Experience Communication, 2e (Child)
Chapter 5 Interpersonal Communication
1) Interpersonal communication is the process of interpreting meaning within the self.
2) You develop an interpersonal relationship every time you have a conversation with someone.
3) Interpersonal communication has both a content and a relationship dimension.
4) Social media have altered the way we think about friendship and who we call friends.
5) The number of heterosexual marriages has decreased over the past decade, and the number of
single-parent families has increased.
6) Communication affects the development of relationships, and the growth of relationships
affects communicative behavior.
7) Deceptive communication rarely causes a relationship to deteriorate.
8) Bullying and cyberbullying are stages in relational deterioration.
9) You have had a wonderful weekend with one of your good friends. You want to repeat the
experience. If you try, you can duplicate the same good time.
10) You and the person you are dating have a terrible fight. You reflect on it and believe that the
conflict occurred because you are both under tremendous pressure at home and at school. Because
you both sincerely want this, you and the other person can decide to forget the fight and go on with
your relationship as it was before.
11) Which statement about interpersonal communication below is FALSE?
A) It is an exchange between individuals.
B) It involves an exchange of meaning.
C) It is a process.
D) It is an interaction limited to two people.
12) Which of the following is NOT one of the five characteristics of interpersonal communication?
A) It begins with the self.
B) It is repeatable.
C) It is irreversible.
D) It is transactional.
13) Interpersonal communication has both a relationship and a(n) ________ dimension.
A) content
B) emotional
C) semantic
D) repetitive
14) You are angry at your friend, and you criticize her without thinking. Now you must face the
following unfortunate characteristic of interpersonal communication.
A) Interpersonal communication is irreversible.
B) Interpersonal communication is transactional.
C) Interpersonal communication begins with the self.
D) Interpersonal communication is intentional.
15) Technology has affected the concept of friendship in all of the following ways EXCEPT that
A) it has greatly increased the number of people regarded as “friends.”
B) it has invited us to have “friends” whom we may never actually see in person.
C) it has rendered friendships less satisfactory than in the past.
D) it has allowed us to maintain relationships with people who are far away.
16) Which of the following statements was NOT a finding of research about romantic relationships
established online?
A) More and more people are using the Internet to establish romantic relationships.
B) Participants report similar or superior levels of satisfaction compared with traditional means of
relating.
C) Participants report an ease of communicating online.
D) Participants report being anxious about constructing their online profiles.
17) Friends with benefits are friends who
A) divide household chores equally between them.
B) work together at the same location.
C) are also related.
D) have a sexual relationship.
18) Which of the following statements about families is FALSE?
A) The United States leads all developed nations in the number of single-parent families.
B) Children in single-parent families achieve the same level of education as children in two-parent
families.
C) Children in single-parent families are more likely to grow up in poverty than those in
two-parent families.
D) About a quarter of all children in the United States grow up in single-parent families.
19) Proximity as a factor in human relationships refers to
A) distance.
B) intensity.
C) amount of communication.
D) intimacy.
20) Each stage in Mark Knapp’s model of relationship development has ________ parts.
A) three
B) four
C) five
D) six
21) In Knapp’s model of relational stages, which item below is NOT a factor in initiating?
A) attractiveness
B) disintegration
C) similarity
D) responsiveness
22) Which of the following is an example of complementarity in a relationship?
A) Sam’s wife says little, but listens much, so Sam has center stage most of the time.
B) Juan and Juanita are both doctors; he’s a psychiatrist, and she is a surgeon.
C) Sabrina and Anthony fight often over family finances.
D) Dana and his partner Chris rarely talk to each other.
23) In which stage of relational development does the most self-disclosure occur?
A) intensifying stage
B) attractiveness stage
C) bonding stage
D) responsiveness stage
24) Which of the following revelations would be considered a self-disclosure?
A) As you can see, I am a middle-aged woman.
B) Sure, I am taller than you, but so are most men.
C) I’ve never had a boyfriend before this.
D) Thanks for inviting me to your party.
25) What is another term for the probing stage of a relationship?
A) experimentation stage
B) initiating stage
C) maintenance stage
D) termination stage
26) To say that self-disclosure tends to be reciprocal means
A) you shouldn’t reveal more about yourself than necessary.
B) you should never reveal information that can be used against you.
C) what you say about yourself can be dangerous.
D) when you disclose something, the other person is likely to as well.
27) When two people are perceived as a couple, they have entered the
A) integration stage.
B) initiation stage.
C) orientation stage.
D) attraction stage.
28) Establishing strategies for keeping a relationship together is called relational
A) integration.
B) initiation.
C) maintenance.
D) development.
29) Dialectic theory suggests that relationships
A) fail about half the time.
B) consist of contrary pushes and pulls.
C) just get better and better.
D) are easy to maintain if both people truly care.
30) Individuals sometimes need autonomy even in a close relationship. Which of the following
couples is demonstrating that need?
