Comm theories final lecture pdf
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This document summarizes several communication theories: 1. Reinforcement Theory explains that attitude changes occur through reinforcement of attention, comprehension, and acceptance of a message. The Elaboration Likelihood Model describes two routes to persuasion: central processing using message arguments or peripheral cues. 2. Attribution Theory examines how people explain the causes of behavior. Cognitive Dissonance Theory suggests people seek to reduce inconsistencies between their beliefs and actions. 3. Social Penetration Theory and Interpersonal Deception Theory describe how relationships and communication develop over time and how deception occurs respectively. Expectancy Violation Theory analyzes how unexpected behaviors can positively or negatively impact relationships.
Comm theories final lecture pdf
- 1. Communication Theories kriztine rosales-viray
- 2. Reinforcement Theory Theorists: Hovland, Janis and Kelly! Year: 1967! Explanation of the Theory:! Attitude changes result from an opinion change produced through reinforcement in areas such as attention, comprehension and acceptance.
- 3. Interpretation ! Attention, comprehension and acceptance are considered by the audience before a new opinion is adopted. The message must be attention-getting and easy to understand. More importantly, it must be presented in a way that reinforces the idea's validity.
- 4. Example A public relations practitioner is conducting a week long campaign for "Organ Donation Awareness Week". S/he conducts a pre-campaign phone survey providing positive reinforcement for pro-organ donation answers for two groups and no reinforcement for the other two groups. All groups have an opposing position to organ donation.
- 5. Elaboration Likelihood Model Theorists: Petty and Cacioppo! Year: 1986! Explanation of the Theory! There are two routes to persuasion -- the central route and the peripheral route. The central route uses message elaboration, and can produce a major positive attitude change, while the peripheral route uses six different message irrelevant cues to illicit a quick response with a minor shift in attitude.
- 6. Interpretation The central route involves message elaboration and is used to scrutinize ideas, determine their merit and contemplate possible consequences. The peripheral route provides a quick accept or reject decision without deep consideration. Six cues automatically lead a person to the peripheral route: reciprocation -"I did you a favor", consistency - "This is the way it's done", social proof -"Everyone does it", liking -"You like me and my idea", authority -"Because I said so", and scarcity -"This offer ends in five minutes".
- 7. Example Perfume ads rely on the peripheral route while infomercials use the central route to persuade a person to buy their products. During a 30-second perfume commercial the audience has no motivation to process information. Their concentration becomes nonexistent during commercial breaks therefore advertisers must grab their attention the quickest and easiest way possible. An infomercial has the time and the audience interest to use the central route.
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- 9. Attribution Theory Theorists: Heider! Year: 1958! Explanation:! Attribution Theory attempts to explain causes of behavior. It attempts to explain the causes of people's behavior and attributing or explaining reasons as to why people behave the way they do.
- 10. Interpretation Attribution Theory is a humanistic theory. There is not a direct relationship between our behavior and its causes. There can be a variety of behaviors that are perceived resulting from a variety of causes.
- 11. Example Say you are expecting a very important phone call but you have to run out to the store. Your roommate is the only one home and you tell her to be sure to answer the phone because of this call. She says that she will take a message. When you return home, you ask your roommate if she answered the call and took a good message, and she said someone called, but she forgot who and how to reach them. As you can see, there are several different kinds of causal attributions to behavior, for example, situation causes, personal effects, ability to do something, obligation to do something etc. The attribution assigned to behavior centers on perceived causes. It is important to look very carefully at the context in which the behavior took place.
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- 13. Cognitive Dissonance Theorist: Leon Festinger! Year: 1962! Explanation:! This theory of Cognitive Dissonance says that human beings often have conflicting beliefs with actions they take, or other beliefs they have. This dissonance creates a tension and tension reduction is automatically sought by changing our evaluations by some degree. Cognitive Dissonance is when you have two good choices and you make your decision then you find yourself unsure or in doubt about the choice you made. You might have to downplay the other choice in order to reassure yourself.
- 14. Interpretation This theory gives a basic explanation for the way humans react when they act outside of their beliefs. We cannot carryout actions that we believe are wrong, so we either cease the action or believe that we are right.
- 15. Example When marketers want to persuade their audience to buy a product or perform a subject they must convince them that this is a good action and if their beliefs do not match this action, they must persuade them to change their beliefs. For instance, during the holidays the Salvation Army campaigns heavily for donations. The different commercials and print ads show homelessness and its effects. When trying to persuade an audience member to give, they must persuade them that their organization is a worthy one. If someone believes that the homeless are lazy and don’t deserve donations, they will not donate until that belief is changed. If they were to consider donating they would experience dissonance in which either their belief or action would undergo a change. It is the Salvation Army’s goal to change the belief that the homeless are lazy so the reduction of dissonance will result in a donation.
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- 17. Social Penetration Theory Theorist: Altman and Taylor! Year: 1973! Explanation:! The social penetration theory states that as relationships develop, communication moves from relatively shallow, nonintimate levels to deeper, more personal ones.
- 18. Interpretation The more time we spend with others, the more likely we are to self-disclose more intimate thought and details of our life.
