978-0134202037 Chapter 2 Soluotion Manual

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Chapter 2: Interpersonal Communication and Self

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

2.1 Define self-concept and identify the factors that shape the development of your self-concept.

2.2 Define self-esteem and compare and contrast self-esteem with self-concept.

2.3 Define facework and discuss how you project your face and protect others’ face.

2.4 Identify and describe seven strategies for improving your self-concept.

2.5 Identify the effects of your self-concept and self-esteem on your relationships with others.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Improving Your Communication Skills: Who Are You?

This box provides space for students to identify and write ten aspects of themselves. The

responses provide a base for discussion about students’ own self-concept and self-esteem.

I. Self-Concept: Who You Think You Are

Learning Objective 2.1: Define self-concept and identify the factors that shape the

development of your self-concept.

A. Self is defined as the sum total of who a person is, a person’s central inner force. Your

self-concept is your subjective self-description of who you think you are—it is filtered

through your own perceptions.

1. We can view self-concept as the labels we consistently use to describe ourselves to

others.

2. Labels may change because a healthy self-concept is flexible.

3. Reflection is one of the most powerful tools we can use to enhance self-awareness.

B. Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values Reflect Your Self-Concept

1. An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond to a person, object, or idea in a

favorable or unfavorable way.

2. Beliefs are the way in which you structure your understanding of reality—what is true

and what is false for you.

3. Values are enduring concepts of good and bad, right and wrong.

C. Mindfulness: Being Consciously Aware

1. Mindfulness is the ability to think consciously about what you are doing and

experiencing, rather than responding out of habit or intuition.

2. Subjective Self-Awareness

a. Subjective self-awareness is the ability that people have to differentiate

themselves from their environment.

b. You are a separate entity from all that is around you.

3. Objective Self-Awareness

a. Objective self-awareness is the ability to be the object of our own thoughts and

attention.

b. You have the ability to think about your own thoughts as you are thinking about

them.

4. Symbolic Self-Awareness

a. Symbolic self-awareness, unique to humans, is our ability not only to think about

ourselves but to use language (symbols) to represent ourselves to others.

b. Psychologist Abraham Maslow created a four-stage model of awareness.

i. Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence

ii. Stage 2: Conscious incompetence

iii. Stage 3: Conscious competence

iv. Stage 4: Unconscious competence

D. One or Many Selves?

1. The Material Self

a. The material self is the total of all the tangible things you own: your possessions,

your home, and your body.

b. One element of the material self gets considerable attention in this culture: the

body.

2. The Social Self

a. The social self is the part of you that interacts with others.

b. William James believed that a person has many social selves, depending on who

that person is interacting with.

3. The Spiritual Self

a. The spiritual self consists of internal thoughts and introspection about your

values, moral standards, and beliefs.

b. It is the essence of who you think you are and your feelings about yourself.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Relating to Diverse Others: The “Golden Rule”: Is Being Other-Oriented a Universal

Value?

This feature points out how the importance of being other-oriented rather than self-absorbed is

not a new idea. It lists various world religions and how each emphasize this very principle. Use

the information in this feature as a starting point for a class discussion on whether being other-

oriented is a universal value or not.

E. How Your Self-Concept Develops

1. Interaction with Individuals

a. We form our self-concept by seeing ourselves in a figurative looking glass when

we interact with others.

b. The looking-glass self is the concept that suggests you learn who you are based

on your interaction with others who reflect yourself back to you.

c. We are likely to incorporate others’ comments into our self-concept under three

conditions.

i. Frequent: We are more likely to believe another’s statements if they repeat

something we have heard several times.

ii. Credible: We are more likely to value another’s statements if we perceive

them to be credible.

iii. Consistent: We are more likely to incorporate another’s comments into our

own concept of self if the comments are consistent with other comments and

our own experience.

2. Attachment Style

a. You develop an attachment style based on how secure, anxious, or

uncomfortable you felt in relating to one or both of your parents.

b. The emotional and relational bond you developed early on with your parents

influences your concept of self and how you relate to others.

i. Secure attachment style is the style of relating to others that is characteristic

of those who are comfortable giving and receiving affection, experiencing

intimacy, and trusting other people.

ii. Anxious attachment style is the style of relating to others that is

characteristic of those who experience anxiety in some intimate relationships

and feel uncomfortable giving and receiving affection.

iii. Avoidant attachment style is the style of relating to others that is

characteristic of those who consistently experience discomfort and

awkwardness in intimate relationships and who therefore avoid such

relationships.

