Deck 7: Language and Communication

Question 1

Lasswell (1948) proposed a psychosocial model of communication which can be summarized as follows:

A) the speaker, content of message and whether it is understood
B) who says what to whom
C) who says what to whom by which channel
D) who says what to whom by which channel to what effect
E) what says what to whom by which channel and which Internet social site

Answer 1

d

Question 2

It is now recognized that:

A) non-verbal behaviour provides a distinctly separate communication channel which sometimes works in concert with the verbal system
B) all non-verbal behaviours are used as deliberate efforts to communicate
C) both verbal and non-verbal communication are intimately related and represent different manifestations of a common process in the brain
D) both a and c
E) both c and d

Answer 2

d

Question 3

Which aspect of communication is most fundamental to human interaction?

A) channel of communication
B) language
C) haptics
D) source
E) all of the above

Answer 3

a

Question 4

It has been estimated that we can produce __________ different morphemes.

A) 5,000
B) 100,000
C) 300,000
D) 900,000
E) 50

Question 5

Which of the following is not a function of non-verbal behaviours?

A) they can be used to express intimacy
B) they can be used to facilitate goal attainment
C) they can be used to express abstract theoretical concepts too difficult to put into words
D) they can provide information about feelings and intentions
E) they can be used to regulate interactions

Question 6

With the exception of movements which involve contact with someone else, all bodily movements are referred to as:

A) paralanguage
B) proxemics
C) haptics
D) kinesics
E) propinquity

Question 7

The non-verbal aspects of speech are referred to as:

A) kinesics
B) paralanguage
C) proxemics
D) haptics
E) facial expressions

Question 8

The term 'haptics' refers to:

A) communication in pre-linguistic societies
B) the development of patterns of communication
C) misleading communication
D) the perception and use of touch as communication
E) the non-verbal aspects of speech

Question 9

The perception, use, and structuring of space as communication is referred to as:

A) proxemics
B) kinesics
C) paralanguage
D) body language
E) haptics

Question 10

Grunts, sighs and coughs are to __________ as arm waving, hand pointing and kicking are to __________.

A) paralanguage, proxemics
B) kinesics, haptics
C) paralanguage, kinesics
D) haptics, kinesics
E) paralanguage, haptics

Question 11

The term 'kinesics' refers to:

A) all bodily movements except those which involve contact with someone else
B) all non-verbal aspects of speech
C) the perception and use of touch
D) the perception, use, and structuring of space as communications
E) the spontaneous expression of facial emotions

Question 12

Charles Darwin (1872) suggested that human emotional behaviour:

A) stems from one primary emotion
B) is learned through experience
C) is the basis of social communication
D) is largely imitative
E) evolved from that of lower animals

Question 13

Which of the following has been offered as evidence that the physical expression of emotion is to some degree innate?

A) similarity of facial expression across different cultures
B) the presence at birth of many specific facial expressions of emotion
C) differences between sighted and congenitally blind individuals in the facial expression of emotion
D) the ability to judge the emotions of others from facial expressions
E) none of the above

Question 14

A particular form of a language spoken by people in a geographic region or social class is known as a:

A) prosodic form
B) accent
C) spontaneous form of a language
D) dialect
E) dialectic

Question 15

Which of the following aspects of non-verbal communication appears to be similar across cultures?

A) rhythm in language
B) body language in general
C) descriptive hand gestures
D) amount of touching
E) none of the above

Question 16

Spontaneous facial expressions of emotion:

A) are easier to interpret than deliberately expressed emotions
B) consist of anger and disgust only
C) are under separate neural control from those that are deliberately produced
D) are almost identical in every way to deliberately expressed emotions
E) do not exist; we learn to produce each and every facial expression

Question 17

The dialect that one speaks can convey:

A) where you are from
B) how you were taught to speak the language
C) your social class background
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 18

What is the inherent value hypothesis about?

A) why the standard dialect becomes spoken by most people
B) the standard dialect becomes the prestige form of the language
C) the standard form of a language is more aesthetically pleasing
D) both a and c
E) both b and c

Question 19

What is the imposed norm hypothesis about?

A) why the standard dialect is spoken by most people
B) why the standard dialect is viewed more positively
C) why the standard dialect is viewed more negatively
D) why the standard dialect is just better
E) why the standard dialect is inherently more pleasing aethetically

Question 20

What do kinesics, haptics, proxemics and artifacts have in common?

