Deck 1: A: Communication: Essential Human Behavior

Question 1

Describe how a person's cultural identity influences his or her communication behavior.

Answer 1

Culture provides the backdrop to the situational context in which we communicate. Culture provides us with values, norms, and rules to guide our cognitions as well as our behavior. Culture helps provide us with expectations about how others will behave, as well as guidelines for what others expect of us. Culture, co-culture, and our cultural identity shape the choices we make, as well as how we interpret the choices of others. Ultimately, we cannot separate ourselves from our culture, but an awareness of the way culture influences us can help us adapt and communicate more competently.

Question 2

Consider a time when you and a communication partner failed to communicate competently. Describe what happened in the situation and what went wrong in both your and your partner's communication. Based on what you have learned so far about competent communication, what could you and the other person do to communicate more competently if you could go back in time and redo the interaction?

Answer 2

Answers to this question will vary, as the student is required to reflect on his or her personal experiences and personal knowledge and theories about communication. Ideal answers will demonstrate self-reflexive ability and critical thinking abilities. At this point, most students will not have an especially strong sense of how to improve their communication competence, but they should demonstrate an awareness of concepts such as appropriateness, effectiveness, the difference between process and outcome, and ethics. They may be able to demonstrate how lack of agreement about the meaning of symbols contributed to miscommunication and how the ability to adapt one's communication to the expectations and needs of the other person would improve their competence. This question can be used early on in the term and again later on in the term to assess students' progress as their understanding of communication in general, as well as of specialized areas (interpersonal, group, organizational) in communication research, deepens.

Question 3

What are the essential features of competent communication? In what ways are process and outcome related, and in what ways are they distinctly different from one another? How about appropriateness and effectiveness?

Answer 3

Ideal answers to this question will reflect an understanding that competent communicators are able to adapt their communication to particular situations so that they behave both appropriately and effectively. Competent communicators are aware of ethics and the way their messages affect others. Competent communication is process-oriented rather than outcome-oriented. Competent communicators continually evaluate and assess their own communication processes to ensure they are appropriate, effective, and ethical. Strong answers will identify that although the process leads to the outcome, a focus on outcome rather than process may lead to unethical behavior. Similarly, appropriate behavior is determined by the situation, and behaving appropriately increases communication effectiveness. Although a person may be effective at getting what he or she wants in the short term (outcome), if the means used (process) is not appropriate, he or she may ultimately undermine relationships, long-term competence, and satisfaction.

Question 4

Using classroom interaction as the source for your examples, illustrate the characteristics of communication as being symbolic, requiring a shared code, being linked to culture, being both intentional and unintentional, occurring through various channels, and being transactional. Explain how understanding these characteristics can help a teacher communicate more competently with his or her students.

Question 5

List and describe the six characteristics of communication.

Question 6

Explain what the functional perspective on communication means. What does this perspective say about the reasons why we communicate?

Question 7

Describe a recent conflict you had with your roommate, a close friend, a family member, or your significant other. Apply the model of competent communication to this interaction to illustrate the elements of the model. How does considering the interaction through the lens of this model help you understand the interaction differently than you might have before engaging in this analysis?
Answer Key

Question 8

Compare and contrast the essential features of the three models of communication discussed in your textbook: the linear model, the interaction model, and the competent communication model.