3. Associations with Groups

a. A variety of groups, including religious, political, ethnic, social study,

occupational, and professional groups, play important roles in determining your

self-concept.

b. Groups provide important support for people who are marginal to the dominant

culture.

4. Roles You Assume

a. Father, sister, uncle, manager, salesperson, teacher, and student are labels that

imply certain expectations for behavior, and which shape self-concept.

b. Gender groups exert a powerful influence on role selection.

c. Androgynous roles encompass a greater repertoire of actions and behaviors

because they are both masculine and feminine.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

#communicationandtechnology: Comparing Your “Cyber Self” and Your “Realspace Self”

This feature discusses the differences between presentation of self online (electronically

medicated communication, or EMC) and offline. The four questions in this feature can be used

to engage students in small group or class discussion about the key differences between the

online and offline self, honesty, relationships, and influence in cyberspace.

5. Self-Labels

a. We form our self-concept based our own attitudes, beliefs, values, and actions.

b. Our self-reflexiveness is the human ability that allows us to think about what we

are doing while we are doing it.

6. Your Personality and Biology

a. Your personality—the set of enduring internal predispositions and behavioral

characteristics that describe how people react to their environment—is central to

psychology, the study of how your thinking and emotional responses influence

the way you behave.

b. Understanding the forces that shape your personality is central to increasing your

awareness of your self-concept and how you relate to others.

c. There are primary personality traits, which are known as the Big Five Personality

Traits.

i. Extraversion is outgoing, talkative, positive emotions, and sociable.

ii. Agreeableness is being friendly, compassionate, trusting, and cooperative.

iii. Conscientiousness is being efficient, organized, self-disciplined, dutiful, and

methodical.

iv. Neuroticism is seen as nervous, insecure, emotionally distressed, and

anxious.

v. Openness is noted as curious, imaginative, creative, adventurous, and

inventive.

d. The communibiological approach suggests that genetic and biological

influences play a major role in influencing communication behavior.

e. Social learning theory suggests that we can learn how to adapt and adjust our

behavior toward others.

f. Shyness is the behavioral tendency not to talk or interact with other people.

g. Communication apprehension is the fear or anxiety associated with either real

or anticipated communication with other people.

h. Willingness to communicate summarizes the likelihood that a person will

communicate with others in a variety of situations.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Communication and Emotion: Self and Emotion: How We Influence How We Feel

This feature explores the question “are we in control of our emotions or do our emotions control

us?” As described in the feature, three theories provide explanations about how we experience

emotions: the Commonsense Theory of Emotion, the James-Lange Theory of Emotion, and the

Appraisal Theory of Emotion. Divide the class into three groups and assign each group a theory.

Have each group present to the class an overview of its assigned theory and why group members

would support or not support the theory.

II. Self-Esteem: Your Self-Worth

Learning Objective 2.2: Define self-esteem and compare and contrast self-esteem with self-

concept.

A. Your self-worth (self-esteem) is your evaluation of your worth or value based on your

perception of such things as your skills, abilities, talents, and appearance.

B. Being prosocial means your behaviors benefit others.

C. Albert Bandura suggests that self-efficacy is your own belief in your ability to perform a

specific task in a particular situation.

D. People derive their sense of self-worth through social comparison: the process of

comparing yourself to others who are similar to you to measure your worth and value.

E. Berne (1964) developed the concept of a life position that describes your feelings of

regard for yourself and others as reflected in your sense of self-worth and self-esteem.

1. “I’m OK, you’re OK” indicates positive regard for self and others.

2. “I’m OK, you’re not OK” indicates positive regard for self and low regard for others.

3. “I’m not OK, you’re OK” indicates low regard for self and positive regard for others.

4. “I’m not OK, you’re not OK” indicates low regard for both self and others.

III. Facework: Presenting Your Self-Image to Others

Learning Objective 2.3: Define facework and discuss how you project your face and protect

others’ face.

A. Face is an image of yourself you present to others for acceptance and confirmation.

Facework involves using communication to maintain your own positive self-perception

or to support, reinforce, or challenge someone else’s self-perception.

