Yashna Murli
COM 491-A
20th September 2021
Chapter 3- Cognition & Intrapersonal Com
This chapter explains the three main theories under cognitive and intrapersonal
communication: attribution theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and expectancy
violations theory. This chapter goes into detail about how each approach has a
subtopic and how they all are interdependent. I believe that communication is a form
of understanding and interpretation of messages, and each message can be linked
with one another as a form of non-verbal cues along with the tone and how it is said.
Therefore, I found it very interesting how each explained theory had its own way of
merging. These four main theories help us understand what happens in the mind
that causes us to behave in a particular way.
Under attribution theory, they have three subtopics. The first one is attribution as
naive psychology. Here, it is explained how we all are naive psychologists and as we
try to determine if the behavior was dispositional or situational. Whereas the second
one is correspondent inference theory: when the perceiver has attributed to
disposition, then the perceiver also makes judgements calling them correspondent
inference. Through this, we determine the other person's intention, and we do this
through behavior, assumed desirability, social role, prior expectation, hedonic
relevance and personalism. It is about how these factors directly affect you directly
and personalism when the actor specifically and intentionally behaves in ways to hurt
or to help. The Kelleys covariation model shows how we judge based on four main
factors: consensus, consistency, distinctiveness, and controllability. When the first
three are put together, we can evaluate if it is a situation or situation disposition
based. I find this very interesting as I feel I have done the same thing, and I believe
we all do the same thing almost every single day of our life with every individual.
Even though it is unintentional, there is a whole model behind it, which I find very
astonishing.
I am very unsure if this makes sense, but I feel this has relevance to uncertainty
reduction theory. As we judge a person based on what we see and if we don't see
consistency and that it is a habit and not a temporary behavior, we would naturally
back away from this situation as then we would seem to state that this person is just
the way they are. And I have also observed that we tend to use a lot of uncertainty
reduction strategies like passive. I feel we always use passive when we are in a new
space. For example, when it is the first day of class or such, I think we use passive
to see how we can approach a situation only by observing the consistency that
occurs. Even though most of these examples were set in terms of work-life. I do feel
a lot of college students can relate to the same. When we have a new roommate, we
sit with assumptions and evaluate their personal space according to how much
personal space and affection you need to be comfortable in the dorm room. And
when assumptions occur, that's when the core concepts of expectancy of violation
come in. Since no one would have to analyze their relationship, they share the
context and the communicator characteristics. And also, these are fascinating
persuasion strategies through dissonance. As motivation occurs through individuals
internal struggle to change beliefs and behavior’s to restore consonance. But these
are used as strategies as they exploit dissonance while offering a solution to
minimize the disparity. If you create too much dissonance, the receivers may create
balance by changing their attitudes and not liking you.
Some questions that I find interesting are,
-Do you feel each attribution is just a course and a different stage to us being able to
judge people fairly?
-Which theory do you feel is most applicable to building friendships and the
breakdown of an equation too?
-When it comes to sharing or having a relationship with someone, why does
hierarchy have such an impact on our behavior? Is it because of the violation and
breaches one might cause?
