Glossary

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Glossary Entries
Word(s)	Definition	Image	Caption	Link	Source
Abstract	Refers to words that relate to ideas or concepts that exist only in your mind and do not represent a tangible object.
Abstraction Ladder	A diagram that explains the process of abstraction.
Accent	Nonverbal communication that emphasizes a portion of a message or word rather than the message as a whole.
Accidental Communication	When an individual sends messages to another person without realizing those messages are being sent.
Acting with Awareness	Purposefully focusing one’s attention on the activity or interaction in which one is engaged.
Action Model	Communication model that views communication as a onedirectional transmission of information from a source or sender to some destination or receiver.
Affect Displays	Kinesics that show feelings and emotions.
Affectionless Psychopathy	The inability to show affection or care about others.
Affective Orientation	An individual’s recognition of their own emotions and the emotions of others and reliance on these emotions during decision making processes.
Affective Orientation	A connection or association with others.
Agape	Selfless love in which the needs of others are the priority.
Alexithymia	A general deficit in emotional vocabulary—the ability to identify emotional feelings, differentiate emotional states from physical sensations, communicate feelings to others, and process emotion in a meaningful way.
Ambiguous Language	Language that has multiple meanings.
Analyzing	This is helpful in gaining different alternatives and perspectives by offering an interpretation of the speaker’s message.
Androgynous	A person having both feminine and masculine characteristics.
Anxious Shyness	The fear associated with dealing with others face-to-face.
Appreciative Listening	The type of listening you engage in for pleasure or enjoyment.
Appropriate Communication	Communication tactics that most people would consider acceptable communicative behaviors.
Argument	A verbal exchange between two or more people who have differing opinions on a given subject or subjects.
Argumentativeness	Communication trait that predisposes the individual in communication situations to advocate positions on controversial issues, and to attack verbally the positions which other people take on these issues.
Assertiveness	The degree to which an individual can initiate, maintain, and terminate conversations, according to their interpersonal goals during interpersonal interactions.
Attending	The act of focusing on specific objects or stimuli in the world around you
Attention	Factor of mindful practice that involves being aware of what’s happening internally and externally moment-to-moment.
Attitude	Factor of mindful practice that involves being curious, open, and nonjudgmental.
Attraction	Interest in another person and a desire to get to know them better.
Attribution Error	The tendency to explain another individual’s behavior in relation to the individual’s internal tendencies rather than an external factor
Authoritarianism	A form of social organization where individuals favor absolute obedience to an authority (or authorities) as opposed to individual freedom.
Autonomy	An individual’s independence in their behaviors and thoughts within a marriage relationship.
Avoidance	Conflict management style where an individual attempt to either prevent a conflict from occurring or leaves a conflict when initiated.
Avoiding	The stage of coming apart where you are creating distance from your partner.
Behavioral CQ	The degree to which an individual behaves in a manner that is consistent with what they know about other cultures.
Belief	Assumptions and convictions held by an individual, group, or culture about the truth or existence of something.
Bias	An attitude that is not objective or balanced, prejudiced, or the use of words that intentionally or unintentionally offend people or express an unfair attitude concerning a person’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or illness.
Biased Language	Language that shows preference in favor of or against a certain pointof-view, shows prejudice, or is demeaning to others.
Bonding	The stage of coming together where you make a public announcement that your relationship exists.
Bullying	Form of aggressive behavior in which a person of greater power attempts to inflict harm or discomfort on individuals and the behavior is repeated over time.
Buzz Word	Informal word or jargon used among a particular group of people.
Career Strategizing	The process of creating a plan of action for one’s career path and trajectory.
Channel	The pathways in which messages are conveyed.
Circumscribing	The stage of coming apart where communication decreases. There are more arguments, working late, and there is less intimacy.
Cliché	Expression that has been so overused that it has lost its original meaning.
Co-Culture	Regional, economic, social, religious, ethnic, or other cultural groups that exerts influence in society.
Coercive Power	The ability to punish an individual who does not comply with one’s influencing attempts.
Cognitive Complexity	The psychological characteristic that indicates the difficulty or simplicity associated with mental demand.
Cognitive CQ	The degree to which an individual has cultural knowledge.
Cognitive Dispositions	General patterns of mental processes that impact how people respond and react to the world around them.
Collective Self-Esteem	The aspect of an individual’s self-worth or self-image that stems from their interaction with others and evaluation of their various social groups.
