Interpersonal, January 2011, 1
Communication 304
Interpersonal Communication
Spring, 2011, 11 AM to 12:30 PM
Tuesdays and Thursdays, ASC 231
Michael J. Cody, 326C Annenberg Katrina Pariera, Doctoral Student
Office hours: T 1-2; Th 1-3:30 Office hours: Wed 1:30 to 3:20
, 213-740-3936 (o) , 202-492-3574
310-376-8565 (h)
Final examination: Tuesday, May 10, 11-1 p.m.
Texts: Canary, D.J., Cody, M.J., and Manusov, V. (2008). Interpersonal Communication: A goals-based approach. NY: St. Martin’s Press (4th edition). DO NOT BUY THE BOOK. We have 50 copies and these will be distributed on the first day of class.
Publications and other materials on diverse interpersonal topics are included on “Blackboard.”
Copies of popular bestselling books will also be made available (if you are interested):
Strauss, N. (2005). The game: Penetrating the secret society of pickup artists. NY: HarperCollins Publisher. [Also see “Speed Seduction” documents on Blackboard.]
Fein, E. & Schneider, S. (1995 – original publication of “The Rules”). I have copies of All the Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right. New York: Warner books/Grand Central Publishing.
Gray, John (1992). Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex [Paperback]. New York: HarperCollins. People loved it, hated it and the author really is not an expert. But he sold copies of this book and made a lot of money giving “advice.”
Course Objectives
This course deals with communication in interpersonal relationships, including friendships (same sex and opposite sex), dating and romantic relationships, family relationships, and work relationships. We adopt a “goal orientation,” and organize our discussions around three overarching goals – how one presents an image to the public (face-to-face, interviews, Facebook, MySpace, etc.), how to initiate, maintain and terminate relationships (friendship or romantic), and how to achieve instrumental goals (sell, buy, get into law or graduate school, etc.). Students enrolled in this course should understand communication processes underlying self-presentation, relational maintenance and achieving instrumental goals, explanations for why people behave the way they do and, ideally, improve their own skills.
The topics we will discuss include friendship formation, self-disclosure, relational growth, escalation, decay, self-presentation, maintenance of friendships, face-to-face influence, conflict styles and/or conflict, online relationships, family influences in studying communication patterns [intergenerational], the effects of divorce (as a “stressor” or “disrupter”), “blended” families, interracial dating, intercultural relationships, and “social support” derived from intimate relationships, family members and even strangers.
The instructors will provide a broad-based exposure to research and theory in the area of interpersonal communication, providing examples along the way (usually from movies or television). Second, the instructors will advise and assist students in their individual paper/digital projects and for the production/group projects (described below). In this class, we want you to understand theories and communication processes draw conclusions that are based on research findings, and apply the theory and research to practical examples.
Grading
Individual Assignment/paper or wiki page 20% of grade
on analyzing media examples E-mail as an attachment to [See description below] by Midnight Friday, February 11
[We will have you do this assignment first, and early in the semester, because you will be in a group project with students who have similar interests for the group project later in the semester.]
Test 1 (multiple choice, true/false) 20% of grade
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15
February 22
Test 2 (multiple choice, true/false) 20% of grade
Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
April 19
Group project and presentation 20% of grade
Students will work in groups and make a presentation on specific topics on self- presentation, flirting, dating, long-distance relationships, humor, etc. See below.
April 21, April 26, April 28
Final examination 20% of grade
Tuesday May 10, 11 to 1 PM
Class Organization and Description of Assignments
We will begin lectures in this class on the “fundamentals” in communication (Chapters 1 to 5 in the text book). The topics include “goals,” verbal messages, nonverbal communication, listening, and cognitive processes (stereotypes, etc.). We will also discuss family and personality influences on communication behaviors (Chapters 14 and 15) – because personality and “attachment styles” cut across various types of goals. After Test 1 (February 22) we will discuss what most of you will find the more interesting and important topic areas:
Chapter 6, Presenting the self – off line, online, job interviews, celebrities, sports characters, coaches, etc. Although Erving Goffman’s Presentation of self in everyday life dates to 1959, online self-presentations are commonly studied today.
Chapter 7, Disclosing the self – Do you reveal personal information, or conceal information? Are topics taboo? Do you disclose too much? Getting to know others.
