persuade ME!!

The act of persuading may be a little arduous to do especially when you don't have enough information to give. You can't be sure for an approval that sometimes will lead to arguments. According to Elaboration Likelihood Model of Richard Petty and John Cacioppo, there are alternative ways to influence or may I say to persuade common people in an issue. The two active route which is the best way to persuade: (Griffin, 217)

• Central Route- wherein the message is being elaborated and too much mental effort is given. Each of the issue is being carefully analyzed.

• Peripheral route- it is the easiest way to persuade. It doesn't need too much mental effort, it is on the receiver if she or he will accept it or not.

I might not sound influencing in discussing you these kind of theory, I will show you examples of arguments in advertisements that may be processed either by central or peripheral.


ORAL B toothbrush



The fact that the advertisement had the goal to persuade the viewers, it is the best example of a central route. Too much show off about the product is being used to persuade people. Not knowingly, if all of these facts being given are true and certified. They exert too much mental effort to elaborate the message they want to convey. However, excess display brought a lot of arguments.

• Is it affordable?
• Does the surveys being given are true?
• Is it really dentist recommend?

We aren't sure if that toothbrush is really good for us. Perhaps, we may think it is based on the TV ads. It looks so good and tempting to use but the fact that maybe it is more expensive than the other unknown brands, we have still the choice to choose. We are not certain if it will really whitens our teeth with just a one brush. :)








PANTENE Shampoo

The advertisement itself, is an example of processed peripheral route as an act of persuading. The goal of influencing the viewers to use it doesn't revealed after all. No message elaboration happened. Personal relevance to the communicator is being used in the ad.

In Elaboration Likelihood Model, there are three heuristic that best explain peripheral process and how does the viewer comes to a decision.

1. The credibility of the messenger to convey message in order for the receiver to accept it.

The information being given are not obviously shown and it is on the hands of the receiver whether they will accept it or not. The credibility of the message is also being supported by the evidences shown such as girls who used it possessed long shiny hair after. However, we are not certain if it will also happen to us.



2. Receiver likes the communicator and it tends to agree with the likeness of the majority.



Who doesn't love Kris Aquino? Who doesn't envy her? (not talking how complex her life is). Everybody, even little ones know her. She was one of the most influencing celebrity in our country. What she says, everybody listens. What she have, everybody wants. What she does, everybody do the same. Kris Aquino's exposure in the ad helps a lot in persuading the viewer to use it too.



3. The receiver look the message for approval within the group.


Obviously, Pantene is one of the leading shampoo product here in our country, perhaps in other country too. Lots of ladies used this shampoo thinking that this will really help their hair grow beautifully.

For an instance, your friend had told you that she uses Pantene as her shampoo. You observed her hair grow beautifully and shiner each day. You hurriedly predicted that maybe it has to do with the shampoo. Eventually, you will be tempted to use it without being told by your friend. In this case, the decision is in you.

EDUCATION: A Right or an Option?

The year 2007 had ended but still the issue concerning the tuition fee increase still prevails. The inflation was implemented last year in all UP campus including UP Mindanao. It was an inevitable changed for blatantly UP really needs money to support the students as well as the facilities.

It was December 16, 2006 when the UP Board of Regents approved and agreed to increase all the fees within the whole UP units. The increase took its effect last June 2007 wherein its effects had received multitude negative feedbacks from the students. But the university stressed out that to continually support university's needs the only thing that could augment their income is through the tuition and miscellaneous fees paid by the students. The university can not stand alone from relying upon the government's support. The government had only limited sources and it is not enough to suffice the needs of the university.

One of its effects are the low accumulation of freshmen enrollees last year. Many of the UPCAT passers had just decided to enroll in other tertiary schools due to UP costly fees. It was alarming not only to the parents but as well as to the teachers. The university that has been known as economical and government subsidize is now competing to private schools due to high tuition fee increase. There are lots of intelligent students who are really willing to study but can not afford to pay the fees of the university. Some of them just preferred to enroll in other university that is more achievable to pay. Perhaps, several of them might fall to take up vocational courses which only last for months or for a year in order to get a higher education. But the education it provides doesn't assure their future success. But, for those family twho can't really afford to send their children to school will always remain hopeless to progress.

As a subsidized university, UP is responsible to help and cater empty-handed students to study particular those are really intelligent and deserving. However, due to excessive increase , the opportunity to have an excellent education UP offers is now impossible to achieve. It only shows that to have an education is not a right anymore but an option.

