Speech 100 – Key terms:

Chapter 1:

• Channel: the medium through which messages are exchanged.

• Cognitive complexity: the ability to construct a variety of different frameworks for viewing an issue.

• Communication competence: effective and appropriate.

• Computer-mediated communication (CMC): email (most popular), IM.

• Content dimension (of a message): involves the information being explicitly discussed. Ex: “please pass the salt,” “Not now, I’m tired,” “you forgot to buy a quart of milk”…

• Dyad: social scientists call 2 persons interacting a dyad.

• Environment: fields of experience that help them make sense of other’s behavior. In communication terminology, environment refers not only to a physical location, but also to the personal experiences and cultural background that participants bring to a conversation.

• Feedback:

• Noise (external, physiological, psychological):

• Qualitative interpersonal communication: interpersonal communication occurs when people treat one another as unique individuals, regardless of the context in which the interaction occurs or the number of people involved. (Opposite: impersonal).

• Quantitative interpersonal communication: any interaction between two people. Ex: police officer ticketing a speeding driver, salesclerk.

• Relational dimension (of a message): expresses how you feel about the other person: whether you like or dislike the other person, feel in control of subordinate, feel comfortable or anxious, and so on.

• Richness: the multitude of nonverbal cues that accompany the words spoken.

• Self-monitoring: the process of paying close attention to one’s own behavior and using these observations to shape the way one behaves.

• Transactional: communication is transactional – a dynamic process that the participants create through their interaction with one another.