Exam Questions Chapter 1 Communication: Perception, Identity

CHAPTER 1

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS: PERCEPTION, MEANING MAKING, AND IDENTITY

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Communication is about mutual meaning making. It is also transactional and ___________.
2. unilateral
3. transmissive
4. a process *
5. relentless
6. different in different countries

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. The order of a basic linear process of communication follows the pattern ______.
   1. source -> receiver
   2. sound -> interpretation -> receiver
   3. source -> decoder -> encoder
   4. source -> interpretation -> receiver
   5. source -> medium -> receiver *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Your professor is giving a lecture but uses technical jargon throughout the entire lecture confusing the class so no one knows what is going on. This is an example of ______ noise.
   1. physical
   2. semantic *
   3. psychological
   4. physiological
   5. phantasmic

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. You are arguing with friends about political ideas but they will not listen to you or your ideas. This type of noise is ___________ noise.
   1. physical
   2. semantic
   3. psychological *
   4. physiological
   5. phantasmic

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Your doctor is talking to you about adopting a healthier diet, but you are so tired from studying the night before that you simply cannot focus on what she’s saying. This is an example of __________ noise.
   1. physical
   2. semantic
   3. psychological
   4. physiological *
   5. phantasmic

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. You spill a soda on your copy of the campus newspaper, and as you try to read page 2 the images and words from page one bleed through, making it impossible to read anything at all. This is an example of _________ noise.
   1. physical *
   2. semantic
   3. psychological
   4. physiological
   5. phantasmic

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Which model represents the most contemporary view of the communication process?
   1. Transactional *
   2. Linear
   3. Source dominated
   4. Feedback loop
   5. Articulated

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. _______ models of communication suggest that messages travel in a more or less straight line from a source, through a medium, to a receiver.
2. Contemporary
3. Articulated
4. Transactional
5. Representational
6. Linear *

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. The type of model described in #8 can be described as ________ model of communication because it views the success of the communication effort as primarily within the sender’s control.
2. an audience dominated
3. a feedback-free
4. a source-dominated *
5. a feedback-dominated
6. an decoder-dominated

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Your friend shows you a funny comic she drew for the school paper. You examine it, get the joke, and smile at her. You have, in other words, successfully _________ her message.
2. decoded *
3. articulated
4. presented
5. encoded
6. represented

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Your friend had a great idea for a comic for the school paper. She drew her idea and had it published by the school. She has, in other words, successfully _________ her message.
   1. decoded
   2. articulated
   3. represented
   4. encoded *
   5. presented

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Essential to the idea of the transactional view of communication is that ___________.
2. communication changes the communicators *
3. all communication is unintentional
4. all communication is intentional
5. communication changes the send more than it does the receiver
6. when meaning is made the exchange of benefits soon follows

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. Another word for co-culture is __________.
   1. multicultural
   2. side-culture
   3. bounded culture *
   4. dominant culture
   5. sub-culture

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. Culture is the world made meaningful. It is socially __________ through communication.
   1. uplifted and solidified
   2. constructed and maintained *
   3. reinforced and embedded
   4. challenged and strengthened
   5. negotiated and destroyed

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. Because people’s culture offers them a wealth of information in all their interactions, making communication easier and more effective and efficient. As such, it ______ people to make meaning more deeply, more quickly, more mutually.
   1. limits
   2. liberates *
   3. differentiates
   4. unites
   5. reifies

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. Perception requires all the following processes: organization, interpretation, and ___________.
2. bias
3. visual representation
4. classification
5. rumination
6. selection *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. __________ is being aware of and creating meaning from the world around us.
   1. Knowing
   2. Remembering
   3. Perception *
   4. Meaning making
   5. Understanding

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. The researchers who demonstrated that we cannot not communicate are collectively known as the ___________.
   1. Hoveland group
   2. Intentionality scholars
   3. Postpositivists
   4. Not-Not Group
   5. Palo Alto Group *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. Because we’re incapable of processing the enormous tide of sensory stimuli that washes over us at all times, perception of the world around us requires ___________.
   1. selection *
   2. focusing attention
   3. immediacy
   4. retention
   5. ear buds

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. ______ are active organizations of past reactions or of past experiences.
   1. Memories
   2. Recollections
   3. Schemas *
   4. Symbols
   5. Fallacies

