Chapter 1: An Overview of Communication
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. The perspective that “communication is interaction” is limited because ______.
a. it fails to account for the correct timing of a message
b. it fails to account for the exchange of information between two or more individuals
c. it fails to account for the exchange of information between a sender and receiver
d. it fails to fully capture what happens when people communicate
2. The perspective of “communication as transaction” is more accurate than other
perspectives because ______.
a. it accounts for the correct timing of a message
b. it accounts for the exchange of information between two or more individuals
c. it accounts for the creation of shared meanings and understandings through
communication
d. it accounts for the intention to send a message
3. The use of symbols in communication is complicated because ______.
a. symbols have only one meaning
b. symbols have multiple meanings
c. symbols are not affected by culture and context
d. symbols are not representational
4. Which of the following is true of symbols and communication?
a. Symbols have the potential for only one meaning.
b. Symbols are used to deflect meaning.
c. The meaning applied to symbols may change.
d. Symbols preclude meaning.
5. Communication is presentational because it is ______.
a. never neutral
b. always objective
c. not always effective
d. always effective
6. Frames can enhance communication by ______.
a. helping to open up unlimited meanings
b. helping to determine outcomes
c. helping to draw a boundary around the conversation
d. helping to completely terminate communication interactions
7. One characteristic of framing in communication is that ______.
a. every part of the message must be explicitly stated
b. frames pull attention toward certain things and away from others
c. every part of the message can be ignored
d. not every part of the message can be ignored
8. The means through which a message is conveyed is the ______.
a. message
b. module
c. method
d. medium
9. Communication frames are based in part on a person’s perspectives of ______.
a. situations
b. relationships with others
c. neither situations nor relationships with others
d. both situations and relationships with others
10. Which is NOT an example of a context that can affect the meaning(s) a single symbol
or message can have?
a. physical context
b. symbolic context
c. relational context
d. situational context
11. One characteristic of communication is that it is cultural. Which statement is NOT
true?
a. Different cultures make different assumptions.
b. Each time you talk to someone, from your culture or another, you are taking knowledge
for granted.
c. Cultural expectations are only reinforced when someone violates them.
d. You perform and enact your culture through communication.
12. Which one is NOT an example of communication as interaction?
a. You leave a message on a friend’s voice mail, and he returns the call.
b. You leave a note for your mother, and she responds by sending you a text.
c. You send a message in a bottle to a friend, and she sends you an e-mail saying she got
it.
d. You send a text to your boss letting him know you’re going to be late for work.
13. Which statement is true of the constitutive approach to communication?
a. It is the way in which symbols take on meaning in a social context or society.
b. It is an arbitrary representation of ideas, people, relationships, cultures, genders, and
so forth.
c. It brings into existence something that has not been there before.
d. It can be used to study all communicative activity.
14. Family members using certain words or phrases that have particular shared meaning
as they are used over time is an example of what concept?
a. Communication frame
b. Social construction
c. Constitutive approach to communication
d. Communication as interaction
15. Which one is NOT a representation of a symbol?
a. Smoke
b. A place
c. Ideas
d. A chair
e. Relationships
16. Which is NOT true of a symbol?
a. It is an arbitrary representation.
b. There is a direct causal connection between a symbol and what it represents.
c. A symbol can be either verbal or nonverbal.
d. A symbol can be different in different cultures.
17. Which statement is true of social construction?
a. It is an arbitrary representation of ideas, people, relationships, cultures, genders, and
so forth.
b. It brings into existence something that has not been there before.
c. It can be used to study all communicative activity.
d. It is the way in which symbols take on meaning in a social context or society as they are
used over time.
18. The constitutive approach to communication contends that communication does not
just construct meaning, but it is through communication that ______ is/are created.
a. relationships
b. cultures
c. genders and ethnicities
d. realities
e. all of the above
19. Each time you talk to someone, from your culture or another, you are doing all of the
following except ______.
a. taking knowledge for granted
b. doing what your culture expects
c. not reinforcing cultural expectations
d. doing, performing, and enacting your culture
20. Which is NOT one of the seven characteristics of communication studied in this
chapter?
a. Communication involves frames.
b. Communication is chemistry.
c. Communication is cultural.
d. Communication is relational.
e. Communication requires meaning.
21. The following may be said about relationships and communication:
a. Communication affects relationships, but relationships cannot affect communication.
b. Relationships between people most often are always openly expressed.
c. Relationships are communication interactions only between two people.
d. Relationships are assumed each time you communicate with someone.
