Page 43 - Essentials of Human Communication

22 CHAPTER 1 The Essentials of Human Communication

Summary of Concepts and Skills Study and Review materials for this chapter are
at MyCommunicationLab

Listen to the Audio Chapter Summary distance, individualism–collectivism, and high and low
at MyCommunicationLab context.
This chapter considered the nature of human communication, 13. Ethnocentrism, existing on a continuum, is the tendency
its major elements and principles, the role of culture in human to evaluate the beliefs, attitudes, and values of our own
communication, and communication competence. culture positively and those of other cultures negatively.
Communication Competence
foundations of human Communication
14. Communication competence refers to your knowledge
1. Communication is the act, by one or more persons, of of how communication works and your ability to use
sending and receiving messages that are distorted by noise, communication effectively. Communication competence
occur within a context, have some effect (and some ethical includes, for example, thinking critically and mindfully,
dimension), and provide some opportunity for feedback. being culturally sensitive, communicating ethically and
2. Communication is transactional. It is a process of inter- listening effectively.
related parts in which a change in one element produces
changes in other elements. Several important communication skills emphasized in
this chapter are presented here in summary form (as they are
Communication Models and Concepts in every chapter). These skill checklists don’t include all the
skills covered in the chapter but rather are representative of
3. The essentials of communication—the elements present in the most important skills. Place a check mark next to those
every communication act—are sources–receivers; messages skills that you feel you need to work on most.
(feedforward, feedback, and metamessages); context (phys-
ical, cultural, social–psychological, and temporal); channel; 1. I’m sensitive to contexts of communication. I recog-
noise (physical, physiological, psychological, and seman- nize that changes in physical, cultural, social– psy-
tic); and effects. chological, and temporal contexts will alter meaning.

principles of Communication 2. I assess my channel options and evaluate whether
my message will be more effective if delivered
4. Communication is purposeful. Through communication, face-to-face, through e-mail, or by some third
you learn, relate, help, influence, and play. party, for example.
5. Communication involves choices and those choices will 3. I look for meaning not only in words but also in
determine effectiveness or ineffectiveness. nonverbal behaviors.
6. Communication and relationships are always—in part— 4. I am sensitive to the feedback and feedforward
ambiguous. that I give to others and that others give to me.
7. Communication involves both content and relationship 5. I combat the effects of the various types of physi-
dimensions. cal, psychological, and semantic noise that distort
8. Communication and relationships invariably involve issues messages.
of power. 6. I listen not only to the more obvious content
9. Communication sequences are punctuated for processing. messages but also to the relational messages that
Individuals divide the communication sequence into stim- I (and others) send, and I respond to the relational
uli and responses in different ways. messages of others to increase meaningful interaction.
10. In any interactional situation, communication is inevitable 7. Instead of looking only at the punctuation pat-
(you cannot not communicate, nor can you not respond to terns, I also look at the patterns that others might
communication), irreversible (you cannot take back mes- be using in order to understand better the mean-
sages), and unrepeatable (you cannot exactly repeat messages). ings communicated.
Culture and human Communication 8. Because communication is transactional, I recog-
nize that all elements influence every other
11. Culture permeates all forms of communication, and inter- element in the communication process and that
cultural communication is becoming more and more fre- each person communicating is simultaneously a
quent as the United States becomes home to a variety of speaker/listener.
cultures and does business around the world. 9. Because communication is purposeful, I look
12. Significant dimensions along which cultures may differ carefully at both the speaker’s and the listener’s
are uncertainty avoidance, masculinity–femininity, power purposes.