Wk 8 Discussion, Question 1

After looking at all of the research methods presented in table 13.3 the one method that seemed most interesting to me is the ethnography method. Ethnography is when a researcher observes behavior in it's natural setting. They do this to describe the communication practices of a group of people. I think that ethnography is very interesting. I think that it would be fun to go and observe a group of people that I don't know anything about and try to figure out how they do things.

If I were to study some aspect of deception and I had to come up with a research question my question would be How often do people feel a sense of deception from someone they love? I always hear stories on the radio of people who have been deceived by someone that they love. I want to know if it happens as often as these people make it sound. I think the type of research method that I would choose to answer this question would be survey research. Survey research is a very good method to reach out to a lot of people at one time. It could help with finding out the answer to my question.

Wk 8 Discussion, Question 2

I think that ethnographers have a very interesting job. I think it's very interesting that they get to learn about people by observing them. Ethnographers learn from observations. "Their reasons for observing behavior, however, are scientific, not personal." (Trenholm, P. 379) Ethnographers want to try and understand how members of other cultures interpret their own world. In order to understand these other cultures ethnographers must put themselves into another culture to see through the eyes of its members.

One moral dilemma that can occur is that the group the ethnographer is trying to study does not trust the ethnographer. Some groups are very skeptical of other people coming into their culture and trying to observe their way of life. People don't want to feel exposed. One way that an ethnographer can resolve this issue is by slowly gaining the trust of the people of the culture he/she is observing and not breaking that trust.

Wk 8 Discussion, Question 3

The concept from chapter 13 that I found to be the most interesting was the professional ethnographers. Professional ethnographers are people who learn from observation. Their reasons for observing behavior is scientific, not personal. I thought that this concept was very interesting because I tend to observe people all the time. I don't do it for scientific reasons. I don't even notice when I start doing it. Whenever I go out in public places I like to people watch. It do this a lot when I go to bars with my friends. It is very interesting to watch how all the people interact there, especially where there is alcohol involved. I also people watch a lot when I go to theme parks. I went to Disneyland every year in high school with my cheerleading team. Whenever my friends and I would stop for lunch or we just needed a break from walking around we would sit and just watch the people that passed us by. It was interesting to see all of the different people that were there and how they all enjoyed the park differently.

WK 7 Discussion, Question3

The concept from chapter 8 that stood out to me is organizational communication. I just completed the organizational communication class over the 5 week summer session so I thought discussing this concept was very relevant. Organizational communication includes concepts like arguing, cooperating, making decisions, persuading one another, solving problems, and forging relationships. Organizational communication is important because every organization depends on the way that its members communicate with one another. If the members of an organization don’t know how to communicate effectively or don’t communicate at all then the organization is in big trouble. Organizational communication is one of the keys to running a successful business. Organizations need their employees to communicate. They need to be able to trust one another in order to have the business run smoothly. When employees in an organization know how to effectively communicate with other employees it makes the job much easier for their boss. Organizational communication is so important to an organization.

Wk7 Discussion, Question 2

I do agree with Marshall McLuhan. I agree that the medium is as important as the message. Now-a-days people get their news for many different sources. Some people get it from radio, newspaper, tv, or the internet. I think that the medium choice a company chooses to broadcast their news affects the relevance of the message. For example the writers of a gossip magazine wouldn’t print stories about murders, weather or what’s going on in the government. You would find those types of stories in the newspaper. If these types of stories were printed in gossip magazines people are likely to skip over them because those aren’t the types of stories they are looking for in that type of magazine. I didn’t really understand what Marshall McLuhan meant by television being a cool medium. In the text book he says that “because television is a cool medium, it demands that viewers fill in detail.”

Wk 7 Discussion, Question 1

I have never formed friendships that are exclusively in cyberspace. I think that forming friendships exclusively in cyberspace is too impersonal. If you have a friend that you have never had face to face interaction with you will never know what they are really like. When I have friends I want to be able to see their faces and hear their voices. I like the see the different reactions. When people send you emails or you chat on IM’s you can interpret their messages in so many different ways. That’s why I like to hear peoples voices so I can interpret their messages the way they intend for them to be interpreted. I do have friends that I only talk with on facebook but that is because they either live far away or I don’t talk with them very often. All of the close friends that I have I see a lot. I don’t think that I would for a friendship that is exclusively in cyberspace because I wouldn’t have the opportunity to see them face to face. I would like to see the people that I am interacting with and get to know them through personal contact.