B. Projecting Your Face

1. Like most people, you probably spend effort projecting a positive face—a positive

image of yourself—to others.

2. Preventative facework includes efforts to maintain and enhance one’s positive self–

perceptions.

3. Corrective facework describes efforts to correct what one perceives as a negative

perception of oneself on the part of others to “save face.”

C. Protecting Others’ Face

1. There are several things we can do to actively help others maintain a positive face.

2. We engage in face-threatening acts when we communicate in a way that undermines

or challenges someone’s positive face.

3. Politeness theory suggests not only that people have a tendency to promote a

positive image of themselves (a positive face), but also that people will have a

positive perception of others who treat them politely and respectfully.

4. Accordingly, when we have a negative message to communicate, we make a choice

regarding how much we threaten someone else’s face.

5. Dominici and Littlejohn suggest that being silent can mean one of three things.

a. I’m thinking about what you said.

b. I’m ignoring what you said because it’s not worth my time or effort.

c. I’m simply not going to respond in kind to the way you’ve treated me.

IV. How to Improve Your Self-Esteem

Learning Objective 2.4: Identify and describe seven strategies for improving your self-

concept.

A. Engage in Self-Talk

1. Realistic, positive self-talk can have a reassuring effect on your level of self-worth

and your interaction with others.

2. Intrapersonal communication describes this communication with yourself: self-talk.

3. Conversely, repeating negative messages about your lack of skill and ability can keep

you from trying and achieving.

B. Visualize a Positive Image of Yourself

1. Visualization is the technique of imagining that you are performing a particular task

in a certain way.

2. Positive visualization can enhance your self-worth.

C. Avoid Comparing Yourself with Others

1. Rather than finding others who seemingly are better off, focus on the unique

attributes that make you who you are.

2. Comparisons such as “He has more money than I have” or “She looks better than I

look” are likely to deflate our self-worth.

D. Reframe Appropriately

1. Reframing is the process of redefining events and experiences from a different point

of view.

2. Learn and profit from your mistakes.

E. Develop Honest Relationships

1. Having at least one other person who can help you objectively and honestly reflect on

your virtues and vices can be extremely beneficial in fostering a healthy, positive self-

image.

2. The more credible the source of information, the more likely you are to believe it.

F. Let Go of the Past

1. Individuals with low self-esteem may be locking onto events and experiences that

happened years ago and tenaciously refusing to let go of them.

2. Becoming aware of the changes that have or may occur in your life can help you

develop a more realistic assessment of your value.

G. Seek Support

1. Some of your self-image may be so ingrained that you need professional social

support to make big changes.

2. Talk therapy is a technique in which a person describes his or her problems and

concerns to a skilled listener to better understand the emotions and issues that are

creating the problems.

V. Self and Interpersonal Relationships

Learning Objective 2.5: Identify the effects of your self-concept and self-esteem on your

relationships with others.

A. Self and Interaction with Others

1. Your image of yourself and your sense of self-worth directly affect how you interact

with others.

2. Symbolic interaction theory is based on the assumption that we make sense of the

world based on our interactions with others through the medium of symbols; our

communication with others influences our very sense of who we are.

3. George Herbert Mead suggests that we develop an “I” that is based on our own

perspective of ourselves and a “Me” that is an image of ourselves based on the

collective responses we receive and interpret from others.

B. Self and Your Future

1. Your predictions about your future actions are likely to come true because you

believe they will come true; these are self-fulfilling prophesies.

2. There is evidence that a person’s attitudes and expectations have positive effects on

physical healing; patients who believe they will improve are more likely to improve.

C. Self and Interpretation of Messages

1. Perhaps you know someone whose low self-esteem colors how he or she interprets

messages and interacts with others.

2. Such people are more likely to be more sensitive to criticism and negative feedback

and overly responsive to praise and compliments.

D. Self and Interpersonal Needs

1. Our concept of who we are coupled with our need to interact with others profoundly

influences how we communicate with others.

2. Schutz identifies three primary social needs that affect our degree of communication

with others: inclusion, control, and affection.

3. Inclusion

a. The interpersonal need to be included and to include others in social activities is

known as the need for inclusion.

b. Not only do we need to include; we need to include others.

4. Control

a. We have a need for control in our relationships as well as the need to be

controlled.

b. We need some degree of influence over the relationships we establish with others.

