Success Strategies
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Learning Styles Questionnaire:
◦ www.vark-learn.com
Review Learning Style Study Strategies
 What can you do to help yourself learn
the material in this class?
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Success Strategies: Study Skills
Use SQ3R
 S=Survey, Q=Question, R=Read, R=Recite,
R=Review
 Mark your texts
 Choose your environment
 Create and attend study sessions
 Seek Help
 Take notes in class
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1: Inter-Act,
th
13
Edition
Chapter 1
Orientation
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Chapter 1 Objectives
Discuss how messages are formed and meaning shared
 List the three processes of interpersonal communication
 Discuss the purposes of interpersonal communication
 Explain the characteristics of interpersonal
communication
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Identify the ethics, dark side, and diversity involved in
interpersonal communication
Discuss what is meant by competence in interpersonal
communication
Identify the traits that all social media have in common
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Interpersonal Communication
The complex process through which
people express, interpret, and
coordinate messages in order to create
shared meaning, meet social goals,
manage personal identity, and carry out
relationships
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Message – a performance that
uses words, sentences, and/or
nonverbal behaviors to convey the
thoughts, feelings, and intentions of
the speaker
Canned Plan – mental library of
scripts
Script – text that instructs you what
to say in a specific situation
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Interpersonal Communication
Process
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Process: systematic series of actions that leads
to an outcome
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Message production: actions you perform to
send a message
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Message interpretation: activities performed
to understand intended meaning
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Interaction coordination: activities
performed to adjust behavior to partner
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Purposes of Interpersonal
Communication
 Share
meaning
 Meet social goals
 Manage our personal identity
 Conduct our relationships
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The Communication Setting
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Physical Context – where communication takes place,
the environment, the distance between participants,
seating, time of day
Social Context – the nature of the relationship
Historical Context – the background of previous
communication
Psychological Context – moods & feelings
Cultural Context – beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,
social hierarchies, religion, notion of time, and roles of
the participants
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Noise
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External noise – the sights, sounds, and
other stimuli that draw people’s attention
away from intended meaning
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Internal noise – the thoughts and feelings
that interfere with meaning
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Semantic noise – distractions caused by
the speaker’s words that interfere with
meaning
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Principles of Interpersonal
Communication
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Is continuous
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Is transactional
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Is irreversible
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Is situated
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Is indexical
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Communication Is Continuous
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Interpersonal communication can be
verbal or nonverbal. Therefore, we are
always sending messages to others—
whether we are aware of it or not!
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Communication Is Transactional
Each person gives and receives messages,
feedback.
 Each person gets needs met and helps
others satisfy needs.
 Each person is changed with each
interaction.
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Communication Is Irreversible
Once an exchange has taken place,
we can never ignore it, take it back,
or pretend it did not occur.
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Communication Is Situated
All communication occurs within a
communication setting.
 Setting affects how messages are
produced, interpreted, and coordinated.
 Meaning is dependent upon the situation.
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Communication Is Indexical
Index (or measure) of the emotional
temperature of a relationship
 Trust: the extent to which partners rely on,
depend on, and have faith that their partner will
not intentionally harm them
 Control: the extent to which each person has
power or is “in charge” of the relationship
 Intimacy: degree of emotional closeness,
acceptance, and disclosure
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Extra Credit:
Record and watch one episode of a TV series
you aren’t familiar with.
 Identify one relationship where the characters
have a significant conversation.
 Describe the level of trust, control, and
intimacy between the characters.
 What conclusions did you make based on your
observations?
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Ethics of Interpersonal Communication
“A set of moral principles held by a
society, a group, or individual”
1. Truthfulness and honesty
2. Integrity
3. Fairness
4. Respect
5. Responsibility
6. Empathy
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The Dark Side
Bright Side
Ethical
Appropriate
Hard Dark Side
Ethical
Inappropriate
Easy Dark Side
Unethical
Appropriate
Evil Dark Side
Unethical
Inappropriate
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Extra Credit:
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Pick up your cell phone and scan your history
of your sent/received text messages.
◦ Are there any dark-side messages reflected in these
past text messages?
◦ How might you categorize them?
◦ Why did you send these messages to the
people/person you did?
◦ How did the messages affect your relationship(s)?
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Diversity – variations between and among
people
Culture
 Sex
 Age

Class
 Physical
characteristics
 Sexual orientation
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Culture – systems of knowledge
shared by a relatively large group
of people
Culture is a critical concept to
communication because “every
communicator is a product of his or
her culture.”
-Anderson 2000
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Communication Competence
Competence is the impression that
communicative behavior is both
effective and appropriate.
Competence can be enhanced by:
 Increasing communication knowledge
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Increasing communication skills
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Increasing communication motivation
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Developing
Competence Knowledge
1.
Acquire interpersonal communication
knowledge
 Effective messages
 Appropriate messages
2. Emotional Intelligence: ability to monitor
your own and others’ emotions
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Developing
Competence Skills
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Micro communication skills: message templates, “lines”
◦ Active listening, making requests, asking a clarifying question,
praising, paraphrasing, perception checking, and describing
feelings/behaviors
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Communication skill scripts: mental texts that include
micro communication skills
◦ Creating/managing close relationships, supporting others,
managing difficulties, influencing others
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Developing Competence Motivation
Unlearn old ineffective scripts.
 Learn new scripts.
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Behavioral Flexibility
1. Make a prediction about appropriate
communication.
2. Enact that type of communication.
3. Pay attention to reactions.
4. Either change communication or not.
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Social Media Context
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Social Media: technologies that facilitate
communication and interaction
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Digital communication: electronic transmission of
digitally encoded information
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Social Network
Common
interests,
beliefs,
knowledge
Friendship
Groups of
individuals
connected
by
Family
ties
Careers
Institutions
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Traits of Social Media Technology
Facilitates social interactivity
 Takes time to send and receive messages
(temporal structure)
 Lacks social cues
 Can be stored and replicated
 Potentially reaches a large audience
 Allows mobility
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Writing Communication Improvement
Plans
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State the problem.
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State the specific goal.
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Outline procedure for reaching the goal.
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Devise a method of determining when the goal
has been reached.
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Reflection/Assignment
Focus on your participation in class today:
◦ what did you do well?
◦ what could you have done better?
 Review micro communication skills & communication
skill scripts from powerpoint
 Choose one area you’d like to improve on in your
communications
 Discuss and develop an improvement plan. Be sure to
use your Assignment Rubric!
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