SPE 145 - Blogpost 2

For your next post, please analyze the proxemics of some environmental space.  This could be your dorm room, a room in your parental home, a space on campus or another space you find.  Please include a picture with your post.  Analyze space and its proxemics both from the way people can relate to one another AND the way the space is experienced by a human in the space.

The Palace of Versailles is the exact representation of “a palace fit for a king.” The palace began as a hunting lodge for King Louis XIII and turned into one of the largest palaces in the world. Louis XIV fell in love with this space as a young boy and decided that it would be the perfect place to center the royal court. The greatest space in the palace was the La Galerie des Glaces, otherwise known as the Hall of Mirrors. The hall lead from King Louis XIV apartment to chapel and only invited guests could watch as him and his family walked to attend service.

 It was built in 1684 and measured 73 meters long, 10.50 meters wide, and 12.30 meters high. The hall contains 70 windows that look upon the garden, Corinthian pillars of green marble, 17 large solid silver chandeliers and 26 smaller ones each made of solid silver that sit on gold candelabras. On the opposite side of the hall is a line of mirrors which reflect the view.  Lastly, there is a gasping mural that covers the ceiling showing King Louis XIV in his glory.

                 Just by looking at the pictures you can see that the Hall of Mirrors is a very grand space that allows for a lot of space. As you see in the left picture the large tour group has more than enough space to walk around. It would be very hard for some to accidentally invade someone’s personal space. The mirrors add an extra effect by making the room feel larger than it is. Not only do the mirrors make the room feel bigger, but it also reflects light the give the room a luminous glow.

The lighting makes the room feel very warm and gives a sense of divinity.  This is done with the earnest glow of the candles from the chandeliers and candelabras. The large windows lights the room with the natural light from the sun.  The windows also give a view of the beautiful gardens. Just by looking at this room alone, you can tell why the Palace of Versailles is most luxurious palace in the world.

SPE 145 Blogpost 1

Put yourself through the reflexive cycle.  How do you come across to others nonverbally?  What impression do you make?  What impression do you want to make?  What do you do well and what needs improvement?  This post should be 350 words. Deadline: 3pm Feb. 7th

Last semester an acquaintance of mine stopped me on my way to class and told me that I walk around campus with a mad face on. I had explained to her that I wasn’t mad and that the night before I had hardly gotten any sleep. I really did not pay the comment any mind until several more people told me the same thing on several other occasions. I then realized that I had to do something about it because I am not a mad person and I did not want to come off as such.  This reoccurring situation started me on the path of the reflexive cycle.

In the reflexive cycle there are five phases; they are inventory self, change self, inventory others, transact with others, and reflect. Inventory self is when a person becomes more aware of the nonverbal messages they send. When I realized that I was walking around with a mad face on I completed the first step of the phase. Change self is when a person make the necessary changes they choose to their nonverbal messages. After phase one I began to make a conscious note of walking around with a smile on my face. I also would smile at people walking by. Inventory others is when a person observes others nonverbal messages.  

After phase two I noticed that my change in my nonverbal messages was working and people in passing would smile at me, before I got the chance to smile at them. I felt good to know that I was more approachable. Transact with others is when a person is able to interact with others verbally and nonverbally. This happened when not only did I receive smiles from people in passing, but they began to say hi as well. The last phase, reflect is when a person looks back on the entire process. Looking back on it now, I’m happy that my acquaintance had made me more aware of my nonverbal messages, so that I may be more approachable.

Blog Post 11

You have an opportunity to earn an extra credit 10 points with one more possible blog post.   Read Chapter 11 on Media and write a post of the usual length (200-250 words) describing the way YOU use media.  There's an entire section on the audience and media, how we use media and the media's role in our lives.

My everyday life revolves around media. From watching TV to reading the newspaper online, media is the one of the main sources of information. Media can be center around three types of learning, they are prosocial, antisocial, and entertainment. I personally use all three. With my life’s busy schedule it is hard for me to get the information I need, so the media catches me up with current events. Although the media is very useful and helpful, some people have problems with the new forms of media today. For instance my grandparents are still trying to figure out different media outlets on the internet. They also are trying to figure out social networking cites like Facebbook, to get information from family and friends. My grandparents have a hard time trying to keep up with the new advances in technology, but realize that the new age media is very important. I could not imagine a society without the media. Without the telling me what going on in the world, I would be oblivious to the news around me.

