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Chapter 3-Cognition & Intrapersonal Com

This chapter discusses three main theories of cognitive and intrapersonal communication: attribution theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and expectancy violations theory. Attribution theory examines how people attribute behaviors to internal dispositions versus external situations. Uncertainty reduction theory looks at how people seek to reduce uncertainty when encountering strangers. Expectancy violations theory analyzes how people react when others violate their expectations. The document also questions how these theories relate to building relationships and the impact of hierarchy on behaviors.

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77 views

Chapter 3-Cognition & Intrapersonal Com

This chapter discusses three main theories of cognitive and intrapersonal communication: attribution theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and expectancy violations theory. Attribution theory examines how people attribute behaviors to internal dispositions versus external situations. Uncertainty reduction theory looks at how people seek to reduce uncertainty when encountering strangers. Expectancy violations theory analyzes how people react when others violate their expectations. The document also questions how these theories relate to building relationships and the impact of hierarchy on behaviors.

Uploaded by

api-578737570
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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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?

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