Midterm Questions Revisited Talking Points Midterm Questions Revisited
About Science & Theory What are the basic elements of a theory? [components, characteristics, and laws] What is the concept of isomorphism and what does it have to do with scientific knowledge? Explain the four types of measurement scales: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio What are the characteristics of theory as reflecting different styles of thinking: literary, academic, eristic, symbolic (formal and postulational)? [Kaplan]
About Communication Theories Discuss some of the problems associated with defining communication Discuss Dance’s three points of “critical conceptual differentiation” among definitions of communication. Discuss Bowers & Bradac’s notion of competing axioms of communication
About Particular Theories Newcomb Shannon & Weaver Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson Becker Hymes
Explain each TRADITION The Semiotic Tradition: study of how signs come to represent objects, ideas, states, situations, feelings, and conditions outside of themselves. The Phenomenological Tradition: study of how people actively interpret their experience and come to understand the world by personal experiences with it. The Cybernetic Tradition: study of complex systems in which many interacting elements influence one another. The Sociopsychological Tradition: study of the individual as a social being—behavior and the personal traits and cognitive processes that produce behavior. The Sociocultural Tradition: study of the ways our understandings, meanings, roles, norms, and rules are worked out interactively in communication. The Critical Tradition: study of questions of privilege and power—how race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, income level, etc. identity and social differences. The Rhetorical Tradition: study of ways humans use symbols to affect those around them and construct the worlds in which they live.