question #1

Face to face communication is very different from CMC. I agree that the reason why it is very different is because of the nonverbal communication that is missing from the conversation. I believe that these are very opposite because of real life situations that I have experienced with my family and friends. For example, when my dad used to text me to come home, I took it as a normal message, but when I got home, he was furious with me! I didn't know how to react because his text message seemed so calm but in his point of view, that was him very pissed at me. So I believe that if we had a face to face conversation my idea of him saying to come home would be totally different. I believe that only face to face communication should be used in problematic conflicts because without hearing or seeing the other person's reaction and nonverbal communication, it becomes very hard to solve a conflict

question #3

I feel that the chapter discussing storming, forming, norming, and performing should be further discussed because I wasn’t sure how the concepts fit a group that couldn’t get along well. I was confused if the group could not work together, is it possible that the group would stay at the forming and norming stage? I wanted to know more about how groups can work together to get pass those stages. It was a little vague about how conflicts can be resolved and how to come up with a solution. Some ideas about group conflict were good, but I believe that it’s a vital part in a groups communication to have knowledge of conflicts in groups. And I was wondering whether “norming” is even a word? Maybe they just had to find a word with “orming” in it but other than that, I believe this book was very thorough with the explanations of the concepts.

question #2

I’ve learned a lot of numerous things about this semester’s comm. 141 class, but the most interesting recent thing I’ve learned was from the Group Facilitation project. This project taught me to break down stereotypes I had about a group and to visually watch how they reacted with each other and how each of their roles played a part in their group. I’ve never experienced before the comradery and friendship I saw in the fraternity I observed. They were grateful enough to invite me into one of their meetings and even told me many of their traditions they follow as a group. It was a great experience learning from a diverse group of all different ages and ethnicities. It has inspired me to broaden my spectrum of friends and learn to listen to what they have to say before stereotyping what I see. I agree that this class has helped me a lot to observe outside groups in a whole different and meaningful way.

question #3

I found “focus groups” to be interesting, yet useful as well. A focus group helps you with a specific situation or problem that they have well-known knowledge in. For example, at my firefighting school, we had to do a project on different cities in the bay area. Recently, I had an interview with Milpitas Fire Department, and I had to know everything about Milpitas and it’s fire departments. So I asked that focus group to help me learn the information about Milpitas, so I would do well on the interview. I asked this specific focus group because I knew they specialized in this subject. It was helpful because they knew information within the Milpitas Fire Department that I didn’t know about earlier. So knowing this, I used their helpful information to pass my interview and put myself in front of other interviewees. Having focus groups helps individuals with different specific types of situations.

Question #1

A colloquium has a small set of numbers experts and audience participation as well. The meaning “is to identify, develop, and work through possible solutions to a problem for the benefit and with the participation of the audience” (pg. 220). A forum is “the group can speak and listen to a larger audience… [and] the full audience participates, examining a topic or problem after a short presentation by the group” (pg. 219). A symposium is much more formal in that the speakers must plan and prepare “brief speeches made on different aspects of a complex and difficult problem, the purpose of the symposium is to present complex technical information to the audience about the problem” (pg. 221). Symposiums also use a moderator and may have a formal discussion to have the audience ask questions. A panel has a moderator to direct the topic to the audience rather than the audience interacting with the speaker.
I would choose forum format because everyone has a chance to speak and also have feedback as well. I believe that feedback is important to have in a group speaking because it helps you become a better speaker and learner as well.

Question #2

My girlfriend and I are always having these mixed conflicts where one of us will have to give up their time to spend with the other. For example, I had just come back from a long day of class and the first thing is that I get greeted by my husky. Being gone for so long, I decided he needed to get some much needed exercise, so I tell her that I’m bringing him to the dog park. She argues that she hasn’t seen me all day and she wants to spend time also. We came to a decision that she would come walk my husky with me so he could get some exercise and we would be spending time with each other as well. There’s not always going to be a time where we make compromises for a win-win situation. That is where things start getting complicated and only one person will get what they want and one with not (win-lose). When you’re not the victorious one on competitive conflict, its pretty degrading giving up what you want, but you keep in mind for the next time that it won’t be the same case.