Through the constant negative complaints, Socialized Tuition Fee Assistance Program has been implemented. The program enables the student to expedite in paying costly fees of the university. UP President Roman had promised to offer better scheme that would help underprivileged students to pay. The old scheme which has Bracket 1-9 (9 as the highest) would be lowered down to Bracket A-E (E as the lowest). Each of the brackets has an assigned discounts and privilege. STFAP categories students who are eligible for tuition fee decrease based on their annual family income.

As an STFAP guarantee, the new scheme still can not help us to lessen our burdens in paying my tuition fees since my father is the only one working in the family. I am assigned in Bracket C with an income greater than 135,001 but less than 500,000 annually. If my mother luckily finds an extra job can further help us to augment our income but still it is not enough to support our needs. I have three siblings who all goes to school and we still have two cousins leaving with us. The salary my father earns every month is not really enough to suffice our daily needs. It is unfair for the new scheme only view what your family earns annually but doesn't consider how many are you in the family. For instance: I have a friend who is also an STFAP guarantee who is also assigned in Bracket C. She also gets 40% off in her tuition fee and that would be paying 7, 640 in one sitting. It was then a big help for she was the only child in their family. The inequality of categorizing bracket assignments discouraged me. We are assigned in a same bracket scheme but how come it is a relief to them but for us it is still a burden?

The tuition fee inflation brought chaos for everybody. As a premier university in our country, it is obliged to provide excellent education among students. However, that opportunity to have that education is slowly weakened by these increase. Lots of poor but deserving students are being repressed to pursue education. If we let this to continue, more and more students are deprive to go in the university due to excessive increase of tuition fees. Intelligence alone should be a sufficient guarantee to enter UP and to have UP education, not only because you had money to pay for.

The government itself has done nothing to help this thing to work out. They were lots of promises given and lots of actions that has once said but none of them came true and done. Government neglect maybe the other major reasons for the tuition fee increased.

A closest friend of mine shared a joke about the real meaning of the acronym of UP. Obviously, I knew what was it. But surprisingly, he instead say it as University for the Poor. I was laughing not because it was a joke but it somehow shows reality. But now that inflation continually affects the university's standing,maybe it would be better named as University for the Plosh. It may not sound good but it is now becoming a fact.

UP education should not be viewed something as an option but rather than as a right. As a Filipino, as a human, we had the right to have an education. It doesn't count whether your rich or poor to have a good and excellent education. Education should be attainable and accessible for all. We are learning at UP to serve the nation. We are not learning to be commercialized.

Have you seen Chinese acrobats piled up on a single bike? :D

Dear Mr. Perplex,


It might not sound good to you but the way your parents treat you is just a way of showing that they still care for you a lot. You might find it annoying but as parents they don't want you to get harm. Your parents might be acting so possessive in terms of being so strict with you that they won't even allow you to go out with your friends. But it doesn't mean that they are trying to control your life. They just care!

You had said that you are getting annoyed the way your mom mothers you. You felt vexed every time she treats you like a ten year old child. Obviously, as a teenager, you wanted to do things at your own. You think that your old enough to do everything. If you dislike the way your mom treats you, go talk to her. Tell her everything that she doesn't understand. Be honest with what you feel. Assure to her your real intentions that you just want to grow with yourself. Don't just stomp or raise the tone of your voice to show dissent but rather confide to her. Don't let your mom guess what you feel. Later then she will understand if you'll just let her know your side. Your responsible enough for your decisions.

About your smoking habit that your dad complained about you, maybe he had his reasons to complain then. It is obvious that smoking will really harm you especially your health. Your dad don't want you to be like his friends who had grown old smoking. He might just want you to avoid getting hooked with it. Aside from that, your dad whined about changing your course from premed to communication arts, maybe for him its the easiest way for your success.

Its so sad to know that you had a sister who has been competing with you. She sounds like she wanted to be superior than you. It is so strange that she even do things that would really hurt you. But as an older brother, you had the right to talk to her and correct her bad deeds. Maybe then, she's only seeking for an attention. She might think that your parents attention is always at you. Explain to her everything. Work out your relationship with her. She might just looking for a real brother in you.

After all,your a family. Each of you had his or her purpose. According to the theory of Watzlawick's Interactional View, there is a certain theory that best explain what your going through. There is this certain theory that when something happened to one member of a family, the other member will also be affected. Talk things between your family. Open up with them so as they could open up to you. Just don't make your avoidance to communicate as an excuse. It would eventually increase the gaps you have on your family.

Keep loving your family, don't hate them. Value your family because they are just what you have got.





Bises,


Lenin..

Cha.. Cha.. Cha... : )

A LETTER OF ADVICE TO JIM..




Dearest Jim,


Bonjour!