Blog Post 10

For your final blogpost, I'd like you to reflect on the material we've covered in class -- regarding language, interpersonal communication, non-verbal communication, small groups, organizations, and (you should read this by the end of the week) public communication.  Which of the concepts mentioned in these chapters has the most relevance to your life?  Which concepts and theories might be most helpful to you as you go on in school and into your career?  With your romantic, friendly, family, and work relationships?  As usual -- properly use the concepts and vocabulary covered in the textbook and in class.

Every concept we have learned in this class has had some sort of significance to my life. The most important concepts that have helped me were non-verbal, interpersonal, and language.

Learning about how the language shapes the way of how different cultures view life, has helped me communicate better with the people around me. Especially with the help of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis theory that says if we remember the linguistically, it stands to reason that the nature of our language affects the nature of our thought.  Knowing the origin of different word and whether they are feminine or masculine can help you understand someone’s outtake on life. Not only learning about another culture, but also the one that shapes my own life. This reminds me of another theory we learned this semester, the social constructivist approach. This theory suggest that we never experience the world directly, but to take significant parts of a culture, recognize them, connect them to other “facts” that we know, and then respond to them. The parts that make up this approach are: symbolic codes, cognitive customs, cultural traditions, and shared roles and rules.

Studying non-verbal communication has also helped me to communicate better. Learning that it is not just the basic facial expressions we use and the physical appearance, but other factors as well. Factors such as: kinesics, paralanguage, chronemics, and proxemics. By knowing these non-verbal codes can help someone deal with conflicts in interpersonal relationships. Also by knowing negative and positive face and what threatens them. The very upmost concept of importance we learned about was interpersonal communication. Mark Knapp’s steps of coming together and falling apart in relationships was very helpful. It helped me evaluate the different relationships in my life and to decide who I needed to keep and to let go.

From learning all these different communication terms has enlightened my skills as a communicator. Now I am more aware of the language I use, the non-verbal cues, and the factors of interpersonal communication.

Blog Post 9

For this week's post, I want you to talk to someone new.  Think about what we've learned about the cultural, social and psychological levels of interpersonal relationship development.  Think about what we've talked about from our non-verbal and listening chapters.  Strike up a conversation with someone in the elevator, at work, or behind the deli  counter -- someone you don't normally talk to.  Write up the conversation in 200-250 words.  You'll be graded on form and content as usual.  Enjoy this!  Connecting is the reason we study communication.

Last Thursday I asked my roommate if I could go to work with her again. She works at Beck hall as a desk receptionist and when I go with her I get a lot of work accomplished. The last time I went with her I had established a friendly relationship with the staff. They all knew my name and we shared some inside jokes together. During this study period I happened to have a great conversation with a resident there, her name is Amber. Amber came to the desk to ask my roommate a question about Heart at KU, which caught my attention because I was thinking about joining myself.

Apparently she had seen my roommate at the meeting and wanted to know if she was joining. My roommate told her that she was and said I was thinking about joining as well. Then Amber asked why we decided to join Heart at KU, which led us into a long conversation about life values and morals. It turned out that we had some of the same viewpoints. Somehow Amber and I started talking about next semester and classes. Ironically a class she asked a teacher to put her in was the same class I was taking as well. That led us into another conversation about how excited we were about the class and what we expected to learn from it. During the whole conversation we shared very good feedback. Each one of us gave the other our undivided attention. We were fully engaged in the topic and gave excellent eye contact. We were both understanding and did not force our viewpoints on one another. Each one of us showed positivity, openness, task sharing, and advice. Though we scrutinized some things about ourselves the conversation was very enlightening.

It is funny how you go in with intentions of learning something out of a book and end up learning a lot more about life and people from one small encounter. Life is full of surprises, though it is made up of good and bad experiences, when you least expect it life allows you to see a glimmer of hope.

