages. In a transactional encounter, the sender and receiver do not simply send meaning from one to the other and then back again; rather, they build shared meaning through simultaneous sending and receiving.

An ethical system, developed by John Stuart Mill, in which what is ethical is what will bring the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In this system, consequences of moral actions, especially maximizing satisfaction and happiness, are important.

The first stage of the perception process, requiring us to use our visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory senses to respond to stimuli in our interpersonal environment.

A theory that explains how we create explanations or attach meaning to another person's behavior or our own.

The image of the self we choose to present to others in our interpersonal encounters.

A piece of information that is verifiable by direct observation.

The learned behaviors a culture associates with being a male or female, known as masculinity or femininity.

The process by which women and men learn the gender roles appropriate to their sex. This process affects the way the sexes perceive the world.

A mental framework we use to process and categorize beliefs, ideas, and events as either masculine or feminine in order to understand and organize our world.

Matching like qualities with each other to create an overall perception of someone or something.

The communication behaviors we exhibit to influence how others perceive us.

The theory that we rely on a set of a few characteristics to draw inferences about others and use these inferences as the basis of our communication with them.

A conclusion derived from a fact, but it does not reflect direct observation or experience.

The third stage of the perception process, in which we assign meaning to what we perceive.

Having the ability to engage our senses so that we are observant and aware of our surroundings.

Our desire that others refrain from imposing their will on us, respect our individuality and our uniqueness, and avoid interfering with our actions or beliefs.

Occurs when we group negative qualities (e.g., unintelligent, rude, and temperamental) together.

The second stage of the perception process, in which we place what are often a number of confusing pieces of information into an understandable, accessible, and orderly arrangement.

The process of using our senses to understand and respond to stimuli. The perception process occurs in four stages: attending and selecting, organizing, interpreting, and retrieving.

Our desire to be liked by significant others in our lives and have them confirm our beliefs, respect our abilities, and value what we value.

Occurs when we place positive qualities (e.g., warm, sensitive, and intelligent) together.

A mental framework or memory structure that we rely on to understand experience and to guide our future behavior in relationships.

People who support and trust us as we improve our self-concept.

The fourth and final stage of the perception process, in which we recall information stored in our memories.

Directing our attention to certain stimuli while ignoring other stimuli.

Recalling information that agrees with our perceptions and selectively forgetting information that does not.

Our understanding of who we are.

A relatively stable set of perceptions we hold of ourselves.

An evaluation of who we perceive ourselves to be.

A prediction or expectation about our future behavior that is likely to come true because we believe it and thus act in ways that make it come true.

Actively thinking about and controlling our public behaviors and actions.

The biological make-up of an C6individual (male or female).

Categorizing individuals according to a fixed impression, whether positive or negative, of an entire group to which they belong.

The theory that our understanding of ourselves and of the world are shaped by our interactions with those around us.

A unique personal frame for viewing life and life's events.

Occurs when a person learns, adapts to, and adopts the appropriate behaviors and rules of a host culture.

A culture within a culture.

A cultural mindset that emphasizes the group and its norms, values, and beliefs over the self.

The common understandings among people who are committed to coexisting.

The theory that meaning is derived from either the setting of the message or the words of a message and that cultures can vary in the extent to which message meaning is made explicit or implicit.

The learned ability to accurately understand the experiences of people from diverse cultures and to convey that understanding responsively.

The process whereby individuals, companies, and/or the media impose their way of thinking and behaving upon another culture.

The ability to avoid judging or condemning any practice in which any other culture engages.

A theory that describes the four value dimensions (individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity/femininity) that offer information regarding the value differences in a particular culture.

The shared, personal, and learned life experiences of a group of individuals who have a common set of values, norms, and traditions.

A conflict over cultural expectations and experiences.

Occurs when a personeither consciously or unconsciously learns to identify with a particular culture and a culture's thinking, way of relating, and worldview.

The process of judging another culture using the standards of our own culture.

A culture that emphasizes characteristics stereotypically associated with feminine people, such as sexual equality, nurturance, quality of life, supportiveness, affection, and a compassion for the less fortunate.

The concept that all societies, regardless of their size, are connected in some way. The term also can be used to describe how communication technology ties the world into one political, economical, social, and cultural system.

A culture in which there is a high degree of similarity among members and in which the meaning of a message is drawn primarily from its context, such as one's surroundings, rather than from words.

A group to which a person feels he or she belongs.