A) different interpersonal behaviours
B) paralanguage
C) non-verbal behavior.
D) motivations for second-language learning
E) c ommunication accommodation theory

Question 21

Communication accommodation theory suggests that:

A) we accommodate our communication to the circumstances
B) we tend to accentuate the distinctiveness of our way of speaking
C) we communicate where our accommodation is
D) we modify our speech style to be similar to how others around us are speaking
E) we change our non-verbal communication where it is convenient

Question 22

In a study by Safdar et al. (2009) university students in the US, Canada and Japan were asked to judge how appropriate it is to express seven different emotions in various situations. Japanese students believed that expressing anger was _____ acceptable and expressing positive emotions was ______ acceptable.

A) less, less
B) less, more
C) less, equally
D) more, less
E) more, more

Question 23

According to research in many countries, are people from a given society able to 'read' the emotional state in the faces of people from other cultures?

A) yes, a very strong effect
B) yes, but the effect is relatively weak
C) yes, a weak effect except for happiness
D) yes for negative emotions such as sadness
E) not at all

Question 24

Research on eye contact suggests that:

A) a high degree of eye contact always indicates affection
B) gaze and eye contact have some innate aspects
C) norms vary from culture to culture with regard to eye contact during conversations
D) both b and c
E) all of the above

Question 25

According to the ________ theory, facial displays of emotions are used to communicate social motives rather than emotional states.

A) communication accommodation
B) facial display
C) emotion-expression
D) expressive-emotion
E) motive-communication

Question 26

Among North Americans and Europeans, a person who wants to initiate interaction with another:

A) will often look directly at the other's eyes
B) will avoid much eye contact
C) will shift gaze in making eye contact in order to increase the other person's interest
D) will minimize facial displays of emotion
E) will mimic the facial display of the other person

Question 27

'Making eyes' in Western cultures is an instance of:

A) the use of gaze for social control
B) non-verbal behaviour which is unconscious
C) a universally understood communication of attraction
D) expressing affectionate or sexual interest
E) a biologically based response

Question 28

Which of the following information can be communicated by eye contact?

A) degree of liking
B) credibility
C) strength of emotion
D) showing disrespect in some cultures
E) all of the above

Question 29

In a study of pairs of same-sex subjects in the United States, it was found that:

A) high status subjects spent as much or more time looking at the other while talking as while listening
B) low status subjects spent more time looking at the other while talking than while listening
C) low status subjects spent more time looking at the other while talking only when they were discussing an issue in their area of expertise
D) when the high status subjects were experts on a topic, they looked at the other more while listening than while talking
E) when there was no difference in expertise, the low status subjects spent more time looking at the other while talking than while listening

Question 30

Eye contact is an important medium of communicating __________.

A) social power
B) dominance
C) displeasure
D) affection
E) all of the above

Question 31

Dutch researchers found that when we observe another person gazing at an object, what happens?

A) we are influenced to gaze at the same object
B) we avoid looking at the same object to avoid offending that person
C) the object becomes more desirable to us
D) the object becomes less desirable
E) we gaze into that person's eyes

Question 32

A firm handshake, a poke in the ribs, a pat on the back, a kiss on the lips are all examples of

A) oculesics
B) gestures
C) proxemics
D) haptics
E) chronemics

Question 33

The interpretation of touch:

A) is easy and automatic within a given culture
B) depends on the relationship between the individuals
C) depends on the social context
D) depends solely on how the act of touching is performed
E) both b and c

Question 34

In the research by Argyle (1988), people in ________ touch each other a great deal while relatively little interpersonal touching occurs in _________.

A) Northern Europe, Asia
B) Latin America, Northern Europe
C) United States, Arab nations
D) Latin America, Greece
E) North America, Northern Europe

Question 35

Inappropriate invasions of personal space have been shown to have what consequence?

A) arouse anxiety
B) instigate avoidance
C) anger
D) increase blood pressure
E) a and d

Question 36

Which situations are related in standing closer?

A) friends as compared to strangers
B) Southern Europeans as compared to Northern Europeans
C) Latin Americans
D) people who are sexually attracted to each other
E) all of the above

Question 37

What are chronemics?

A) invasions of personal space
B) use of personal space to convey emotions
C) eye contact in intimate situations
D) non-verbal communication by means of chronoscopes
E) time-related cues that communicate

Question 38

North Americans expect other people to respond right away to their statements. An example of______.

A) haptics
B) the power of eye contact
C) proxemics
D) chronemics
E) none of the above

Question 39

Studies on the role of gender in touching have shown that:

A) women always enjoy being touched
B) people are much more likely to touch members of the same sex than members of the opposite sex
C) men generally like being touched by a stranger of the opposite sex
D) women have been observed to touch men more than men touch women
E) women are more likely than men to read sexual connotations in touches

Question 40

__________ refers to how we use space to regulate our social interactions.

A) density
B) proxemics
C) crowding
D) haptics
E) social exposure

Question 41

Clothing, tattoos, piercings and make-up are examples of how we use ____ to communicate non-verbally.