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. When communicating we use schema to ______________.
   1. create a plan of how to handle conflict
   2. process and organize new information and experiences *
   3. get information from someone when we are confused
   4. organize written words into similar groups
   5. make sure we know right from wrong

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. You are watching the news and the anchor is discussing the main occurrences of the day. This is an example of what kind of communication?
2. Relational
3. Representational
4. Presentational *
5. Bounded-culture
6. Biased

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. A ___________ is something that signals the presence of something specific; that is, it is more or less an objective substitute for that thing.
   1. stereotype
   2. sign *
   3. schema
   4. symbol
   5. type

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. There is nothing inherently meaning “stop” in a piece of hexagonal red sheet metal, just as English speakers may have decided d-o-g signifies a canine, but Spanish speakers prefer p-e-r-r-o. These facts demonstrate that the meanings we assign to signs and symbols are __________.
   1. confusing
   2. personal
   3. hierarchical
   4. language-based
   5. arbitrary *

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. Because no media portrayal can show every aspect/nuance of a phenomenon, Goffman called media representations ___________.
2. incomplete
3. mediated
4. biased
5. hyperritualized *
6. visual

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. When asked an uncomfortable question by an acquaintance at an office party, most people’s reaction will result in a(n) _______________.
   1. upshift to make the relationship feel more formal and less open
   2. upshift to make the relationship feel more relaxed and personal *
   3. downshift to make the relationship feel more relaxed and personal
   4. downshift to make the relationship feel more formal and less open
   5. horizontal shift to maintain the status quo

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. You’re walking down the street in your state’s capital city. You hear people with accents that seem quite at home there, but you also hear folks talking with a decidedly different accent. You instantly know they’re visitors to your state. This is an example of culture’s power to _______.
2. limit
3. liberate
4. differentiate *
5. unite
6. politicize

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. You really want to look good for your friend’s parents. It’s the first time you’re meeting them. So you decide to hold off a bit on dying your hair that lovely shade of green you saw in the Star Trek movie. This is an example of culture’s power to__________.
2. limit *
3. liberate
4. differentiate
5. unite
6. politicize

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. There is no better argument against the source-dominated perspective on communication than the idea that ___________.
2. most sources are only as effective as their ideas.
3. you cannot not communicate *
4. feedback, encoding, and decoding are pretty much the same thing
5. meaning making requires perception
6. most sources never get the results they want

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. Your new classmate is a tall blonde student. You soon learn from her that her GPA is a 3.8 and you discover you’re surprised that she’s that smart. You have engaged in ___________.
2. schema shifting
3. reverse snobbery
4. culture clashing
5. ethnocentrism
6. stereotyping *

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. A stop sign is a stop sign—rather than a stop symbol—because it is a more-or-less ________ substitution for something else, in this case, an official order to stop your car.
2. objective *
3. subjective
4. mandatory
5. official
6. culture-specific

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. K-N-I-F-E is a ________ for a cutting implement. A knife stuck into your car tire by an angry neighbor is a _________ of that anger.
2. symbol/sign
3. representation/presentation
4. sign/symbol *
5. presentation/representation
6. symbol/presentation

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. The three elements of the triangle of meaning are the referent, the sign or symbol, and the ____________.
2. object
3. signified
4. reference *
5. representation
6. encoding

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. In the triangle of meaning, the element that stands in for the _______ is the sign or symbol.
2. reference
3. referent *
4. signified
5. representation
6. encoding

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. Although communication can be____________ (describing or conveying some objective fact or information), it is almost always_______ (someone’s version of the facts or information).
   • 1. presentational/representational
     2. symbolic/signified
     3. representational/presentational *
     4. signified/symbolic
     5. encoded/decoded

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. You think you’re the funniest person you know, yet no one ever gets your jokes. You eventually realize that you are not that funny. This is symbolic interaction’s _______ in operation.
2. power of framing
3. many selves
4. mind, self, and society
5. looking glass *
6. ego deflation

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. _________ are specific sets of expectations we use to make sense of specific social situations in which we may find ourselves.
2. Frames *
3. Referents
4. References
5. Symbolic environments
6. Representations

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. Mead explained how people learn about themselves and the world around them through interaction with others using a _________metaphor. That is one context in which we come to value ourselves to the extent that our role is respected by others.
   1. team sports *
   2. business
   3. client/doctor
   4. deep sea
   5. college classroom