5. Affection

a. We have a need for affection, a need to give and receive love, support, warmth,

and intimacy.

b. We also have a need to express affection toward others.

6. The greater a person’s interpersonal needs for inclusion, control, and affection, the

more actively interpersonal relationships will be pursued.

E. Self and Disclosure to Others

1. Self-disclosure occurs when we purposefully provide information to others that they

would not learn if we did not tell them. To disclose personal information to others,

you must first have self-awareness, an understanding of who you are. The Johari

Window model reflects the movement of information about yourself from blind and

unknown quadrants to hidden and open ones.

a. Open: Known to Self and Known to Others

b. Blind: Not Known to Self but Known to Others

c. Hidden: Known to Self but Not Known to Others

d. Unknown: Not Known to Self or Others

2. We can draw a Johari Window to represent each of our relationships.

F. Self and Communication Social Style

1. Each of us has a unique communication social style that is identifiable by the

habitual way we communicate with others.

2. Jung described people according to four types: thinkers, feelers, intuiters, and sensors.

3. Our communication social style helps others interpret our messages and predict how

we will behave.

4. Two primary dimensions underlie how we interact with others.

a. Assertiveness is the tendency to make requests, ask for information, and

generally pursue our own rights and best interests and is considered to be a

masculine style.

b. Responsiveness is the tendency to be sensitive to the needs of others, including

being sympathetic to others’ feelings and placing the feelings of others above

your own feelings, and is considered to be a feminine style.

5. Identify your communication social style by asking friends, family members, and

colleagues who know you best to help you assess your behavior that contributes to

their perceptions of you as assertive or nonassertive, responsive or nonresponsive.

6. At the heart of interpersonal communication is relating to others.

7. To adapt your style to enhance communication quality, communicate in ways that

more closely match the style of the other person.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Improving Your Communication Skills: What’s Your Communication Social Style?

Each student can complete a twenty-item questionnaire of different personality traits to

determine his or her communication social style.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Applying an Other-Orientation to Self and Interpersonal Communication

Students are asked to consider their personal credo or set of beliefs and to draft that credo.

KEY TERMS

self, LO 2.1

self-concept, LO 2.1

attitude, LO 2.1

belief, LO 2.1

value, LO 2.1

mindfulness, LO 2.1

subjective self-awareness,

LO 2.1

objective self-awareness,

LO 2.1

symbolic self-awareness,

LO 2.1

material self, LO 2.1

social self, LO 2.1

spiritual self, LO 2.1

looking-glass self, LO 2.1

attachment style, LO 2.1

secure attachment style,

LO 2.1

anxious attachment style,

LO 2.1

avoidant attachment style,

LO 2.1

electronically mediated

communication (EMC) ,

LO 2.1

androgynous role, LO 2.1

self-reflexiveness, LO 2.1

psychology, LO 2.1

personality, LO 2.1

Big Five Personality

Traits, LO 2.1

extraversion, LO 2.1

agreeableness, LO 2.1

conscientiousness, LO 2.1

neuroticism, LO 2.1

openness, LO 2.1

communibiological

approach, LO 2.1

social learning theory,

LO 2.1

shyness, LO 2.1

communication

apprehension, LO 2.1

willingness to

communicate, LO 2.1

self-worth (self-esteem),

LO 2.2

self-efficacy, LO 2.2

social comparison, LO 2.2

life position, LO 2.2

face, LO 2.3

facework, LO 2.3

positive face, LO 2.3

preventative facework,

LO 2.3

corrective facework,

LO 2.3

face-threatening acts,

LO 2.3

politeness theory, LO 2.3

intrapersonal

communication, LO 2.4

visualization, LO 2.4

reframing, LO 2.4

social support, LO 2.4

talk therapy, LO 2.4

symbolic interaction

theory, LO 2.5

self-fulfilling prophecy,

LO 2.5

need for inclusion, LO 2.5

need for control, LO 2.5

need for affection, LO 2.5

self-disclosure, LO 2.5

self-awareness, LO 2.5

Johari Window model,

LO 2.5

communication social

style, LO 2.5

assertiveness, LO 2.5

responsiveness, LO 2.5

LECTURE TOPICS

1. What is self-concept and why is it important to communication?

2. What is face? More specifically, what type of “face” do you desire to portray to others? What

facework do you complete to maintain that desired face? What happens when face–

threatening acts occur that challenge this desired face?