A) haptics
B) personal appearance
C) artifacts
D) artificial materials
E) none of the above

Question 42

Fancy cars and Botox injections are examples of how ______ communicate to others

A) haptics
B) paralanguage
C) artifacts
D) impression management
E) none of the above

Question 43

According to the text, which group of people stand farthest away from others?

A) Arabs
B) Swedes
C) North Americans
D) Southern Europeans
E) both b and c

Question 44

Which of the following is TRUE of personal space:

A) it refers to the physical space around us
B) it is used to regulate our social interactions
C) distances or zones for various interactions are similar across cultures
D) both a and b
E) all of the above

Question 45

In terms of what is known about proxemics which of the following statements would you doubt?

A) friends stand closer than strangers
B) Southern Europeans stand closer than Arabs
C) women stand closer together than men
D) a lot of research in this area was conducted by Hall, an anthropologist
E) North Americans stand further away from each other than Southern Europeans

Question 46

The aspects of speech that can confer different meanings to the same set of words are known as:

A) meaning differentials
B) verbal haptics
C) body language
D) prosodic features
E) cue-dependent features

Question 47

The term 'paralanguage' refers to:

A) the communication in pre-linguistic societies
B) misleading communication
C) the non-verbal aspects of speech
D) the development of patterns of communication
E) standard language patterns that are stable across cultures

Question 48

Studies on prosodic features of language have shown that:

A) all prosodic features are learned through experience
B) prosodic elements depend primarily on an individual's personality
C) the role of prosodic elements in the expression of emotions is not primarily a learned one
D) the emotion of happiness usually involves a lower pitch
E) both a and b

Question 49

Which of the following is true with regard to non-verbal and verbal communication?

A) it is easier to use non-verbal communication with regard to communicating about shapes
B) verbal signals are more powerful in communicating emotion
C) non-verbal signals are better for conveying abstract ideas
D) non-verbal signals are ignored when verbal signals are clearly understood
E) both a and b

Question 50

Research suggests that:

A) the verbal content of a message is generally the most important determinant of the impact of the message
B) the impact of a message is largely influenced by prosodic elements
C) meaning is conferred primarily by non-verbal signals
D) the total impact of a message is often determined more by how it is said rather than by what is said
E) both c and d

Question 51

Which of the following is a possible reason why non-verbal communication has survived despite the powerful communication ability provided by speech?

A) linguistic behaviour may be constructed on top of non-verbal behaviour, which develops before language is acquired
B) it is an innate behaviour
C) it is more useful than speech in the communication of ideas
D) the habit of teaching children how to communicate non-verbally is slow to die out
E) linguistic ability and non-verbal ability are products of precisely the same neural tissues and therefore must co-exist

Question 52

The prosodic elements in the expression of emotion:

A) show little variation among cultures
B) are learned
C) vary for the different emotions
D) vary among individuals within a culture
E) all of the above

Question 53

Prosodic elements of speech can communicate emotions. Which of the following is true?

A) aggression tends to be signalled by low pitch
B) happiness tends to be communicated by higher pitch
C) anger is communicated by pitch which alternates between high and low
D) sorrow is communicated by high pitch
E) both a and b

Question 54

A listener sometimes does certain things to indicate to a speaker that he/she is still listening. This is known as:

A) back-channel communication
B) conversation control
C) the prosodic effect
D) attempt-suppressing signals
E) paralinguistic feedback

Question 55

A common attempt-suppressing signal, according to Argyle (1975) is:

A) lifting a stranger's hand from one's knee
B) continuing to speak in the same pitch, but slightly louder or faster
C) turning one's face away when another person tries to make eye contact
D) slowly moving away from a person who is attempting to involve you in a long story
E) glaring at an insurance salesperson as soon as she tries to approach you

Question 56

Which of the following is commonly done in an effort to terminate a face-to-face conversation?

A) looking away and moving slightly away
B) yawning
C) glaring
D) raising the pitch of one's back-channel communication
E) lowering the pitch of one's back-channel communication

Question 57

Which of the following is a turn-yielding signal in a conversation?