Question #2

The five cultural barriers to creativity are a requirement for conformity, an expectation of practicality and efficiency, particular arenas for competition or cooperation, an expectation of politeness and following rules for social order, and a trust in the power of reason and logic (Harris & Sherblom, 2008). I believe that these barriers would restrict a small group from being creative in many different ways. It would allow them to only confine to the “norm” and not the uniqueness of their group. As the saying goes, “hopping into the wagon” means that a certain group or person is following the crowd and not being creative in their perspective. For example, the fraternity I’m in currently, started off as a normal fraternity. All we did was party and go out every night. But we wanted to create a different kind of organization that didn’t follow the stereotype, so we created a fraternity towards community service. We are proud to say that this new change has helped our moral because there are few fraternities that dedicate themselves to helping the community.

question #3

The concept that I would like to discuss is maintaining openness with others. The books definition of maintaining openness is “maintaining openness-a supportive communication climate-during the problem solving process is vital for creativity” (p.194). I believe that being able to be open to other’s but also expressing it in creativity is an important role in communicating. Being able to open your mind and express your creative ideas is, in my opinion, a great way to show your openness. The way I show my openness is by taking pictures. I’ve been actively taking pictures for quite a long time. I express my creativity by being able to open myself by showing others how I view the world. I’m a terrible drawer, I cannot paint, so I’m able to only express my openness by doing photography. When I started with my first camera, it was just like a normal hobby. But I began to notice that I was expressing myself through my photography and I enjoyed it that much more.

Question #1

The concept I will be using is how that “Creativity is going beyond the current boundaries of technology, knowledge, social norms or beliefs or seeing and acting on new relationships, thereby bringing them to life” (Anderson, 1992, p.42). I’m a part-time wedding photographer, so the more creativity will offer a better paycheck. Over the years, my photography has been getting a lot better and it shows in my photos. Getting critiqued by my friends has helped my creativity grow to many different aspects. My older cousin has been the most helpful when critiquing my pictures. Having an outside view of your own work will help your creativity to open its doors. He was a huge help in getting my job off where I am now today. I believe that creativity is experienced through different perspectives and is grown though critiques and inspirations. I’m thankful that photography has helped me create some “artsy-fartsy” creations at weddings.

question #3

The concept I found interesting in chapter seven was “noise.” Although it’s a pretty simple concept, noise occurs all the time in our daily lives, yet it goes unnoticed. Especially around the time of mid-terms does “noise” get recognized.
When I was in the library cramming for my EMT mid-term, the slightest noise would distract my attention and throw my concentration off. The sound of someone’s conversation from 10 feet away would really bother me. I would try to block that noise by putting on my headphones, but then I would lose my concentration by getting lost in the lyrics. So in order, for me to truly concentrate on my work, I would have to be in a completely silenced room without any noise or distractions. This is also true when I’m having a intense conversation with a friend. As our conversation will get deeper, something or someone will distract it unintentionally and the conversation would lose it’s desire.

question #1

The most difficult part for me in the four phases of listening is active listening. I find active listening difficult because not every conversation, lecture, or discussion is always appealing to me. Sometimes I have a lack of interest in the subject, so even though it might seem like I am listening, I’m actually hearing only some parts of the conversation. When I’m with my girlfriend, however, I always have to be active listening because she always catches me when she knows I’m not paying attention. It’s most difficult in class when you want to actively listen, but sometimes I might be a little tired from the night before or hungry during lunch. This causes a distracting ability to not actively listen to the instructor. I usually just listen for important facts in most of my lectures because sometimes it is difficult to understand every single word that the instructor is saying.

question #2

I have had selective attention when I recently purchased my Siberian Husky. Ever since I’ve had a dog, I’ve been noticing other dogs that are around my neighborhood. Now that I own a pet, I also enjoy listening my other friend’s stories about their pets. It’s an unusual feeling when I actually realized that reading about selective attention. Another example is my relationship with my girlfriend. When we were going through some rough times, she had said some hurtful things about many of my bad habits. The day after I started to try to look for her bad habits and point them out to her. While our relationship was going well, I had never noticed her habits until I started intentionally looking for and pointing out her bad habits. I never realized that until I was thinking about it during this blog. Next time I’ll catch myself so I won’t do it again. Thanks comm 141!

question #2

I believe that there are many of the same universal rules for different religions. For example, I found that people in Sweden are very punctual and on time. My dad taught us that, “To be early, is to be on time; to be on time, is to be late; and to be late, is unacceptable.” My Dad taught me his moral rules for life and I see many similar ideals in other ethnic cultures. My Dad also enforces me to do well in school. I believe that every culture enforces education and someday have a good job. Some people believe that “Asian parents” are super strict about having straight A’s all the time, but I believe that all cultures want their children to do well and push them to do better than average in their education. I feel that cultures have many different and similar morals that can be shared and adopted into their families.

