I teach Interpersonal Communication at East Mississippi Community College. My students and I are identifying the different types of perceptions of the physical environment and learning how they affect the messages communicators send and receive.
The students and I will be looking at six pictures of settings where people meet and talk. Picture A has three people at a coffee house. B has passengers on a trolley car. C has an empty room. D has four people who look as if they are in a problem-solving group. E shows a multitude of students outside at a university. F has four happy looking young people at a table in a bar. My students have a list of more than a dozen conversational pieces to which they are to match the setting they think is most and least likely to stimulate each statement.
Why does the physical environment affect our communication style, or better yet, why should the physical setting affect communication? Sometimes it does not, e.g.- at a visitation service in a funeral home, in a classroom, in a sanctuary, in a doctor’s office, or at the dinner table. When one’s communication fails to reflect the setting, it is reasonable to perceive that the communicator is anomalous.
1. Which one isn’t one of the major components of any communication setting?
A. architectural structure and design features
B. the natural environment
C. movable objects
D. temerity
E. the presence or absence of other people
2. facilitating (fuh-SILL-uh-tate-ing)
A. the process of scrutinizing
B. the process of making something easier
C. borrowing to reduce amortization
D. volunteering in a selfless manner
3. ambiguous (am-BIG-you-us)
A. gargantuan
B. an ideal quality for dyadic communication
C. when something can be understood in two or more possible senses or ways
D. persona non grata
No. 1 is D.
No. 2 is B. Each of the components has the potential for facilitating or inhibiting certain kinds of communication.
No. 3 is C. Anita Vangelisti et al. points out that like any perceptual task, matching dialogue to setting becomes increasingly difficult as the stimuli become more ambiguous.
4. Which comment would most likely be heard from those in Picture A?
A. “More matter with less art please!”
B. “Wow, pungent!”
C. “Do you believe Tim is being, um, unfaithful?”
D. “Well, look at yourself now. You’re doing it again.”
No. 4 is B.
Editor’s Note: Don Rodney Vaughan, Ph.D., teaches journalism, interpersonal communication and public speaking at East Mississippi Community College and is the pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Webster County. Contact him at dvaughan@eastms.edu.
