Deck 6: Interpersonal Communication

Question 1

Define behavioral flexibility and explain why it is an important concept.

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

Discuss how the terms responsiveness, similarity, and complimentary explain potential reasons for forming relationships.

Answer 2

Answers will vary.

Question 3

Explain the needs for inclusion, affection, and control and how they are related to interpersonal communication.

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

Explain how relationships develop.

Question 5

Discuss why it may be a mistake to only consider the positive aspects of interpersonal communication and personal relationships.

Question 6

List and describe some essential interpersonal communication behaviors as noted in the text.

Question 7

Explain why the term plateau is not used to describe the relationship maintenance stage of personal relationships.

Question 8

Discuss how Baxter and colleagues' notion of relational dialectics can be used to explain what happens in the relationship maintenance stage of personal relationships.

Question 9

How can you increase your behavioral flexibility?

Question 10

What is self-disclosure and why is it important in interpersonal communication?

Question 11

Explain the Johari window's quadrants.

Question 12

Using terms from the chapter, identify and describe three reasons for initiating relationships.

Question 13

Identify and explain at least two examples of relationship dialectics.

Question 14

Discuss the implications of influencing others in interpersonal relationships.

Question 15

Provide an example of how compliance-gaining might be used in an interpersonal conversation.

Question 16

Which factors affect appropriate self-disclosure?

Question 17

Explain what compliance resisting is and provide an example from one of your interpersonal relationships.

Question 18

Explain how relationships deteriorate.

Question 19

Discuss three motivations, as explained in the textbook, that people have for terminating relationships.

Question 20

Compare and contrast symmetrical and complementary relationships.

Question 21

Initially in a relationship we are more interested in a person's attractiveness, but later we are more interested in their empathy, care, and concern.

Question 22

Explain the concept of friendship and its importance in our lives.

Question 23

Conflict is always detrimental to relationships.

Question 24

In a symmetrical relationship, Helen might do the family budget because Harry hates math.

Question 25

Explain the process of bargaining in interpersonal relationships. What are the essential features of bargaining?

Question 26

Behavior flexibility is important because people are in constant flux.

Question 27

Interpersonal communication includes dyadic (two-person) and small-group communication.

Question 28

Friendships are maintained similarly, regardless of the intent of the relational partners.

Question 29

Conflict can be a constructive and creative aspect of relationships.

Question 30

William Schultz cited three basic interpersonal needs that we satisfy through others: the need for inclusion, the need for affection, and the need for control.

Question 31

Developing rituals together occurs as people maintain their relationships.

Question 32

Bargaining is when two parties attempt to reach an agreement about what each should give and receive in a transaction between them.

Question 33

Commitment is the first stage of relational development.

Question 34

In the Johari window, the hidden area includes information that you know but others do not know.

Question 35

Discuss the importance of personal idioms and rituals in relationships. Provide an example of each.

Question 36

A person in a wheelchair who tells you that she is handicapped is providing you with a self-disclosure.

Question 37

Behavior flexibility is demonstrated by the man who can be tender with his child, loving to his wife, and courageous in his job as a firefighter.

Question 38

The dialectical theory of Baxter and colleagues describes the maintenance stage of relationships as a plateau.

Question 39

Dialectic theory assumes that relationships remain relatively stable and unchanging over time.

Question 40

A complementary relationship is one in which the two people mutually reinforce each other with compliments.

Question 41

People in a mutual romance situation report the most relationship maintenance behaviors.

Question 42

The opposite of defensive communication is

A) descriptive communication.
B) supportive communication.
C) provisional communication.
D) neutral communication.

Question 43

As we become closer to another person, we are more likely to reveal negative information about ourselves.

Question 44

In bargaining all parties must perceive that more than one potential agreement could be reached.

Question 45

Communication privacy management explains how people determine what rules and boundaries govern what they will and will not disclose.

Question 46

Pria's boyfriend Leonard doesn't tell her about his family anymore. This makes her upset with their relationship. What factor affecting self-disclosure can be identified here?

A) Disclosure might be avoided for a variety of reasons.
B) Disclosure tends to be reciprocal.
C) Disclosure helps build relationships.
D) Relational satisfaction and disclosure are curvilinearly related.

Question 47

There is no way to reduce defensiveness.

Question 48

Relationship maintenance occurs after people in a relationship have bonded.

Question 49

Aggressiveness is the same thing as argumentativeness.

Question 50

Personal idioms are understood only by you.

Question 51

People in interpersonal relationships generally have interacted for some period of time.

Question 52

The concept that suggests that your roommate is more likely to become your friend than a person ten blocks away is known as

A) proximity.
B) similarity.
C) collaboration.
D) familiarity.

Question 53

Which of the following would be a good example of self-disclosure?

A) You tell the person you meet that you are nearly six feet tall.
B) You tell the person you meet that you are an African American.
C) You tell the person you meet that you are getting bald.
D) You tell the person that you meet that your parents were originally from Mississippi.

