COM 100 Test 2

• Relocation of peoples
• Diaspora - displacement because of untenable conditions

Internet, technology, more opportunities to connect

By 2050 whites are estimated to make up 47% of the population (65% in 2005)

• Smaller groups, classroom of 20-30 people, those dynamics change and shift based on the composition of the cultures in the room.
• Influences your ability to interact and be flexible with people in your organizations

Values, norms, way you communicate with others

Totality of learned, shared symbols, language, values, and norms that distinguish one group of people from another.

• “Skateboard” culture
• Learned, Shared, Symbols (brands).

Groups of people who share common symbols, language, values, and norms as societies.

• Football fans:
• Learned
• Shared with whole group of fans
• Symbols: wearing colors of the team, mascot, pitchfork 
• Language: “fork ‘em”Norms in other places, don’t boo; here at ASU, booing is a norm.

• Nearly 7 billion people live on Earth
• If we were to identify the single most representative citizen of the planet, that person would:
• Live in China, as 19% of the world’s population does
• Be Christian, 33%
• Be male, 50.4%
• Live in a town or city 50.5%
• Be 29 years old, which is the median age of the world’s population
• Makes $10,290 per year,
• which is the per capita gross world income
• Not use the internet, as 73% of the world’s population does not

• In-groups: Groups of people with which a person identifies
• Me: Software engineers
• Out-groups: Groups of people with which a person does not identify
• Me: Skateboarders
• UofA winning a game against ASU: Fundamental Attribution Error:They are an outgroup, thus it was a “lucky game” for them, the “refs were on their side”, etc.

• Immigrants experience abnormally high levels of stress during their first year in their new homeland.
• People have a tendency to seek out familiar others, and be more suspicious and less trusting of individuals whose ethnic, national, or cultural background is different
• Consider the Halo-EffectA familiar other is probably going to be more attractive to you.

• Ethnicity
• Nationality
• Enculturation: the process of acquiring a culture

Collectivistic is something that you do to help a group of people.

• United States is typically a low context culture
•  
• Low Context: People are expected to be direct
• Low Context: Individuals value expressing themselves and sharing opinionsUnited States
• Low Context: “I didn’t do well on the test, what can I do to improve this score?” Could be conceived as a face threat to the professor

• High Context: cultures would keep classroom business in the classroom and other things outside of the classroom - instructor would not mingle off the stage with the students before/after class.
• High Context: Individuals value maintaining harmony and avoiding offense.
• High Context: Didn’t do well on a test, “Can you provide some study tips?” more ambiguity, lest specific, saving face
• High Context: Not trying to rock anybody’s boat

• Low-Power-Distance: you can go to the instructor and talk about what you did last week.  A cordial, nice conversation.
• High-Power-Distance: some cultures it would be inappropriate to look your professor in the eye.

• Masculine: more focus on competition/aggression
• Job: Corporate professional, work their way to the top, compete against others, be aggressive to get the next promotion.
• Feminine: more compassionate
• Job: Social Worker
• Cultures usually have an overtone that dominates: USA is more masculine

• Polychronic: time is not so important, reservation is yours, have the table the whole night
• Monochronic: time is more important and more respected

• Informing: Rewarding prisoners to “inform” on one another
• Self-criticism: Requiring prisoners to stand up in front of other prisoners and confess all the bad things he had done.
• Breaking loyalty to country: Undermining a soldier’s allegiance to his superiors
• Withholding all positive emotional support: Soldiers were denied all positive reinforcement.  Only negative news and reinforcements were allowed.

• Each of us is born with a drive to seek form, maintain, and protect strong social relationships.
• We use communication to fulfill that drive.
• No verbal/non verbal communciation? Difficult to fullfill the drive, meet, maintain, establish strong relationships
• We need social bonds that are: Interactive, Emotionally close, It’s a balance, you need both.