Collectivism	Characteristics of a culture that values cooperation and harmony and considers the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of the individual.
Collegial peers	Type of coworker with whom we have moderate levels of trust, selfdisclosure, and openness.
Colloquialism	Informal expression used in casual conversation that is often specific to certain dialects or geographic regions of a country.
Communication	The process by which we share ideas or information with other people.
Communication Apprehension	The fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons.
Communication Competence	Communication that is both socially appropriate and personally effective.
Communication Dispositions	General patterns of communicative behavior
Communication Motives	Reasons why we communicate with others.
Communication Needs	Shows us how communication fulfills our needs.
Comparison Level	Minimum standard of what is acceptable.
Comparison Level of Alternatives	Comparison of what is happening in the relationship and what could be gained in another relationship.
Compatible	Able to exist together harmoniously
Complement	Nonverbal communication that reinforces verbal communication.
Complementary	When one person can fulfill the other person’s needs.
Compliance	When an individual accepts an influencer’s influence and alters their thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors.
Comprehension Listening	Listening for facts, information, or ideas that may be of use to you.
Concept-Orientation	Family communication pattern where freedom of expression is encouraged, and communication is frequent and family life is pleasurable.
Conflict	An interactive process occurring when conscious beings (individuals or groups) have opposing or incompatible actions, beliefs, goals, ideas, motives, needs, objectives, obligations, resources, and/or values.
Confrontational Behaviors	Specific behaviors associated with confrontation or direct behaviors, involves name-calling, cruel teasing, ridicule, and verbal rejection directed at the target.
Connotation	What a word suggests or implies; connotations give words their emotional impact.
Connotative Definitions	The emotions or associations a person makes when exposed to a symbol.
Contact Frequency	This is how often you communicate with another person.
Content Level	Information that is communicated through the denotative and literal meanings of words.
Contradict	Nonverbal communication conveying the opposite meaning of verbal communication.
Converge	Adapting your communication style to the speaker to be similar.
Conversations	Interpersonal interactions through which you share facts and information as well as your ideas, thoughts, and feelings with other people.
Cost Escalation	A form of relational disengagement involving tactics designed to make the cost of maintaining the relationship higher than getting out of the relationship.
Cultural Intelligence	The degree to which an individual can communicate competently in varying cultural situations.
Culture	A group of people who, through a process of learning, can share perceptions of the world, which influence their beliefs, values, norms, and rules, which eventually affect behavior.
Culture as Normative	The basic idea that one’s culture provides the rules, regulations, and norms that govern a culture and how people act with other members of that society.
Denotation	The dictionary definition or descriptive meaning of a word.
Denotative Definitions	Definitions for words commonly found in dictionaries.
Depersonalization	A form of relational disengagement where an individual stops all the interaction that is not task-focused or simply avoids the person.
Depression	A psychological disorder characterized by varying degrees of disappointment, guilt, hopelessness, loneliness, sadness, self-doubt, all of which negatively impact a person’s general mental and physical wellbeing.
Describing	Being detailed focused on what is occurring while putting it into words.
Deviant Workplace Behavior	The voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and practices or threatens the wellbeing of the organization and its members.
Differentiating	The stage of coming apart where both people are trying to figure out their own identities.
Directive Support	The factor of Hersey and Blanchard’s situational-leadership model that involves a leader overseeing the day-to-day tasks that a follower accomplishes.
Directness	The least secretive of the strategies and involves asking the relational partner about his/her feelings toward the relationship and commitment to the relationship. Alternatively, an individual might disclose their feelings about the relationship with the hope that the relationship partner will reciprocate.
Disagreement	A difference of opinion between two or more people or groups of people.
Discourse	Spoken or written discussion of a subject.
Dismissing Attachment	Attachment style posed by Kim Bartholomew and Leonard Horowitz describing individuals who see themselves as worthy of love, but generally believe that others will be deceptive and reject them in interpersonal relationships.
Distributive Conflict	A win-lose approach, whereby conflicting parties see their job as to win and make sure the other person or group loses.
Diverge	Adapting your communication style to the speaker to be drastically different.
Dogmatism	The inclination to believe one’s point-of-view as undeniably true based on insufficient premises and without consideration of evidence and the opinions of others.
Dominant Culture	The established language, religion, behavior, values, rituals, and social customs of a society.
