Chapter 2: Histories and Contexts of Communication
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. In many colleges and universities, departments related to communication studies
draw which of the following with regard to numbers of majors?
a. Equal to other disciplines
b. The fewest number of majors
c. The largest number of majors
d. No majors—communication classes used only as elective classes
2. Which of the following is an assumption of the social scientific approach?
a. The Truth exists.
b. The Truth must be hidden from others.
c. The Truth does not exist.
d. The ongoing Truth will never be known.
3. Which of the following is a disadvantage/criticism of the social scientific approach?
a. The approach focuses too much on including age and socioeconomic status in
research.
b. Education is heavily emphasized when selecting participants.
c. Race, religion, sexuality, and other characteristics of participants are not always
taken into account.
d. College students are rarely invited to participate.
4. When respondents in a research study tell the researcher what they think will make
them “look good” to the researcher, it is known as the ______.
a. social desirability effect
b. self-fulfilling prophecy effect
c. negative-attitude effect
d. socio-egocentric effect
5. Grounded theory is often used by which of the following?
a. Social scientific approach
b. Grounded approach
c. Interpretivist approach
d. Critical approach
6. The decision development perspective would be studied in which area of
communication?
a. Group communication
b. Interpersonal communication
c. Media communication/mass media
d. Rhetorical criticism
7. Which statement about political communication is correct?
a. Due to the temporary nature of their work, campaign staff members are unable to
form relationships.
b. Candidates cannot strive for positive relationships with voters.
c. Political communication scholars sometimes study voter behavior.
d. Political communication scholars have no way to study the talk about political issues
among friends, family, and acquaintances.
8. The study of the persuasive effect of writing history in particular ways and the
reasons why particular reports and analyses are offered by specific authors is known as
which of the following?
a. Ethnography
b. Historiography
c. Genealogy
d. Rhetorical studies
9. The first documented essay on communication was addressed to Kagemni, son of
Pharaoh Huni, in approximately what year?
a. 300 BCE
b. 3000 CE
c. 300 CE
d. 3000 BCE
10. The National Association of Academic Teachers of Public Speaking later became
which of the following?
a. International Communication Association
b. National Communication Association
c. American Communication Association
d. Global Communication Association
13. Which is one of the two most important tasks of academic associations noted in
Chapter 2?
a. Collect membership dues
b. Have local social gatherings
c. Publish academic journals
d. Discredit other associations
14. The earliest focus of the communication discipline was which of the following?
a. Public speaking, debate, and performance
b. Mass communication
c. Interpersonal communication
d. Group communication
15. The study of rhetoric began in which of the following?
a. Interpersonal communication
b. Public address
c. Critical approach
d. Media studies
16. Which of the following became an area of study for mass media scholars only in the
early decades of the previous century?
a. Television
b. Newspapers
c. Radio
d. Books
17. Which of the following is true about writing the history of a discipline?
a. A history of a discipline is one of many ways of reporting research developments.
b. There is a single history for any discipline.
c. There is only one “true” history for a discipline.
d. All histories are written from the same vantage point.
1. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which members of society are perceived as having a
greater ability to impose their values and establish the nature of taken-for-granted
aspects of society?
a. Women
b. Men
c. White people
d. Heterosexuals
2. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. One method used by those taking a critical approach
involves the analysis of texts. Which ones might be considered for analysis?
a. Transcripts of interactions
b. Television
c. Music
d. Movies
3. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which of the following would be considered part of
cultural communication?
a. Intracultural communication
b. Cross-cultural communication
c. Critical cultural communication
d. Intercultural communication
4. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Family communication studies can include which of
these areas?
a. Conflict
b. Violence
c. Celebrations
d. Groupthink
5. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Persuasion can also be called which of the following?
a. Coercion
b. Brainwashing
c. Discouragement
d. Manipulation
e. Propaganda
6. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Rhetoric studies all influences on communication,
including which of the following?
a. Media content
b. Technology
c. Architecture
d. Politics
7. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which ones are methods typically used in the
interpretivist approach to communication?
a. Experiments
b. Interviews
c. Textual Analysis
d. Participant observation
1. A history of a discipline is the one correct view of that history.
2. Historiography studies the persuasive effect of writing history in particular ways.
3. One key goal of research is to make developments and corrections to our
understanding.
Short Answer
1. What is the main advantage of the social scientific approach?
2. Why do interpretivist approaches reject the idea that research can ever be value
free?
3. When it comes to instruction and learning as the focus of communication education,
what area of study has received perhaps the most attention?
4. Textual analysis conducted as part of interpretivist research frequently takes what
form?
5. Describe at least one disadvantage to the social scientific approach.
5. Explain how people in groups in real life rarely have zero history with one another
and what that means for the group.
6. Describe the social desirability effect and why it could be detrimental.
7. Unlike the social scientific approach, the data used in interpretivist research tend not
to be quantitative or number-based. Describe what type of non-quantitative data is
involved in interpretivist research.
8. Scholars taking the critical approach to communication try to uncover hidden or
explicit power within a societal group. Explain why this is important to the study of
communication.
9. What is the challenge of scholars who undertake the critical approach to
communication?
10. Describe at least one disadvantage of the interpretivist approach to communication.