• Emotional support
• Happiness
• People with their best friend are happier than otherwise

• I parked today, forgot parking pass, I’m going to get towed.
• Need a support group, assistance physically, emotionally, financially
• Seek friends out to relate, commiserate

• The more social relationships people have, the better able they are to fight off the common cold.
• People with strong social networks are twice as likely as those without strong relationships to survive a heart attack.
• The lack of strong, positive social relationships is as big a risk of premature mortality as cigarette smoking, obesity, and elevated blood pressure.
• Close relationships help manage the effects of stress and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

• Explains why individuals are drawn to others
• 4 main factors spark attraction:
• Appearance: Not necessarily the first reason, but one we think of most often.
• Proximity: We find people more attractive if they are closer to us in terms of distance. Closest friendships, started with proximity. Key to forming relationships.
• Similarity: Culture, religion etc.
• Complementarity: Opposites do attract “You like to bike ride, I like to skateboard, you like to read I like film. ”What we can teach each other.

• People find uncertainty to be unpleasant, so they are motivated to reduce their uncertainty by getting to know others.
• The unpleasant feeling we get from uncertainty, drives us to want to get to know the person sitting next to us.
• On an airplane, why the person next to us might want to start chatting, they need to feel more comfortable.
• As uncertainty about a person decreases, liking for that person increases.
• More recent research has found that its not necessarily true that the more you know about somebody the more you like them.
• Influenced by culture.

• People seek to maintain relationships in which their benefits outweigh the costs.
• Comparison Level: A realistic expectation of what one wants and things one deserves from a relationship.
• "I like what I do on the weekends with my significant other."
• Comparison Level of Alternatives: As assessment of how much better or worse one’s current relationship is than one’s other options.
• "I like what I do on the weekends, but what could I possibly doing that’s better?  How would I achieve that? New significant other?"
• Victims of relationship abuse tend to stay in the relationship, because the risk of leaving (physical harm) outweigh the benefits of leaving.

A good relationship is one in which a person’s ratio of costs and benefits is equal to his or her partner’s.

• My Costs/Benefits ---------- Partner’s Costs/Benefits
•                                 /\

Balance = A good relationship

• Positivity: Lends itself to strong relationships, exude positivity. Try to keep negativity to a minimum.
• Openness
• Assurances: “This is my best friend.”
• Social Network
• Sharing Tasks: Comradery

Self-disclosure is intentional and truthful

• -----------------------
• Self-disclosure varies among relationships:

• Talking to acquaintance:  “I’m having a hard time keeping up with my reading.”
• Talking to best friend: Details about why you are having difficulty keeping up with reading.

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Self-disclosure is usually reciprocal

Norm of Reciprocity

-“I hate the class I just came from, I have this paper due.”

-“Oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about.  I had this class once…”

Second friend will share equal amounts of disclosure, to help the other person feel comfortable.

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Self-disclosure varies in breadth and depth

Breadth: All topics you talk about

Depth: How detailed and specific the topics are that you talk about

Social Penetration Theory

We get to know people by sharing breadth and depth.

Onion - has layers.  Peeling back layers of the onion.  As you get to know somebody more, the onion layers are peeled back.

The onion has wedges, so you can go deep into romantic interests, but never dive into political interests etc.

• We get to know people by sharing breadth and depth.
• Onion - has layers.  Peeling back layers of the onion.  As you get to know somebody more, the onion layers are peeled back.
• The onion has wedges, so you can go deep into romantic interests, but never dive into political interests etc.

• health; isolated; 
• Divorced men die: Double the normal rate from cancer, heart disease, and strokes
• 5 times the normal rate from hypertension
• 5 times the normal rate from suicide
• 7 times the normal rate from cirrhosis of the liver
• 10 times the normal rate from tuberculosis
• Poor communication skills have been found to contribute to coronary heart disease.
• Likelihood of death increases when a marriage partner dies.

• 1) Initiating: “Hi”
• 2) Experimenting: Easily answered questions “what’s your major”
• 3) Intensifying: Often times this is when your relationship moves outside of the context in which you met: We’re going somewhere, do you want to join us?
• 4) Integrating: Introducing them to friends: Lives start to weave together
• 5) Bonding: Marriage for intimate couples: Friend being “Best Man” at wedding
• Knapp argues even if you skip over stages, you eventually go back and deal with all the remaining steps.
• Relational Maintenance: Occurs at the top of all the stages: Relationships can fluctuate between coming together and coming apart: Healthy process, maintenance required

Rather than either/or, you’re trying to balance both/and.