A) Both individuals enjoy an evening of drinking and dancing.
B) He volunteers at the homeless shelter, and she takes weaving lessons.
C) They often argue about how to raise the kids.
D) Both like to play poker for money, but they decided not to play until they both find better jobs.
31) A transformative event that alters a relationship in some way is referred to as a(n)
A) benchmark.
B) turning point.
C) epiphany.
D) differentiating stage.
32) According to a study of long-term happy marriages, which of the factors below was NOT
mentioned as an element of those marriages?
A) positive distortion
B) stubbornness
C) unconditional acceptance
D) religious beliefs
33) Which stage of relational development features hurtful messages, deception, and
aggressiveness?
A) maintenance
B) deterioration
C) initiation
D) development
34) Which of the following is an example of how defensiveness can lead to relational
deterioration?
A) Bree is aggravated by the way her friend, Phil, is always starting arguments about politics.
B) Louise is bothered by the way her husband, Julian, overrules her on parenting issues because he
feels his psychology degree makes him the expert.
C) Hector is hurt by the fact that his wife, Juana, has often accused him of being a bad father for
working late so often.
D) Bart is upset at how his boyfriend, Amani, lied and cheated on him.
35) During relational deterioration, the individuals in a relationship start to set new limits on what
they reveal to each other. Their exchanges tend to be shallow and rare. This stage is called
A) differentiating.
B) stagnating.
C) avoidance.
D) circumscribing.
36) The stage in relational deterioration when the relationship comes to a standstill is referred to as
the
A) stagnation stage.
B) circumscribing stage.
C) avoidance stage.
D) differentiating stage.
37) Sheldon encourages defensiveness in the people who work for him because he treats everyone
else as if they are dumb compared to him. Sheldon is exhibiting
A) certainty.
B) strategy.
C) control.
D) superiority.
38) Showing too much certainty (a lack of openness to other solutions) can create defensiveness in
others. In contrast, ________ can reduce that defensiveness.
A) provisionalism
B) empathy
C) description
D) spontaneity
39) Your roommate says, “What’s the matter with you anyway?” and you become defensive. It
would have been far better if he had said, “You look sad today,” a relational approach referred to as
A) differentiating.
B) description.
C) codependency.
D) bargaining.
40) The first stage of a relationship—the one that begins with your first impression of another
person—is known as the
A) experimentation stage.
B) initiating stage.
C) intensifying stage.
D) bonding stage.
41) You and Marco have been dating for a long time. One night after dinner, Marco tells you he
has gotten a new job and is leaving town to take it, and he would like you to come with him. This is
an example of a
A) stagnation.
B) codependency.
C) dark relationship.
D) turning point.
42) Jin and Naomi are good friends, but Jin evaluates every choice and every action Naomi does.
Jin is a physicist and Naomi did not finish college, so he feels his advice will be helpful because of
his high educational level. Jin’s actions will probably lead Naomi to feel
A) defensive.
B) autonomous.
C) responsiveness.
D) interdependent.
43) You have two friends who have been in a relationship for a considerable time. While they once
emphasized their commonalities, now they seem to be emphasizing differences. This new
behavior could be the beginning of
A) codependency.
B) relational deterioration.
C) bonding.
D) relational maintenance.
44) Which of the following is an example of the novelty and predictability aspect of a relationship?
A) Jack wants Linda to sit on the couch with him one every evening except Thursday, when he
expects her to leave him alone to watch football.
B) Ava wants Edward to be home at seven each night, but also likes it when he comes home late
with dinner and flowers.
C) Julio will not leave the house without Maria, unless he is going to buy something she needs.
D) Soledad proposes to Judith and asks her to move to Utah with her.
45) Ending an abusive relationship
A) may require police protection.
B) should be a last resort.
C) is easy to do.
D) shows relational immaturity.
46) Your mother’s new husband, Al, does not want her to work. Al also controls the checkbook and
discourages your mother from having any close friends. She appears to go along with this because
she feels she needs a man in the house. The situation between them is known as
A) self-disclosure.
B) codependency.
C) cyberbullying.
D) maintenance.
47) Which item below best describes behavioral flexibility?
A) Although she is a tough-minded manager at work, she is a caring, gentle mother to her children.
B) As a football coach he takes command and gives clear orders to gain the fear and respect of the
team.
C) He knows he needs to improve his computer skills, but he’s too ashamed to ask someone to help
him.
D) She has excellent math skills, which allows her to excel at card games like bridge.
48) Those who can adopt masculine traits as needed and feminine traits at other times are referred
to as
A) amorphous.
B) anhydrous.
C) androgynous.
D) codependent.
49) Participants in healthy relationships understand that their interpersonal communication begins
with
A) the environment.
B) society.
C) their partners.
D) themselves.
50) In a healthy interpersonal relationship,
A) both participants send and receive messages.
B) one partner dominates the conversation.
C) both partners avoid interactions with people outside the relationship.
D) participants use mediators to settle their disagreements.