Blog Post 8

This blogpost should report your group's findings from your survey.  Use whatever statistical descriptions are appropriate for your data.  Assess the quality of your survey's questions.  What did you find?  What can you say about your data and whether it adequately answers your group's research question?  What would you do differently if you had a chance to conduct this study again?

My group and I decided to research on parking at Kutztown University. Since Kutztown has many students and commuters who drive, knowing how effective parking at the university was would be very essential. So my group members and I decided to conduct a survey on students who parked on the Kutztown University campus. We sampled students from random speech classes. Some people did not participate, but from the ones who did we received a lot of different responses.

My group and I came up with several questions for our survey. The first question the survey asked the students to rate how they felt about Kutztown University parking on a scale of one to ten. Some of the answers were in the one to four range and some were in the six to eight range. So the responses we received about how students felt about parking were fifty percent satisfied and fifty percent unsatisfied. The second question the survey asked if the student owned a vehicle, which resulted in about half yes and half no. The third question asked the students if they had a permit to park on the campus. The answers we received were the same as the answers for question number two.

The next question asked where students parked on the Kutztown University campus. Almost half (about forty-six percent) of the people responded by putting nowhere, which led me and my group to believe that they did not own a vehicle but still answered the survey. Most of the other half (about twenty-six percent) parked on the fairgrounds. There was also one point five percent of students who parked at meters, handicap and designated white spaces. That left point four percent of student parking at Golden Bear Village South and another point four percent on the street. Another question asked if any of the students were late due to parking at Kutztown University. These answers were also half no and half yes. The last question wanted to know how many tickets the student received since attending Kutztown University. Most of the responses were none, but for the ones who have had parking tickets received multiple.

If we could conduct this research again I would make sure we used more specific questions. After this survey was conducted I realized that the questions we posed were very board. The second time around the first question asked would be if the student owned a vehicle at Kutztown University. Then there would be instructions to tell the surveyor how to proceed with the rest of the survey. If yes then it would tell the student to go on to question number two and if it was no then it would tell the student thank-you for participating and to hand in the survey to the proctor. Then the second question the survey would ask if the student parked on the Kutztown University campus then that question would be followed by more instructions. This would leave the rest of the questions to students who owned a vehicle and parked on the Kutztown University campus. After the preliminaries the survey would proceed with the rest of the questions.

Blog Post 7

Find a recent (in the past week) newspaper article that cites statistics.  Using the questions we've covered in class, assess the quality of the claims being made by those statistics

I found an article in the Philadelphia Inquire by Don Sapatkin about Vitamin D. The article was called “Shining a light on ‘sunshine vitamin’,” it was about how much Vitamin D is enough? This article discussed the some of the positive effects of the vitamin and some of the negative. It also explained how we as humans naturally get Vitamin D from the sun and how not having enough Vitamin D have linked to some health illnesses. Some illnesses the article listed were heart disease, arthritis, depression, psoriasis, influenza, and several types of cancer. The article also stated that government has not set the maximum amount of Vitamin D that can be taken.

One statistic the article stated was that up to a least half of ninety percent of Americans do not have enough Vitamin D based upon surveys. Research done by prominent scientist had shown that Americans rarely went outside with the invention of the computer and when they did go out they put on sunscreen. Another statistic was based upon research that a neonatologist Carol Wagner with pregnant women. She randomly placed three hundred and fifty women into three groups, only giving one group four hundred IUs of Vitamin D and the other two groups either two or four thousand IUs a day.  The statistics from the research showed that fifty percent of the groups that got more Vitamin D lowered risks for infections.

The first statistic had a few problems in it, because it only told the basics and did not get into details. For one it did not specify who the “prominent” scientists were. As if the word “prominent” made the facts important like they came from the Bible. It also did not tell what type of research was done to get these results. The statistic also did not tell the reader anything about the people who were sampled; like age, race, sex, etc. The second statistic was much better because it explained a lot. The statistic told that the research was random sampling, who and how many were involved, and the outcome. The only thing the statistic did not show was the time period the women were taking the amounts of Vitamin D. All in all I feel that the article's statistic were good in some points but lacked in others.