A concept that I feel needs further discussion would be the different types of perspectives there are. The book states that a perspective is, “a coherent set of assumptions about the way a process operates” (25). There are three models to look at. The first model is psychological perspective which is an idea that focuses on “what is going on in the head” when we communicate. The second model is the social constructionist perspective, which is a “process whereby people, using tools provided by their culture, create collective representations of reality” (25). This emphasizes the relationship between communication and culture. Finally the last model is the pragmatic perspective, which shows that “communication consists of a system of interlocking, interdependent moves, which become patterned over time” (25). These three models are all very important to understand when it comes to communicating with others.
The most interesting of those three models is the pragmatic perspective. The reason is because, as the text states, “this perspective focuses on the games people play when they communicate” (25). I believe that we all play games with one another. The reason is because we are all trying to learn how different people communicate. We change our style of communication with certain people because we begin to understand how they like to interact with you. You being to understand how someone reacts to certain ways of communicating, making it easier for you to avoid it in the future.
I think it would be interesting to do an assignment on these models to see which way people like to communicate more.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Final Post #2
“Whenever curiosity about human behavior motivates us to observe others, we are engaging in our own private version of ethnography” (379). I found ethnography most interesting because all human beings are curious of other people’s lives. “Watching people and trying to figure out the rules that guide their actions are basic mechanisms for survival, without them, we wouldn’t be able to fit into our own culture” (379). When I read this sentence, I became interested in reading more about this topic.
Because we learn mostly from observations, ethnographers dive into other cultures and observe certain areas by becoming one of them. They let go of all of their personal beliefs and values and interact with these people undercover. Ethnographers feel that this is the best way to observe. I found this so interesting because it seems like a fun, but crazy thing to do. When you secretly become apart of something and nobody knows whom you truly are, then you would be able to get the best information and observations.
It is almost like going to a brand new school for a week and pretending you are something you are really not. When you pretend to be something else, then you learn from others a whole different way of living. Isn’t that a cool concept?
Because we learn mostly from observations, ethnographers dive into other cultures and observe certain areas by becoming one of them. They let go of all of their personal beliefs and values and interact with these people undercover. Ethnographers feel that this is the best way to observe. I found this so interesting because it seems like a fun, but crazy thing to do. When you secretly become apart of something and nobody knows whom you truly are, then you would be able to get the best information and observations.
It is almost like going to a brand new school for a week and pretending you are something you are really not. When you pretend to be something else, then you learn from others a whole different way of living. Isn’t that a cool concept?
Final Post #1
Ethnography seemed most interesting to me because it is a concept that I have never thought of as a popular research method. It would be very interesting to go undercover and research something or someone in its natural environment. At the same time, you have to give up all of your “own values and assumptions on the data” (374), making this an even harder way to research. Like the text says, instead of a hypothesis you would see the answer emerge just from watching with your own eyes.
I believe studying deception using this method would not work very well, so I would probably chose survey research to find out more on deception. According to the dictionary, deception is the act of deceiving someone. It would be key to give the participants questionnaires on different ways someone might deceive another person and see how they would answer. I think that face-to-face interviews would be difficult, but then you might also be able to read the persons facial expressions to see if they are lying when answering the questions.
Deception is such a hard topic to research because it involves lying, so I’m not sure that even survey research would be the best way to research this. What do you think?
I believe studying deception using this method would not work very well, so I would probably chose survey research to find out more on deception. According to the dictionary, deception is the act of deceiving someone. It would be key to give the participants questionnaires on different ways someone might deceive another person and see how they would answer. I think that face-to-face interviews would be difficult, but then you might also be able to read the persons facial expressions to see if they are lying when answering the questions.
Deception is such a hard topic to research because it involves lying, so I’m not sure that even survey research would be the best way to research this. What do you think?
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