Transcript constructivism - University of Maine System

CONSTRUCTIVISM
Jessia Delia
in
Em Griffen, ch. 8, 4th ed.
CLICKER QUESTION
The RCQ is used to determine a
person’s categories for understanding
people;
TRUE = A
FALSE = B
CLICKER QUESTION
A core assumption of constructivism
is that persons make sense of the
world through systems of personal
constructs;
TRUE = A
FALSE = B
CLICKER QUESTION
People who use rhetorical design
logic, have the ability to redefine the
situation in a way that defuses
conflict;
TRUE = A
FALSE = B
CLICKER QUESTION
Griffin writes: “When guys get together they
typically talk about others in terms of external
behaviors--the sports they play, the cars they
drive, the battles they fight. Conversely, girls
tend to talk about people--their perceptions of
internal motives, attitudes, traits, and
personalities” (p. 197, 6th ed.).
You Agree = A
You Disagree = B
Constructivism is a theory about
effective communication;
An Implicit Theory
• We all have an implicit theory of
communication;
• Your implicit theory helps you to interpret
(make sense of) and shape your social
world;
• We are not usually aware of our
interpretive scheme (implicit theory);
Role Category Questionnaire
• To make explicit our interpretive scheme, the
RCQ is used to determine a person’s categories for
understanding people;
• The RCQ is a simple paper and pencil test that
asks the subject to select a person they like and
one they dislike and devoting 5 minutes to each,
write a list of terms that describe the person’s
attributes, personality, habits, beliefs, and the way
they treat others, characteristics that make them
who they are;
LIKED
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Honest
Peaceful
Caring
Intelligent
Pleasant
Good humor
Engenders warmth
Supportive
Shares power
DISLIKED
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Dishonest
Intimidating
Jealous
Destructive
Engenders fear
Malicious
Cruel
Abuses power
The Core Assumption of
Constructivism
• Persons make sense of the world through
systems of personal constructs;
• Constructs are concepts located in our
minds;
• The RCQ is concerned not with physical
features, but rather categories of personality
and action;
Cognitive Complexity
• Researchers use the RCQ to determine the
respondent’s degree of cognitive complexity
as they form interpersonal impressions;
Three Components of Cognitive
Complexity
• Answers given on the RCQ can be scored
on three different dimensions of cognitive
complexity:
– Differentiation
– Abstraction
– Integration
DIFFERENTIATION
• Differentiation is the number of separate
personality constructs used to describe the
target person;
ABSTRACTION
• Abstraction is the degree to which the
respondent sees visible behavior in terms of
internal traits, motives, and dispositions;
INTEGRATION
• Integration has to do with recognizing and
reconciling conflicting impressions;
SIMPLIFIED SCORING
• In short, the RCQ is scored by counting up
the number of different constructs
(concepts) used to describe the 2 target
persons;
• Griffin reports seeing a range of scores from
3 to 45, but reports the adult norm as 20 25;
Validity of the Scores
• Delia argues from data collected (research) that
the RCQ does measure cognitive complexity;
• He argues that cognitive complexity increases
with age in children;
• He argues that individual differences in adults
remain stable over time (test-retest);
• RCQ scores are independent of IQ, empathy,
writing skill, and extroversion;
THE MAIN HYPOTHESIS OF
CONSTRUCTIVISM
• People who are cognitively complex in
their perceptions of others have a
communication advantage over those with
less-developed mental structures;
• These individuals have the ability to
produce sophisticated messages that have
the best chance to achieve their
communication goals;
PERSON-CENTERED
MESSAGES
• In one study (by Ruth Ann clark and Jesse
Delia), children of second grade to ninth
grade took the RCQ test orally;
• The children then were asked to role-play
convincing a woman they didn’t know to
keep a lost puppy;
•
RESULTS
• Some children showed no realization that the
woman’s perspective may differ from their own;
• Other kids recognized the difference but failed to
adapt their messages;
• A more sophisticated group were able to imagine
what the woman was thinking and tried to refute
counterarguments they expected from her;
• Sophisticated messages also pointed out the
advantages to her that would come from
complying with the request;
RESULTS
