Communication means

Communication means

Communication barriers

4. Means of communication.

The transmission of any information is possible only through signs, or rather sign systems. There are several sign systems that are used in the communication process. There are verbal and nonverbal communication that use different sign systems.

4.1. Verbal communication.

Verbal communication uses human speech, natural sound language, as a sign system, that is, a system of phonetic signs that includes two principles: lexical and syntactic. Speech is the most universal means of communication, since when transmitting information through speech, the meaning of the message is least lost. True, this should be accompanied by a high degree of common understanding of the situation by all participants in the communication process.

With the help of speech, information is encoded and decoded: the communicator encodes while speaking, and the recipient decodes this information while listening.

The sequence of the speaker's actions has been studied in sufficient detail. From the point of view of transmitting and perceiving the meaning of a message, the “communicator – message – recipient” scheme is asymmetrical.

For a communicator, the meaning of information precedes the encoding process, since the “speaker” first has a certain idea and then embodies it in a system of signs. For the “listener,” the meaning of the received message is revealed simultaneously with decoding. In this case, the significance of the situation of joint activity is especially clearly manifested: its awareness is included in the decoding process itself; revealing the meaning of the message is unthinkable outside of this situation.

The accuracy of the listener’s understanding of the meaning of the statement can become obvious to the communicator only when a change in “communicative roles” occurs, i.e. when the recipient turns into a communicator and with his statement makes it known how he revealed the meaning of the received information. Dialogue as a specific type of “conversation” is a consistent change of communicative roles, during which the meaning of a speech message is revealed.

The degree of coherence between the actions of the communicator and the recipient in a situation where they alternately assume these roles largely depends on their inclusion in the general context of the activity. The success of verbal communication in the case of dialogue is determined by the extent to which the partners provide the thematic focus of the information, as well as its two-way nature.

When characterizing dialogue, it is important to keep in mind at all times that it is conducted among themselves by individuals who have certain intentions, that is, dialogue is “an active, two-way nature of interaction between partners.” This is what determines the need for attention to the interlocutor, consistency, and coordination of speech with him. Otherwise, the most important condition for the success of verbal communication—understanding the meaning of what the other person is saying, and, ultimately, understanding and knowing another person—will be violated. Through speech, it is not just “information that moves,” but the participants in communication influence each other in a special way, orient each other, and convince each other. There may be two different tasks in orienting a communication partner. A.A. Leontyev proposes to designate them as personal-speech orientation and social-speech orientation, which reflects not so much the difference in the recipients of the message, but rather the predominant theme and content of communication. The influence itself can be understood differently: it can be in the nature of manipulation of another person, that is, directly imposing a position on him, or it can contribute to the actualization of the partner.

In social psychology, there is a large number of experimental studies that elucidate the conditions and methods for increasing the effect of speech influence; both the forms of various communication barriers and ways to overcome them have been studied in sufficient detail. Thus, an expression of resistance to accepting information can be a disconnection of the listener’s attention, a deliberate reduction in one’s perception of the authority of the communicator, as well as an intentional or unintentional “misunderstanding” of the message: either due to the specific phonetics of the speaker, or due to the peculiarities of his style or the logic of text construction . Accordingly, every speaker must have the ability to re-engage the listener’s attention, to attract him with something, to confirm his authority in the same way, and to improve the manner of presenting the material. Of particular importance is the fact that the nature of the statement corresponds to the situation of communication, the measure and degree of the formal nature of communication and other indicators.

A set of certain measures aimed at increasing the effectiveness of speech influence is called “persuasive communication”, on the basis of which the so-called experimental rhetoric is developed - the art of persuasion through speech. To take into account all the variables included in the process of speech communication, K. Hovland proposed a “persuasive communication matrix”, which is a kind of model of the speech communication process with the designation of its individual links. The point of building this kind of models is to not miss a single element of the process when increasing the effectiveness of the impact. American journalist G. Lasswell proposed the simplest model for studying the persuasive effects of the media:

1) Who? (transmits message) - Communicator

2) What? (transmitted) - Message (text)

3) How? (transfer in progress) - Channel

4) To whom? (message sent) – Audience

5) With what effect? - Efficiency

A wide variety of studies have been undertaken on each element of this framework. For example, the characteristics of a communicator that contribute to increasing the effectiveness of his speech are comprehensively described. There can be three types: open - the communicator openly declares himself a supporter of the stated point of view, evaluates various facts in support of this point of view; detached - the communicator is emphatically neutral, compares conflicting points of view, not excluding orientation towards one of them, but not openly stated; closed - the communicator is silent about his point of view, sometimes even resorting to special measures to hide it.

