Davis A. Foulger, Ph. D.

Visiting
Professor
Fall, 2005-Spring, 2006
and Fall 2001-Spring 2003
 

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
COLLEGE AT OSWEGO

Department of Communication Studies

Proposed Syllabus

I. Course Number and Credit: COM 312, 3 credits
II. Course Title: Communication Relationships and Communities
III. Course Description:

A detailed look at the relationship of how our interpersonal communication shapes our communities, our relationships, and ourselves. Detailed consideration is given to a variety of representations of meaning, emotion, and thinking as they influence and are shaped by our communication with friends, family, significant others, culture and social institutions.

IV, Prerequisites: COM 212 or COM 240 or permission of instructor. Junior or senior status.
V, Course Justification:

Students of interpersonal communication need a detailed understanding of the relationship of interpersonal communication theory to real world practice. This course explores the ways in which communication and shared meaning emerge from our personal engagement of a social world; the ways in which social institutions and the self emerge from and are shaped by our communication with others. This course can be used to partly satisfy the writing requirement in communication.

VI. Course Objectives:

The student will be able to:

  1. distinguish meaning, emotion, critical thinking, and describe the relationship of each to interpersonal communication.
  2. apply theories and models that describe meaning and its relationship to the process of communication
  3. differentiate affects, preferences, evaluations, moods and emotions and describe the relationship of emotion to meaning and communication.
  4. discuss critical thinking, the ways in which meaning, emotion, and communication contribute to critical thinking, and techniques that enhance critical thinking.
  5. explain the effects of communication with family, friends, and others on personal identify.
  6. demonstrate the relationship of interpersonal communication to beliefs, values, and atttitudes.
  7. recognize stages in the development of friendships and relationships based on changes in interpersonal behavior.
  8. describe the role of interpersonal communication in creating, evolving, and maintaining communities, organizations, and other social structures.
  9. compare differences in interpersonal communication as they relate to culture.
VII. Course Outline:
  1. The relationship of interpersonal communication to meaning, emotion, and critical thinking.
  2. Meaning, communication, and the inexpressible. Examples of theories and models that describe meaning include general semantics, phenomonology, semiotics, semantic networks, and social identity management.
  3. Interpersonal communication and emotion. Topics discussed may include misunderstanding, miscommunication, conflict management, and the importance of emotion to interpersonal communication and decision making.
  4. Interpersonal communication and critical thinking. Topics discussed may include listening, the value of critical thinking, critical approaches to media, and interpersonal techniques that encourage and enhance critical thinking.
  5. Social image perception. Topics may include perception, attribution, role models, the process of self-formation as a function of interpersonal communication with family and friends, and the role of mass media in social image perception.
  6. Persuasion and attitude change. The nature of beliefs, attitudes, and values and their relationship to our interpersonal communication and personal behavior.
  7. The development of friendships, relationships, and families. The relationship of interpersonal communication to the creation, growth and maintenence of our personal and professional relationships.
  8. Interpersonal communication and social structures. Examples of such structures may include language, media, legal systems, relationships, families, and organizations.
  9. Intercultural communication. Examples of cultural variations that can be compared include nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, and history.

 

VIII. Methods of Instruction:

Methods of instruction may include some combination of lecture, discussion, small group collaboration and reports, hands on use of technologically mediated communication systems, individual research, papers, and examinations.

IX. Course Requirements: Students will be required to master material relating to the course objectives as presented in readings and classroom activities. They will be expected to complete some combination of the following::
  1. Individual research assignments, including a term paper.
  2. One or more group projects.
  3. Examinations.
X. Means of Evaluation:

Students will be evaluated using some combination of examinations, individual research, and group projects as follows:

  1. A variety of individual research assignments will be assigned across a subset of the course objectives. In some cases the "evaluation" of assignments will be of timely completion. Other assignments may entail an evaluation of the correctness of the results. The term paper, and perhaps other assignments, will be evaluated on a combination of organization, research quality, synthesis of class and research materials, writing quality, and ability to present the materials in an engaging manner. Some subset of these materials will evaluated, consistent with writing requirements, on a write and rewrite basis.
  2. Group projects will be structured, in general, to explore two or more course objectives in combination. So long as groups appear to function well, group projects will be evaluated for the group as a whole based on the quality of the group research, their synthesis of the material, and their presentation of the results. Where groups do not appear to function well, individual participation and contribution may also contribute to the evaluation.
  3. Examinations will test students on their mastery of readings, lecture materials, and other classroom materials that pertain to course objectives. Evaluation of examiniation results will be consistent with normal educational practice.
XI. Resources: No additional resources will be needed to offer this course beyond keeping current with library acquisitions.
XII. Bibliography:
  • Adorno, T.W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D.J., Sanford, R.N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.
  • Ajzen, 1. (1988). Attitudes. personality. and behavior. Chicago: Dorsey.
  • Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior . Englewood Cliff, NJ: PrenticeHall.
  • Allport, G.W. (1958). The nature of prejudice. New York: Doubleday.
  • Ashcraft, M.H. (1994). Human memory and cognition. 2nd ed. New York: Harper Collins. College Publ
  • Bell, R.A., & Daly, J.A. (1984). The affinity-seeking function of communication, Communication Monographs, 51, 91-115.
  • Berger, C.R. (1975). Proactive and retroactive attribution processes. Human Communication Research, 2, 33-50.
  • Berger, C.R. (1979). Beyond initial interaction: Uncertainty, understanding, and the development of interpersonal relationships. in H. Giles & R.M. St. Clair (Eds.), Language and social psychology (pp. 122-144). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Berger, C.R. & Bradac, J.J. (1982). Language and social knowledge: Uncertainty nty in interpersonal relations. London: Edward Arnold.
  • Berscheid, E., & Hatfield, E. (1978). Interpersonal attraction, 2nd ed. New York: Random House.
  • Bierhoff, H. (1990). Person perception and attribution. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Booth-Butterfield, M. (Ed.) (1991). Communication, cognition, and anxiety . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
  • Brehm, J.W., & Cohen, A.R. (1962). Explorations in cognitive dissonance. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Brookfield, S.D. (1987). Developing critical thinkers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Butterworth, G., & Light, P. (Eds.) (1982). Social cognition: studies of the development of understanding. Chicago: U. of Chicago Pr.
  • Chaffee, J. (1994). Thinking critically, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  • Cozby, P.C. (1972). Self-disclosure, reciprocity and liking, Sociometry, 35, 151-160.
  • Donohew, L., Sypher, H.E., & Higgins, E.T. (Eds.) (1988). Communication, social cognition. and affect. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford U. Press.
  • Fiedler, K. & Forgas, J.P. (Eds.) (1988). Affect. cognition. and social behavior . Toronto: Hogrefe.
  • Fiske, S.T., & Taylor, S.T. (1994). Social cognition, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Goldstein, K.M., & Blackman, S. (1979). Cognitive style. five approaches and relevant research. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Goss, B. (1995). The psychology of human communication, 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
  • Heil, J. (1983). Perception and cognition. Berkeley; U. of California Press.
  • Huston, T.L. (1974). Foundations of interpersonal attraction. New York: Academic Press.
  • Laing, R.D., Phillipson, H., & Lee, A.R. (1966). Interpersonal perception. London: Tavistock Publ.
  • McCroskey, J.C., & Daly, J.A. (Eds.) (1987). Personality and interpersonal communication. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
  • Redmond, M.V. (1995). Interpersonal communication, Readings in theory and research . Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Pub
  • Roloff, M.E. (1981). Interpersonal communication: Social exchange approach. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
  • Roloff, M.E., & Berger, C.R. (Eds.) (1982). Social cognition and communication. Beverly Hills: Sage.
  • Sorrentino, R.M., & Higgins, E.T., (Eds.) 1986). Handbook of motivation and cognition, foundations of social behavior. New York: Guilford Pr.
  • Sunnafrank, M. (1984). A communication-based perspective on attitude similarity and interpersonal attraction in early acquaintance. Communication Monographs, 51, 372-380.
  • Sunnafrank, M. (1986). Predicted outcome value during initial interactions: A reformulation of uncertainty reduction theory. Human Communication Research, 13, (1), 3-33.
  • Warr, P.B., & Knapper, C. (1968). The perception of people and events. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Weimer, W.B., & Palermo, D.S. (Eds.) (1978). Cognition and the symbolic processes. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Wyer, Jr., R.S., & Srull, T.K. (Eds.) (1984). Handbook of social cognition, vol. 1-3. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.