Question 54

Disclosure generally increases as relational intimacy increases.

Question 55

Extremely high and low levels of self-disclosure are associated with high levels of satisfaction with a relationship.

Question 56

"The ability to alter behavior in order to adapt to new situations and to relate in new ways when necessary" is a definition of

A) androgyny.
B) behavioral flexibility.
C) passages.
D) complementary relationships.

Question 57

What is one strategy for appropriate self-disclosure in interpersonal relationships?

A) Gradually decrease disclosure as your relationship develops.
B) Disclose all information, even if it might cause you personal harm.
C) Reveal information to others as they reveal information to you.
D) Remember that disclosure is the same across all cultures.

Question 58

Interpersonal relationships are always positive situations.

Question 59

Iakopa is good at writing and understanding literature; Marian is a whiz at math and statistics; together they make a great pair. The concept of friendship illustrated here is

A) symmetry.
B) complementarity.
C) responsiveness.
D) proximity.

Question 60

Grayson doesn't talk about his parents' divorce with his girlfriend because it is still a painful subject to discuss. What factor affecting self-disclosure can be identified here?

A) Disclosure might be avoided for a variety of reasons.
B) Disclosure tends to be reciprocal.
C) Disclosure helps build relationships.
D) Relational satisfaction and disclosure are curvilinearly related.

Question 61

Relationships in which the two people are not romantically involved but have a sexual relationship are called

A) nascent friends.
B) stabilized friendships.
C) friends with benefits.
D) diminished friendships.

Question 62

Which type of need can only be fulfilled through interpersonal interaction?

A) safety
B) affection
C) security
D) information

Question 63

Which of the following is a good example of a complementary relationship?

A) She likes him a lot, but he doesn't think much of her.
B) She is shy, and he likes to speak for both of them.
C) She and he are both good at math, so together they do the family budget.
D) She and he like food, so they both enjoy every meal.

Question 64

In relationships, formalized patterns of actions or words that are followed regularly and are indicators of relational uniqueness are called

A) personal idioms.
B) relational dialectics.
C) uncertainty reducers.
D) rituals.

Question 65

Which of the following descriptions applies to someone with an interpersonal relationship as defined in the book?

A) a father who left his family long ago and believes that he has a relationship with a child he has not seen or heard from for years
B) a guy who drops into the restaurant every couple of months, knows the waitress's first name, and believes that he has an interpersonal relationship with her
C) a married couple that have quarreled with each other for years
D) a woman who cannot remember the names of all the men she has dated in the last year

Question 66

In which stage of how friends develop do people determine that they have mutual interests or other common ground?

A) role-limited interaction
B) friendly relations
C) nascent friendship
D) stabilized friendship

Question 67

Which of the following is a reason people terminate relationships?

A) aggressiveness
B) compliance-gaining
C) personal idioms
D) behavioral flexibility

Question 68

According to William Schultz, three interpersonal needs that are satisfied through interaction with others are

A) inclusion, affection, and control.
B) physical well-being, safety, and security.
C) inclusion, self-actualization, and socialization.
D) esteem, affection, and control.

Question 69

Which association is NOT part of the textbook definition of interpersonal relationships?

A) one between two or more people who are interdependent
B) one between two or more people who have interacted for some period of time
C) one between two or more people who use some consistent patterns of interaction
D) one between two or more people who exhibit affection toward each other

Question 70

Which of the following is NOT one of the three stages in interpersonal relationships?

A) social penetration
B) relational development
C) relational deterioration
D) relational maintenance

Question 71

Rashi and Anita marry because they are of the same cultural background. This is most likely what type of relationship?

A) asymmetrical
B) symmetrical
C) co-cultural
D) ethnocentric

Question 72

Rosa and Mike are out on a date. During the course of conversation, Mike tells Rosa that his parents recently got divorced. After hearing this, Rosa feels compelled to tell Mike that her parents were divorced when she was very young. What factor affecting self-disclosure can be identified here?

A) Disclosure might be avoided for a variety of reasons.
B) Disclosure tends to be reciprocal.
C) Disclosure helps build relationships.
D) Relational satisfaction and disclosure are curvilinearly related.

Question 73

A relationship in which the two people are very similar is called

A) a complementary relationship.
B) a symmetrical relationship.
C) a cost-benefit relationship.
D) an independent relationship.

Question 74

Which relational dialectic involves tensions surrounding the need for consistency in a relationship as well as "newness and novelty"?

A) integration and separation
B) expression and privacy
C) stability and change
D) old and new

Question 75

In which stage of how friends develop do people think of themselves as friends and begin to establish their own private ways of interacting?

A) role-limited interaction
B) friendly relations
C) nascent friendship
D) stabilized friendship

Question 76

Raymond and Terry have a strong relationship and share many things with each other. At times, however, Raymond feels that Terry wants to know what he is doing at all times. Which dialectical tension is Raymond most likely experiencing?

A) integration and separation
B) expression and privacy
C) stability and change
D) old and new