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. In describing the operation of symbolic interaction, Mead argued that there are two important “others” to whom we look to better understand ourselves. Our sense of how others see us is our ___________.
   1. looking glass self
   2. idealized other
   3. significant other
   4. generalized other *
   5. wished-for self

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. In describing the operation of symbolic interaction, Mead argued that there are two important “others” to whom we look to better understand ourselves. Influential people in the different situations in which we find ourselves are our _________.
   1. looking glass self
   2. idealized other
   3. significant other *
   4. generalized other
   5. wished-for self

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. The quote, “I am not what I think I am and I am not what you think I am; I am what I think that you think I am,” suggests that in any conversation there are actually 6 selves present: You, the Other, what You think of the Other, What the Other thinks of You, What You think the Other thinks of You, and ________.
2. What the Other’s family thinks of You
3. What the Other thinks You think of Him or Her *
4. What various Significant others think of You
5. What various Significant others think of the Other
6. What the Wished-for Self thinks of You

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. In symbolic interaction, ___________ are any objects to which we can refer to make meaning.
   1. social cues
   2. participatory symbols
   3. social objects *
   4. meaning-making objects
   5. referents

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. Goffman’s frame analysis argues that we become adept at reading __________ through communication with others in our culture, and as a result allow us to fine tune our presentations of ourselves.
   1. social cues *
   2. participatory symbols
   3. social objects
   4. meaning-making objects
   5. metaphors

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. We use communication to meet many goals other than developing and maintaining our sense of self. We also communicate to _________; that is, communication is our primary means of interaction and we are dependent on the sight and sound of others.
   1. build and maintain relationships
   2. have influence
   3. be human *
   4. exchange information
   5. buy products

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do?

1. We use communication to meet many goals other than developing and maintaining our sense of self. We also communicate to _________; that is, we are always persuading.
   1. build and maintain relationships
   2. have influence *
   3. be human
   4. exchange information
   5. buy products

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do?

1. We use communication to meet many goals other than developing and maintaining our sense of self. We also communicate to _________; that is, we are always exploring new people, places, and things and communication is our primary tool of discovery.
   1. build and maintain relationships
   2. have influence
   3. be human
   4. exchange information *
   5. buy products

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do?

1. We use communication to meet many goals other than developing and maintaining our sense of self. We also communicate to _________; that is, communication binds and defines the ties we have with friends, family, and important others.
   1. build and maintain relationships *
   2. have influence
   3. be human
   4. exchange information
   5. buy products

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do?

1. You and a friend pass in the hall and you offer up a hearty “What’s up?” Certainly you wanted to acknowledge your friend, but you were also exercising communication’s power to ___________.
   1. shape his perception of you *
   2. pass the time effectively
   3. downshift the encounter
   4. demonstrate courtesy
   5. shape your perception of your friend

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do?

1. Every culture has its own definitions of attractiveness. But even if you do not accept your culture’s view of attractiveness, if those around you do, ___________.
   1. it is your cultural responsibility to alter their views
   2. there is little doubt that males and females will differ on those views
   3. it affects how you see yourself *
   4. you could easily upshift
   5. you can move somewhere else

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do?

1. The perspective on communication which sees communication as creating something that did not exist before is the ________ view of communication.
   1. transmissional
   2. intransitive
   3. regulatory
   4. constitutive *
   5. representational

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

SHORT ANSWER

1. How can cultures both liberate and limit? Give examples of both functions.

Main point: People are bound by their culture’s rules. Culture makes interactions easier as people know more about the others around them.

Answer must include: When learning culture’s rules people learn when they must be applied. Interactions are made easier because people share common understandings of the contexts in which they find themselves.

Answer may include: Idea that culture makes the world meaningful, culture is cooperatively and interactively created and maintained, and commentary on identity.

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. Using everyday examples from your own life, list and describe how the different types of noise can impede your ability to make meaning.

Main point: Must list all 4 forms of noise: physical, semantic, psychological, and physiological.

Answer must include: Description or definition of each and an appropriate example.

Answer may include: Possible corrective actions to overcome the noise.

A-head: The Process of Creating Meaning

1. You cannot not communicate. Explain why?

Main point: meaning is always being made by those in interaction as they cannot escape the meanings inherent in the context of that interaction.

Answer must include: Idea that communication does not happen when a source sends a message, they argued; it happens when a receiver draws meaning from interaction with the source.

