Page 111 - Essentials of Human Communication

90 Chapter 4 Verbal Messages

7. Messages can be onymous or anonymous. 4. I use terms varying in abstraction to best commu-
8. Messages vary in assertiveness. nicate my meanings.
9. Messages are influenced by culture and gender. 5. I vary my directness depending on the situation
and my communication goal.
Disconfirmation and Confirmation 6. I take special care to make spoken messages clear
and unambiguous, especially when using terms
10. Disconfirmation is the process of ignoring the presence for which people will have very different connota-
and the communications of others. Confirmation means tive meanings.
accepting, supporting, and acknowledging the importance
of other people. 7. I recognize cultural and gender differences in the use
of verbal messages and avoid assuming that my prin-
11. Racist, heterosexist, ageist, and sexist language disconfirms, ciples are followed by members of other cultures.
puts down, and negatively evaluates various groups.
8. I focus attention not only on words but also on the
Principles for using verbal Messages effectively person communicating, recognizing that mean-
ings are largely in the person.
12. Avoid intensional orientation; remember that language 9. I avoid disconfirmation and instead use messages
symbolizes reality and is not the reality itself. that confirm the other person.
13. Avoid allness; you can never know all or say all about any- 10. I avoid racist, heterosexist, ageist, and sexist lan-
thing. guage and, in general, language that puts down
14. Avoid confusing facts with inferences; remember that lan- other groups.
guage doesn’t indicate this distinction grammatically; 11. I use the cultural identifiers that facilitate commu-
15. Avoid indiscrimination; everything is unique. nication and avoid those that set up barriers to
16. Avoid polarization; avoid focusing solely on extremes. effective interaction.
17. Avoid static evaluation; language tends to be static, whereas 12. I avoid responding intensionally to labels as if
people and events are forever changing. they are objects; instead, I respond extensionally
and look first at the reality and then at the words.
The study of verbal messages and of how meaning is com-
municated from one person to another has important implica- 13. To avoid allness, I end my statements with an
implicit “et cetera” in recognition that there is
tions for the skills of effective communication. Place a check always more to be known or said.
mark next to those skills that you feel you need to work on most.
14. I distinguish facts from inferences and respond to
1. Because communication is a package of signals, I inferences with tentativeness.
ensure my verbal and nonverbal messages rein- 15. I avoid indiscrimination by viewing the unique-
force rather than contradict each other. ness in each person and situation.
2. I try to understand not only objective, denotative 16. I avoid polarization by using “middle ground”
meanings but also the speaker’s subjective, conno- terms and qualifiers in describing the world,
tative meanings. especially people.
3. I recognize that snarl and purr words describe the 17. I mentally date my statements and thus avoid
speaker’s feelings and not objective reality. static evaluation.

key Word Quiz

the language of verbal Messages c. intensional orientation (85)

Match the terms about verbal messages with their definitions. d. direct messages (73)
Record the number of the definition next to the appropriate term. e. ableism (80)
a. static evaluation (88) f. denotation (70)
b. confirmation (79) g. disconfirmation (78)