Chapter 8, Defending the self – to police, professors, parents, friends, lovers, etc., when our action is called into question, we have to explain our actions. Some people give excuses for infidelity, others apologize and hope to re-build their public image and trust from others. In today’s world, there are always newer examples of Self-presentation and Defending the self (chapters 6 and 8)[Mel Gibson, Michael Phelps, Michael Vicks, David Letterman, and many others.] This one, by Kanye West, is a sad, sad moment (Sad in part because Leno tries to ‘help’ by bringing up Kanye West’s mother, but he fails to help the situation):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YrfGE8J-M&feature=related
There are many effective and ineffective examples of communicating apologies or excuses. For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzytivQsPGI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3l-gRHjUNk
Chapter 9, Relational initiation; flirting, dating, communicating interest, attraction, building relationships
Chapter 10, Maintaining relationships – friendships (platonic, same and opposite sex friends), maintaining business working relationships, maintaining romance, long-distance relationships, forms of love.
Chapter 11, De-escalating relationships; often an understudied issue, but some individuals can be devastated by a breakup, requiring a time to become re-adjusted to life and to relearn one’s earlier “true identity” of who they were before they changed in a relationship. Also, both online and offline research indicates that people break up seasonally:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/using-facebook-updates-to-chronicle-breakups/
Assignments
Individual Paper. Analyzing popular media examples of interpersonal communication.
There are many reasons why I am distributing the “text book” to class members. Most importantly, there should be a useable “wiki” digital, multi-media text available online – but none is available (yet) and book publishers are hesitant to change. I decided to start creating our own USC “Interpersonal topics” set of links which students here at USC can add to each year. Since links on You Tube come and go and there are always new examples (relational breakups, apologies, we can update a set of the content of and the video examples each semester. Examples from previous semesters can be found on Blackboard (the documents labeled Conflict, Coping with Long Distance Relationships, Forgiveness, Friendship, Impression Management, Online Dating, and Physical Attractiveness are written in the classic “wiki page” format).
Every topic we discuss is relevant to daily life, and you should see issues we discuss in popular media – news, movies, television, online, music and even advertising. Each chapter in our book starts with one news story about an important area of interpersonal life. But there are a lot more of these, including scenes from popular media. And celebrities, sports characters and public officials provide more every week.
Here is what you do:
Select one chapter from the text book on a topic that is personally interesting to you. The topic is not necessarily the whole chapter; but a specific topic like Flirting, coping with Long Distance Relationships, Same-Sex and Opposite Sex Friendships, Platonic Friendships, Personalities and Communication, Online Self-presentation, Self-Disclosure, Deception, Breaking up relationships etc. Compile a list of video clips (movies, television, music videos, even advertisements, online viral projects) that can be used to highlight principles from the chapter – examples of messages, examples reflecting theories or research outcomes (reactions; severing relationships, failed flirting, successful apologies vs. failed; etc.).
The Paper: Your paper should be a set of paragraphs that “set up” or describe the importance of each video clip, song, blog page, etc. That is, describe the context, what the message is that is communicated, why is it used, and then describe the consequences of the action. The example should reveal an important element of communication principles relevant to the topic. It should be a good example, or exemplary, of the communication process. Several pages later in this document provide a worked example in the area of Relational disengagement (see pages 8 – 11).
There is no page limit or limit on the number of examples, and the content of some chapters will involve more media links (self-presentation, relational escalation, maintenance, disengagement, self-disclosure, non-verbal communication), etc. The grade is based mostly on your description of the relevance of the clip to content in the chapter; followed by whether the grader (Dr. Cody; ) agrees with you that it is a good example. This paper should be e-mailed to both instructors by Midnight, Friday, February 11th. Dr. Cody grades this and will give feedback right away.
Don’t forget that you can include music (songs, videos), and narratives from any particular source (blogs on “modern romance”).
You may want to visit the “Wiki Pages First Drafts” folder on Blackboard for ideas, other examples….
Note: If you vividly remember a scene or music video (or even a passage in a book), but cannot locate it anywhere, then simply describe the example in sufficient detail so that the reader will understand the interpersonal communication used, why and the consequences. I say this because I do not want you to spend too much time searching for materials on You Tube, etc.