Dunning–Kruger Effect	The tendency of some people to inflate their expertise when they really have nothing to back up that perception.
Duration	The length of time of your relationship.
Dysfluencies	Speech problems that keep your speech from being as smooth and flowing as it could be.
Ease of Opportunity	When romantic workplace relationships happen because work fosters an environment where people are close to one another.
Effective Communication	Communication that helps an individual achieve a desired personal outcome.
Emblems	Kinesics that are clear and unambiguous and have a verbal equivalent in a given culture.
Emotional Awareness	An individual’s ability to clearly express, in words, what they are feeling and why.
Emotional Blackmail	Trying to influence someone’s behavior or persuade them to do something by making them feel guilty or exploiting their emotions.
Emotional Intelligence	An individual’s appraisal and expression of their emotions and the emotions of others in a manner that enhances thought, living, and communicative interactions.
Emotional Loneliness	Form of loneliness that occurs when an individual feels that he or she does not have an emotional connection with others.
Emotional Vampires	A colloquial term used to describe individuals with whom we interact that use more of our emotional resources when interacting with people, which often causes an increase in our levels of stress.
Emotions	The physical reactions to stimuli in the outside environment.
Empathic Listening	Attempting to put yourself in another person’s shoes or to provide a supportive listening environment.
Empathizing	This is used to show that you identify with the speaker’s information.
Empathy	The ability to recognize and mutually experience another person’s attitudes, emotions, experiences, and thoughts.
Endurance Test	Form of secret testing in which the partner is tested by engaging in actions that the partner might perceive to be a cost in the relationship.
Environment	The context or situation in which communication occurs.
Eros	Romantic love involving serial monogamous relationships.
Ethics	The set of moral values each person carries throughout life—concepts of what is right and wrong, good and bad, or just and unjust.
Ethics	The judgmental attachment to whether something is good, right, or just.
Ethnocentrism	The degree to which an individual views the world from their own culture’s perspective while evaluating different cultures according to their own culture’s preconceptions often accompanied by feelings of dislike, mistrust, or hate for cultures deemed inferior.
Euphemism	Replacing blunt words with more polite words.
Evaluative Listening	Listening for a speaker’s main points and determining the strengths and weaknesses to formulate a rebuttal or present important points that may not have been covered.
Excuse-Making	Any time an individual attempts to shift the blame for an individual’s behavior from reasons more central to the individual to sources outside of their control in the attempt to make themselves look better and more in control.
Experimenting	The stage of coming together “Small talk” occurs at this stage and you are searching for commonalities.
Expert Power	The ability of an individual to influence another because of their level of perceived knowledge or skill.
Expressive	Roles that are relationship-oriented.
Expressive Communication	Messages that are sent either verbally or nonverbally related to an individual’s emotions and feelings.
External Locus of Control	The belief that an individual’s behavior and circumstances exist because of forces outside the individual’s control.
Extraversion	An individual’s likelihood to be talkative, dynamic, and outgoing.
Eye Gaze	The act of fixing your eyes on someone.
Face	The standing or position a person has in the eyes of others.
Family	Two or more people tied by marriage, blood, adoption, or choice; living together or apart by choice or circumstance; having interaction within family roles; creating and maintaining a common culture; being characterized by economic cooperation; deciding to have or not to have children, either own or adopted; having boundaries; and claiming mutual affection.
Fearful Attachment	Attachment style posed by Kim Bartholomew and Leonard Horowitz describing individuals who see themselves as unworthy of love and generally believe that others will react negatively through either deception or rejection.
Feedback	Information shared back to the source of communication that keeps the communication moving crward and thus making communication a process.
Feelings	The responses to thoughts and interpretations given to emotions based on experiences, memory, expectations, and personality.
Feminine	Cultures focused on having a good working relationship with one’s manager and coworkers, cooperating with people at work, and security (both job and familial).
Followership	The act or condition under which an individual helps or supports a leader in the accomplishment of organizational goals.
Formal Language	Specific writing and spoken style that adheres to strict conventions of grammar that uses complex sentences, full words, and third-person pronouns.
Gender	The psychological characteristics that determine if a person is feminine or masculine.
Genogram	A pictorial representation of a family across generations that can be used to track generations of family interactions, medical issues, psychological issues, relationship patterns, and any other variable a researcher or clinician may be interested in studying.
Goals	Expectations about how the relationship will function.
