COM2006
The Competent Communicator © 2014 South University
2 The Competent Communicator
Scenario 1 The school fire alarm starts blaring. The teacher firmly commands the students to leave their chairs and file out of the door quietly and quickly. Which communication model best represents the given scenario? Options
• The action communication model • The interaction communication model • The transactional communication model
Correct Option: The action communication model Expert Feedback: The action communication model is unidirectional and does not include feedback. As you can see from the example, the fire alarm ringing calls for command and action. It does not call for a discussion with feedback. Scenario 2 Mary is in a hurry to get home from work but needs to stop at the grocery store to pick up milk. However, Mary is frustrated because the only checkout line open has a woman in front of her with a cart filled with groceries. Mary asks the woman in front of her if she could go first, and the woman replies that she is welcome to go ahead of her. Which communication model best represents the given scenario? Options
• The action communication model • The interaction communication model • The transactional communication model
Correct Option: The interaction communication model Expert Feedback: The interaction communication model includes feedback with message sending and receiving. This is a simpler view of communication because sent messages are not evaluated simultaneously with how the messages are received. The influence of the source, with Mary having only one item to check out, gives
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©2014 South University
3 The Competent Communicator
the conversation its context; but since the relationship between Mary and the other woman is impersonal, there is little need to evaluate how the messages are received. Scenario 3 Abraham and Tanya are having an argument about who most often does the household chores. Tanya retorts to Abraham that he acts like she is his mother as she is constantly picking up after him. After she says this, she feels bad since Abraham works many hours a week; so she anxiously monitors Abraham’s nonverbal responses before she speaks again. Abraham, on the other hand, knows that there is some truth to what Tanya is saying, but he is tired and stressed from his day at work. He also knows that if he speaks back harshly, they could end up fighting all night. He tries to hold back before speaking to see if Tanya is going to soften her accusation. Which communication model best represents the given scenario? Options
• The action communication model • The interaction communication model • The transactional communication model
Correct Option: The transactional communication model Expert Feedback: This is an example of the transactional communication model as each person in the discussion is simultaneously responding to the other, and they are evaluating each other’s responses. This more sophisticated model of communication effectively models communication between people who have a relationship with each other. In this systems-theory-based model, rather than being isolated in the communication process, the elements of communication (source, message, context, noise, channel, and receiver) are all interconnected; so a change in one element will affect the other elements. For example, if Tanya would have argued with Abraham during a phone call, the communication would have been altered.
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©2014 South University