Speech and Communication revision Q&A for UNISELIAN

;

1. One characteristic of human communication is that it is symbolic.  In this symbolic communication meanings are located in:

1. words
2. events
3. people*
4. objects

2. Symbols

1. Stand for something other than themselves.*
2. Represent ideas, but not people, things or events.
3. Mean exactly the same thing to various people.
4. Have nothing to do with verbal communication.

3. Which of the following is an example of intrapersonal communication?

1. a dyad sharing high levels of self-disclosure
2. any communication which is not face-to-face
3. your conscience*
4. watching a videotaped speech

4. Mass communication messages are:

1. more personal than other types of communication
2. more of a product than other types of communication*
3. where college students spend almost one half of their total communication time
4. all of the above

5. When we are searching for words to express an idea, we are involved in the process of:

1. assigning meaning
2. transmitting
3. decoding
4. encoding*

6. John is trying to listen to a speech but his headache interferes.  He’s experiencing:

1. external noise
2. physiological noise*
3. psychological noise
4. a distraction not classified as noise

7. According to your text, in most cases successful communication occurs when:

1. the speaker is satisfied
2. the listener is satisfied
3. everyone is satisfied*
4. one person has more sophisticated communication skills

8. A person’s self-concept is a set of:

1. constantly changing perception of others
2. stable perceptions of others
3. uniquely changing perceptions of ourselves
4. relatively stable perceptions of ourselves*

9. The image we develop of ourselves based on the way we think others view us is called:

1. the self-conscious self
2. the multidimensional self
3. perception checking
4. reflected appraisal*

10. Math is your weakest subject.  On the first day of college algebra you tell the student next to you, “I bet I’ll get a D in this course”.  At the end of the semester you get a D.  This result could be an example of:

1. self-denial
2. self-disclosure
3. self-fulfilling prophecy*
4. self-motivation

11. Several factors influence the selection of perceived stimuli.  Which of the following is not one of those factors:

1. correctness*
2. contrast
3. repetition
4. intensity

12. Attribution refers to:

1. judging the personal qualities of another
2. heredity
3. the reflected self concept
4. the process of attaching meaning to behavior*

13. People usually judge themselves:

1. more harshly than others
2. more positively than others*
3. more honestly than others
4. less often as they grow older

14. If you have left only the night before a test to study, and then explain it by saying you were just too busy, but when your friends do the same thing you label them “procrastinators”, you are exhibiting:

1. an attributional error
2. the effect of repeated stimuli
3. the self-serving bias*
4. empathy

15. Language:

1. is symbolic
2. is rule-governed
3. can shape and reflect attitudes
4. all of the above*

16. Language use can reflect the speaker’s willingness to take responsibility for his/her statements.  Which of the following categories of statements reflects the highest amount of speaker responsibility?

1. I statements*
2. you statements
3. they statements
4. it statements

17. Syntactic rules determine:

1. the meaning of a particular symbol
2. the pronunciation of a particular symbol
3. the hierarchy of meaning in symbols
4. the sequence of a set of symbols*

18. The teacher who reports that a student has difficulty with motor coordination instead of saying he or she is clumsy could be accused of using a:

1. equivocation
2. metaphor
3. euphemism*
4. behavioral description

19. A conclusion based on an interpretation of evidence is called a(an):

1. inference*
2. fact
3. opinion
4. connotation

20. A behavioral description describes behavior that is:

1. positive
2. negative
3. abstract
4. observable*

21. Which of the following represents the most abstract use of language?

1. Women are always causing problems.*
2. Sheila is constantly calling the office.
3. Sheila called the lawyer’s office four times.
4. Sheila was on the phone for 30 minutes.

22. Which statement below best describes the relationship between listening and hearing?

1. Listening and hearing always occur simultaneously.
2. You can listen and not hear.
3. You can hear and not listen.*
4. Listening and hearing are the same thing.

23. The process of hearing is__________; the process of listening is__________.

1. mental/physical
2. abstract/neutral
3. subconscious/interpretive
4. physiological/interpretive*

24. You are at a noisy wedding reception.  Suddenly you notice your name mentioned in the group of people near the refreshment table.  Which component of the listening process best describes what occurred in this situation?

1. attending*
2. hearing
3. understanding
4. remembering

25. What is the relationship between the rate that people speak and the speed at which people listen?

1. People can understand speech at rates much greater than people can speak.*
2. People can speak at rates much greater than they can understand speech.
3. People speak and listen at approximately the same rate.
4. No predictable relationship exists between speech rate and rate of understanding.

26. Which component of the listening process most makes it a transactional event?

1. hearing
2. attending
3. understanding
4. responding*

27. Nodding and smiling and pretending to listen is called:

1. selective listening
2. defensive listening
3. pseudolistening*
4. stage hogging

28. When you don’t pay attention to what someone says because you think that person is boring, you are:

1. being opportunistic
2. failing to separate the message from the speaker*
3. paraphrasing
4. pseudolisting

29. The study of the way people use space is called:

1. Proxemics*
2. paralanguage
3. pixation
4. kinesics

30. The reason you should consider nonverbal messages as clues rather than facts is:

1. You need to consider context in determining meaning
2. Communication is ambiguous
3. The history of a relationship can make a difference in interpretation
4. All of the above.*

31. Public distance is described in your text as:

1. 0 to 18 inches
2. 18 inches to 4 feet
3. 4 feet to 12 feet
4. 12 feet and beyond*

32. When politicians give the V sign (index and middle fingers raised to make a “V” for “victory”) after winning an election, they’re using the nonverbal function of:

1. repeating
2. substituting*
3. complementing
4. accenting

33. When you sit in a class seat several times in a row and then think of it as “my seat”, your are exhibiting:

1. a kinesic principle
2. intimate distance
3. emblematic behavior
4. territoriality*

34. Which of the following would be labeled as a manipulator?

1. staring at someone when you’re angry with them
2. winking at a friend
3. rubbing a sore neck*
4. standing up to leave a room

35. Silence:

1. has only one commonly accepted cultural meaning.
2. can be used to convey very different meanings, depending on the context.*
3. rarely holds communication value or is given meaning by anyone.
4. all of the these.

True/False Section. Mark “A” if the answer is True, and “B” if the answer is False.

Each question is worth 2 points.

36. Because communication is transactional, when communication failure occurs it is fairly simple to figure out which party is to blame. F

37. Communication helps satisfy most of our human needs. T

38. Meaning rest in people, not in words. T

39. Empathy and sympathy are essentially the same. F

40. Our culture is an example of a perceptual filter. T

41. High self-monitors tend to be socially skillful. T

42. Connotative definitions are less emotional than denotative ones. F

43. Low context cultures use very direct language. T

44. Language that seems straightforward to some people may seem rude and invasive to others. T

45. One valuable type of verbal feedback is the use of questions. T

46. Understanding often depends on the ability to organize the information we hear into recognizable form. T

47. Nonverbal gestures have precise meaning when compared to verbal communication. F

48. Vocal and verbal communication mean the same thing. F

49. Nonverbal behaviors often contribute more to the relational message than to the content message of any given communication. T

50. Illustrators substitute for verbal messages. F