Group	Three or more people interacting together to achieve a common goal.
Haptics	The study of touch as a form of communication.
Hearing	A passive activity where an individual perceives sound by detecting vibrations through an ear.
Hedge	To use words or phrases that weaken the certainty of a statement.
Heuristic Function	The use of language to explore and investigate the world, solve problems, and learn from your discoveries and experiences.
High-Context Cultures	Cultures that interpret meaning by relying more on nonverbal context or behavior than on verbal symbols in communication.
Ideal-Self	The version of yourself that you would like to be, which is created through our life experiences, cultural demands, and expectations of others.
Identification	When an individual accepts influence because they want to have a satisfying relationship with the influencer or influencing group.
Ideology of traditionalism	Marriages that are marked by a more historically traditional, conservative perspective of marriage.
Idiom	Expression or figure of speech whose meaning cannot be understood by looking at the individual words and interpreting them literally.
Illustrators	Kinesics that emphasize or explain a word.
Imaginative Function	The use of language to play with ideas that do not exist in the realworld.
Importance to Identity	The degree to which group membership is important to an individual.
Independents	Marital definition where couples have a high level of interdependence, an unconventional ideology, and high levels of conflict engagement.
Indigenous Peoples	Populations that originated in a particular place rather than moved there.
Indirect Suggestions	Joking or hinting about more serious stages of a relationships such as marriage or having children.
Individualism	Characteristics of a culture that values being self-reliant and selfmotivated, believes in personal freedom and privacy, and celebrates personal achievement.
Individuality	Aspect of Murray Bowen’s family system theory that emphasizes that there is a universal, biological life force that propels organisms toward separateness, uniqueness, and distinctiveness.
Indulgence	Cultural orientation marked by immediate gratification for individual desires.
Inflection	Changes in vocal pitch.
Influence	When an individual or group of people alters another person’s thinking, feelings, and/or behaviors through accidental, expressive, or rhetorical communication.
Informal Language	Specific writing and spoken style that is more colloquial or common in tone; contains simple, direct sentences; uses contractions and abbreviations; and allows for a more personal approach that includes emotional displays.
Information Peers	Type of coworker who we rely on for information about job tasks and the organization itself.
Informational Power	A social agent’s ability to bring about a change in thought, feeling, and/or behavior through information.
Initiating	The stage of coming together where a person is interested in making contact and it is brief.
Instrumental	Roles that are focused on being task-oriented.
Instrumental Function	The use of language as a means for meeting your needs, manipulating and controlling your environment, and expressing your feelings.
Integrating	This is the stage of coming together where you take on an identity as a social unit or give up characteristics of your old self.
Integrative Conflict	A win-win approach to conflict, whereby both parties attempt to come to a settled agreement that is mutually beneficial.
Intensifying	The stage of coming together where two people truly become a couple.
Intensity	The volume of your speech; how loudly or softly you express yourself.
Intention	Factor of mindful practice that involves being aware of why you are doing something.
Interaction Model	Communication model that views the sender and the receiver as responsible for the effectiveness of the communication.
Interaction Variability	The ability to talk about various topics.
Interactional Function	The use of language to help you form and maintain relationships.
Interdependence	When individuals involved in a relationship characterize it as continuous and important.
Interdependent	A relationship in which people need each other or depend on each other in some way, and the actions of one person affect the other.
Internal Locus of Control	The belief that an individual can control their behavior and life circumstances.
Internalization	When an individual adopts influence and alters their thinking, feeling, and/or behaviors because doing so is intrinsically rewarding.
Internet Characteristics	Internet characteristic that influence Internet relationships such as speed, reach, interactivity, and anonymity.
Internet Infidelity	Sexual energy of any sort—thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—outside of a committed sexual relationship in such a way that it damages the relationship, and pretending that this drain in energy will affect neither one’s partner nor the relationship as long as it remains undiscovered.
Interpersonal Communication	The exchange of messages between two people.
Interpreting	Interpretation is the act of assigning meaning to a stimulus and then determining the worth of the object (evaluation).
Intimacy	Close and deeply personal contact with another person.
Intimate Partner Violence	Includes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression.
Intrapersonal	Something that exists or occurs within an individual’s self or mind.
Intrapersonal Communication	Communication phenomena that exist within or occurs because of an individual’s self or mind.
