Constructivism

of Jesse Delia

notes from Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A.

M., & Sparks, G. G. (2014). A First
Look at Communication Theory (8th
ed.). New York, USA: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Constructivism
Seeks to explain individual differences in people’s ability to
communicate skillfully in social situations.

1
Constructivism

▪ Offers a cognitive explanation for

communication competence
Core assumption of constructivism:

Persons make sense of the world through

systems of personal constructs.

Constructs are the cognitive templates or

stencils that we fit over reality to bring order to
our perceptions.

Constructs are contrasting features that we

have available to classify other people.
Examples of constructs as applied to politics
Liberal - conservative
Steadfast - flexible
Competent - inept

Politically astute observers may draw on dozens of interpretive

orientations:

conservatives
social conservatives
articulate social conservatives

Politically unsophisticated observers will see only

Winners - losers
Delia’s Constructivism relies on Walter Crockett’s
Role Category Questionnaire

The RCQ is used by researchers to determine

our degree of cognitive complexity as we form
impressions of other people and analyze social
situations.
Construct differentiation:

the number of separate

personality constructs
used to portray the
person in question

Count your descriptions.

Role Category Questionnaire

1. Think of people about your age whom you know well.

2. Select one person you like, and one person you dislike.
3. Mentally compare and contrast them in terms of
personality, habits, beliefs, and the way they treat others.
4. Take a piece of paper and for five minutes, describe the
person you like so that a stranger would understand what
they are like.
5. Skip physical characteristics and focus on attributes,
mannerisms, and reactions to others that identify who
they are.
6. Do the same for the person you dislike.
Cognitive complexity

- The mental ability to distinguish subtle

personality and behavior differences among
people.

- Researchers who rely on the RCQ are

convinced that people with a large set of
interpersonal constructs have better social
perception skills than those who have a
relatively small set of mental templates.
Social Perception Skills

Figuring out:
▪ Others’ personality traits
▪ Where they stand in relationship to us
▪ What they are doing
▪ Why they are doing it
 Impression formation is the crucial
first step in relationship development.
 Cognitive complexity allows us to
form impressions by “taking the role
of the other.”
Constructivists believe that

People with high levels of cognitive complexity

are comparative experts in understanding people
and events in their social world.
There are two kinds of people in the
world - those who think there are two
kinds of people in the world, and
those who don’t.
The cognitively immature observer sees only this:

Black White
The sophisticated observer of the human scene is capable of
distinguishing subtle differences among people.
Constructivists distinguish between
mental structure and mental process.

Computer hardware - computing process

Jungle gym - climbing the jungle gym
Brain - thinking
The Role Category Questionnaire

Gauges how intricate the jungle gym in your

head might be.

The RCQ is scored for construct

differentiation
Construct differentiation

The main component of cognitive complexity as

measured by the number of separate personal
constructs used on the Role Category
Questionnaire

The higher the score, the more elaborate the

structure within your mind over which your
interpersonal perceptions play
Construct differentiation

A score over 25 is a reliable indicator of high

interpersonal cognitive complexity.

Delia claims that cognitive complexity develops

as people get older, and the individual
differences between adults should be relatively
stable over time.
RCQ scores

Research has established that RCQ scores are independent

of IQ, empathy, writing skill, and extroversion.

Critics argue that the RCQ is merely a measure of

wordiness, but constructivists maintain if is more than that.

According to constructivists, what is required is a wide

range of interpersonal constructs.
 Main hypothesis of constructivism:

People who are cognitively complex

in their perceptions of others have a
communication advantage over those
with less developed mental
structures.
Communication advantage

People who are cognitively complex have the

ability to produce person-centered messages -

Messages that are tailor-made for a specific

individual and context;

Messages that reflect the communicator’s ability

to anticipate responses and adjust accordingly.
A study by Ruth Ann Clark and Delia

▪ Focused on children’s ability to

adapt persuasive appeals to
different target listeners

▪ 2nd to 9th graders were given

the role category questionnaire,
then asked to role-play
convincing a woman they
didn’t know to keep a lost
puppy
Constructivists assume that

Strategic adaptation is a developmentally

nurtured skill.

