Communications
Ch. 1-4 Study Guide
1. Are Human Beings born with the capacity to communicate? Most of the skills that we need to
communicate must be learned
2. The study of morals, especially the moral choices individuals make in their relationships with
others - Ethics
3. Mental constructions we use to connect related bits of information - Schemas
4. What is the role of gender in communication? Men and women have different conversation
styles, particularly when negotiating power
5. The share of beliefs values, and practices of a group of people - Culture
The belief that one’s own culture is appropriate and relevant in all situations
and to all people – Cultural Myopia
6. If you tell yourself you’re going to fail, you’ll fail – example of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The feeling and thoughts that you get when you know that you have negotiated
a communication situation as well as you possible could – Self- Actualization
7. Sharing important information about yourself as with a close friend – Self-Disclosure
A negative assessment about a communication experience that involves
criticizing or attacking your own performance – Self- denigration
8. The basic consistently accepted definition of a word – denotative meaning
The emotional or attitudinal response that people have to a word – connotative
meaning
9. The Ladder of Abstraction: The high level abstractions are the most general and vague and the
lower level abstractions are more specific and can help you understand more precisely what
people mean
10. Language that replaces biased language with more neutral terms – Politically Correct Language
11. Cultures that rely more on contextual cues – such as time, place, relationship and situation –
both to interpret meaning, and to send subtle messages – High Context Cultures
Cultures in which individuals use very direct language and rely less on
contextual cues for communication information – Low Context Cultures
12. Communicative, often spontaneous and unintentional, ambiguous, and more believable than
verbal – Nature of Non-verbal Communication
13. Non-verbal vocal behaviors including pauses, inflections, speed, pitch and volume that
communicate meaning - Paralanguage
14. The study of the way we use and communicate with space - Proxemics
15. The study of how people perceive the use of time - Chronemics
16. The study of the use of the eyes and communication settings - Oculesics
17. The way gestures and body movements communicate meaning - Kinesics
18. The Linear Model, a sender originates communication, with words or action
The Interaction Model, exhibits communications between sender and receiver
that incorporates feedback
The Competent Communication Model, individuals or communicate
simultaneously, sending and receiving messages at the same moment in time,
within a relational context, a situational context, and a cultural context
19. Arbitrary constructions that refer to people, things, or concepts - Symbol
20. A cognitive process through which we interpret our experiences and come to our own unique
understanding - Perception
21. Mental constructions we use to connect related bits of information - Schema
