Glossary G-13rewards: The beneficial elements of a relationship.
ritualizing: Learning the rules for managing conver-
sations and relationships; one of the five func-
tional communication competencies.
role conflict: A situation that arises in a group
whenever expectations for members’ behavior are
incompatible.
running bibliography: A list of resources the
speaker has consulted, to which he or she can
refer on note cards.
salient: Brought to mind in the moment; one’s so-
cial identity and communication shift depending
on which of one’s multiple group memberships
is salient in a given moment.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The claim that the words
a culture uses or doesn’t use influence its mem-
bers’ thinking.
scanning: A technique for making brief eye contact
with almost everyone in an audience by moving
one’s eyes from one person or section of people
to another.
schema: A mental structure that puts together indi-
vidual but related bits of information.
scientific research findings: Hard numbers and facts
that are particularly useful for public speeches on
medicine, health, media, or the environment.
search engine: A program that indexes Web content
and searches all over the Web for documents
containing specific keywords that the researcher
has chosen.
secondary questions: A type of interview question
that seeks clarification or an elaboration of re-
sponses to primary questions.
selecting: The step in the listening process of choos-
ing one sound over another when faced with
competing stimuli.
selection interview: An interview whose primary
goal is to secure or fill a position within an
organization.
selective listening: Listening that involves zeroing
in only on bits of information that interest the
listener, disregarding other messages or parts of
messages.
selective perception: Active, critical thought result-
ing in a communicator succumbing to the biased
nature of perception.
self-actualization: The feelings and thoughts one ex-
periences when one knows that one has negotiated
a communication situation as well as possible.self-adequacy: The feelings one experiences when
one assesses one’s own communication com-
petence as sufficient or acceptable; less positive
than self-actualization.
self-censorship: In mass media, carefully monitor-
ing content and eliminating messages that might
offend viewers or sponsors.
self-concept: One’s awareness and understanding
of who one is, as interpreted and influenced by
one’s thoughts, actions, abilities, values, goals,
and ideals.
self-denigration: A negative assessment about a
communication experience that involves criticiz-
ing or attacking oneself.
self-directed work team: A group of skilled work-
ers who take responsibility for producing high-
quality finished work.
self-disclosure: Revealing oneself to others by shar-
ing information about oneself.
self-efficacy: The ability to predict, based on self-
concept and self-esteem, one’s effectiveness in a
communication situation.
self-esteem: How one feels about oneself, usually in
a particular situation.
self-fulfilling prophecy: A prediction that causes an
individual to alter his or her behavior in a way
that makes the prediction more likely to occur.
self-monitoring: The ability to watch one’s envi-
ronment and others in it for cues as to how to
present oneself in particular situations.
self-presentation: Intentional communication de-
signed to show elements of self for strategic pur-
poses; how one lets others know about oneself.
self-serving bias: The idea that we usually attribute
our own successes to internal factors while ex-
plaining our failures by attributing them to situ-
ational or external effects.
semantics: The study of the relationship among
symbols, objects, people, and concepts; refers to
the meaning that words have for people, either
because of their definitions or because of their
placement in a sentence’s structure (syntax).
sender: The individual who originates communica-
tion, with words or action.
sentence outline: A type of outline that offers the
full text of a speech, often the exact words that
the speaker wants to say to the audience.
service-oriented interview: An interview that is de-
signed to cull information and provide advice,2 20_OHA_45766_Gloss_G_1_16.indd G-13 0 OHA 45766 _GlossG 1 _ 16 .indd G- 13 13/10/14 5:40 PM 13 / 10 / 14 5 : 40 PM