Communication Apprehension and Social Change

Perception is the process of making meaning from people. Misperception would be to perceive someone incorrectly.

To function effectively in today’s society people must communicate with one another. Yet for some individuals communication experiences are so unrewarding that they either consciously or unconsciously avoid situations where communication is required. (McCroskey & Richmond, 1979) The term ‘communication apprehension’ was coined by James McCroskey (1976a) and is defined as “an individual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons” (McCroskey, 1984). In the last two decades communication apprehension and related constructs, such as reticence and unwillingness to communicate, have received extensive research and theoretical attention by scholars in communication and

Campbell, Angus, and Phillip E. Converse. 1972. The Human Meaning of Social Change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. UTSA Databaseshttps://ucat.lib.utsa.edu /vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId= 181794/ (accessed February 20, 2013).

This is difficult to answer because while we have been exposed to teaching and literature about changing and emerging social issues this has failed to prompt me to try and change the world, but to be more understanding of its social issues. The English degree has created a desire for me to move in a different career direction and make something of myself. Before going to college I used to volunteer for many organizations and work full-time until I got burned out; some organizations while

TRANSITION: Having social media as an option for communication, only further enhances an individual's skills in communicating.

The theories I will focus on in this essay is Social Penetration Theory and Uncertainty Reduction Theory. The reason I choose both these theories focus on initial interactions with stingers and how relationships develop. The social penetration theory is an objective theory (A First Look at Communication, page 93) uses the example of peeling an onion. It shows the “multilayered structure of personality.” The theory explains that as you go from not knowing someone and over time developing a more personal relationship through stages of disclosure. The other theory I will highlight will be Uncertainty Reduction Theory which follows seven main assumptions on how we develop information about a new acquaintance in order to lower uncertainty and predict others behaviors. Overall I will outline the core beliefs of these two theories and tie them together as how they both help us develop relationships with new people. And explain how we interact in new social settings. Both these objective theories show similar links but in some ways are different.

The Society is constantly developing and changing, but the progress in development has changed for the worse. The society should be a major focus ,and people should try to find ways to better the community. Social Development attempts to explain quality changes in the structure and framework of society, that helps the society to better realize aims and objectives. Development is a process of social change, not a set of policies and programs instituted for some specific results. In order for the society to improve, there should be a main focus on what makes the development horrible such as; , police brutality,technology, and abortion.

What I feel were the most important topics of Chapter 7 that I had learned were the defensive and supportive communication climates. As I am naturally a defensive person, these defensive and supportive climates allowed myself to evaluate how I perceive information as well as how to properly communicate controversial messages. I feel as I had learned mostly how to respond non defensively when I am being evaluated. For example, I would naturally give an excuse if I am doing poorly, however, I must take in the evaluation and work towards improving myself in that area. When I receive constructive criticism that is supportive, it would motivate myself to try harder to improve myself in that area. Also, in regards to evaluating a peer, to support

Communication affects the development of our personal identity in several ways. One way being that the comments we receive daily, whether it be good or bad, plays a part on how we view ourselves. The things that we say to one another builds the perception that we have of ourselves. For example, if we were called smart for majority of our childhood, then we would most likely view ourself as an intelligent person. Also, our intrapersonal communication affects the development of our personal identity. Depending on how we speak to ourselves, we establish a nice self identity, or a negative one.

Communication apprehension is categorized as fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with a person or persons. It is a form of social anxiety that takes into account various contexts. The PRCA-24 assessment I completed scored my levels of communication apprehension in four different areas: group discussion, interpersonal conversation, meetings, and public speaking. From my results I found that I most likely experience communication apprehension during group discussions and interpersonal conversations but not during meetings and public speaking. I agree that the results do apply to my life on certain occasions.

Change, without a doubt, is ongoing constantly on a Global scale throughout Society. The great need for and the urgency of coming to understand this phenomenon is becoming increasingly obvious. Religion and philosophy have, since the dawn of civilization, sought to direct the Change in a way that would be beneficial to mankind as a whole. They have failed to make any significant change in the way Society is progressing.

“Learning how to think, really means learning how to exercise some control over what you think and being conscious enough to choose what you pay attention to (Foster).” As an American citizen, we are oblivious to global problems such as malnutrition, lack of education and lack of healthcare. The organizations of global problems that we see today are eradicated with Social progress. Social progress is defined as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential.

Daly (1991) defines communication apprehension (CA) as “the fear or anxiety an individual feels about orally communicating” (p.

Communication is a way of life for sociable organisms on earth. There are many forms of communication and several are used without saying a word or making a sound. With the types of communication in the world, communicating effectively may seem an unlikely idea. Effective communication between two individuals or more is dependable on the way the message from the sender has encoded the information. Effective communication insists that information sent should be received and retransmitted back to the sender without any loss in translation. To understand communication, it must first be broken down so that each

Albert Einstein said it best, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them” - Albert Einstein(58 Quotes). Social change is an opportunity for positive growth in today’s world, however it may sometimes take a tragedy to get there. Many big events in history such as The French Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement have caused social change, but our world is stronger because of those events. It takes leadership and a desire for growth to make a positive change in today’s society. Many philosophers have theorized social change through functionalism, conflict theory, and punctuated equilibrium.