• Clark and Delia found that the quality of messages
improved as the age of the children increased;
• Cognitively complex children--at a given age-were 2 years ahead of their classmates in ability to
encode person-centered messages;
• The children most able to take the perspective of
the other were the older children with the most
cognitive complexity;
SOME TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE THE
CAPACITY TO CREATE PERSON-CENTERED
MESSAGES
• Rhetorically Sensitive
• Self-Monitoring
• Taking the Role of the
Other
• Identification
• Audience Awareness
• Listener Adaptation
PERSON-CENTERED
MESSAGES
• Constructivists claim that cognitively complex
people are better able to produce person-centered
messages than less cognitively complex people;
• However, Griffin points out the cognitively
complex people, while able, do not always
produce person-centered messages (fatigue,
pressure to conform or other situational factors
may intervene);
PERSON-CENTERED
MESSAGES
• Sophisticated messages reflect more than
the speaker’s efforts at audience adaptation;
• Sophisticated messages also reflect an
attempt to accomplish multiple goals;
MESSAGE DESIGN LOGIC
• People hold one of 3 distinct notions about
how communication works:
– Each is called a message design logic
– Each is an implicit theory of the ways in which
messages can be shaped to serve as means to
ends;
MESSAGE DESIGN LOGICS
• Expressive design logic:
– People who operate on this logic, maintain that
language is a medium for expressing thoughts
and feelings;
– The say what they think and feel;
– Their goal is to be open and honest;
– They do not believe in much interpretation;
– They are direct;
MESSAGE DESIGN LOGICS
• Conventional design logic:
– These people assume that communication is a
game played cooperatively, according to
socially conventional rules;
– For this person, effective communication =
appropriateness;
– When asked why they said what they said now,
their answer is the words were the appropriate
thing to say under the circumstances;
MESSAGE DESIGN LOGICS
• Rhetorical design logic:
– These people operate on the premise that
communication is the creation and negotiation
of social selves and situations;
– Persons in conversation co-construct their own
social realities;
– Nothing is fixed;
Rhetorical Design Logic
• These people can use expressive logic design
when they believe it will achieve their goals;
• These people can use conventional design and
adapt to custom;
• They have the additional ability to redefine the
situation in a way that defuses conflict;
• They are proactice in seeking consensus, while
down playing the raw use of power;
RESEARCH FINDING ON
MESSAGE DESIGN LOGIC
• O’KEEFE found that average RCQ scores
were lowest (20) for those who used an
expressive design logic, a bit higher (21) for
those who employed a conventional design
logic, and highest (25) for those who used
the rhetorical design logic;
• O’Keefe found that 80% of the rhetorically
sensitive messages were written by women;
EFFECTS OF RHETORICAL DESIGN
LOGIC ON COMMUNICATION
Rhetorical design logic results in
communication outcomes that are more
 persuasive;
 comforting;
–
–
More sophisticated comforting messages
result in users being better liked;
Users report feeling better about themselves
and those they try to help;
EFFECTS OF RHETORICAL DESIGN
LOGIC ON COMMUNICATION
• Relationship maintenance effects do not simply
show that sophisticated communication skills
result in sustaining friendships;
• “Similar skills model”: Friendships tended to last
when partners possessed matching verbal skills-high or low;
• Sophisticated communication skills are an
advantage only when a friend has the
sophistication to appreciate them;
EFFECTS OF RHETORICAL DESIGN
LOGIC ON COMMUNICATION
• Organizational Effectiveness: Results of a
longitudinal study (Sypher and Zorn, 1986)
on workers at an insurance company
showed that more cognitively complex
workers acquired better-paying jobs and
were moving up through the ranks of the
company faster than their less complex
colleagues;
LEARNING TO BE A
SOPHISTICATED SPEAKER
• Some research suggests that becoming
sophisticated speaker is learned;
• Through nurture and discipline, children
learn from their parents to be more
sophisticated speakers;
CRITIQUE
• A major criticism of the theory is its
reliance upon the simplistic RCQ measure;
• Are efforts being undertaken to help
children develop the self-reflective
experiences to develop sophisticated
communication?