HMU Interpersonal Communication Questions

? Prompt #1

Online communication allows people the ability to create new identities. People can switch genders, race, age, etc. since the visual and auditory cues used in face-to-face encounters are not used. Do you think this practice is helpful, harmful, or both to people’s self-concept? Does it create ethical issues when presenting oneself as something they are not? Why or why not? What might be some reasons people do this?  How could this be both useful and not useful?

? Prompt #2

Find a popular magazine and identify examples of the generalized other’s perspective. How does the media define desirable women and men? How is that different than what “regular” people define as desirable?  Analyze the messages and how society responds to them. What impact does this have on our relationships?

? Prompt #3

Identify and discuss an example of self-serving bias in a workplace. Describe how you engaged in self-serving bias to explain your own or a co-worker’s behavior, or how a co-worker engaged in self-serving bias in explaining your or their behavior. How did this impact the situation and the relationship?

? Prompt #4

Analyze the attributional patterns you use to explain a mean or disappointing behavior by a good friend and by someone whom you do not like. Analyze how differences in your feelings about the two individuals affect your attributional tendencies.

? Personal Identity

For your essay interview/talk with someone, you have a close relationship with (such as a spouse, friend, sibling, student advisor, etc.) about how you communicate or are labeled. Use the Johari Window Diagram to diagram how you communicate with them.  What would you both put in the four quadrants? What insights can you draw from this diagram and how does that person see you? Was this your reflected appraisal of yourself? How did things move from the Hidden quadrant to the Open quadrant, or from your Blind to Open quadrant, with that person?

Do you agree with enriching the self toward maintaining a healthy identity? Share why you agree or don’t agree.

write one goal you’ve created to improve your self-concept. Provide a detailed analysis of yourself

? Perception and cognitive Schemata

pick one person in your life and share who they are to (are you close to them, just met them, etc.). Think back to one conversation with them and share it briefly (look for nonverbal communication and things they were wearing, how their body language was, etc.).

Then review the Cognitive Schemata diagram what you’d put in the four categories about that person (prototypes, personal construct, stereotype, and script). What helped you to create those perceptions of that person?

The cognitive schemata can help to organize our perceptions but you’ll personally interpret what they mean. Next in your paper interpret your perceptions. What attributions, influences impacted your perception? Remember to be honest in your papers to gather true insight. Provide detailed analysis, show your understanding of the material. If outside sources are used, proper citation of the source should be included.