Group Phases Paper (KATHERINE BECKS)
Kbanks
Communication.pptCommunication
General Theory
Definition – What is it?
- Process of conveying a message to others which contains six elements:
- Source or sender
- Message
- Channel of communication
- Receiver
- Process of encoding and decoding
- It is important to focus on the context to identify the source, receiver, message, channel and encoding and decoding.
Communication is Contextual
- Psychological – what both parties bring to the interaction needs, desires, values, personality etc.
- Relational – your reactions to the other person.
- Situational – where you are communicating: classroom, boardroom, home etc.
- Environmental – location, noise level, temperature, time of day etc.
- Cultural – learned behaviors and rules that affect the interaction
The Source/Sender
- Information is sent by a source
- Source can be a person, company, government, a machine etc.
- Information is in form of symbols
Messages
Messages come through language or other signs and they communicate meaning. They are:
- Verbal
- Non Verbal
- Combination of verbal & non Verbal
The Message
- Systems Theory is very good for your health because it help you to see things in proper perspective.
Can also be a symbol, or mathematical formula etc.
E=MC2
Types of Messages
- Direct Messages: Face to Face in Person Communications
- Mediated Messages – Through links with media
- Television, Radio, Phone
- Internet, e-mail, voice mail
Encoding
- Process of encoding an abstract idea into a set of symbols.
- Affected by differing frames of reference (race, sex, educational background, geography, culture etc.)
- Codes are verbal, vocal and visual
Channels
- Visual
- Audio
- Smell
- Touch
- Taste
- Effective communications uses many channels
Decoding
- The process of transforming a set of symbols back into an abstract idea.
- Affected by differing frames of reference (race, sex, educational background, geography, culture etc.)
- Codes are verbal, vocal and visual
Receiver
- Person who receives a message
- Give feedback to the sender
- Decodes the message
Noise
- Noise is anything that interfering or impeding our ability to send or receive a message
- Noise distracts communicators and focuses their attention on something outside the communication
- An effective communicator finds ways to get through the noise
- Noise can come from internal or external sources
- Internal noise: personal thoughts, personal feelings, sexism, racism, feelings of inadequacy, hunger, excessive shyness, excessive extroversion, deficient knowledge, too much knowledge
Types of Noise
Things in messages not included by the sender
- Symantec occurs from ambiguities inherent in all languages and sign systems
- Psychological – state of the receiver produces an unpredictable decoding of message
- Physical/Mechanical – anything that distorts the audio and/or visual communication
- Cultural when culture or subculture is so different from the sender that message is understood in ways the sender did not intend.
Feedback
- Information received in exchange for sent messages
- Gives sense of how message received
- Is positive or negative
- Positive enhances behavior in progress
- Negative stops/corrects behavior in progress
- Internal is feedback you give yourself
- External is feedback from an other party
Some Observations
- An Axiom – “You cannot NOT communicate”
- Always judge communication in terms of context
- Language is an inherently arbitrary symbol system
- Language is polysemic
