Journal topics for CA 100 and CA 211

You are to pick ten topics from the list below. Write a FULL- page discussion your thoughts and/or how each journal applies to you. You must type, print, or write legibly or the document will not be graded.

Due dates are listed at the bottom of this document.

  1. Choose an attitude you hold rather strongly. Try to trace the attitude back through your system of values and beliefs. What values come together to shape the attitude? From what beliefs do those values stem.
  2. Evaluate your own sense of a self-fulfilling prophecy (one positive and one negative) that have definitively influenced the direction of your life.
  3. Recall the details of your first image of a professor or someone you know. How have your impressions of this person changed since you first encountered them. What altered your frame of reference and why?
  4. What stereotypes have people applied to you? In what instances were these helpful to you. In what ways were they harmful.
  5. List at least two different identities in each different situation: school, work, strangers, various family members, and different friends – describe the persona you are trying to project and what do you do to promote this identify.
  6. Communicating in a manner consistent with cultural expectations increases a person’s ability to influence others. Consider how you might adapt or adhere to cultural expectations when planning to speak with another person, a group of people, or a large audience.
  7. Disagreement is nothing new when it comes to the study of communication. It started with the ancient Greek schools of rhetoric and philosophy, which were often in conflict with one another.

Rhetoricians wanted to persuade people by any means that was effective. Philosophers wanted to find only good, honest, truthful arguments. Dishonest means of persuasion were sometimes acceptable to rhetoricians but not to philosophers. Which way would you lean in this conflict?

  1. Have your interactions with others allowed you to develop a particular identity? How have your identities been supported or challenged through your interactions with others.
  2. Think about a situation where you felt uncomfortable in the presence of another person. Inside, you may have been filled with anxiety. Consider how the other person could have known that you were anxious; for example, you may have been sweating, blushing, agitated, speaking too fast, or jumpy. What did you do to try to conceal your nerves? Have you ever seen other people trying to appear calm, but you weren’t fooled? What behaviors gave away their anxiety?
  3. The “feedback” theory of relationships” holds that satisfying relationships, romantic relationships, or workplace relationships may be characterized by feedback that is positive, person focused, immediate, low in monitoring, and supportive – and that unsatisfying relationships are characterized by the opposites. How effective is this theory in explaining your social networking relationship?
  4. Based on your own experience, how influential do you find language differences to be in perception and thought? Can you recall any misunderstandings that might be attributed to a particular language’s leading its speakers to see or interpret things differently?
  5. The difference between those with high self-esteem is even shown in how they post on social media. Those with high self-esteem post information about their family, work, and education. Those with lpw self-esteem do this less and spend their social media time monitoring their wall and deleting any posts or photos that may reflect them negatively. How do you see the relationship between yday-esteem and posting to social media?
  6. You made a bad impression at work. Whatever you did was not the impression you wanted to give and you need to change it fast. Although you cannot erase that impression, you need to counteract it in some way. What are some of your choices? What might you say and do to help lessen the negative effects of that impression.
  7. The following are ten channels of Nonverbal Communication: a. general appearance, b. the five types of body gestures, facial movements, facial feedback hypothesis, eye contact, proxemics, space management, territoriality, artifactual communication, haptics, paralanguage, silence, the study of time, smell. In a journal, choose three of them and give specific examples of the messages sent and received through these channels.
  8. In an animated discussion with an influential person, you criticize one of the managers who, you discover a day later, is one of the most beloved persons around – no one talks negatively about this person. What are some of your options for smoothing over this incident? What specifically might you say.
  9. Your team members at work or in a group discussion all seem to have the same conflict style: avoidance. They smile in agreement even when they disagree. You need spirited discussion and honest debate if you are going to come up with appropriate solutions or plans. What are some of your choices for addressing this problem?