I know that Shelley and you are seriously dating for 6 months. You had been sharing lots of thoughts and likes with each other. Shelley had shared everything from you without being skeptical,so as you. Obviously, your going into a serious relationship and I know you enjoyed it a lot.

However,about the diary thing she had that you had been longing to know about is such a bad bad idea. You don't have the right to invade her privacy even though you think that your close enough to share everything. You couldn't blame her if she wouldn't want to share her journal with you. That journal is her private property and it is important to her. I, myself, do have a daily journal. My parents and even my closest bud doesn't know about it. They know I have but they did not know what is it all about. Writing a daily journal is my way of attaching myself closest to mine. My journal is half of who and what I am. It is where I write my inner thoughts and even my failures, angers, resentments as well as my victories and happiness. I still value my individuality and my privacy as a human being but it doesn't mean I'm avoiding to open up with others. I just don't need to be fully attached to someone else.

Shelley might be like me. She writes to express her emotions. She writes because she wanted to be just her self. She find solace in it. She just want you to respect her privacy. It doesn't mean that she's hiding something from you. You could know her better by just discovering who she really is. Don't push her to do something that might destroy your relationship. Let her open up with you. Don't show her that you become obsess about her diary. She might turn out to be skeptical about you. Being together doesn't mean to omit the sense of an individuality.

Shelley will be glad if you'll understand her needs of autonomy. Just take things slowly. Let her privacy be her own. You'll just be surprised that she might be the one to share it with you. Let there be spaces between you but it doesn't mean that more is better.


Love & Bises,

LenIn

ProPosaL

One of the communication act I considered vague and interesting to write about is communicating through a smile. I find it confusing sometimes to understand what it really intends to say for a lot of people smile for a lots of reasons but some just smile for no reasons at all.

1. Why is it important?

Smile is one of the most important communication act in nonverbal communication.A smile can be a way of suggesting approachability and availability for friendly relational contact. (Saigh,1981). Some rather smile instead of saying “hi” & “hello”. There are maybe no gestures with more diverse meaning and more varied forms than a human smile can do. Smile can actually conveys everything you feel.

My goal of writing about the importance of this communication act is to let everybody knows what a smile can do in an individual. How it will affect relationships and how will it help to build relationships.

2. Find sources about your topic.

Here are my references:

http://www.socyberty.com/Relationships/Whats-in-a-Smile.29885

Hargie, O. and Dickson, D.(2004), Skilled Interpersonal Communication (4the edn.), Great Britain, MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall: 3:68, 4:106-7

Hecht, M. and La France, M.(1998), “License or Obligation to smile: the effect of power and sex on the amount and type of smile”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24:132-42



SCHEDULES

January 12-19

* Gathering of data about the topic. (books, Internet sources or articles)

January 21-24

* Organizing the ideas or information gathered about the topic.

January 25-26

* Interview people about their personal views about smiling as a mean of communication.

January 28-30

* Analyzing the data gathered from the interviewee and apply it to recently data gathered (internet, books or articles)

January 31- February 2

* Encoding the data

February 3-16

* Plan how to make or to organize the term paper. What to write in the term paper.

February 17- March 1

* Editing

March 2-15

*critic
*Edti or add some new information about the topic.

Just A Smile.. :D

No human being can ever live without communication or without communicating. Communication is considered as an everyday activity wherein 93 percent of our everyday doings involves it (Mehrabian, 1972). Every single move, facial gestures or even small sounds uttered is a way of communicating. It is been the fundamental to our everyday life. A necessity.

Communication is a process of interaction between two or more individual wherein a message is created then being interpreted onwards by the receiver. However, it is not only about usage o words, talking into a conversation, speaking in a public covers communication, thus also consider gestures, body movements and facial expressions.

There are two kinds of communication; verbal and the nonverbal communication. Verbal communication consist the usage of words and speaking it while the gestures such as waving ones hand, body movements, and facial expressions such as pouting and raising ones eyebrows is considered as nonverbal communication. Thus, communication is so vague that sometimes the message sent is being interpreted differently.

One of the acts in nonverbal communication I considered vague and confusing to understand what it really intended to say is communicating through smiling. A lot of people smile for a reasons and some just smile for no reason at all.

I had interviewed three people whether they smile or not when they see someone they are acquainted or not. What are the reasons behind those smiles?