A mix of all these is preferred/healthy, not favoring one side more than the other.

• Constant pull between autonomy and connection
• Want to feel connected to our partner, but also important that we keep our own identity
• Everyone has a different point where they are comfortable with the tension.
• Both participants have to manage the tension and talk about it/work through it as best as possible.

• Like Social Penetration Theory
• Some are ok with all layers of the onion being pulled back in front of people they know.
• Some are not as ok, and need to have layers closed up.
• You might be open to talking about work with people, but not about politics.  
• Work would be open, politics would be closed.

• Predictability: watching the same shows with someone
• Novelty: not sure when they are going to watch them, or where necessarily
• Some require more predictability and less novelty, and vice versa.

• Partners who engage together in more exciting and exhilarating forms of place increase their level of relationship satisfaction
• Use more confirming messages rather than disconfirming messages
• Thank your partner for something they did well
• We are wired to pay more attention to things that happen to us negatively.
• We tend to focus on things that our partner should do better.
• Couples who put a positive spin on their history are likely to have a happy future.
• Talking to a married couple, ask:“Can you tell me about how you met?”
• The more positvely they speak about their wedding day, how they met, the healthier their relationships are in terms of satisfaction.

• 5; 1
• John Gottman’s research

10; 10; 90

• Criticism
• Contempt
• Defensiveness
• Stonewalling
• You can be very charged and upset, throwing things even, but as long as you don’t engage in the “4 harmful message types”.

• Complaints vs. Criticism: Complaints focus on a specific behavior, Criticism includes blame and general attack of character.
• Complaint: “I’m really angry that you didn’t sweep the kitchen floor last night.  We agreed to take turns doing it.”
• Criticism: “Why are you so forgetful?  I hate having to always sweep the kitchen floor when it’s your turn.  You just don’t care.”
• Use “I” language instead of “You” language.  “I feel, I hate, I don’t like it when I have to…” much better than the alternatives with “You”.

• Sarcasm, cynicism, name-calling, eye-rolling, sneering, mockery, and hostile humor
• Actions that convey disgust
• MOST HARMFUL horseman according to Gottman’s research, attack on character.
• Examples:
• “You are spoiled.”
• “Do you really think you’ll get the cleaning done if I give you a list?”
• “You’re so lazy.”
• “You don’t value our belongings as much as I do.”
• These can communicated as simply as an eye-roll.
• Meta-communication:
• “Please don’t talk to me sarcastically”
• “Please don’t roll your eyes at me.”
• Need to self evaluate also.

• Defensiveness: “The problem isn’t me, it’s you.”
• Although defensiveness is a natural tendency, research shows that this approach rarely has the desired effect.
• Defensiveness escalates the conflict.
• Instead of getting defensive, try to understand the other person.

• Ignoring your partner, being unresponsive to messages, not providing any feedback.
• Usually occurs later in the relationship
• The first 3 usually come all together, stonewalling comes later when you feel there is no better solution.
• Relationships are processes, change things with the next move

omnipresent;

• Primary Groups: Family, friends
• Secondary Groups: Coworkers

better;

Higher grades, Career success

transitions; crises

Reduces dependency on just one person who normally gets things done.  What happens if that person becomes unavailable suddenly?

3; 7

interdependent

support

strong; positive

When making important decisions, or when there is multiple ways that are suggested to get to the end goal.

• Rules are more explicit: 
• “We always meet on Wednesdays before class”
• “One person will always take notes”
• “If you’re going to be late, text somebody”
• Norms
• We take a 5 minute break
• We talk about our weekend before we start
• Healthy rules and norms are important to develop early in the evolution of the group.

individual;

breaking tension with humor

• Devil's advocate: Are there other ways we can do this that might be more effective?Can be an uncomfortable role, but if it’s identified/established as a role up front then it works better, because that designated person can do it without feeling uncomfortable.

unique;

• “Our group is one that likes to follow the rules”
• “Our group is one that gets things done on top”
• “Our group is one that does awesome presentations”

communication;

raising a hand to speak

• Focus on discrete tasks
• Evaluate and advise
• Create art and ideas
• Provide service and support
• Promote Social Networking
• Compete

what happens before you ever even know you have to be in a group. For example, 2 semesters ago you were in a small group and had a horrible experience, that experience has influenced how you are going to act in your next group, even before you knew there’d be another one.

