COMM 4471: Communication in Marriage and Family

1. COMM 4471: Communication in Marriage and Family Spring 2004 Preliminary slides! Subject to change!

2. Basics of Social Cognition • Social Cognition “..the study of how people make sense of other people and themselves” (Fiske & Taylor, 1991)

3. Significance of Social Cognition for Communication • All human behavior is the result of mental processes • Intentional (controlled) behavior is the result of cognition • Intentional social behavior is the result of social cognition

4. Key Terms in Social Cognition • Inferences and Attributions • Attitudes • Schema • Self-Concepts and Other-Concepts • Motivation and Self-Regulation • Automatic and Controlled Processing • Affect

5. Inferences and Attributions • Inferences • the process of gathering information and making a judgment about an entity and its attributes and qualities • Attributions • explanations for a person’s behavior

6. Attitudes • evaluations of social entities in a person’s environment • have a behavioral, a cognitive, and an affective component

7. Schemata • cognitive structures that represents knowledge of an object, including its attributes and the relationships among them

8. Self- & Other-Concepts • Self-Concept • a mental representation of the self, including ideals, desires, history, abilities, obligations, value, etc. • Other-Concept • a mental representation of another person of similar content

9. Motivation and Self-Regulation • Motivation • the driving force behind cognition and behavior, often the attainment of needs and goals • Self-Regulation • the way in which people direct and control their own behaviors

10. Automatic and Controlled Processing • Mental (cognitive) processes that occur outside (automatic) or within (controlled) a person’s awareness

11. Affect • emotions that persons experience and that have a cognitive and a physiological component

12. Communication Systems • Wholeness: Complete interdependence of parts • Nonsummativity: System is more than sum of parts • Openness: Systems do not exist in isolation • Equifinality: Outcomes are not pre-determined by inputs • Hierarchy: Systems interact with other systems

13. Parent-Child Interaction • Both parents & children are predisposed to interact with one another • Both parents & children are similarly influential on how they communicate • Parent-child interactions are linked to child development in intelligence, social skill, & language acquisition

14. Infant behavior eliciting parental responses • Gaze • Smiling • Distress-Discomfort • Crying • Avoidance

15. Motherese • Facial Expressions • Vocalizations • Gaze

16. Motherese • Facial Expressions • exaggerated in space and time • mock surprise • frown • Vocalizations • Gaze

17. Motherese • Facial Expressions • Vocalizations • simple syntax • short utterances, longer pauses • more pitch variations • nonsense sounds • Gaze

18. Motherese • Facial Expressions • Vocalizations • Gaze • extended far beyond cultural rules • speaker also looks, not only listener

19. Attachment The Strong Bond between Infant & Primary Care Giver • Innate (shared with many other animals) • Necessary for Survival & Development • Characterized by Multi-Stage Reaction to Separation

20. Attachment (cont.) • Necessary for Survival & Development • Secure Base Function • Save Haven Function • Characterized by Multi-Stage Reaction to Separation: • Protest • Despair • Detachment • Rebound from Detachment

21. Ainsworth’s Attachment Styles(determined by Strange Situation) • Secures: - briefly upset, then happy & satisfied 2) Avoidant - no emotional response, then avoid mother 3) Anxious/Ambivalent - very upset, then initially avoidant

22. PCG’s Behavior and Infant’s Attachment Style • Reliably Available  Secure Attachment • Reliably Unavailable  Avoidant Attachment • Unreliably Available/Over Involved  Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment

23. Kobak’s Attachment Dimensions Secure Secure Dismissing Preoccupied Dismissing Avoidant Preoccupied Insecure

24. Bartholomew’s FourAttachment Styles Model of Self _ + + Preoccupied Secure Model Of Other _ Fearful Avoidant Dismissive

25. Ways of Learning • Classical Conditioning • Operant Conditioning • Social Learning

26. Classical Conditioning • Before: CS --/--> R; UCS ----> R • Conditioning: UCS + CS ----> R • After: CS ----> R CS = Conditional Stimulus UCS = Unconditional Stimulus R = Response