3. What is your primary social need? Reflecting on your close relationships with other people,

what are some of their primary social needs? In thinking about the importance of being other-

oriented, how do you maintain another person’s social need?

GROUP IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

1. Who Are You? Understanding who they are requires students to know their values, beliefs,

and attitudes. Have students complete a short list of statements regarding three things that

they value, three things that they believe, and three things that they like. Choose two male

volunteers and two female volunteers and write their responses on the board. Engage the

class in a discussion about whether there are discernable differences between the male

responses and the female responses (males have a greater tendency to define themselves

structurally—in terms of their position in society; women have a greater tendency to define

themselves relationally). This should lead to a discussion about the extent to which our selves

are socially constructed. Finally, ask students to think about how their statements reflected

William James’s material, social, and spiritual dimensions of self.

2. How to Improve Your Self-Esteem. In small groups have students briefly describe one

situation that made a positive impact on his or her self-concept and one situation that made a

negative impact on his or her self-concept. After sharing these events, have students discuss

how visualization might help with maintaining or improving self-esteem across these two

situations.

3. Attachment Style. Have students individually reflect on their attachment style. Ask students

to write about 3 significant moments in their childhood that they think significantly

contributed to their current attachment style. Last, have students write about how their

attachment style has influenced their current friendships with people in college.

4. Self and Your Future. In pairs, have students describe a self-fulfilling prophecy that they

experienced. Have students share how their expectations and attitudes likely influenced the

final outcome.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

1. Close Relationship Between Self-Concept and Self-Esteem. Explore the National

Association for Self Esteem, whose purpose is “to fully integrate self-esteem into the fabric

of American society so that every individual, no matter what their age or background,

experiences personal worth and happiness.” Their website can be found at http://www.self-

esteem-nase.org/. Have students take a self-esteem quiz like that found at

http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=3207. In class, ask

students to discuss the benefits of awareness of self-concept and self-esteem to relationships.

2. Interpersonal Needs and Communication. Have students write a journal reflection about

their interpersonal needs for inclusion, control, and affection. Which of Schutz’s social needs

is their primary need? What are some ways that other people have met this need? What are

some ways that other people have not met this need? Last, how does their primary social

need influence their interactions with other people?

3. The Johari Window Model. Ask students to complete the interactive Johari Window found

at http://kevan.org/johari over the course of a week. Ask them to create a diagram of the

results they got from the exercise and to be prepared to discuss those results (should any

panes be larger than others, etc.?) in class after everyone has had the opportunity to have

others visit their window on the site.

4. Online Self versus Face-to-Face Self. Until the next class period keep a journal log where

you reflect on your online social media profiles and the type of self that you portray on these

websites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). Next, consider your face-to-face self and how you have

interacted with other people in person. Answer the following question within your reflection:

Are there any similarities or differences between these two selves?

REVEL WRITING EXERCISES

Journal Writing

2.1 Journal: Self-Concept. Make a list of all the groups, clubs, and organizations to which you

belong. Rank them from the most important to you to the least important. What does your

ranking tell you about these groups in reference to your self-concept? For example, which groups

have you joined more from a desire to belong or for the prestige of the group than from an

interest in or passion for the group’s cause?

2.2 Journal: Social Comparisons. Do you find that you make social comparisons with others

that affect your self-esteem? If so, what qualities of others most influence your own view of

yourself: appearance, material possessions, skills/talent, or something else? Explain.

2.3 Journal: Saving Face. Describe an incident when you used preventative facework. Now

describe another time when you used corrective facework. What were the circumstances in both

cases? Did you find preventative or corrective facework more effective in “saving face”? Why?

2.4 Journal: Self-Help. Many self-help books claim to provide sure-fire techniques for

enhancing self-esteem and thus enrich your social life. Do you think these claims are ethical?

Why or why not?

2.5 Journal: Expectations. Describe a situation in which your expectations of the outcome

became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Was the outcome positive or negative? Did your self-esteem

have an impact? Explain.

Shared Writing: Public Face

Work with a group of your classmates to list the ways that people use Facebook and other social

media sites to craft and maintain their public face to others. Now evaluate your Facebook page

(if you have one). Do you follow any of these practices? If so, how?