The total number of class meetings will be equivalent to a class meeting three times per week. The class is schedled for four days per week because there will be several days when we will not meet. The availability of communication systems, information sources, computer programs, and new means to coordinate, plan, study, and play together is increasing dramatically. It also provides laboratory sessions for hands-on technology use to complement course discussions, so that students may examine theoretical precepts in their actual practice. The goals of this course are for students to develop both critical and practical knowledge of computer-based communication technologies.
Every response is a relational bid to accept, reject or modify the relationship.
The back and forth exchange of behaviors represents a transaction in which both partners participate in creating the interpersonal relationship between them. This transaction requires the complex integration of cognitive, affective and behavioral responses of the participants. Thus, interpersonal conversations represent the creation of relationships in which partners are engaged in a complex mutual and interdependent set of cognitive, affective and behavioral processes. Recently, scholars of interpersonal communication, nonverbal communication, and psychology have attempted to construct theories describing and explaining these complex processes. This course will review the most recent versions of these theories, empirical evidence supporting theoretical claims, and briefly discuss methodological issues raised by theory and research.