Once your instructor says “I’m going to put you all in small groups, you’re going to be working together to make a presentation for the end of the semester.”  You know there is going to be a small group looming, you know very little about them, but you are going to start anticipating what it’s going to take to work with these people.

You meet them, you start to get to know them.  Starting to get to know all the rules and norms, who’s going to be the best note taker, who we are going to rely on to break tension with humor.  Getting to know the communicatio of the group, communication patterns, are we going to chat first or immediately start working, etc.

You can also be assigned to a group that is already established, you might be in the Encounter phase but others have already gone through the steps.  “That’s my group, that’s who I belong to.”  You don’t think about the rules and norms anymore, you have become part of the group and it’s natural.

“Trunky”, feeling like you are already gone, you are exiting before you actually have left.  Like working the remainder of time at a job after you have given your 2 week notice.  “I’ve already exited this organization.”  Can influence performance significantly.  The finished product might not be done yet.  If people have already have exited the group before the end of the presentation prep, you’re going to have trouble.

Antecedent→ Anticipatory→ Encounter→ Assimilation→ Exit

• Small groups provide resources
• Small groups experience synergy
• “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
• Small groups expose us to diversity

• Small groups can experience conflict
• Small groups can be difficult to coordinate
• Small groups require sacrifices
• Social loafing(in the example of Dave)
• One or more people in the group do not carry their weight/do not do what they are supposed to be doing from the perspective of the group.

• Name names
• Make every member’s specific contribution known to the rest of the group.
• Research shows that naming reduces social loafing by up to 29%.
• Be specific about goals.
• Make sure each person knows exactly what he or she is meant to do.
• Make the consequences clear.
• People are less likely to engage in social loafing if they understand how their individual behaviors contribute to the goal.

• Contribute to a Constructive Group Environment
• Celebrate success
• Defuse stress
• Respect others
• Give other ideas some thought, don’t just shoot them down.
• Help Build Group Cohesion
• Emphasize collective goals
• Keep track of progress
• Remind others of their value to the group.

Student Senate/US Senate

Expert makes the call rather than asking what everybody thinks.

The person with the most power decides.

• Physical Traits
• Sex, Height, Physical Appearance
• Typically male, taller, and they are typically more masculine and more attractive.
• Does not mean they are the best.
• Psychosocial Traits
• Self-esteem
• Self-monitoring
• What you do when you’re talking to your best friend vs. talking to your grandma or to your employer.
• Filter what you say to be best for that audience.
• Extroversion

• Democratic Style (USA): Majority rule
• Autocratic Style: One person makes the decisions
• Laissez-Faire Style: More relaxed, everyone is capable and competent of completing those goals.
• Transformational Style: More removed,  Make sure there is a code of ethics, goals, check in every once in a while, give recognition.

Football coach “You don’t have to run the last mile”, “I’m going to play you longer in the next game.”

• Taking something from them.
• Defensive team has to earn their black jersey to play on the defense.
• “If you didn’t perform well enough in the last game, I’m going to take away your jersey so you can’t play.”
• “I’m going to bench you.”

• Pepsi commercials with Sofia Vergara.
• We are more likely to also drink it, Halo Effect.
• Pat Tillman, a hero, going to motivate us and make us better.

• You really do have authority to say whether or not that person can or cannot play.
• “You’re not going to do that because I say so.”

“I’m the expert, listen to me.”

• Comes from people on the field.
• “I’m seeing something different when I’m on the field.”
• More access, more information than people in other positions.

• relationships; people
• The power we give other people is simply relational.
• Certain leaders have certain physical traits, it’s a trend, but not necessarily what a good leader is.
• Good leader is how relationships are managed.
• Power is in relationships not in people, just as in meanings are in people not in words.