27. Operant Conditioning • Associating behavior with an outcome through reinforcement • Reinforcement • positive = presence of outcome • negative = absence of outcome • Outcome • positive = desirable (reward) • negative = undesirable (punishment)

28. Social Learning • Associating behavior with an outcome through observation • Observation of • presence/absence of positive & negative outcomes • approval/disapproval of behavior by socialization agents (incl. significant others)

29. Children’s Learning • Children learn in all 3 ways • Because social learning requires extensive cognitive representations of social world, social learning is dependent on child’s cognitive development

30. Active vs. Passive Learning • Passive Learning • focus of traditional learning theories • how environment is structured determines what is learned • Active Learning • focus of social learning theory • how learner constructs (perceives) environment determines what is learned

31. Controversy: Corporal Punishment • What are the arguments for or against corporal punishment from the perspectives of the three learning theories? • Based on above, what is your position on corporal punishment?

32. Socialization of Functional Communication • Socialization is based on explanation and modeling • Socialization is completed when self-regulation replaces other-regulation

33. Person Centered Communication • The use of an elaborated code that focuses on motivations, feelings, and intentions of individuals and their distinct psychological perspectives.

34. Position Centered Communication • The use of a restricted code that focuses on the identities of others based on conventionally defined social roles and the rules & norms that govern behavior in specific contexts.

35. Communicative Development • from egocentric & rigid to increasingly sensitive to psychological states, individual differences, desire for autonomy, and negotiated character of social situations. (p. 44 f) • increasingly complex • increasingly aware of multiple goals (identity, relationship, & instrumental)

36. Coding Regulative and Comforting Messages • Discouragement of reflection • Implicit encouragement of reflection • Explicit encouragement of reflection

37. Variables in Socialization Culture, i. e., SES Parental Cognition Parental Communication Children’s Cognition Children’s Communication Peer Acceptance

38. Parent-Adolescent Communication • The adolescents’ development of autonomy and independence is a central theme in family communication. • Parents play a crucial role in this development by either encouraging or discouraging it.

39. Functions of Family Communication • Renegotiation of roles, rules, & relationships • Encourage identity formation • Enhancing of self-esteem • Modeling & teaching of problem solving • Enabling adolescent decision-making

40. Renegotiate Roles, Rules, & Relationships • As children become adults, roles, rules & relationships need to adjust • Parents must gradually relinquish control over adolescent • giving up control too early leaves adolescents susceptible to peer-pressure • giving up control to late leads to conflict & rebellion

41. Encourage Identity Formation • Identity forms in two-stage process • identity crisis • identity commitment • Stages of identity formation • identity achievement (crisis & commitment) • foreclosure (early commitment) • moratorium (crisis only) • identity diffusion (no commitments)

42. Enhancing Self-Esteem • parents’ support and nurturing • family cohesion & openness • parents’ trust in adolescents’ decisions • fathers’ approval more influential

43. Model & Teach Problem Solving • positive & constructive communication between parents & adolescents • adolescents can practice skills with siblings, although those conflicts are often violent

44. Enable Adolescent Decision-Making • Three areas of decisions • moral • conventional • personal

45. Two Dimensions ofFamily Communication • Concept (Conversation) - Orientation - open discussion of ideas - family values interaction • Socio (Conformity) - Orientation - children’s adoption of parental values - family values conformity

46. Significance of Conversation Orientation • facilitates socialization of children • increases cognitive complexity • validates children’s opinions, enhances self-esteem

47. Significance of Conformity Orientation • determines autonomy and independence of children • determines children’s decision making

48. Family Types Protective Consensual Conformity Laissez-Faire Pluralistic Conversation Orientation

49. Family Decision-Making • Parenting Styles • Decision Making Processes • Coalition Building

50. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles • Authoritarian • Authoritative • Permissive