CONSTRUCTIVISM

1. CONSTRUCTIVISM Jessia Delia in Em Griffen, ch. 8, 4th ed.

2. CLICKER QUESTION The RCQ is used to determine a person’s categories for understanding people; TRUE = A FALSE = B

3. CLICKER QUESTION A core assumption of constructivism is that persons make sense of the world through systems of personal constructs; TRUE = A FALSE = B

4. CLICKER QUESTION People who use rhetorical design logic, have the ability to redefine the situation in a way that defuses conflict; TRUE = A FALSE = B

5. CLICKER QUESTION Griffin writes: “When guys get together they typically talk about others in terms of external behaviors--thesports they play, the cars they drive, the battles they fight. Conversely, girls tend to talk about people--their perceptions of internal motives, attitudes, traits, and personalities” (p. 197, 6th ed.). You Agree = A You Disagree = B

6. Constructivism is a theory about effective communication;

7. An Implicit Theory • We all have an implicit theory of communication; • Your implicit theory helps you to interpret (make sense of) and shape your social world; • We are not usually aware of our interpretive scheme (implicit theory);

8. Role Category Questionnaire • To make explicit our interpretive scheme, the RCQ is used to determine a person’s categories for understanding people; • The RCQ is a simple paper and pencil test that asks the subject to select a person they like and one they dislike and devoting 5 minutes to each, write a list of terms that describe the person’s attributes, personality, habits, beliefs, and the way they treat others, characteristics that make them who they are;

9. Honest Peaceful Caring Intelligent Pleasant Good humor Engenders warmth Supportive Shares power Dishonest Intimidating Jealous Destructive Engenders fear Malicious Cruel Abuses power LIKED DISLIKED

10. The Core Assumption of Constructivism • Persons make sense of the world through systems of personal constructs; • Constructs are concepts located in our minds; • The RCQ is concerned not with physical features, but rather categories of personality and action;

11. Cognitive Complexity • Researchers use the RCQ to determine the respondent’s degree of cognitive complexity as they form interpersonal impressions;

12. Three Components of Cognitive Complexity • Answers given on the RCQ can be scored on three different dimensions of cognitive complexity: • Differentiation • Abstraction • Integration

13. DIFFERENTIATION • Differentiation is the number of separate personality constructs used to describe the target person;

14. ABSTRACTION • Abstraction is the degree to which the respondent sees visible behavior in terms of internal traits, motives, and dispositions;

15. INTEGRATION • Integration has to do with recognizing and reconciling conflicting impressions;

16. SIMPLIFIED SCORING • In short, the RCQ is scored by counting up the number of different constructs (concepts) used to describe the 2 target persons; • Griffin reports seeing a range of scores from 3 to 45, but reports the adult norm as 20 - 25;

17. Validity of the Scores • Delia argues from data collected (research) that the RCQ does measure cognitive complexity; • He argues that cognitive complexity increases with age in children; • He argues that individual differences in adults remain stable over time (test-retest); • RCQ scores are independent of IQ, empathy, writing skill, and extroversion;

18. THE MAIN HYPOTHESIS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM • People who are cognitively complex in their perceptions of others have a communication advantage over those with less-developed mental structures; • These individuals have the ability to produce sophisticated messages that have the best chance to achieve their communication goals;

19. PERSON-CENTERED MESSAGES • In one study (by Ruth Ann clark and Jesse Delia), children of second grade to ninth grade took the RCQ test orally; • The children then were asked to role-play convincing a woman they didn’t know to keep a lost puppy;

20. RESULTS • Some children showed no realization that the woman’s perspective may differ from their own; • Other kids recognized the difference but failed to adapt their messages; • A more sophisticated group were able to imagine what the woman was thinking and tried to refute counterarguments they expected from her; • Sophisticated messages also pointed out the advantages to her that would come from complying with the request;

21. RESULTS • Clark and Delia found that the quality of messages improved as the age of the children increased; • Cognitively complex children--at a given age--were 2 years ahead of their classmates in ability to encode person-centered messages; • The children most able to take the perspective of the other were the older children with the most cognitive complexity;

22. Rhetorically Sensitive Self-Monitoring Taking the Role of the Other Identification Audience Awareness Listener Adaptation SOME TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE THE CAPACITY TO CREATE PERSON-CENTERED MESSAGES

23. PERSON-CENTERED MESSAGES • Constructivists claim that cognitively complex people are better able to produce person-centered messages than less cognitively complex people; • However, Griffin points out the cognitively complex people, while able, do not always produce person-centered messages (fatigue, pressure to conform or other situational factors may intervene);

24. PERSON-CENTERED MESSAGES • Sophisticated messages reflect more than the speaker’s efforts at audience adaptation; • Sophisticated messages also reflect an attempt to accomplish multiple goals;

25. MESSAGE DESIGN LOGIC • People hold one of 3 distinct notions about how communication works: • Each is called a message design logic • Each is an implicit theory of the ways in which messages can be shaped to serve as means to ends;

26. MESSAGE DESIGN LOGICS • Expressive design logic: • People who operate on this logic, maintain that language is a medium for expressing thoughts and feelings; • They say what they think and feel; • Their goal is to be open and honest; • They do not believe in much interpretation; • They are direct;

27. MESSAGE DESIGN LOGICS • Conventional design logic: • These people assume that communication is a game played cooperatively, according to socially conventional rules; • For this person, effective communication = appropriateness; • When asked why they said what they said now, their answer is the words were the appropriate thing to say under the circumstances;

28. MESSAGE DESIGN LOGICS • Rhetorical design logic: • These people operate on the premise that communication is the creation and negotiation of social selves and situations; • Persons in conversation co-construct their own social realities; • Nothing is fixed;

29. Rhetorical Design Logic • These people can use expressive logic design when they believe it will achieve their goals; • These people can use conventional design and adapt to custom; • They have the additional ability to redefine the situation in a way that defuses conflict; • They are proactive in seeking consensus, while down playing the raw use of power;

30. RESEARCH FINDING ON MESSAGE DESIGN LOGIC • O’KEEFE found that average RCQ scores were lowest (20) for those who used an expressive design logic, a bit higher (21) for those who employed a conventional design logic, and highest (25) for those who used the rhetorical design logic; • O’Keefe found that 80% of the rhetorically sensitive messages were written by women;

31. EFFECTS OF RHETORICAL DESIGN LOGIC ON COMMUNICATION • Rhetorical design logic results in communication outcomes that are more • persuasive; • comforting; • More sophisticated comforting messages result in users being better liked; • Users report feeling better about themselves and those they try to help;

32. EFFECTS OF RHETORICAL DESIGN LOGIC ON COMMUNICATION • Relationship maintenance effects do not simply show that sophisticated communication skills result in sustaining friendships; • “Similar skills model”: Friendships tended to last when partners possessed matching verbal skills--high or low; • Sophisticated communication skills are an advantage only when a friend has the sophistication to appreciate them;

33. EFFECTS OF RHETORICAL DESIGN LOGIC ON COMMUNICATION • Organizational Effectiveness: Results of a longitudinal study (Sypher and Zorn, 1986) on workers at an insurance company showed that more cognitively complex workers acquired better-paying jobs and were moving up through the ranks of the company faster than their less complex colleagues;

34. LEARNING TO BE A SOPHISTICATED SPEAKER • Some research suggests that becoming a sophisticated speaker is learned; • Through nurture and discipline, children learn from their parents to be more sophisticated speakers;

35. CRITIQUE • A major criticism of the theory is its reliance upon the simplistic RCQ measure; • Are efforts being undertaken to help children develop the self-reflective experiences to develop sophisticated communication?