Introversion	An individual’s likelihood to be quiet, shy, and more reserved
Jargon	The specialized or technical language particular to a specific profession, occupation, or group that is either meaningless or difficult for outsiders to understand.
Johari Window	A model that illustrates self-disclosure and the process by which you interact with other people.
Kinesics	The study of visible means of communicating using body language such as eye behavior, facial expression, body posture and movement, and hand gestures.
Language	A system of human communication using a particular form of spoken or written words or other symbols.
Language Adaptation	The ability to alter one’s linguistic choices in a communicatively competent manner
Language Awareness	A person’s ability to be mindful and sensitive to all functions and forms of language.
Launching Stage	Period in a family life cycle when late adolescents leave the parental home and venture out into the world as young singles themselves.
Leader-member Exchange	Theory of leadership that explores how leaders enter into two-way relationships with followers through a series of exchange agreements enabling followers to grow or be held back.
Legitimate Power	Influence that occurs because a person (P) believes that the social agent (A) has a valid right (generally based on cultural or hierarchical standing) to influence P, and P has an obligation to accept A’s attempt to influence P’s thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors.
Linguistic Determinism	The perspective that language influences thoughts.
Linguistic Relativity	The view that language contains special characteristics.
Listening	A complex psychological process that can be defined as the process of physically hearing, interpreting that sound, and understanding the significance of it.
Locus of Control	An individual’s perceived control over their behavior and life circumstances.
Loneliness	An individual’s emotional distress that results from a feeling of solitude or isolation from social relationships.
Long-Term Orientation	Cultural orientation where individuals focus on the future and not the present or past.
Love	Love is a multidimensional concept that can include several different orientations toward the loved person such as romantic love (attraction based on physical beauty or handsomeness), best friend love, passionate love, unrequited love (love that is not returned), and companionate love (affectionate love and tenderness between people).
Love Style	Love style is considered an attitude that influences an individual’s perception of love
Low-Context Cultures	Cultures that interpret meaning by placing a great deal of emphasis on the words someone uses.
Ludus	Love in which games are played. Lying and deceit are acceptable.
Machiavellianism	Personality trait posed by Richard Christie where cunningness and deceit are exalted as a means of attaining and maintaining power to accomplish specific, self-centered goals.
Mania	Obsessive love that requires constant reassurance.
Masculine	Cultures focused on items like earnings, recognition, advancement, and challenge.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs	Theory of motivation proposed by Abraham Maslow comprising a five-tier, hierarchical pyramid of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis	Hypothesis posed by John Bowley that predicts that infants who are denied maternal attachment will experience problematic outcomes later in life.
Mediated Communication	The use of some form of technology to facilitate information between two or more people.
Membership Esteem	The degree to which an individual sees themself as a “good” member of a group.
Metacognitive CQ	The degree to which an individual is consciously aware of their intercultural interactions in a manner that helps them have more effective interpersonal experiences with people from differing cultures.
Metamessage	The meaning beyond the words themselves.
Microculture	Cultural patterns of behavior influenced by cultural beliefs, values, norms, and rules based on a specific locality or within an organization.
Mindful Awareness	To be consciously aware of your physical presence, cognitive processes, and emotional state while engaged in an activity.
Mindful Communication	The process of interacting with others while engaging in mindful awareness and practice
Mindful Practice	The conscious development of skills such as greater ability to direct and sustain our attention, less reactivity, greater discernment and compassion, and enhanced capacity to disidentify from one’s concept of self.
Model	A simplified representation of a system (often graphic) that highlights the important components and connections of concepts, which are used to help people understand an aspect of the real-world.
Motivational CQ	The degree to which an individual desires to engage in intercultural interactions and can easily adapt to differing cultural environments.
Narcissism	A psychological condition (or personality disorder) in which a person has a preoccupation with one’s self.
Noise	Anything that can interfere with the message being sent or received.
Nonconfrontational Behavior	Behaviors include spreading rumors, gossiping, and social manipulation.
Nonjudging of Inner Experience	Being consciously aware of one’s thoughts, feelings, and attitudes without judging them.
Nonreactivity to Inner Experience	Taking a step back and evaluating things from a more logical, dispassionate perspective.
Nonverbal Vocalization	A type of paralanguage that consists of sounds, noises, and behaviors that are often accompanied by body language.
Norms	Informal guidelines about what is acceptable or proper social behavior within a specific culture.