Group Project. Developing Wiki Pages or useful web site, or creating a movie
After each person compiles his/her ideas about visual, mediated examples on the content of one chapter, people who selected the same chapter will work collaboratively on “wiki” pages for that content, sharing and compiling examples. Certain “wiki” pages can be “linked” – self-presentation, “apologies,” “forgiveness,” etc. Groups will work in class (and outside of class time if needed) to create a movie, a website or a wiki page for the chapter or content area (Long Distance Relationships, Coping with Breakups, etc.). Feel free to use or paraphrase sections from the text book (cite the book), and references when creating the wiki pages (again, see the first drafts on Blackboard).
Groups will later present 10 minute “mini-lectures” to the class on April 21, April 24 or April 26.
Copies will be given to both instructors on the day the group presents.
Examples of Wiki-pages for Chapters (appear on Blackboard, an example of a web site for educational purposes (on Long Distance Relationships) appear here:
http://www.wix.com/ldr2010/comm-304-group-project
Examples of movies appear on my private space on You Tube and we will see some examples of these on Thursday, January 13.
Grade of “A:” the creation of pages bridging theory and research (from text) with exemplary cases from diverse media clearly illustrating communication principles.
Here are what groups have done recently in this class: In the spring semester of 2010, students focused on The Game and Speed Seduction. Groups completed short movies on the following topics:
Negs and Praises (how “players” mix up praising a person and using negative statements to keep others off balance and try to lower a women’s self esteem – and to solicit a defensive reaction)
Neutralizing the boyfriend claim
Physical setting of the approach
“The Rules” versus “The Game”
Pick-up lines
Isolating the woman
Approaching the woman
Appealing to women’s emotions
Most groups in the fall of 2010 focused on “Strategic Self-Presentation,” and the groups included:
Facebook Self-presentations
Grooming and maintaining sports figures public images
Maintaining parasocial interactions with fans on sports talk shows
Flirting (old fashion face to face flirting)
Self-presentations on dating web sites
Long Distance Relationships -- This group created a very good website
Tarnished images of Narcissistic Celebrities (excellent video you will see Thursday January 13).
Schedule
Day 1, January 11 Introductions, overview. What we have placed on Blackboard.
Day 2, January 13 More video/visual examples
Day 3, January 18 Read chapters 1 and 2. Fundamentals of Interpersonal Communication Fundamentals of Verbal Messages.
Power point slides will contain the highlights of the chapters.
Day 4, January 20 Chapter 3. Fundamentals of Nonverbal Communication. Take the test: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml
Day 5, January 25 Science of Sex Appeal (Beauty, liking, attraction, flirting)
Day 6, January 27 Finish Nonverbal, flirting and cultural interactions; Know your Flirting style
http://connect.ku.edu/tests/flirt/
Day 7, February 1 Chapter 4, Listening Skills
Day 8, February 3 Chapter 5. Fundamentals of Social Cognition
Day 9, February 8 Chapter 5 continued. Relational expectations, Attribution theory
Day 10, February 10 Chapter 14. Personality and self construals (discussed previously in earlier chapters).
Complete this survey before February 1, so I can present class averages on some personality measures:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/InterpersonalCommunication
Complete this survey to get your Narcissism score:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-16-pinsky-quiz_N.htm
Day 11, February 15 Chapter 15. Attachment styles, family and life span issues
Day 12, February 17 Review for Test 1
Day 13, February 22 Test 1 (no lecture follows)
Day 14, February 24 Test 1 returned. Discuss Group projects, class time allocated for Group Work
Day 15, March 1 Chapter 6, Presentation of Self
Day 16, March 3 Chapter 6 continued (some class time will be allocated for Group Work)
Day 17, March 8 Chapter 7, Self-Disclosure
Day 18, March 10 Chapter 7 continued (some class time will be allocated for Group Work)
MARCH 14 – MARCH 18 – Spring Break
Day 19, March 22 Chapter 8, Defending the self
Day 20, March 24 Chapter 8 continued (some class time will be allocated for Group Work)
Day 21, March 29 Chapter 9, Relational initiation
Day 22, March 31 Chapter 9 continued (some class time will be allocated for Group Work)
Day 23, April 5 Chapter 10, Relational maintenance
Day 24, April 7 Chapter 10 continued (some class time will be allocated for Group Work)
Day 25, April 12 Chapter11, Relational dissolution
Day 26, April 14 Review for Test 2
Day 27, April 19 Test 2 (no lecture follows)
Day 28, April 21 Return Tests, start Group Presentations
Day 30, April 26 Group Presentations
Day 31, April 28 Group Presentations