A cultural mindset that emphasizes self-concept and personal achievement and that prefers competition over cooperation, the individual over the group, and the private over the public.

Communication between and among individuals and groups from different cultural backgrounds.

A culture in which there is a high degree of difference among members and in which the meaning of a message must be explicitly related, usually in words.

A culture that emphasizes characteristics stereotypically associated with masculine people, such as achievement, competitiveness, strength, and material success.

A group to which a person feels he or she does not belong.

A practice in which a nation sends work and workers to a different country because doing so is cost efficient.

How a culture perceives and distributes power.

A cultural mindset that indicates how tolerant (or intolerant) a culture is of uncertainty and change.

Not able to be seen, smelled, tasted, touched, or heard.

The ease with which a language can express a thought.

Shifting back and forth between languages in the same conversation.

Able to be seen, smelled, tasted, touched, or heard.

A response that acknowledges and supports another.

The meaning of a verbal symbol that is derived from our personal and subjective experience with that symbol.

The process of developing a thought based on hearing verbal symbols, observing nonverbal messages, or both.

The literal, conventional meaning of a verbal symbol that most people in a culture have agreed is the meaning of that symbol.

A response that fails to acknowledge and support another, leaving the person feeling ignored and disregarded.

The process of putting thoughts and feelings into verbal symbols, nonverbal messages, or both.

A type of ambiguity that involves choosing our words carefully to give a listener a false impression without actually lying.

A milder or less direct word substituted for another word that is more blunt or negative.

A theory that argues that when we compare two unlike things in a figure of speech, we are unconsciously influenced by this decision.

The use of the masculine pronoun he to function generically when the subject of the sentence is of unknown gender.

The rules that dictate the structure of language.

A word or a phrase that has an understood meaning within a culture but whose meaning is not derived by exact translation.

Avoiding generalizations by acknowledging the time frame in which we judge others and ourselves.

The ability to transmit thoughts from the mind of one individual to another through the process of encoding.

Experiences that are not named.

A theory that argues that our language determines our ability to perceive and think about things. If we don't have a word for something in our language, this theory predicts we won't think about it or notice it.

A theory that states that language influences our thinking but doesn't determine it. Thus, if we don't have a word for something in our language, this theory predicts it will be difficult, but not impossible, to think about it or notice it.

Words that include the word man but that are supposed to operate generically to include women as well, such as mankind.

People whose experiences are not well represented in verbal symbols and who have trouble articulating their thoughts and feelings verbally because their language doesn't give them an adequate vocabulary.

Acknowledging the viewpoints of those with whom we interact.

Communication consisting of words and phrases that are used for interpersonal contact only and are not meant to be translated verbatim.

The tendency to use either-or language and speak of the world in extremes.

The ability to move up and down the ladder of abstraction from specific to general and vice versa.

The thing a verbal symbol represents.

The tendency to respond to words or labels for things as though they were the things themselves.

A theory that points to connections among culture, language, and thought. In its strong form, this theory is known as linguistic determinism, and in its weak form, it is known as linguistic relativity.

Language that is demeaning to one sex.

A group of people who share norms about how to speak, what words to use, and when, where, and why to speak.

The tendency to speak and respond to someone today the same way we did in the past, not recognizing that people and relationships change over time.

Leaving out cues in a message on purpose to encourage multiple interpretations by others.

The theory that our understanding of ourselves and of the world is shaped by our interactions with those around us.

A theory that asserts that sex operates in the same way as culture in establishing different rules, norms, and language patterns for men and women.

Words.

The study of a person's body movement and its effect on the communication process.

The extent to which we turn our legs, shoulders, and head toward (or away) from a communicator.

The study of a person's use of time.

Gestures that acknowledge another's feedback in a conversation.

Gestures that signal shared understanding between communicators in a conversation.

A theory that maintains that we expect other people to maintain a certain distance from us in their conversations with us.

The study of how we communicate through touch.

A theory that suggests individuals simultaneously adapt their communication behavior to the communication behavior of others.

The distance that extends about eighteen inches around each of us that is normally reserved for people with whom we are close, such as close friends, romantic partners, and family members.

The study of a person's body movement and its effect on the communication process.

The incompatibility that occurs when our nonverbal messages are not congruent with our verbal messages.

All behaviors other than spoken words that communicate messages and create shared meaning between people.

The study of a person's voice. Also called vocalics.

Ranging from eighteen inches to four feet, the space most people use during conversations.

