The document summarizes the minutes from a meeting of the Gotham City Council of Communication. The council assists Batman in communicating with civilians and educating themselves on interpersonal communication. Topics discussed at the meeting include theoretical foundations of interpersonal communication, relationship development and management, self-disclosure, and quizzes testing knowledge. Members discussed theories like uncertainty reduction theory and social exchange theory. The meeting concluded with a discussion of self-disclosure and a quiz to determine if attendees could join the council.

1. Gotham City Council of
Communication
Current Members: Rachael, Katie, Batman, Brianna, Micah, and Maggie

2. Who Are We?
• What We Do: Assist Batman in outsmarting villains and
communicating to civilians
• Our Goal: To educate ourselves and the class in a fun, and
entertaining way about interpersonal communication

3. Today’s Meeting:
• Interpersonal Communication
Theoretical Foundations
Development of Relationships
Managing Relationships
Self- Disclosure
• During today’s meeting random questions will determine
if you will be a part of the Gotham City Council!

4. Connecting with Others via Interpersonal
Communication
• Connecting with others and forming relationships
• Differ from situation to situation

5. Relationships
•An association between at least two people
•Can also be described as:
•In levels of intimacy
•Roles
•Time spent together
•Shared Activities
•Situation / Happenstance

6. Interpersonal Communication
• Creating and sharing meaning between persons who are
in a relationship
• Is it only an interaction among those having close
relationships?

7. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
1. What city does Batman fight to protect?
a. Motham City
b. Gotham City
c. Gotham Kitty
d. Bikini Bottom

8. Theories of Interpersonal Communication
• Motivation for staying in relationships varies
• Seven Theories:
•Uncertainty Reduction Theory
•Uncertainty Management Theory
•Social Information Processing Theory
•Social Penetration Theory
•Social Exchange Theory
•Interpersonal Needs Theory
•Dialectical Theory

9. Uncertainty Reduction Theory
• Our desire to know about others
• Seek to reduce uncertainty about each other
• Attractiveness

10. Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Drive to reduce uncertainty is motivated by:
•Anticipation of future contact
•Incentive Value / Reward
•Deviance

11. Uncertainty Reduction Theory
•Always begin as strangers!
•Necessary for development
•Berger’s Three Strategies Used to Learn About
Others:
•Passive
•Active
•Interactive

12. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
2. Relationships can be defined as:
a. Roles
b. Time spent together
c. Shared activities
d. All of the above

13. Uncertainty Management Theory:
• Dale Brashers developed this theory to further refine uncertainty reduction
theory
• Three main features
• interpretation and experience of uncertainty
• effect of emotion related to uncertainty
• ways communication and emotion are managed when uncertainty
exists.
• 4 Ways to manage uncertainty
• those who live with lots of uncertainty learn to adapt to it
• to rely on social support of others to cope
• to balance the need to know with the desire not to know
• to learn which information to trust and which information to ignore

14. Ka-Pow! Activity Time!
• How well can you
communicate yourself?
• How well can you
communicate an image
you want to portray?

15. Directions:
First exercise:
pair up with the person you sit next to
and get to know them as best you can
in 1 minute.
Use these questions to guide your
conversation:
• What is your partner's name?
• What do they like to do in their free
time?
• Where do they work?
Second Exercise:
use your same partner and get to know
them using the same conversation but
with a new spin. This time you are
going to act as if you have never met
this person before until now, but you
are trying to impress them by giving a
false image of yourself.
For example:
• Your name is___________
• Your an astronaut on vacation before
your mission to mars
• You spend your free time donating all
your money to charity and saving
kittens

16. Social Information Processing Theory
• Developed by Joe Walther
• An interpersonal communication theory suggesting that electronically
mediate relationships grow only to the extent that people gain
information about each other and use it to form impressions
• Verbal Cues
• Extended time
• Social Media
• Allows us to be friends with people we have never met
• Positive impressions of each other
• Allows us to create a cyber-image (persona) without nonverbal
communication

17. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
3. How did Batman’s parents die?
a. They were burned by McDonald’s Café coffee
b. They sank with the Titanic
c. Duh! They’re alive
d. They were shot outside a theatre

18. Social Penetration Theory
• Developed by social psychologist Irwin Altman and
Dalmas Taylor
• Social penetration is the process of increasing disclosure and
intimacy in a relationships
• How people connect with each other and how their
communication moves from small talk to more intimate and
self revealing talk.
• Long lasting relationships need depth and breadth
• Depth of penetration: Personal information and intimacy about
one’s self

19. Social Exchange Theory
•Developed by social psychologist John W. Thibaut and
Harold H. Kelley
• Weighing the costs and benefits associated with entering a
relationship
• Benefit- Anything that we perceive to improve our self interest.
• Costs- negative things or behaviors that we perceive to be not
beneficial to our self interest.
• When we first meet someone, we mentally weigh the potential
rewards and costs of creating a relationship with that person.
• Social exchange theory implies that if the benefits gained in a
relationship are greater than any potential costs, then we
likely would regard the relationship positively.

20. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
4. Which answer below describes the breadth of
penetration?
a. The range of spread in areas that are disclosed to
others
b. When someone can smell your bad breath
c. The deepness or intimacy of self-disclosure to
others
d. Batman’s grappling hook

21. Interpersonal Needs Theory
• Theory by Will Schutz
• Definition: A theory that provides insight into or
motivation to communicate. Theory consists of three
needs: affection, inclusion, and control.
• Interpersonal needs vary with circumstance
• Understanding interpersonal needs helps us to see how
they influence and motivate our interactions with others
Example: Each time The Joker tells how he got his scars, he
changes it to fit each circumstance.

22. The Need for Affection
• The need to feel likeable or loveable
• People join social groups to fulfill this need
• Schutz theory: a person who seems to be liked by many
and therefor has fulfilled this need is referred to as
personal
• Kory Floyd found that people who give and receive
affection are generally healthier and happier than those
who receive or give little affection

23. The Need for Inclusion
• Encompasses our need to feel significant and worthwhile
• Schutz describes people in terms of need
• Social: Satisfied their needs for inclusion
• Undersocial: do not like being around other people; find
communicating with others threatening
• Oversocial: Cannot stop themselves from getting involved
and communicating with others; fears being ignored by
others

24. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
5. Who is Batman’s sidekick?
a. Robin
b. Penguin
c. Blue-footed Booby
d. Flamingo

25. The Need for Control
• Our motivation for power or influence in our relationships

26. Dialectical Theory
• An interpersonal communication theory that suggests that
contradictory impulses push and pull us in conflicting
directions with others
Example: Batman needs to save everyone in Gotham
City at Harvey’s Party, but the Joker just threw Rachel
out the window? What should he do?

27. Three Dialectal Tensions
• Connection-autonomy: spending time with significant
other vs. spending time by yourself…sometimes you want
spend time with them but you don’t want to feel
smothered. Needs to be balanced.
• Openness-closedness: The desire to be open and
expressive vs. wanting to be closed and private
• Novelty-predictability

28. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
6. What defines the need for control?
a. Feeling likeable or loveable
b. Can be defined as social, undersocial, or oversocial
in society
c. Motivation for power or influence in our
relationships
d. When Batman needs to control the Joker

29. Managing Relational Tensions
•Segmentation: is a tactic
in which people
compartmentalizes
different aspects of their
relationship.
•Reframing: a strategy
that allows tension to be
redefined so that tension
is dilated, is made less
obvious, or is even made
to disappear

30. •Moderation: characterized by compromises in which deals
are struck to help reduce tensions
•Reaffirmation: strategy in which individuals recognize
that dialectical tensions will always be present, and
therefore you should accept them and even embrace the
challenges they produce.

31. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
7. What vehicle does Batman drive?
a. Cat Mobile
b. Bat Mobile
c. Wiener Mobile
d. The Invisible Boat Mobile

32. Self-Disclosure
• Voluntary sharing of information about the self that
another person is not likely to know
• Occurs in caring relationships, it usually results in greater
self-understanding and self-improvement.

33. Self-Presentation
• An intentional self-disclosure tactic used to reveal certain
aspects about ourselves for specific reasons.
• For example when in a job interview you get asked to talk
about yourself and you tend to discuss your background,
experiences, and accomplishments that is self-presenting
yourself.

34. Catharsis
•Release of emotional tension, after an
overwhelming experience, that restore or refreshes
the spirit.

35. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
8. What is characterized by the compromises in which deals
are made to help reduce tensions?
a. Stress balls
b. Moderation
c. Segmentation
d. Refraining

36. When Shouldn’t We Self-Disclose too Much?
Full-disclosure can be:
• Harmful
• Risky
• Unwise
• Insensitive
• Damaging to relationships
Heart of disclosure
Usually withhold information:
• to protect others
• Avoid negative reactions
Must be based on personal
judgment

37. Self-Disclosure and Privacy
• privacy- claim of individuals, groups, etc. to determine for
themselves the extent of what is communicated about
them to others
• What may be appropriate for one situation, may not be
for another
• Privacy boundaries

38. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
9. Who is not one of Batman’s nemesis?
a. The Joker
b. The Riddler
c. Katie
d. Bane

39. Self-Disclosure and Gender
• Men and women communicate differently
• Not all men and all women are the same in
communicating
• (wo)men tend to be….

40. Self-Disclosure and Culture
Cultural backgrounds
• Contact
• Closeness
• Values
• Beliefs
In general, the closer people get; they become friendly and
share more

41. Self-Disclosure and Rhetoric Sensitivity
Rhetoric sensitivity is a
cautious approach to self
disclosure, in which the
situation and personal
factors are taken into
consideration.
Example: Batman is not very
fond of Harvey Dent, but he
takes Rachel’s feelings into
consideration
Rhetorically Sensitive
People:
•Can balance self-interest
with the interest of others
•Tend to not change own
values/ believes but
understand values of
others
•Aware of the language
they choose: non-sexual,

42. Ka-Pow! Quiz Time:
10. What below is a true characteristic that rhetorically
sensitive people possess?
a. Ability to balance self-interest with the interest of
others
b. Tend to not change own values/beliefs but can
relate to others values/beliefs
c. Aware of offensive language and tend not to use it
d. All of the Above

43. Pass the Test?
• Do you want to be a part of the Gotham City Council of
Communication and help Batman fight crime?
(Yes, you get to wear a mask…)

44. Check Your Answers!
1. B
2. D
3. D
4. A
5. A
6. C
7. B
8. B
9. C
10. D

45. Keep Calm
and Light
the Bat-
Signal