Question #3

The concept I chose was the importance of diversity in small groups. When I was in high school, it would be obvious what group you hung out with mostly by the ethnicity, club, or sport you played. I enjoyed high school, but after I graduated, I wished that I had gotten to know a larger diversity of people when I had the chance. When I had entered San Jose State, I wanted to join a club that had a group of diverse individuals, not only by ethnicity but background as well. The fraternity called PKT rushed me and one of the major reasons why I joined me was because of their diversity and small amount of people. This newfound diversity brought me a different perspective people's background's. It was a great learning experience being in an organization that accepts diversity and personality. Diversity in small groups is truly an important aspect or else one would never understand the different surroundings in which they live in.

Question #2

White men of privileged is defined in the text as “organizational behaviors and expectations have been defined within the context of that privileged upper-middle-class, middle-aged, able-bodied, white make experience” (p. 96). I work in a very high class gym and I teach tennis part-time. Every day I believe I talk to the typical upper-class-men white male. I ask them how did they get to their successful jobs and most of the stories I heard is that they get their opportunities from family members and close friends. At both college's I attend, there are many student that are truly eligable to have great jobs and internships but they are given to other close relatives that will soon pass it on to their close relations. I believe that it is all part of the system that is for t

Question #1

I have several groups that I hang out with on a daily basis but the closest one to being stereotyped is probably the fraternity I belong to at school. In my experience in with this group, one of the concepts of stereotyping is our "language use." In the greek community we use terms, for example, "big's" "little's" "socials," that only people belonging to a fraternity or sorority would understand. Greek people usually talk to each other about their organization they belong to and use terms that involve knowing the vocabulary.

Also, the nonverbal communication used can easily identify a certain sorority or fraternity. The easiest way to identify a greek person is by the letters they wear. The greek letters identify the certain organization they belong to. Each individual wears these greek letters to represent for their organization.

A lot of my friends that aren't in a fraternity or sorority stereotype against me because of all the movies and picture that the media imprints on greek organizations. It's not all about the partying, drinking, and belligerent loudness. Instead, it's the brotherhood and bond that only those in the organization have for each other and builds lifelong friendshis.

Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness is the force that brings group members closer together. There are two parts of cohesiveness: emotional and task related. The emotional part of cohesiveness is from the connection that the members feel for other group members. Its the amount of time they each spend with each other and the more they look forward to their next group meeting. Task related cohesiveness is the connection of group goals and how they work together to meet these goals.

My friends and I join a bowling league every year and we look forward to winning it as well. Not only do we look forward to winning the league but it gives us a chance for us to hang out and catch up with each other. I look forward to this every week because it gives us a break from all the stresses we have in our regular day. Also, our bond grows as we work together as a team to push each other to do better.

Norms in my group

Some norms that I realized in my group are pretty simple and normal. Every week, since we have close to the same schedule, we meet at the same spot on campus to eat lunch. Every monday at Mission Lanes, we all bowl because it's a dollar a game. And lastly, since most of my friends have dogs, every other day we take a trip to our local dog park and hang out for a couple hours. Other than our regular schedule norms we don't really have many other things.

One example when one of my friends broke the norm, was when he had just got a new girl friend. After he started going out with her more, we started to see less of him more and more. It was beginning to be a norm of not seeing him at all. But after they broke up, everything went back to normal like nothing ever change.

Group Norms

In every classroom I enter at SJSU, I believe there are many different type of norms that appear. In every classroom there are those few who are brave enough to speak freely during the first day of class, there's a section of people who mildly give a comment during class, and lastly, there's the group of students whom stay quiet and are the listeners of the classroom.