The distance we put between ourselves and others.

Aspects of physical appearance, such as body size, skin color, hair color and style, facial hair, and facial features.

The setting in which our behavior takes place.

The study of how people use, manipulate, and identify their personal space.

Communication that occurs at a distance of twelve or more feet, allowing listeners to see a person while he or she is speaking.

Gestures that request agreement or clarification from a sender during a conversation.

Ranging from four to twelve feet, the spatial zone usually reserved for professional or formal interpersonal encounters.

Items or objects that humans use to mark their territories, such as a table in a coffee shop.

Our sense of ownership of space that remains fixed.

Gestures that indicate that another person can speak or that are used to request to speak in a conversation.

In a conversation, nonverbal regulators that indicate who talks when and to whom.

Nonverbal behaviors such as crying, laughing, groaning, muttering, whispering, and whining.

The ums and ers used in conversation.

Nonverbal behaviors that include pitch, rate, volume, inflection, tempo, and pronunciation, as well as the use of vocal segregates and silence.

A listening style associated with listeners who want messages to be highly organized, concise, and error-free.

Listening carefully to a message and then using the information later to attack the sender.

A visual rather than auditory form of communication that is composed of precise hand shapes and movements.

Placing pieces of information into manageable and retrievable sets.

A listening style associated with listeners who focus on the facts and details of a message.

Engaging in an extreme amount of self-focusing during a conversation, to the exclusion of another person.

Viewing innocent comments as personal attacks or hostile criticisms.

Supporting statements, such as I see or I'm listening, that indicate we are involved in a message.

The process of identifying with or attempting to experience the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of another.

Listeners who think they can correctly guess the rest of the story a speaker is telling and don't need the speaker to continue.

The physical process of letting in audible stimuli without focusing on the stimuli.

The dynamic, transactional process of receiving, recalling, rating, and responding to stimuli, messages, or both, from another.

The time difference between our mental ability to interpret words and the speed at which they arrive at our brain.

A predominant and preferred approach to listening to the messages we hear.

The result when senders receive more messages than they can process.

Being unaware of the stimuli around us.

The simultaneous performance of two or more tasks.

Feedback that describes another's behavior and then explains how that behavior made us feel.

A view, judgment, or appraisal based on our beliefs or values.

Restating the essence of a sender's message in our own words.

A listening style associated with concern for other people's feelings or emotions.

To pretend to listen by nodding our heads, looking at the speaker, smiling at the appropriate times, or practicing other kinds of attention feigning.

Evaluating or assessing a message.

Understanding a message, storing it for future encounters, and remembering it later.

The verbal and nonverbal acknowledgment of a message.

Providing observable feedback to a sender's message.

To question the assumptions underlying a message.

Responding to some parts of a message and rejecting others.

A compulsive talker who hogs the conversational stage and monopolizes encounters.

A listening style associated with listeners who want messages to be presented succinctly.

A theory that states that we can pay attention to several stimuli and simultaneously store stimuli for future reference.

Suspending our own responses while listening so we can concentrate on what another person is saying.

An attribute of emotion that refers to whether the emotion implies action or passivity.

Communicating such that the emotion is not the content of the message but rather a property of it.

A way of thinking that constructs polar opposite categories to encompass the totality of a thing. Dualism prompts us to think about things in an either or fashion.

An icon that can be typed on a keyboard to express emotions; used to compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues in computermediated communication.

The critical internal structure that orients us to and engages us with what matters in our lives: our feelings about ourselves and others. Emotion encompasses both the internal feelings of one person (for instance, anxiety or happiness) as well as feelings that can be experienced only in a relationship (for instance, jealousy or competitiveness).

Talking about an emotional experience.

The process of transferring emotions from one person to another.

The ways in which an emotional experience impacts communication behavior.

The feeling of emotion.

The process of identifying with or attempting to experience the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of another.

The cultural norms used to create and react to emotional expressions.

A message phrased to show we understand that our feelings belong to us and aren't caused by someone else.

An attribute of emotion that refers to how strongly an emotion is felt.

Emotion felt about experiencing another emotion.

Verbally taking responsibility for our own thoughts and feelings.

To change something that has a negative connotation to something with a more positive connotation (e.g., a problem can become a concern, or a challenge can become an opportunity). This strategy can also be used to cope with dialectic tensions in a relationship.

An attribute of emotion that refers to whether the emotion reflects a positive or negative feeling.