Wk 6 discussion, Question 2

When it comes to choosing someone as a potential romantic partner I know that I use all of the filters that were discussed in the filtering theory. I didn't realize that I use all of these concepts until I read this chapter. The four filters described in this theory are sociological or incidental, preinteraction, interaction, and cognitive cues. Sociological or incidental cues are described as demographic or environmental factors that determine probability. Some of these factors include where the other person lives or works and how frequently we travel. Physical proximity is how close or far apart people live from each other. Preinteraction cues are all about how we use nonverbal impressions to determine if we want to interact with with others. This includes body type, physical beauty, dress, and so on. Interaction cues occur when we have made initial contact with the other person. Cognitive cues say that the strongest factors in creating a solid, long-lasting relationships are psychological.

Duck's theory makes complete sense to me. I use all four of these factors when it comes to choosing someone as a potential romantic partner. I know I use the preinteraction cues to decide if I'm attracted to someone physically. I use the sociological or incidental cues and physical proximity to decide if the relationship would be worth it. If someone lives far away or travels a lot it is definitely more difficult to have a relationship with that person. Cognitive cues is also a big deciding factor for me. I need to have a strong mental connection with someone if the relationship is going to work for me.

I know that I have used the sociological cues to eliminate someone. In fact I used it with my current boyfriend who I have been dating for the past 3 years. We live an hour away from each other. When I first met him I was very attracted to him. We hit it off right away. We both knew that we were attracted to each other but the one thing that stopped us from dating right away was the distance between us. After about a year or being just friends we decided to not let the distance between us ruin something that could be really special. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Wk 6 discussion, Question 1

The patter that I think would be most difficult to change, the most damaging and the most potentially damaging to self-esteem in a relationship is rigid complementarity. Rigid complementarity happens when the submissive partner begins to resent always giving in or when the dominant partner beings to tire of being in charge. I think that rigid complementarity is the most difficult to change because it is the easiest to give into. When you are with a person who is really confident and always needs to be in control it is easy to forget what you want and always go along with what the other person wants. I have personally experienced rigid complementarity in a previous relationship. I had been dating a guy 2 1/2 years and we decided to end things. I had thought our relationship was good until the very end. After we were no longer together I took some time to look back on the relationship and my opinion about how happy the relationship was changed drastically.

I realized that I was always giving into what my ex boyfriend wanted. I was the submissive person of the relationship. If he wanted to do something that I didn't want to do we would do it anyways. It was almost like my feelings didn't matter. If he didn't like a person that I was hanging out with he would tell me to stop hanging out with them and I would stop hanging out with them. Looking back on the relationship it sounds like it was really bad. I didn't understand how I didn't see what was going on. He had a graceful way of making me see things his way. My self-esteem was really low by the time our relationship ended. After we broke up I swore I would never be in a relationship like that again.

When I started dating my current boyfriend I realized that breaking the habit of rigid complementarity was not going to be easy. I found myself doing the same exact things I was doing with my old boyfriend. I would always let him have his way. Eventually he got really tired of that and he told me that I needed to start sticking up for myself. It took a little bit but I finally got out of that phase and I made the change.

Wk 6 discussion, Question 3

The concept from chapter 7 that I choose to discuss is affection need. Affection need is defined as the need to develop close, caring relationships with others. "By establishing friendships and by getting to know one another intimately, group members can satisfy their need to receive affection, as well as their need to show affection to others." (Trenholm, P. 181) I choose this concept because I strongly believe that this concept relates to everyone. We all want to feel needed by others. It makes us feel important and feel good about ourselves. Developing caring relationships with others is part of what makes our lives complete. I know that I wouldn't be where I am today without all of the personal relationships that I have. Each close, caring relationship that I have is unique in its own way. Everyone that I have a close, caring relationship with is a special part of my life and I'm thankful for every single one.