Seven Traditions in

the Field of
Communication
The Socio-Psychological Tradition
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1
The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
Epitomizes the scientific perspective
Systematic observation
Cause-and-effect relationships
Behavioural change
Empiricists
Design and run experiments in communication
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2
The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
Founding father: Carl Hovland noted for experimental
research on the effects of communication.

Hovland and colleagues @ Yale University sought to lay a
groundwork of empirical propositions concerning relationships
between communication stimuli, audience predisposition, and
opinion change.
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3
The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
Hovland & Co. had an initial framework for theory building
based on: who says what to whom and with what effect.

They explored three causes of persuasiveness: who source,
what content of the message, and whom audience
characteristics.


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The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
The main effect they
measured was opinion
change as revealed by
attitude scales given before
and after the message.
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5
The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
The Yale school plowed new
ground in many areas of
communication, their work on
source credibility contributed
significantly to the effects
tradition of communication
theory.
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The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
Beyond the specific findings,
Hovland & Co. of the Yale school
brought into communication
scholarship and research the idea
of empiricism. They systematically
checked out every aspect of
communication and opinion
change.
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7
The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
The socio-psychological tradition can be divided into three large
branches:
1. Behavioral, associated with a stimulus-response approach,
concentrates on how people actually behave in communication
situations.

2. Cognitive, the mental operations used in managing
information that leads to behavioral outputs, is much more in
vogue today because many see the behavioral as too simplistic.

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The Socio-Psychological
Tradition

3. Communi-biology is the study of communication from a
biological perspective.


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The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
scientific in the classic sense
prefer quantitative methodologies
truth is singular
focus on cause and effect
deterministic; behavior seen as influenced by factors or forces
beyond level of awareness

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10
The Socio-Psychological
Tradition
search for universal laws / generalizability

search for predictability and control

methodologies designed to keep out values, to be value
free

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11
Jimi Kayode
Lagos State University
Adebola Adegunwa School of
Communication,
Lagos. Nigeria.
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