Observing	Being aware of what is going on inside yourself and in the external environment.
Oculesics	Communication involving eye behavior such as eye contact, gaze, and avoidance.
Olfactics	The use of scent to communicate.
Organizing	Organizing is making sense of the stimuli or assigning meaning to it.
Ostracized	Excluded or removed from a group by others in that group.
Paralanguage	Voice characteristics and nonverbal vocalizations that communicate feelings, intentions, and meanings.
Paraphrase	To restate what another person said using different words.
Perception	The process of acquiring, interpreting, and organizing information that comes in through your five senses.
Personal Function	The use of language to help you form your identity or sense of self.
Personal Responsibility	An individual’s willingness to be accountable for how they feel, think, and behave.
Personality	The combination of traits or qualities such as behavior, emotional stability, and mental attributes that make a person unique.
Physical Attraction	The degree to which one person finds another person aesthetically pleasing.
Physical Bullying	Involves hitting, kicking, pulling hair, strapping a female’s bra strap or giving a “wedgie.
Pitch	The placement of your voice on the musical scale; the basis on which singing voices are classified as soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, or bass voices.
Platonic	A close relationship that is not physical.
Power	The degree that a social agent (A) has the ability to get another person(s) (P) to alter their thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors.
Power Distance	The degree to which those people and organizations with less power within a culture accept and expect that power is unequally distributed within their culture.
Pragma	Love involving logic and reason.
Preoccupied Attachment	Attachment style posed by Kim Bartholomew and Leonard Horowitz describing individuals who do not perceive themselves as worthy of love, but do generally see people as trustworthy and available for interpersonal relationships.
Private Collective Esteem	The degree to which an individual positively evaluates their group.
Procedural Disagreement	Disagreements concerned with procedure, how a decision should be reached or how a policy should be implemented.
Profession	An occupation that involves mastery of complex knowledge and skills through prolonged training, education, or practical experience.
Professionalism	The aims and behaviors that demonstrate an individual’s level of competence expected by a professional within a given profession.
Proxemics	The use of space to communicate.
Public Collective Self-Esteem	The degree to which nonmembers of a group evaluate a group and its members either positively or negatively.
Public Communication	Form of communication where an individual or group of individuals sends a specific message to an audience.
Racism	Bias against others on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
Racist Language	Language that demeans or insults people based on their race or ethnicity.
Reasons for Relational Aggression	Women’s explanations for relational aggression: (a) girls will be girls; (b) venting; (c) blaming the victim; (d) minimizing their role; and (e) regret
Receiver	The receiver decodes the message in an environment that includes noise.
Referent Power	A social agent’s (A) ability to influence another person (P) because P wants to be associated with A.
Regulate	Nonverbal communication which controls the flow of conversation.
Regulators	Kinesics that help coordinate the flow of conversation.
Regulatory Function	The use of language to control behavior.
Rejection Sensitivity	The degree to which an individual expects to be rejected, readily perceives rejection when occurring, and experiences an intensely negative reaction to that rejection.
Relational Aggression	Behaviors that harm others. Harm is created through damaging social relationship or feelings of acceptance.
Relational Bullying	The manipulation of social relationships to inflict hurt upon another individual.
Relational Dispositions	General patterns of mental processes that impact how people view and organize themselves in relationships.
Relational Maintenance	Degree of difficulty individuals experience in interpersonal relationships due to misunderstandings, incompatibility of goals, and the time and effort necessary to cope with disagreements.
Relationship	A connection, association, or attachment that people have with each other.
Relationship Dialectic	Tensions in a relationship where individuals need to deal with integration vs. separation, expression vs. privacy, and stability vs. change.
Relationship Level	The type of relationship between people as evidenced through their communication.
Relationship Maintenance	Strategies to help your relationship be successful and satisfying.
Relative Language	Language that gains understanding by comparison.
Repeat	Nonverbal communication that repeats verbal communication, but could stand alone.
Representational Function	The use of language to represent objects and ideas and to express your thoughts.
Responsiveness	The degree to which an individual considers other’s feelings, listens to what others have to say, and recognizes the needs of others during interpersonal interactions.
Restraint	Cultural orientation marked by the belief that gratification should not be instantaneous and should be regulated by cultural rules and norms.
Reward Power	The ability to offer an individual rewards for complying with one’s influencing attempts.
