• Course Overview.
• A Course Dialectic: You and your communication
• Interpersonal Communication in Context.
• Introductions.
• Models of the Communication Process.
• Spheres of Mediation.

• The Intersection of Language, Media, and Intention.
• Personal needs and interpersonal communication.
• Participating in community and society.
• The variety of communication media.
• Interpersonal media

How we communicate interpersonally.

• Models of the Communication Process.
• Spheres of Mediation.
• Principles of Interpersonal Communication

Wood; p.1-42.

Index Card Assignment 1: Who is the most important person in your life? Why?

• Your Interpersonal Toolbox.
• Knowing the rules of the interpersonal medium.
• Negotiation of Rules in Everyday Conversation.
• Formal Ettiquettes in on-line interpersonal spaces.

Section Quiz: Introduction to Interpersonal

Wood; p. 43-51.

• Tools for Examining the Self.
• Analysis of Self and Other. The Role of Professionals.
• Identifying distortions and refuting the critic.
• Therapy as a Communication Process.
• Communication as Therapy.

McKay and Fanning; p. 1-56.

Index Card Assignment 2: Name three things you would like to change about yourself.

• The Communication Origins of Self.
• Family, Friends, Community, Society and Self.
• The Social Construction of Self.

The Critic in all of us.

• Our harshest critic.
• The intrapersonal communication process.
• Disarming the critic in all of us.

Wood; p. 52-65.

• Living with Societies Labels
• Transcending Labels
• Improving Self-Concept

Wood; p. 65-87.

Index Card Assignment 3: List three labels OTHER PEOPLE have used to describe YOU.

• The Intersection of the Phenomonal and the Semiotic.
• The Process of Self-Assessment.

Section Quiz: Communication and Self

• Selection, Organization, and Interpretation.
• Physiology, Age, Culture, and Perception.
• Social Roles
• Cognitive Abilities.
• Subjectivity.
• Facts, Inferences, and Mindreading
• Bias and Attribution Errors.
  

Wood; p. 88-121.

Index Card Assignment 4: Write a self-description.

• A Range of Distortions.
• Combating Distortions.

McKay and Fanning p. 76-111

• Hearing, Listening, and Remembering
• Selection, Organization, Interpretation
• Mindful Listening and Appropriate Feedback
• Obstacles to Effective Listening
• Forms of Non-Listening
• Listening for Pleasure, Information, and SupportGuidelines for Effective Listening

The Term Paper Process.

Wood; p. 193-226.

Index Card Assignment 5: Read through this entire syllabus, paying particular attention to the sub-bullets in column 2 ("Class Focus/ Activity"). Pick three sub-bullets that seem particularly interesting to you and write them on your index card. (Note: this is a first step toward picking a term paper topic, so try to pick things that really do seem like they might be interesting.)

• Compassion Defined.
• Compassion for Others
• Active Listening

Section Quiz: Communication and Other

McKay and Fanning; p. 112-135.

• Signs, Symbols, and Language
• The Nature of Symbols
• Principles of Verbal Communication
• Language Rules
• Punctuation and Meaning

Discussed Term Paper Requirements

Wood; p. 122-148.

Index Card Assignment 6: Pick one of the three topics you documented in index card assignment 5. Find 3 references that relate to the topic. Document the topic and the three references on one side of an index card.

• Labeling, Language, and Other.
  • What Symbols Enable.
  • Speech Communities
  How Symbols Shape Us.
• Abstract Language and Abstract Values.
• Discovering Your "Shoulds".

McKay and Fanning; p. 136-168.

• Learning from and Reframing Mistakes.
• The Habit of Awareness.
• Dual Perspective.
• Owning and Respecting Feelings and Thoughts

Wood; p. 148-158.

McKay and Fanning; p. 169-186.

Index Card Assignment 7: Think about an argument you've had. Then write down:

• Who was it with?
• What was it about?
• What did the other person say or do that makes you think the argument was their fault.
• What did you say or do that might make them think that the argument was your fault?

• Defining Non-Verbal Communication.
• Principles of Non-Verbal Communication.
• Interfaces, Translators, and Modalities.

A Non-Verbal Communication Inventory.

• Gesture and Touch.
• Physical Appearance, Artifacts and Environment.
• Proxemics and Personal Space.
• Paralanguage and Silence.

Wood; p. 159-186.

• Caution: Real but not always controlled or intended.
• Non-Verbal Communication and Lying.
• Non-Verbal Communication and Attraction.
• Dressing for Success.
• The Hidden Message in Mass Media.

Section Quiz: Non-Verbal Communication

• Emotional Intelligence.
• The Nature of Emotions.
• Obstacles to Effective Communication of Emotion.
• Guidelines to Communicating Emotions Effectively.

Wood; p. 228-262.

• Elements of Satisfying Personal Relationships.
• Relational Dialectics.

Wood; p. 263-275.

• The Distorted Nature of Criticism.
• Effective Response Styles.

Asking for what you want.

• Needs Versus Wants.
• Wants Into Words
• Rules For Requests

• Confirming and Disconfirming Climates.
• Creating and Sustaining Healthy Climates.
• Appropriate Self-Disclosure.
• Respecting Diversity.

You are (or at least can be) who you think you are.

• Harnessing Imagination in Service to Reality.
• Visualizing Effectively.

Section Quiz: Communication Styles and Climates

Wood; p. 275-297.

• Protecting Against Inner Pain and its Consequences.
• Facing the Pain.

• What is Interpersonal Conflict?
• Principles of Conflict.
• Approaches to Conflict.
• Social Influences on Conflict.
• Communication Patterns During Conflict.
• Conflict Management Skills.
• Effective Communication During Conflict.

Belief and Conflict.

• Identifying Core Beliefs.
• The Fractal Collision of Principles.
• Learning Your Own Rules

Section Quiz: Communication and Conflict

McKay and Fanning; p. 309 - 326.

Index Card assignment 8: Attend one of the following three Quest day panels:

• 8:40 Lanigan 105
• 12:30 Lanigan 103
• 12:30 Lanigan 106

For the most interesting talk, write down, on one side of an index card, the most interesting thing you learned.

• The Nature of Friendship.
• The Development and Rules of Friendship.
• Pressures on Friendships.
• Communication Between Friends.

Wood; p. 339-370.

Index Card Assignment 9: Think back over your life and break it into three or four periods (for intance (before age 6, elementary school, high school, now). Who was your best friend during each of these periods.

• Gender Differences and Communication.
• Committed Romantic Relationships.
• The Organization of Romantic Relationships.
• Challenges to Sustaining Romantic Relationships.
• Communication Between Romantic Partners.

Wood; p. 371-415.

Term Paper Due

• Economic Partnership and the Changing Family.
• Pressures on Marraige and Family.
  The Family Life Cycle.
• Building Self-Esteem in Children.

McKay and Fanning; p. 327-373.

• An Unending Study of Interpersonal Communication
• We Cannot Not Communicate Interpersonally, so we might as well do it well.

Wood; p. 416-418.

Communication Journal Due

Index Card Assignment 10: What was the most useful thing you learned in writing your term paper.

Take home final exam distributed

Take home final exam due for both sections. Exam should be turned in to by 2:00pm.