- 19. Interpretation Altman and Taylor compared people to a multilayered onion. They believe each opinion, belief, prejudice, and obsession is layered around and within the individual. As people get to know each other, the layers "shed away" to reveal the core of the person. These layers have both breadth and depth. Breadth is the array or variety of topics that have been incorporated into individuals' lives. Depth is the amount of information available on each topic. On the outermost shell are highly visible levels of information such dress and speech. Inside are increasingly private details about the lives, feelings, and thoughts of the participants. As the relationship develops, the partners share more aspects of the self, providing breadth as well as depth, through an exchange of information, feelings and activities. According to Altman and Taylor, relationships are sustained when they are relatively rewarding and discontinued when they are relatively costly.
- 20. Example Pete and John have been friends since they were freshman. Their friendship was like most guys in that it consisted of hanging out and making fun of each other and others. Several months ago Pete began dating Jen. The relationship was exactly what Pete wanted and he soon found himself falling in love with her. Because Pete and John were such good friends, there were many times that he wished he could confide in John but hesitated in doing so because they hadn't really talked about feelings before. If he admits these feelings, he's opening himself for some heavy handed kidding or emotional blackmail. In addition, once that wedge has been penetrated deeply, it will have cut a passage through which it can return again and again with little resistance. Future privacy may be difficult. Realizing both of these factors, Pete may be extra cautious about exposing his true feelings. Perhaps he'll fence off this part of his life for the whole school term. According to the social penetration theory, a permanent guard will limit the closeness these two young men can achieve.
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- 22. Interpersonal Deception Theory Theorists: Buller and Burgoon! Year: 1996! Explanation:! Communication senders attempt to manipulate messages so as to be untruthful, which may cause them apprehension concerning their false communication being detected. Simultaneously, communication receivers try to unveil or detect the validity of that information, causing suspicion about whether or not the sender is being deceitful.
- 23. Interpretation There are three aspects of deceptive messages: * The central deceptive message, which is usually verbal. * Ancillary message, which includes both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication that often reveals the truthfulness of a particular message. * Inadvertent behaviors which are mostly nonverbal and help to point out the deceit of the sender through a term called leakage.
- 24. Example A concrete example to help understand Interpersonal Deception is an experience between two best friends, Madeline and Isabell: Last weekend while Isabell was out of town, Madeline got too intoxicated at a fraternity party and kissed her best friend's boyfriend. Not only is Madeline not telling Isabell about what happened, even when she questioned her about what she did last weekend, Madeline lied and said she went to a friend's house and did not even drink.
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- 26. Expectancy Violation Theory Theorist: Burgoon! Year: 1978! Explanation:! Expectancy Violation Theory sees communication as the exchange of information which is high in relational content and can be used to violate the expectations of another which will be perceived as either positively or negatively depending on the liking between the two people.
- 27. Interpretation When our expectations are violated, we will respond in specific ways. If an act is unexpected and is assigned favorable interpretation, and it is evaluated positively, it will produce more favorable outcomes than an expected act with the same interpretation and evaluation.
- 28. Example An applicable example to help understand Expectancy Violations Theory can be demonstrated when Chris goes for a job interview. He feels that he is not getting very positive feedback from the potential employer, so he knows he should not violate expectancies and further hurt his chances of impressing the interviewer. However, if Chris suddenly felt more confident about the relationship he was building with the interviewer, he might consciously violate his or her expectations. He could pick up a picture on his or her desk and comment positively on the picture, hoping that this act would make him positively stick out in the employer's mind later.
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- 30. Uncertainty Reduction theory Theorists: Berger and Calabrese! Year: 1975! Explanation:! Initial interactions between strangers are characterized by information seeking in order to reduce uncertainty. Uncertainty is reduced as levels of self-disclosure, nonverbal warmth, and similarity increase.
- 31. Interpretations The truth set forth by this theory is that people attempt to “make sense” of interpersonal situations by reducing uncertainty through seeking information. While particular aspects of the encounter dictate how people react, the reactions are based on 8 axioms resulting in a list of 28 possible theorems.
- 32. Axioms 1.! Axiom 1, verbal communication: as the amount of verbal communication between ! strangers increases, the level of uncertainty decreases, and, as a result, verbal ! communication increases. ! 2.! Axiom 2, nonverbal warmth: as nonverbal affiliative expressiveness increases, ! uncertainty levels will decrease. Decreases in uncertainty level will cause increases ! in nonverbal affiliative expressiveness. ! 3.! Axiom 3, information seeking: high levels of uncertainty cause increases in ! information-seeking behavior. As uncertainty levels decline, information-seeking ! behavior decreases. ! 4.! Axiom 4, self-disclosure: high levels of uncertainty in a relationship cause decreases ! in the intimacy level of communication content. Low levels of uncertainty produce ! high levels of intimacy. !
- 33. Axioms 5.! Axiom 5, reciprocity: high levels of uncertainty produce high rates of reciprocity. Low levels of uncertainty produce low levels of reciprocity. ! 6.! Axiom 6, similarity: similarities between persons reduce uncertainty, while ! dissimilarities produce increases in uncertainty. ! 7.! Axiom 7, liking: increases in uncertainty level produce decreases in liking; decreases in uncertainty produce increases in liking. ! 8.! Axiom 8, shared networks: shared communication networks reduce uncertainty, while a lack of shared networks increases uncertainty.
- 34. Example Upon meeting someone who sits next to you in a class, you begin to ask questions about that person in order to reduce uncertainty. Chances are high that they will reciprocate and seek to reduce uncertainty as well.
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- 36. Life is a never-ending theorizing, analyzing and interpreting… Kriztine Rosales-Viray