Rhetorical Communication	Purposefully creating and sending messages to another person in the hopes of altering another person’s thinking, feelings, and/or behaviors.
Rhythm	Variation in the flow of your voice created by differences in the pitch, intensity, tempo, and length of word syllables.
Right-Wing Authoritarians	Individuals who believe in submitting themselves to established, legitimate authorities; strict adherence to social and cultural norms; and the need to punish those who do not submit to authorities or who violate social and cultural norms.
Romantic Relationships	Romantic relationships involve a bond of affection with a specific partner that researchers believe involves several psychological features: a desire for emotional closeness and union with the partner, caregiving, emotional dependency on the relationship and the partner, a separation anxiety when the other person is not there, and a willingness to sacrifice for the other love.
Romantic Workplace Relationship	When two employees have acknowledged their mutual attraction to one another and have physically acted upon their romantic feelings in the form of a dating or otherwise intimate association.
Rule	Explicit guidelines (generally written down) that govern acceptable or proper social behavior within a specific culture.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis	A theory that suggests that language impacts perceptions. Language is ascertained by the perceived reality of a culture.
Secret Tests	Indirect strategies individuals use to assess the state of their relationship.
Secure Attachment	Attachment style posed by Kim Bartholomew and Leonard Horowitz describing individuals who believe that they are loveable and expect that others will generally behave in accepting and responsive ways within interpersonal interactions.
Self-Concept	An individual’s relatively stable mental picture of him or herself.
Self-Conscious Shyness	Feeling conspicuous or socially exposed when dealing with others face-to-face.
Self-Disclosure	The act of verbally or nonverbally revealing information about yourself to other people.
Self-Disclosure	The process of sharing information with another person.
Self-Esteem	An individual’s subjective evaluation of their abilities and limitations.
Self-Image	The view an individual has of themself
Self-Monitoring	The theory that individuals differ in the degree to which they can control their behaviors in accordance with the appropriate social rules and norms involved in interpersonal interaction.
Self-Worth	The degree to which you see yourself as a good person who deserves to be valued and respected.
Separates	Marital definition where couples have low interdependence, conventional ideology, and low levels of conflict engagement.
Separation Test	Creating physical distance to test the strength of the relationship.
Sex	The biological characteristics that determine a person as male or female.
Sexism	Bias of others based on their biological sex.
Sexist Language	Language that excludes individuals on the basis of gender or shows a bias toward or against people due to their gender.
Sharing	The process of revealing and disclosing information about yourself with another.
Short-Term Orientation	Cultural orientation where individuals focus on the past or present and not in the future.
Shyness	Discomfort when an individual is interacting with another person(s) in a social situation.
Sibling Hostility	Characteristic of sibiling relationships where sibling behaviors as causing trouble, getting into fights, teasing/name-calling, taking things without permission, etc.
Sibling Warmth	Characteristic of sibiling relationships where sibling behaviors such as sharing secrets, helping each other, teaching each other, showing physical affection, sharing possessions, etc.
Silent Listening	This occurs when you say nothing and is appropriate for certain situations.
Similarity	When romantic workplace relationships occur because people find coworkers have similar personalities, interests, backgrounds, desires, needs, goals, etc.…
Slang	The nonstandard language of a particular culture or subculture.
Social Attraction	The degree to which an individual sees another person as entertaining, intriguing, and fun to be around.
Social Loneliness	Form of loneliness that occurs from a lack of a satisfying social network.
Social Penetration Theory	Theory originally created by Altman and Taylor to explain how individuals gradually become more intimate as individuals selfdisclose more and those self-disclosures become more intimate (deep).
Social Support	The perception and actuality that an individual receives assistance, care, and help from those people within their life.
Social-Personal Dispositions	General patterns of mental processes that impact how people socially relate to others or view themselves.
Sociocommunicative Orientation	The degree to which an individual communicates using responsive or assertive communication techniques.
Socio-Orientation	Family communication pattern where similarity is valued over individuality and self-expression, and harmony is preferred over expression of opinion.
Source	The person initiating communication and encoding the message and selecting the channel.
Special Peer	Type of coworker relationship marked by high levels of trust and selfdisclosure; like a “best friend” in the workplace.
Spin	The manipulation of language to achieve the most positive interpretation of words, to gain political advantage, or to deceive others.
Stagnating	The stage of coming apart where you are behaving in old familiar ways without much feeling. In other words, there is lost enthusiasm for old familiar things.