--“Kung dili na ko kaila , dili pud ko mukatawa uy! Abi pa lang nila boang ko. Pero kung sila ang una nga mukatawa sa ako, mukatawa pud ko. Dili man pud ko manyapa ug tao” -JAKE AGCANG
( If I don't know them, I won't smile. They might think I'm stupid. But if they are the one who first smiled at me, I would smile too. I'm not snobbish)

--“Sa una, gipangutana ko sa akong amigo kung okey na ba ko human makipagbulag sa akong uyab, nikatawa lang ko. Dili ko gusto nga mabal-an niya nga nasakitan ko. Gusto na ko makita niya nga okey lang ko”- AILYN LABASANO
(A friend asked me before how am I after breaking up with my boyfriend, I just smiled to hide the pain I felt inside. I want to show her everything was just fine)

--“Katong nakit-an na ko akong mga amigo sa mall, nikatawa dayon ko. Siyempre, nalipay ko kay nakit-an na ko sila usab”- JUVILYN LABASANO
( I smiled when I saw my fiends at the mall because I'm just too happy to see them again)

A smile showed a lot of meanings behind the expression itself. Smile as a mean of communication functions to replace, reinforce or even contradict any verbal messages. At times, nonverbal messages are used to omit verbal responses and to indicate more our real feelings. Nonverbal messages are easy to express and to interpret. Our culture provides us with gestures and expressions that are just equivalent in verbal messages. We instead smile rather than saying “hi”, “hello” or “I'm fine”.

However, nonverbal communication such as expression through smiling varies and depicts a lot of interventions. We just don't smile because we just want to but rather we had reasons for it.
In the first communication act, he stated that he won't dare to smile to someone whom he doesn't know. When two strangers accidentally meet ones eye, they would actually hesitate to smile with each other. The other might feel embarrass if he/she will do it so as the other. But, if they smile at each other, they might find each other as friendly or approachable. In social judgment theory, there are three zones to consider: the latitude of acceptance, latitude of non-commitment, and latitude of rejection. In the communication act, itself shows whether the two of them goes to the acceptance latitude or either go to rejecting one anothers action.

Symbolic Interactionism best explains the second communication act wherein she pretended what she rally felt that time. Symbolic Interactionism focus on the interactionists that base their theoretical perspective on their image of humans, rather than on their image of society.
She must be creating an image as a strong and invincible woman. If her friend knows that she's being hurt and that she's weak, the image she invested to her friend might change. A lot of people pretend to be something there not in order to hide something they think unacceptable. Pretentious life sometimes create gaps between two individuals. Thus, some needs to pretend in order to be accepted by their society. According to Social Penetration theory, depenetration is a process wherein an individual withdraws his/her feelings. Then, a space is being build between the relationship.

On the other hand, Uncertainty Reduction theory could throughly explain the third communication act. In the act, the more certain she was about her friends, the less hesitation she had to smile. As well as, the stronger the bonding, the less certainties she could have. The uncertainties usually lessen when an intimate relationship is created. When her friends and she met at the mall, she excitedly smiled to them.

Another responsible for the distortion of the information sent is the noise or interference. It is anything that could distort the information to the receiver or may distract him/her from receiving the message. However, noise is not just a matter of sound, it could also be due to physiological or psychological defects. Semantic interference usually distorts the meaning sent by a single smile. It is when the receiver does not attribute the same meaning to the signal that the sender does. No two people has an exactly the same interpretation that is possible in attributing different meanings. For instance:

Anne was walking so fast and she's running late for an appointment. She was so disgusted about the traffic that made her arrived late. When suddenly, a mysterious haggard looking man smiled at her. Anne was shocked and didn't know why the man gave her a smile. She find the man annoying. She predicted that the man was a maniac trying to seduce her or just a jerk ruining her day more.

The attitude of judging based on the appearance sometimes affect interpretations. Anne judged the man as maniac because of his haggard appearance. Then the message the guy actually wanted to send is being interpreted differently. The guy was just being friendly to her. He saw Anne so bothered so he gave her a smile thinking it would help lessen Anne's burden. But contrary, it was not.
In this kind of situation, we had this “feeling our way” attitude wherein we watch facial expressions and gestures so that we can adapt to our own response.

Non-verbal messages such as smiling seems to have a greater impact for the belief that gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and so on, can't be stimulated by authenticity by an average person. We convey primarily on expressing our feelings rather than our thoughts.

"Action speaks louder than Words"

A famous quote that best explained the power and the impact a non-verbal message can. A single smile might mean a lot, not only as a sign of greeting but also to replace verbal messages and even to fake real emotions. Whether you communicate verbally or not, lets be conscious of hat we really intended to say. Communication should be precise, certain and direct. Avoid confusion and wishy-washy statement. Unsuccessful communication largely affects a relationship. In surveys done, it is being proved that unclear communication between spouse and even friends result to fail relationships.

The key to abundant relationship is just a clear communication. Keep communicating!