1. Woodward and Denton claim in chapter 8 that "Human communication is a purposeful process of selection, interpretation, and symbolism" (p. 188).
After taking a class focused on the dynamics of communication, one of the key ideas that stuck with me is that not all communication is purposeful or intentional, and that is actually the beauty of communication. With the constant encoding and decoding to different audiences with different messages, often times we communicate an idea, or more commonly an expression, that we did not intend. In that same class, we researched nonverbal communication extensively and even took the whole quarter to interview various people on the way we react in certain situations, or certain moods, etc. At the end of the quarter, we all presented on what people had said about our nonverbal cues, and everyone was surprised at the emotions or reactions that they display without even knowing it.
Therefore, my question for this statement is, "is human communication always purposeful?" If so, please explain. And if not, why do you not believe it is always purposeful?
2. On page 190, Woodward and Denton claim "Females are superior in encoding nonverbal skills, especially in visual cues and nondeceptive messages. Women are also more accurate interpreters of nonverbal cues than men. In short, women are more expressive and sensitive to nonverbal cues."
At first this statement came across to me just like so many of the stereotypical traits of women versus men. How many times have I heard that women are more emotional, more sensitive, less violent, more maternal, and less physical than those men that don't let emotions ever slow them down?
I am always bothered by this comparison because I know way too many men that are much more emotional than most of my girl friends. Because I am capable of producing children does not make me less rational than any man. Women are historically incapable of being in a leadership position because of their "irrationality and mood swings" which seems to translate today into "sensitivity and emotions."
With the authors' choice of words aside, I went ahead and researched the support behind the claim above (since there was no footnote) and I actually did find evidence to defend the claim that women are more accurate at interpreting nonverbal clues. This sentence, out of the three presented, is the only one that holds weight as far as I can find, and also is the least misogynistic.
One editorial comments on the finding of a scientist who researched the differences of the male and female brains. He writes, "the female brain has more "connections" between the brain's two hemispheres, and women have 11 percent more brain cells in the area of the brain called the planum temporale, which has to do with perceiving and processing language." -http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/114977/this_just_in_women_communicate_better_pg2_pg2.html?cat=41
Other sites supported this information and backed up the claim that women do pick up any many more language quirks than men and even process more communicative events a day than men.
So, do you agree with Woodward and Denton's statement above? Or do you think that some men communicate better than some women and vice versa? Or does it depend more on the culture than gender?
3. Woodward and Denton wrote that in a compliance-gaining situation, "not all strategies are appropriate in all situation" (p. 193). They go on to explain different factors that might change the situation and how you should respond accordingly. The main strategies they define are: direct requests, rationality, exchange, manipulation, coercion, indirect, and emotional appeals. The types of things they believe that need to be taken into consideration before engaging in one of these strategies are: intimacy levels, consequences, resistance, and benefits.
What do you think about repetition? What if you used the perfect strategy to persuade your parents to let you do some activity- would you try that same tactic again the next time? Or do think the strategies lose persuasive value with the amount of times you try them? Or do you think the strategies strengthen your persuasive arguments with repetition?
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