A) paralinguistic drawl
B) looking directly at the interviewer
C) prolonged intonation
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 58

Back-channel communication:

A) signals that the listener is listening
B) signals that the speaker does not wish to be interrupted
C) signals the listener's turn to speak
D) signals the listener's intent to speak
E) signals that the speaker is about to pause

Question 59

The short, meaningless sounds which form the basis for a language system are referred to as:

A) phonemes
B) morphemes
C) hieroglyphics
D) grunts
E) vocalizations

Question 60

Morphemes:

A) are the elements of speech that are constant across languages
B) are combined to make phonemes
C) are the smallest units of meaning in a language
D) are genetically encoded
E) are the symbols of modern languages

Question 61

The English language:

A) reflects the historical cultural view of male superiority and dominance
B) is not in any way biased in favour of either males or females because unlike French, its nouns are neither masculine nor feminine
C) is very discriminatory with regard to the words used to describe minority groups
D) promotes the superiority of female virtues
E) discourages the use of non-verbal signals

Question 62

Direct speech acts:

A) are inconsistent with the speaker's meaning
B) are termed paralanguage
C) are consistent with the speaker's meaning
D) tend to be assertive
E) refer to qualities of speech

Question 63

According to 'speech act theory':

A) a spoken sentence is just a set of symbols linked together
B) the choice of direct or indirect speech acts is often influenced by perceived difference in status between speaker and listener
C) women tend to use direct speech more than men
D) there is always a close correspondence between what is said and what the speaker is thinking
E) both c and d

Question 64

Indirect speech acts:

A) can be used to avoid direct challenges to authority
B) can usually spare loss of face which might otherwise occur when dealing with threatening material
C) are useful in communicating negative reactions to people we like
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 65

Speech style to some degree reflects:

A) education
B) personality
C) intelligence
D) social class
E) both a and d

Question 66

Information concerning a person's education, ethnicity, and intelligence can be inferred from __________.

A) speech acts
B) speech style
C) paralanguage
D) prosodic speech
E) linguistic relativity

Question 67

The view that the standard dialect is favoured on the basis that it is aesthetically pleasing is suggested by:

A) the imposed norm hypothesis
B) the inherent value hypothesis
C) the linguistic relativity hypothesis
D) the theory of reciprocal speech
E) equity theory

Question 68

The imposed norm hypothesis suggests that:

A) dialects differ in value based on their place of origin
B) people are biased in favour of their own dialects
C) some dialects are more aesthetically pleasing than others
D) the non-standard dialects are viewed negatively because social norms are biased against them
E) dialects are equally pleasing

Question 69

If Parisian French is rated as more pleasant than Acadian Canadian French to a non-French speaker, this would suggest that:

A) there is some inherent aspect of the former that led it to become the prestige form
B) Acadian French is the more pleasant accent
C) Welsh accents are more pleasant than either
D) the difference is in dialect but not accent
E) none of the above

Question 70

The manner in which adults talk to babies ('secondary' baby talk) is a good example of:

A) paralanguage
B) a speech act
C) a speech register
D) speech style
E) linguistic relativity

Question 71

The view that we modify our speech in order to be liked by others is suggested by:

A) social comparison theory
B) the theory of social exchange
C) speech accommodation theory
D) the inherent value hypothesis
E) speech act theory

Question 72

The phenomenon of shifting toward the speaking style of another person or group is known as:

A) immersion
B) convergence
C) paralanguage
D) divergence
E) speech shift

Question 73

We sometimes resort to speech divergence in order to:

A) be liked and approved by other people
B) persuade other people
C) elicit the attention of other people
D) be understood by other people
E) accentuate the difference between us and other people

Question 74

Which of the following is true about convergence?

A) even one-year-old children show convergence to the pitch patterns of their parents
B) convergence may be in any upward or downward direction
C) too much convergence may elicit a negative reaction
D) both a and b
E) all of the above

Question 75

We usually try to analyze the costs and rewards before the use of convergence. This view is suggested by:

A) social comparison theory
B) similarity-attraction theory
C) social identity theory
D) social exchange theory
E) causal attribution theory

Question 76

How do direct speech and indirect speech differ?

A) to whom the speech is directed
B) how the meaning of a sentence is consistent with what the speaker means
C) whether the speech is directed to a specific person or to anyone who is listening
D) both a and b
E) both b and c

Question 77

How does electronic communication differ from face-to-face communication?

A) meaning of direct speech
B) prosodic features are lacking
C) precision of speech
D) use of punctuation
E) all of the above

Question 78

Evidence seems to suggest that when members of different groups interact, and when group membership is an important issue:

A) convergence is likely to occur
B) ethnic survival is very difficult
C) divergence is likely to occur
D) the more powerful group will converge to the language and/or speech register of the less powerful
E) none of the above

Question 79

Communication accommodation theory suggests that we modify our speech in order:

A) to be understood by other people
B) to be liked by other people
C) to be subordinate to other people
D) to elicit the attention of other people
E) to persuade other people

Question 80

We modify our speech to be like, as well as to be liked by, another person according to which theory?

A) speech accommodation theory
B) causal attribution theory
C) linguistic relativity
D) inherent value hypothesis
E) neuropsychological plasticity