Answer may include: Commentary on the role of culture or mention of Palo Alto Group.

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. Who are symbolic interaction’s two important “others” and how do they help us better understand ourselves in the different situations we find ourselves in?

Main point: We take the role of others with whom we interact, trying to judge how they perceive us.

Answer must include: Listing and explanation of significant and generalized other and how they operate in shaping identity. We look to influential people as models for our own behavior and we look to others’ perceptions of us to see how we’re doing.

Answer may include: Commentary on Looking Glass Self, the six selves involved in an interaction, or the quote, “I am not what I think I am and I am not what you think I am; I am what I think that you think I am.”

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

1. What are social cues and how do they allow for people to shift frames in an interaction?

Main point: All interactions occur in contexts and people constantly make meaning from those contexts and the interaction itself, working to present themselves as they wish.

Answer must include: Definition of social cues (information that allows fine tuning of self-presentation) and upshifting (framing the situation as less serious, more open to personal expression) and downshifting (framing the situation as more serious, less open to expressions of personal identity).

Answer may include: Commentary as identity as performance and role of culture.

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity

ESSAY

1. In 1923, linguist C.K. Ogden and literary critic I.A. Richards offered their “Triangle of Meaning” as a way to understand the operation of signs and symbols. List and describe the elements of the triangle, explain how they interact to make meaning, and offer your own example.

Main point: Signs and symbols are not only arbitrarily assigned to their referents, but the subsequent references (meanings) are constructed and negotiated, and they vary given the context.

Answer must include: Definition of referent, sign/symbol, and reference and explanation of their interaction. Example must be correct.

Answer may include: Recognition of the fact that the triangle may show the linkage between referent, sign/symbol, and reference as straightforward, but there is a great deal of individual and cultural experience that goes into forging those connections.

A-head: Signs and Symbols

1. Describe the interplay of bounded and dominant culture. What are some of the benefits and costs of their influence on communication?

Main theme: The interplay of bounded and dominant culture allow us great personal freedom in communication (they liberate) but also constrain or limit our interactions with others of the same and different bounded and dominant cultures.

Answer must have: Recognition of the distinction between the two, commentary on how bounded cultures are more narrow but aid in the performance of identity and dominant cultures are more effective in uniting disparate experiences.

Answer may have: Examples of how bounded cultures can enrich the dominant culture.

A-head: The Power of Culture

1. How did the Palo Alto Group challenge the source-dominated view of communication? Explain how their perspective moved our understanding of communication toward the idea that communication is a transaction.

Main theme: Communication does not happen when a source sends a message (the source-dominated view); it happens when a receiver draws meaning from interaction with the source. That interaction means that there is an exchange of meaning, or in other words, a transaction.

Answer must include: Idea that because every human behavior is potentially communicative, we cannot not communicate. As such, contemporary thinking about communication recognizes that communication is receiver-dominated. Both parties to the interaction are receivers.

Answer may include: Commentary on the power of culture to shape the meaning we make in an interaction.

A-head: Communication and Perception

1. George Herbert Mead laid out his theory of symbolic interaction in a book entitled Mind, Self, and Society. Explain what he meant by mind, self, and society and how they interact to help us know who we are and make our way in the world.

Main theme: Our sense of self develops from our ongoing, interlinked conversations in and with a culture. Identity is developed and maintained through a social process.

Answer must have: Recognition of what each element represents and how they interact: Meaning (Mind) and identity (Self) arise in the context of culture (Society) and commentary on communication’s role in this process.

Answer may have: Commentary on generalized and significant others, Looking Glass Self, and six selves.

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity.

1. The quote, “I am not what I think I am and I am not what you think I am; I am what I think that you think I am,” suggests how complex and complicated communication can be. It tells us that in what appears to be a routine conversation, there are not simply two people communicating; there are actually six “selves” involved. What are those six selves and how do they interact to allow both parties to make meaning? Use an example of an encounter from your own experience do demonstrate the presence and operation of the six selves.

Main theme: Interactants are constantly making judgments about one another and adapting their communication to those judgments.

Answer must have: Presence of the six selves, commentary on how they are in constant interaction, and an example from the student’s experience that fits the concept.

Answer may have: Mention of Looking Glass Self, the idea that we cannot not communicate, and operation of social objects.

A-head: Communication, Perception, and Identity