The quality of messages improved with age.

The study found that:

Cognitively complex students were two

years ahead of their classmates in their
ability to encode person-centered messages.

Older kids who possessed cognitive

complexity beyond their years were best
able to take the perspective of the other and
tailor their message to the individual listener.
Quality of messages

1. Some kids showed no realization that the

woman’s perspective on the matter might be
different from their own.
2. Some kids recognized the difference but
failed to adapt their message.
3. A more sophisticated group imagined what
the woman was thinking (My husband will
think I’m a sucker for every stray in town)
4. The most sophisticated messages stressed
advantages.
“
Having a dog for a companion will
take away some of the loneliness
you feel at night when your
husband is out of town. He’ll also
feel better when he knows that
you’ve got a furry friend.”
So why do cognitively complex people
communicate more effectively?
In the late 1980s, other cognitive theorists began
to develop models of message production that
constructivists could use to explain the thought
processes that tie cognitive structures to speech
acts.
James Dillard’s Goals-Plans-Action model of message
production

GOALS PLANS ACTION

GPA model

Goals Plans Action

You form your You devise a message You carry out the
primary and plan using procedural message that you
secondary goals based records stored in your devised in order to
on the situation long-term memory - achieve your goals

recollection of an
action taken in a
specific situation
paired with its
consequences
By becoming sensitive to the inner life of
others, a person’s set of interpersonal
constructs grows.
Constructivism at work

High cognitive
complexity
facilitates
Sophisticated
message plans
produce
Person-centered
messages
lead to
Beneficial outcomes
Beneficial effects of person-centered messages

1. 2. 3.
Social Support Relationship Organizational
Messages Maintenance Effectiveness
Social support messages

Burleson’s 9-stage hierarchy codes the degree of comfort a message of support

offers.

Messages that validate feelings, may add additional perspective to the

situation

Messages that express sympathy but shift attention from loss, and
offers explanations

Messages that dismiss the thoughts and feelings of the person who is
hurting
Relationship maintenance

Relationship health requires periodic

affirmation, conflict resolution, and comforting
communication

Do sophisticated communication skills mean

good relationship maintenance?
Relationship maintenance

The ability to give ego support, resolve conflict,

and provide comfort in times of stress does little
to guarantee that a relationship will survive or
thrive, but degree of similarity does.
Burleson and Samter’s Similar Skills Model

The hypothesis that relationships fare better

when parties possess the same level of verbal
sophistication.
Organizational Effectiveness

According to constructivist theory, high

performance and promotion reflect a continual
use of person-centered communication that
seeks to achieve multiple goals with the
customer and coworkers.
So how do people become cognitively complex?
Complex thinking is a culturally transmitted trait.

Parents’ capacity for complex social thinking is

recreated in their children through complex
messages of nurture and discipline.
Example:

A five-year-old boy picks a flower from a neighbor’s garden

without permission and presents it to his mother.

a. Taking people’s things without asking is wrong. Now go

and apologize for taking the flower.

b. When people work hard to have things, they usually

want to keep them to appreciate them. Mrs. Jones might
have given you a flower if you’d asked, but taking things
from people without asking upsets them a lot.
Any time we deal with people, cognitive complexity seems to
play a significant role.

CULTURE COMPLEXITY COMMUNICATION

Critique

▪ Total reliance on Role Category

Questionnaire to determine cognitive
complexity
▪ Ethics: construct differentiation is enhanced
by a privileged upbringing
▪ Advocates of the theory should devote effort
to creating reflective settings for
disadvantaged kids.
Constructivism

Individuals who are more cognitively complex in their

perceptions of others have the mental capacity to construct
sophisticated message plans that pursue multiple goals. They
then have the ability to deliver person-centered messages
that achieve the outcomes they desire.

(Socio-psychological and rhetorical traditions)

Theory Log # 1
(Submit in BigSky dropbox)

Reflect on specific scenarios in home, social,

or school life where social conventions
matter in terms of communication.
i. What happens when these conventions
are misused?
ii. How do misunderstandings ensue?