State-of-the-Relationship Talk	A form of relational disengagement where an individual explains to a coworker that a workplace friendship is ending.
Static Evaluation	Language shows that people and things change.
Stereotype	A set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a social group.
Storge	Love that develops slowly out of friendship.
Substantive Disagreement	A disagreement that people have about a specific topic or issue.
Substitute	Nonverbal communication that has a direct verbal translation.
Support	The ability to provide assistance, aid, or comfort to another.
Supportive Leadership Behavior	The factor of Hersey and Blanchard’s situational-leadership model that occurs when a leader is focused on providing relational support for their followers
Symbol	A mark, object, or sign that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention
Symmetrical Relationship	A relationship between people who see themselves as equals.
System	Sets of elements standing in interrelation.
Task Attraction	The degree to which an individual is attracted to another person because they possess specific knowledge and/or skills that help that individual accomplish specific goals.
Temperament	The genetic predisposition that causes an individual to behave, react, and think in a specific manner.
Tempo	The rate of your speech; how slowly or quickly you talk.
Terminating	This is a summary of where the relationship has gone wrong and a desire to quit. It usually depends on: problems (sudden/gradual); negotiations to end (short/long); the outcome (end/continue in another form).
The Hookup	When romantic workplace relationships occur because individuals want to engage in casual sex without any romantic entanglements.
Third-Culture	When a couple negotiates their cultural background with the cultural background of their partner essentially creating a third-culture or hybrid culture between the two.
Third-Party Testing	Involving a third party such as friend or family to gain insight into the relationship.
Timbre	(pronounced “TAM-ber”) The overall quality and tone, which is often called the “color” of your voice; the primary vocal quality that makes your voice either pleasant or disturbing to listen to.
Time	When romantic workplace relationships occur because people put in a great deal of time at work, so they are around and interact with potential romantic partners a great deal of the average workday.
Togetherness	Aspect of Murray Bowen’s family system theory that emphasizes the complementary, universal, biological life force that propels organisms toward relationship, attachment, and connectedness.
Tolerance for Disagreement	The degree to which an individual can openly discuss differing opinions without feeling personally attacked or confronted.
Traditionals	Marital definition where couples are highly interdependent, conventional ideology, and high levels of conflict engagement
Transactional Model	Communication model that demonstrate that individuals are often acting as both the sender and receiver simultaneously.
Triangle Test	Manipulating a third party to gain information about the nature of the relationship.
Types of Workplace Bullying	Workplace bullying involves isolation and exclusion, intimidation and threats, verbal threats, damaging professional identity, limiting career opportunities, obstructing work or making work-life difficult, and denial of due process and natural justice.
Uncertainty Avoidance	The extent to which cultures as a whole are fearful of ambiguous and unknown situations.
Uncertainty Reduction Theory	The tendency of human beings to eliminate unknown elements of individuals whom they have just met. Individuals wish to predict what another person thinks and how another person behaves. Strategies for reducing uncertainty include passive, active, and interactive.
Undifferentiated	A person who does not possess either masculine or feminine characteristics.
Undifferentiated space	The degree to which spouses do not see her/his/their ownership of personal belongings as much as they do ownership as a couple.
Values	Important and lasting principles or standards held by a culture about desirable and appropriate courses of action or outcomes.
Verbal Aggression	The tendency to attack the self-concept of individuals instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics of communication.
Verbal Bullying	Includes threats, degrading comments, teasing, name-calling, putdown or sarcastic comments
Verbal	The sounds humans make as they attempt to fill dead air while they are thinking of what to say next (e.g., uhh, umm).
Versatility	The degree to which an individual can utilize both responsiveness and assertiveness that is appropriate and effective during various communication contexts and interpersonal interactions.
Vocabulary	All the words understood by a person or group of people.
Vocalics	Vocal utterances, other than words, that serve as a form of communication.
Willingness to Communicate	An individual’s tendency to initiate communicative interactions with other people.
Workplace Socialization	The process by which new organizational members learn the rules (e.g., explicit policies, explicit procedures, etc.), norms (e.g., when you go on break, how to act at work, who to eat with, who not to eat with), and culture (e.g., innovation, risk-taking, team orientation, competitiveness) of an organization.
“You” Statements	Moralistic judgments where we imply the wrongness or badness of another person and the way they have behaved.