Affinity The degree to which persons like or appreciate one another.

Channel The medium through which a message passes from sender to receiver.

Cognitive Complexity The ability to construct a variety of frameworks for viewing an issue

Communication A continuous transactional process, involving participants who occupy different, but overlapping environments, and create relationships through the exchange of messages, many of which are affected by external, physiological, and psychological noise.

Communication Competence The ability to accomplish one’s personal goals in a manner that maintains a relationship on terms that are acceptable to all parties.

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Communication between individuals that is conducted via computer channels such as , chat and instant messaging

Content Message A message that communicates information about the subject being discussed.

Control The social need to influence others.

Conversational Control The power to determine who speaks in a conversation.

Decision Control The power to influence which person in a relationship decides what activities will take place.

Decoding The process in which a receiver attaches meaning to a message. Synonymous with interpreting.

Dyad (dy-ad) Two individuals communicating. The interaction may or may not be interpersonal in nature.

Encoding The process of putting thoughts into symbols, most commonly words.

Environment The field of experiences that leads a person to make sense of another’s behavior. Environments consist of physical characteristics, personal experiences, relational history, and cultural background.

Immediacy The degree of interest and attention that we feel toward and communicate to others.

Impersonal Communication Behavior that treats others as objects rather than individuals.

Instrumental Goals Goals aimed at getting others to behave in desired ways.

Interpersonal Communication In a quantitative sense, communication, usually face to face, between two individuals. (Dyad) In a qualitative sense, communication in which the parties consider one another as unique individuals rather than objects. It is characterized by the use of idiosyncratic* rules, and a high degree of information exchange. * id-ee-oh-sin- krat -ik - A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.

Linear Communication Model A characterization of communication as a one- way event in which a message flows from sender to receiver.

Message Information sent from a sender to receiver.

Metacommunication Messages that refer to other messages: communication about communication

Noise External, physiological and psychological distractions that interfere with the accurate transmission and reception of a message.

Psychological Noise Forces within a communicator that interfere with the ability to express or understand a message accurately.

Receiver One who notices and attends to a message.

Relational Message A message that expresses the social relationship between two or more individuals.

Respect The social need to be held in esteem by others.

Self-monitoring The process of attending to one’s behavior and using these observations to shape the way one behaves.

Sender The creator of a message.

Transactional Communication Model A characterization of communication as the simultaneous sending and receiving of messages in an ongoing, irreversible process.