There are also norms in the groups I hang out with. For instance, my fraternity that I am active in. Each of us know each other so well that we can probably classify each of us in a norm category if we had to. There are the leaders of the fraternity, the jokers, the alcoholics, and the quiet ones. Although we all have totally different personalities, it all forms to make our brotherhood. That is a norm in itself. Every week we hold meetings and arrive on time. There are different traditions that we hold and rituals that only we know about.

I identified these norms by observing the different kinds of personalities and how they fit in for each role. I guess this is another way of stereotyping, but stereotyping is embedded into us and there's nothing we can do about it. I adapt to these norms by knowing myself which category of norms I fit in myself. Sometimes it varies on my mood but usually I appear the same in each group.

Question #3

In Ch. 2 I will be talking about the term irreversibility. We've all been through that experience where we wished can turn back time and take back what we said to our family, friends, or close ones. "Once something is said-whether in anger, frustration, enthusiasm, or excitement-it cannot be taken back and will have some pact on the participants and later group discussion (Harris 48). I know I have done my fair share of bad criticism. One time during a tennis match, I started an argument with another player because of a bad line call. Not only was it a bad line call but that point lost me the match. I was so furious that I said a lot of things that I wish I hadn't. A year or two later I found out that one of my old opponent was close friends with one of my friends. When we met, things became really awkward. I apologized to him, but I had a feeling that it still affected him. I then realized that anything said or done cannot be taken back. I've learned my lesson and also learned to think before I say.

Question #2

Harris describes entropy as "disorganization, stagnation, and chaos." And in order for small groups to maintain a general focus they must keep their energy up but not too much or else chaos and disorganization will occur (Harris 33). Groups must come to a census and create a balance within in their group or else nothing will be solved.

The reason why equifinality effects small groups is that it helps groups to be more spontaneous and try different things. I would describe one of my small group of friends at school as a little "bi-polor" sometimes because one day they'll sound optimistic and want try so many different kinds of activities, and sometimes they will just want to sit and be lazy. But it is true when Harris states that too much energy will cause disorganization and chaos because last semester our group was so excited that we were going to southern california for a road trip. But some of us assumed others would plan the trip, and it ended up that none of us planned the trip. In the end the trip was moved until a month later until all of us came to a secure plan for our road trip.

Question #1

Being interdependent means to "depend on one another and share in responsibility for the group process" (32). Although working with groups can sometimes be difficult and frustrating, as long as you follow a system of motivating each other and helping one another through difficulties, there won't be any breaks in the friendship.

Within your small group of friends, family, or co-workers; each of you have a responsibility to provide guidance and motivation for each other in order to keep that group intact. If one person in the group starts acting independently, others may follow. So each person has an effect on each other whether they know it or not. I'll take my group of friends from high school. Since we started college, all of us lived in the same area except one person in our group. After awhile he started to lose contact with us, which I understood because of the distance, but I noticed that each of my friends started to slowly drifting away until none of us talked or bothered to contact each other. It was a domino effect that hurt our whole circle of friendship. Now that we've noticed it, we all started to slowly get back to how things used to be.

I work at a gym teaching indoor tennis, and I work with a small number of co-workers. Because there were so few of us, each of us had a different responsibility to take care of. For about three years our system worked perfectly until one accident. One of my co-workers injured his foot and would not be able to teach for about six months. We had to keep the same schedule or else we would have lost members. So because of losing one co-worker my manager and I had to pick up his slack and work twice as much as we used to. One small injury not only effected him but us as well. We all worked together well until a speed bump comes our way and slows us down. Thats why working together is so important and being prepared for the worst if it does come our way.

Hey everyone. My name is Minh and I'm originally from Fremont but I've been living in San Jose for 3 years now. I'm a communication studies major with a minor in asian american studies. I'm also getting my fire science associate degree from mission college. I've been working part-time at Clubsport fremont as a tennis instructor for three years now. I'm taking a total of 26 units this semester both at sjsu and mission college, so I hope I get out of this semester alive.

My new siberian husky pup "hero" is my new companion in my life. When I'm not concentrating on school, I'm spending time with him every second. I'm into bowling, photography, and hanging out with friends. I'm pretty excited about celebrating my 21st birthday in the next week. A highlight from last year was that I went skydiving for the first time.

I've had some experience with blackboard last semester and it was what I expected it would be. I learned a lot of useful information from my last online comm. class. I never knew how useful an online class could be. I hope this semester will be just as informative.