Chapter 22 Quiz: Silence, Space, and Absence

Instructions: Select the best answer for each question. Where more than one answer has partial support, choose the one most strongly supported by the chapter's discussion.

1. According to Judee Burgoon's Expectancy Violation Theory, why is communicative silence powerful in contexts where speech is expected?

a) Silence is always interpreted as rejection, triggering emotional protective mechanisms b) Silence violates the expectation of communication, increasing arousal and intensifying the observer's interpretive processing c) Silence signals high social status, because only people with many options can afford not to respond d) Expectancy Violation Theory predicts that silence will always reduce attraction in the short term

2. The chapter argues that silence forces observers to author the meaning themselves. Which of the following best expresses what this means for interpreting communicative absence in courtship?

a) The meaning of a silence is fixed by social convention, so observers typically converge on the same interpretation b) Because silence is ambiguous, its interpretation reveals the observer's own psychology more than the silent party's intentions c) Observers systematically underinterpret silence, assuming less meaning than is actually present d) Only people with anxious attachment styles generate interpretations of communicative absence

3. Research on response latency in digital courtship generally finds that:

a) Faster responses are always associated with higher attractiveness across all relationship stages b) Slower responses consistently signal desirability in early-stage contact, confirming the folk wisdom about playing it cool c) Inconsistency in response timing is a stronger negative predictor than either consistently fast or consistently slow responses d) Response latency has no measurable effect on attraction or relationship progression

4. The Zeigarnik effect, applied to courtship, predicts that:

a) Resolved relationships are thought about more than unresolved ones because closure produces regret b) Incomplete or ambiguous connections remain more cognitively accessible than resolved ones, producing preoccupation c) People with higher cognitive closure needs are less preoccupied by romantic ambiguity d) The effect applies to work tasks but does not reliably generalize to social or romantic contexts

5. Breadcrumbing produces persistent preoccupation primarily through which psychological mechanism?

a) Cognitive dissonance — the inconsistency between occasional contact and general absence creates tension that demands resolution b) Intermittent reinforcement via a variable ratio schedule, which produces the most extinction-resistant behavior of any reinforcement pattern c) Social comparison — recipients compare the breadcrumber's contact level to their other relationships and conclude they are specially selected d) Attachment theory — breadcrumbing activates anxious attachment systems specifically in people with preoccupied attachment styles

6. Argyle and Dean's Intimacy Equilibrium Model proposes that people:

a) Seek maximal physical and conversational closeness with romantic partners regardless of social norms b) Maintain a preferred intimacy level by compensating across multiple channels when one channel increases or decreases c) Cannot manage physical space and conversational intimacy simultaneously, defaulting to verbal cues in ambiguous situations d) Increase eye contact in direct proportion to physical distance, as a compensatory mechanism

7. Research on comfortable silence and relationship development finds that:

a) Comfortable silence is present from the earliest stages of successful romantic relationships b) The ability to sit comfortably in silence increases over relationship duration and is a reliable marker of established intimacy c) Couples who fill silence most efficiently report the highest relationship satisfaction d) Comfortable silence is more common in long-distance relationships than in cohabitating couples

8. In the Okafor-Reyes Study, the finding of more strategic silence and delayed response in Japanese and South Korean samples generated debate because:

a) The finding was statistically weak and may have been a measurement artifact b) The finding clearly confirmed Hall's high-context communication framework and required no further investigation c) The behavioral difference was real, but whether it reflects stable cultural values, performative norms under pressure, or within-sample variation was contested d) Okafor and Reyes agreed on the interpretation but disagreed on how to report it

9. Research comparing the experience of being ghosted versus receiving explicit rejection found that ghosted individuals:

a) Reported less distress overall because the absence of explicit rejection preserved their self-esteem b) Reported higher rumination and self-doubt that persisted longer, because the ambiguity of ghosting keeps the cognitive file open c) Showed no significant differences from explicitly rejected individuals on psychological outcomes d) Reported higher anger but lower rumination than explicitly rejected individuals

10. The chapter identifies which of the following as the most psychologically distinctive feature of ghosting?

a) The abruptness of the cessation, which activates trauma responses b) The absence of narrative resolution — the story has no ending, activating the Zeigarnik mechanism c) The public nature of ghosting in social media contexts, which adds social humiliation to personal rejection d) The pattern of read receipts, which confirms that the silence is intentional

11. Regarding read receipts in digital courtship, the chapter argues that they create which specific communicative effect?

a) They reduce anxiety by confirming message delivery, improving overall communication quality b) They transform non-response from ambiguously interpretable to intentionally interpretable, intensifying the experience of deliberate absence c) They reduce the strategic potential of silence by making response timing fully transparent d) Research has not examined read receipt effects, so no conclusions are available

12. On the question of silence and consent, the chapter argues that:

a) The skills of reading courtship silence can be carefully applied to infer consent in ambiguous situations b) Silence is ambiguous in all contexts and therefore no conclusions about consent should ever be drawn from it c) The mechanisms that make silence communicative in flirtation contexts are categorically inapplicable in consent contexts, and the burden of confirmation must fall on the person seeking consent d) Legal frameworks are more relevant than psychological frameworks for understanding silence in consent contexts

Short Answer (choose one):

A. Explain the Zeigarnik effect and apply it specifically to the experience of being ghosted. Why does ghosting produce more rumination than explicit rejection, according to this framework?

B. The chapter distinguishes between naturally occurring romantic uncertainty and manufactured uncertainty (as in breadcrumbing). Why does this distinction matter ethically? Use specific concepts from the chapter in your answer.