22. In an encounter, which of the following issues are being negotiated?
a. Gender, status, power, and politeness
b. Gender and status only
c. Power and politeness only
d. Gender and politeness only
Difficulty Level: Medium
Multiple Response
1. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. A symbol can be a ______.
a. word
b. mark
c. sound
d. logo
e. gesture
2. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Cultural expectations determine when you ______.
a. greet someone with a kiss or a handshake
b. make or maintain eye contact
c. stand at a distance from someone during a conversation
d. take turns while talking
e. bring the conversation to a close
3. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. What are ways in which group decision making is
accomplished?
a. The logic of arguments
b. Agenda setting
c. Solution evaluations
d. Relationships among group members
e. Personal likes and dislikes for one another
4. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Most interactions between romantic partners consist of
more than holding hands and gazing into one another’s eyes. Which are examples of
everyday interactions that might also take place?
a. What to eat
b. What bills need paying
c. What is the source of a foul odor
d. Coordinating schedules
e. What to watch on television
5. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which medium/media will impact the meaning of a
message?
a. Text
b. Social networking sites
c. A note placed on someone’s windshield
d. Smoke signals
e. Face-to–face interaction
1. Context has no effect on the meaning of a communicated message.
2. Any type of communication you ever participate in has a relationship assumed
underneath it.
3. Communication is explained as transmitting information from Person A to Person B.
4. The perspective of “communication as action” defines communication as occurring
only if information is exchanged between two or more individuals.
5. Symbols are always constant in meaning from one cultural context to the next.
6. We tend to speak differently with different people, such as with parents or our boss.
7. Everyday conversations create and maintain various aspects of our lives.
8. Gender issues are neither negotiated through nor associated with communication.
9. A communicative “frame” pulls our attention toward certain things and away from
others.
10. Meaning develops when groups of people use particular symbols.
11. Presentational communication describes facts or conveys information, while
representational communication gives one person’s particular version of the facts.
12. Social construction involves the way in which symbols take on meaning in a social
context as they are used over time.
13. The representational and presentational nature of communication is limited to
interactions between people.
14. Communication is interesting and worthy of study because something magical and
extra happens in the process beyond the mere exchange of messages.
15. Frames are basic forms of knowledge that provide a definition of a scenario.
16. Communication is the definitive use of symbols—influenced, guided, and understood
in the context of relationships.
17. Not all communication is characterized by the use of symbols.
18. Communication as interaction is an exchange of information between two or more
individuals.
19. You could think of representation as spin and presentation as facts.
20. Each time someone communicates, a worldview is being shared through the selection
of terms, regardless of how much thought has gone into the construction of a message.
21. Cultural expectations are reinforced when someone violates them.
22. Shared relational knowledge does not necessarily enable you and another person to
assign unique meanings to certain words or symbols.
1. What is the difference between a symbol and a sign?
2. Give an example of how symbols can be different in different cultures.
3. Give an example of a common word or phrase that can be accompanied by verbal or
nonverbal symbols that impact meaning and send different messages depending on how
it is delivered.
4. Give an example of how cultural expectations can be violated.
5. Explain why the relational connection between the sender of a message and a receiver
is sometimes less than obvious.
6. Describe how the symbolic act of waving can have multiple meanings.
7. Name one way in which determining meaning is more complex than it seems.
1. Explain how everyday conversations create, maintain, or challenge one of the
following: culture, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, meaning, or reality.
2. Explain why it can be problematic to interpret a symbol correctly in a communicated
message.
3. Explain how communication can be both representational and presentational.
4. Explain the constitutive approach to communication.
5. Explain why the perspective of “communication as action” is limited in its usefulness.
6. Explain why communication is never neutral.
7. Explain how the link between relationships and communication can be used to study all
communicative activity.
8. Explain why it is important to study communication, even though you have been
communicating your entire life.
9. Explain how communication frames help people understand their role in a conversation
and what is expected of them.
10. Give one example of how framing assumptions help people make decisions about
what symbols are used and how these symbols should be interpreted.
11. Explain why people do not always agree on what exactly is taking place in a particular
interaction.
12. Explain how relationships are literally talked into existence.
13. At first glance, the notion of communication being both presentational and
representational is difficult to grasp. Explain the difference.
14. Explain the difference between saying “I love you” in a relational context and in a
situational context.