PSYCHOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION

Understanding Communication Psychology

No matter how you are communicating, you’re always DEALING WITH PEOPLE:
SENDING a message or RECEIVING a message.

Just as people may be different, you’re always DEALING WITH DIFFERENCES

Communication Psychology

 deals with the principles of human behaviour and human motivation;

 helps make communication effective;
 helps promote goodwill, and
 ensures understanding in all communication situations.

 Select and present topics that will meet your receiver’s needs. Remember
communicate your ideas effectively obtain the desired results

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 KEY CONCEPTS

 How much we know about human behaviour

 A look at our needs
 Our needs determine our reaction
 Non-verbal communication
 Our language affects our behaviour

Understanding human behaviour

is a necessary foundation for
being a successful
communicator

RULE OF THUMB

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow

proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which he
subsequently extended. His theory contends that as humans meet their basic
needs, they seek to satisfy successively higher needs that occupy a set hierarchy.
Maslow studied exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor
Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglas.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five

levels, which can be compared to the rungs of a ladder.

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Rung 1 - Physiological needs

The first need for the body is to achieve homeostasis. This is obtained through the
consumption of food, drink and air, achieving adequate sleep, a comfortable
temperature, and so on. When some needs are unmet, a human's physiological
needs take the highest priority. For instance, if one simultaneously experiences the
desire for love and the hunger for food, a human is more likely to seek to satisfy
the latter need first. As a result of the prepotency of physiological needs, an
individual will deprioritize all other desires and capacities. Physiological needs can
control thoughts and behaviors, and can cause people to feel sickness, irritation,
pain, and discomfort.

Only when we are fairly

well-settled on one rung,
we begin to turn our
attention to the next rung

RULE OF THUMB

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Rung 2 - Safety needs

When the physiological needs are met, the need for safety will emerge. Safety or
security ranks above all other desires; a properly-functioning society tends to
provide security to its members. Recent examples of failure in this area include the
cases of societal breakdown in Somalia, Afghanistan and New Orleans. Sometimes
the desire for safety outweighs the requirement to satisfy physiological needs; for
example, during the Kosovo War many residents of Kosovo chose to occupy a
secure area rather than an insecure area, even though the latter provided better
access to food.

Rung 3 - Love/Belonging needs

Once a person's physiological and safety needs are largely met, the third layer of
human needs starts to become apparent. This involves emotionally-based
relationships in general, which includes the perceived need for companionship
(both sexual and non-sexual) and/or having a family. There is the sense of
community or affiliation; in other words, humans want to belong to groups,
whether it be clubs, work groups, religious groups, family, gangs, etc. They need
to feel loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others, and to be accepted by them.
People also have a constant desire to feel needed. In the absence of these elements,
people become increasingly susceptible to loneliness and social anxieties.

Rung 4 - Esteem needs

There are two versions of esteem needs - the need for the respect of and
recognition by others, and the need for self-respect.

Rung 5 - Self-actualization

Self-actualization (a term originated by Kurt Goldstein) is the instinctual need of a

human to make the most of their unique abilities. Maslow described it as follows:

A musician must make music, the artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be
ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we
may call self-actualisation.

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Maslow writes of self-actualizing people that:

• They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather
than denying or avoiding them.

• They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.

• They are creative.

• They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of
others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.

• They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.

• They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of

external authority.

• They judge others without prejudice, in a way that can be termed objective.

If this need is not met, a person will feel tense and restless and unfilled.

Self-transcendence
Self-transcendence refers to connecting to something beyond the ego or to help
others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential.

Although Maslow tentatively placed transcendence at the top of his hierarchy, this
element has been discounted by most modern psychologists because they feel it
really belongs in the domain of religious belief.

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