Constructivism 

• is a communication theory that seeks to explain individual differences in people‘s ability to communicate skillfully in social situations.

Constructs

• The cognitive template or stencils we fit over reality, to bring order to our perceptions.

Role Category Questionaire (RCQ by : Walter Crockett) 

• A free-response survey designed to measure the Cognitive Complexity of a person’s interpersonal perception. Designed to sample the interpersonal constructs in our mental toolbox.

Cognitive Complexity

• The mental ability to distinguish subtle personality and behavior differences among people. 

Person-Centered Messages

• A tailor-made message for a specific individual and context; reflect the communicator’s ability to anticipate response and adjust accordingly.The speaker is able to anticipate how different individuals might respond to a message, and adjust his or her communication accordingly. Example

Sophisticated Communication

• A person-centered message that accomplishes multiple goal.

Message Design Logics (MDLs)

• MDLs explain link between cognitive complexity and Person-Centered Messages. They are implicit theories people have about the way in which messages can be shaped as means to ends.

1. Expressive MDL: language skill to express what one thinks and feels;
2. Conventional MDL: tailoring messages to main goal, using socially conventional means, appropriate to the particular situation; 
3. Rhetorical MDL: negotiating social self and situation, redefining situation, achieving multiple goals, defusing conflict in present and in future.

Similar Skill Model

• A hypothesis that relationships fare better when parties possess the same level of verbal sophistication.

Message Production (by: James Dillard)

• A three-stage process of goals assessed, plans selected, and tactics enacted (action).