Com Theory Ch7

Front 1

Rules theory (coordinated management of meaning, or CMM)

Back 1

view comm as presentational; comm creates events & social realities & shapes future events & social realities
Comm is a process of negotiating the meaning of events and realities
Hierarchy of meanings: move roughly from “micro” levels of meaning to “macro” levels
We keep moving “up the ladder” until we find suitable meaning for a given speech act
She says to he, “I took the trash out…again.”

Front 2

Hierarchy of meanings

Back 2

Content—literal meaning of a statement
Speech act—the action performed by speaking; what’s the purpose of what you’re saying ( “You look like hell” can be expression of empathy or an insult)
Episode—“a recurring routine of interaction that is structured by rules and that has boundaries” (142); can be thought of as an “event genre,” such as “going out with friends,” “joshing,” or “chit-chat”

Front 3

Constitutive rules

Back 3

Constit rules: define what comm means by specify how 2 interpret certain kinds of communication
What are some constitutive rules are for…Showing respect? Showing affection? Showing support?
“Many romantic partners have difficulty coordinating their constitutive rules” (146)
different racial & ethnic bckgrounds dont always share constit rules?

Front 4

Regulative rules

Back 4

Regulative rules: regulate interaction by specifying when, how, where, and with whom to talk about certain things
What are some regulative rules for…
Responding to criticism from a professor
Greeting casual friends on campus
Talking with children, Interacting during meal, examples of regulative rules that specific to family, interactions in Skin Deep

Front 5

Logical force

Back 5

x

Front 6

Strange loops

Back 6

Strange loop: “internal conversations by means of which individuals become trapped in destructive patterns of thinking” (149)

Front 7

Constructivism

Back 7

We construct meaning in the world by developing and modifying (and hopefully improving) cognitive schemata

Front 8

Cognitive schemata

Back 8

Prototypes: clearest, most representative, or ideal examp
Personal constructs: Bipolar dimensions of judgment
Intelligent-stupid, kind-cruel, attractive-ugly
Stereotypes: a “ predictive generalization” (154), Based on perceptions of others, not on actual traits. Assumes a fundamental commonality that likely does not exist, “All Asians are…” Might be accurate or inaccurate, but fundmntally flawed when we “confuse the map for the territory”
Often results n marginalization and oppression

Front 9

Cognitive complexity, which is evaluated along three lines

Back 9

Constructivism argues that increasing our cognitive complexity improves our communication
Cognitive complexity: “refers to how elaborate or complex a person’s interpretive processes are along three dimensions” (155)

Front 10

Person-centeredness

Back 10

a person-centered communicator is “more capable of engaging in sensitive communication that is tailored to particular others” (157)

Front 11

Representational vs. Presentational approaches to language

Back 11

Two views of language mentioned in chapter four
A representational approach: Language merely describes a pre-existing, pre-linguistic reality
A presentational approach: AKA “speaking into being,” such as “I love you” or “divorce”
These two views roughly correspond to “discovering truth” (representational) versus “creating meaning” (presentational) as discussed in chapter three

Front 12

Heiarchy of Meanings

Back 12

Relationships—the history and character of the relationship, including any formal or informal roles that the participants occupy with regard to each other
Autobiographies—“life scripts” that define our (self-constructed )history and our future which thus define our character in the here and now
Cultural patterns– “an understanding of speech acts, episodes, relationships, and autobiographies that is shared by particular social groups or societies” (144)

Front 13

Cognitive schemata

Back 13

Script: a “ guide to action” (154). How u respond in certain situations, Daily behaviors involve “invisible” scripts. Scripts may be productive, even if they seem unimportant (phatic communication, or discourse only for social purposes)
Scripts may be unproductive;
All these elements interact (stereotypes can provide scripts for interaction, for instance)

Front 14

Cognitive Complexity which is along 3 lines

Back 14

Differentiation: the number of distinct interpretations an individual uses to perceive and describe others
Abstraction: relates to a person’s ability “to base interpretations on mental or psychological qualities”; that is, a person’s ability to infer relatively stable personality traits from observed behaviors
Organization: “the degree to which a person notices and is able to make sense of contradictory behaviors” (156)
Greater one’s cognitive complexity, more person-centered is; a person-centered communicator is “more capable of engaging in sensitive communication that is tailored to particular others” (157)