Exam 2: Understanding Your Self

Which communication element is represented in the perception checking guidelines when you ask the following question: How could your perceptions affect the way you use verbal and nonverbal behavior to convey a message?

Which of the following concepts about self describes your ability to observe and control how you express yourself verbally and nonverbally when interacting with others?

Your culture plays a significant role in the perception process. For example, when asked to group three objects together-a chicken, grass, and a cow-people from Western cultures are more likely to put the chicken and the cow together because they are both animals. East Asians, however, are more likely to pair the cow and the grass because cows eat grass.

You may be able to reduce your level of communication apprehension by concentrating on yourself-how you sound and look-rather than on your message.

Strategies for improving your self-esteem include practicing self-assertiveness, personal integrity, and self-talk.

When you shift roles, your behavior often changes.

Your textbook describes several sources of communication apprehension. Identify three sources and explain why and how these factors contribute to a person's individual level of communication anxiety.

When using systematic desensitization as a method of reducing communication apprehension, you begin by trying to relax while visualizing a nonthreatening communicative act. Which of the following situations would be a good choice for your initial visualization?

The ethical communication feature about perception in your textbook asks you to consider how another person may perceive a situation differently than you do. Describe an example from your own life where someone has seen the same situation differently than you have.

Which of the following sources of self-concept is reflected in the following statement? "I am a twenty-three year old Mexican American who was born in Texas, graduated from University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Finance, and am now working for a start-up company in California."

Daniel Goleman notes that practice can improve performance because simulating an act is-to your brain-the same as performing it.

Sociologist Erving Goffman claims that we do assume a social identity that others help us to maintain.

Perception checking requires you to become aware of how you select, organize, and interpret sensory stimuli; whether you consider alternative interpretations; and whether you try to verify your perceptions with others. Discuss how applying the seven key competencies of effective communication to the perception-checking process is a way to improve your perception. Provide examples to illustrate your understanding of perception checking.

A new family in town has joined a local church and enrolled their children in the Sunday morning religious school. Members welcome the family by inviting the parents to join the adult prayer group on Wednesdays. The parents explain that they are not very religious, but have joined the church because they believe in providing a religious education for their children. What perceptual principle explains this scenario?

Cognitive restructuring is a relaxation and visualization technique that involves learning to relax while visualizing various communication situations.

When we alter the meaning of messages so they become consistent with what we believe, we are practicing which selective process?

The textbook's list of strategies for improving your self-esteem provides an exception to each strategy. What is the exception for the strategy "practice positive self-talk"?

Context does not influence how you organize information.

You use your senses to notice and choose from the many stimuli surrounding you.

Your textbook discusses four selective processes-selective exposure, selective attention, selective recall, and selective interpretation. Choose and explain two of the four processes. Demonstrate your understanding by providing examples of how these processes affect human communication behavior.