Theories of

Communication
 Dfn
• “a way of framing an experience or event—an ef fort to
understand and account for something and the way it functions
in the world”

• Any thoughts or ideas about how things work in the world or

one’s life are personal theories

• Theories are essentially frameworks for how the world works, and
therefore guide how to function in the world

• Theory is an idea of how something happens- attempt to explain or

represent an experience
 RHETORICAL THEORY-
THEORY OF REASONED ACTION

• Rhetorical theory is said to have begun on the Island of Sicily when a

dictator was overthrown, leaving landowners to argue in court over who
rightfully owned the land - the original owners or those who had been given
the land during the tyrant's regime?

• Under the Greek legal system of the time, individuals had to present their
own cases in court - creating the need for individuals to become adept at the
art of rhetoric

• Emphasises of persuasiveness
 SEMIOTIC THEORY
• Semiotics is the science of communication and sign systems, of the
ways people understand phenomena, organize them mentally, devise
means for transmitting that understanding and sharing it with
others

• Although natural and artificial languages are central to semiotics,

it covers non-verbal signaling and extends to domains whose
communicative dimension is perceived only unconsciously
 PHENOMENOLOGICAL THEORY

• Actively constructs her or his own world

• According to the Phenomenological approach to personality, the specific

ways each person perceives and interprets the world make up personality
and guide one’s behavior

• People's view of reality/perspective is important in guiding their behaviour

and is shaped by learned expectations
 Social exchange theory
• Emphasizes the idea that social action is the result of personal choices made in
order to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

• A key component of this theory is the postulation of the "comparison level of

alternatives", which is the actor's sense of the best possible alternative (i.e., the
choice with the highest benefits relative to costs).
 SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

• Socio-cultural theory looks at the contributions that society makes

to individual development. This theory stresses the interaction
between developing people and the culture in which they live
• Socio-cultural theory grew from the work of seminal psychologism

• Lev Vygotsky, who believed that parents, caregivers, peers and

the culture were largely responsible for the development of higher
order functions
 Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations Theory
• This theory focuses on the nurse-client relationship and the therapeutic process
that takes place

• Communication that occurs in this context involves complex factors such as

environment, in addition to attitudes, practices and beliefs in the dominant
culture

• Peplau’s interpersonal relations theory defines four stages of the relationship

that achieve a common goal as follows
 CT
• Orientation Phase: The nurse engages the patient in treatment, and the patient
is able to ask questions and receive explanations and information. This stage
helps the patient develop trust and is where first impressions about the nurse
and health care system begin to evolve.
• Identification Phase: The patient and nurse begin to work together. These
interactions provide the basis for understanding, trust and acceptance as the
patient becomes an active participant in treatment.
 CT
• Exploitation Phase: The patient takes advantage of all services of fered,
exploiting the nurse-patient relationship to address treatment goals

• Resolution Phase: As a result of ef fective communication, the patient’s needs

are met, and he or she moves toward full independence. The patient no longer
needs help, and the relationship ends
 The Spiral of Silence:
• Theory indicating that the fear of isolation causes people to
remain silent about minority opinions and even adopt the
majority opinion despite personal and philosophical
concerns

• The mass media may perpetuate this repression of views

through constant repetition or coverage of certain themes
 Health Belief Model:
• Theory relating to how individuals perceive the threat of a
health problem and appraise recommended behaviors for
preventing or managing the problem

Concepts
• Perceived threats
• Perceived benefits
• Cues to action
• Self ef ficacy
• Perceived susceptibility
• Perceived severity

•
 Social Learning Theory:
• Theory indicating that people learn not only from their
own experiences, but also by observing the actions of others
and the consequences of those actions (i.e., modeling)
 The Models of
Communication
Linear, Interactive and Transactional.
 Others

• Cognitive desonance theory

 Linear Model

• In this linear communication model, communication is like

giving an injection: a sender encodes ideas and feelings into
some sort of message and then conveys them by means of a
channel (speech, writing, and so on) into a receiver, who
decodes the message.
A Linear View
 Linear Model cont.

• The model highlights how dif ferent channels can af fect the way a receiver
responds to a message

• It also introduces the concept of noise- a term used by social scientist to

describe any forces that interfere with ef fective communication. Noise can
occur at any stage of the communication process
 Linear Model cont.

• Three types of noise can disrupt communication- external, physiological and

psychological

• External noise also called physical, includes those factors outside the receiver
that make it dif ficult to hear, as well as other kinds of distractions. Eg., a
smoky room

• Physiological noise involves biological factors in the receiver or sender that

interfere with accurate reception: illness, fatigue and so on
 Linear Model cont.

• Psychological Noise refers to forces within a communicator that interfere

with the ability to express or understand a message accurately. For eg,
stress, defensiveness.
 Disadvantages of the Linear View

• It makes the assumption that all communication involves

encoding. For eg. There are nonverbal cues that occur
whether we speak or not. Some of these cues are
unconsciously done

• It also suggest that communication flows in one direction,

from sender to receiver. It ignores the fact that receivers
react to messages by sending other messages of their own
 Interactive Model

• This model makes the importance of feedback clear. It shows that most
communication is , indeed, a two way af fair in which we both send and receive
messages

• It also identifies a clue to the cause of many misunderstandings. Such

misunderstandings of ten arise because communicators of ten occupy dif ferent
environments- fields of experience- that help them understand others behaviour
An Interactive Model
 Ct..

• In communication terminology, environment refers not only to a physical

location but also to the personal experiences and cultural background that
participants bring to a conversation.

• Consider just some of the factors that might contribute to dif ferent environments:
• A might belong to one ethnic group and B to another
• A might be rich and B poor
 Interactive Model cont.

• In the figure showed in the previous slide, the environments A and

B overlap, representing the background communicators must have
in common. As the shared environment becomes smaller,
communication becomes more dif ficult
• Dif fering environments make understanding dif ficult, but
certainly not impossible. Hard work and many communication
skills help to bridge the gap that separates us
 A transactional View

• The activity of communicating is best represented by a

transactional communication model

• A transactional model reveals that we usually send and receive

messages simultaneously, so that the images of sender and receiver
should not be separated as if a person were doing only one or the
other, but rather superimposed and redefined as ‘communicators’
A Transactional View model
 Transactional View cont.

• The model also posits that communication isn’t something we

do to others, rather, it is an activity we do with them

• The transactional nature of communication is explained in

the relationship between parents and children
 In concluding…

• Communication is a continuous, transactional process

involving participants who occupy dif ferent but overlapping
environments and create a relationship by simultaneously
sending and receiving messages, many of which are
distorted by external, physiological and psychological noise
 The 7Cs
• The Seven Cs of Communication help overcome barriers:
• Clarity
• Credibility
• Content
• Context
• Continuity
• Capability
• Channel