Likewise, ways to increase the impact of message text have been extensively researched. It is in this area that the content analysis technique is used, establishing certain proportions in the relationship between different parts of the text. Audience studies are of particular importance. The results of research in this area refuted the traditional 19th-century view that logically and factually sound information automatically changes audience behavior. It turned out (in Clapper's experiments) that there was no automaticity in this case: in fact, the most important factor turned out to be the interaction of information and audience attitudes.

The considered scheme plays a certain positive role in understanding the methods and means of influence in the communication process. However, it and similar schemes record only the structure of the communication process, but this process is included in a more complex phenomenon - communication, therefore it is important to see its content in this one side of communication. And the content is that in the process of communication people interact with each other. To fully describe the process of mutual influence, it is not enough just to know the structure of the communicative act; it is also necessary to analyze the motives of the communicators, their goals, attitudes, etc. To do this, you need to turn to those sign systems that are included in verbal communication in addition to speech.

4.2.Nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal communication includes the following main sign systems: 1) optical-kinetic, 2) para- and extralinguistic, 3) organization of space and time of the communicative process, 4) visual contact. The combination of these means is designed to perform the following functions: supplementing speech, replacing speech, representing the emotional states of partners in the communicative process.

The optical-kinetic system of signs includes gestures, facial expressions, and pantomime. In general, the optical-kinetic system appears as a more or less clearly perceived property of the general motor function of various parts of the body. Initially, research in this area was carried out by Charles Darwin, who studied the expressions of emotions in humans and animals. It is the general motor skills of various parts of the body that reflect a person’s emotional reactions, therefore the inclusion of an optical-kinetic system of signs in a communication situation gives nuances to communication. These nuances turn out to be ambiguous when the same gestures are used, for example, in different national cultures. The significance of the optical-kinetic system of signs in communication is so great that at present a special field of research has emerged - kinesics, which specifically deals with these problems. For example, in M. Argyle's research, the frequency and strength of gestures were studied in different cultures (within one hour, Finns gestured 1 time, Italians - 80, French - 20, Mexicans - 180).

Paralinguistic and extralinguistic sign systems are also additives to verbal communication. The paralinguistic system is a vocalization system, that is, the quality of the voice, its range, tonality. Extralinguistic system - the inclusion of pauses and other inclusions in speech, such as coughing, crying, laughter, and the very tempo of speech. All these additions increase semantically significant information, but not through additional speech inclusions, but through near-speech techniques.

The organization of space and time of the communicative process also acts as a special system and carries a semantic load as a component of the communicative situation. So, for example, placing partners facing each other promotes contact and symbolizes attention to the speaker, while shouting in the back can also have a certain negative meaning. It has been experimentally proven that mainly some spatial forms of organizing communication are possible both for two partners in the communicative process and in mass audiences.

In the same way, some standards developed in various subcultures regarding the temporal characteristics of communication act as a kind of addition to semantically significant information. Arriving on time for the start of diplomatic negotiations symbolizes politeness towards the interlocutor; on the contrary, being late is interpreted as a sign of disrespect. In some special areas, the possible different lateness tolerances with their corresponding values ​​have been developed in detail.

Proxemics, as a special field that deals with the norms of spatial and temporal organization of communication, has a large amount of experimental material. The founder of proxemics, E. Hall, who calls proxemics “spatial psychology,” studied the first forms of spatial organization of communication in animals. In the case of human communication, a special methodology has been proposed for assessing the intimacy of communication based on studying the organization of its space. Thus, Hall recorded the norms for a person’s approach to a communication partner, characteristic of American culture: intimate distance (0 - 45 cm); personal distance (45 – 125 cm); social distance (120 – 400 cm); public distance (400 – 750 cm). Each of them is characteristic of special communication situations. These studies are of great practical importance, primarily in analyzing the success of the activities of various discussion groups. A number of experiments have shown what the optimal placement of members of two discussion groups should be from the point of view of the convenience of discussion.

In each case, the team members are to the right of the leader. Naturally, it is not the means of proxemics that are able to ensure success or failure in discussions; their content, course, and direction are set by much higher substantive levels of human activity. The optimal organization of the communication space plays a certain role only other things being equal, but even for this purpose it is worth studying the problem.

A number of studies in this area are associated with the study of specific sets of spatial and temporal constants of communicative situations. These more or less clearly defined sets are called chronotopes. Such chronotopes are described as the chronotope of the “hospital ward”, “carriage companion”.

The next specific sign system used in the communicative process is “eye contact”, which takes place in visual communication. Research in this area is closely related to general psychological research in the field of visual perception - eye movements. In socio-psychological studies, the frequency of exchange of glances, their duration, changes in the static and dynamic gaze, avoidance of it, and so on are studied. “Eye contact” at first glance seems to be such a symbolic system, the meaning of which is limited, for example, to the boundaries of purely intimate communication. In the initial studies of this problem, "eye contact" was tied to the study of intimate communication. M. Argyle even developed a certain “intimacy formula”, having found out the dependence of the degree of intimacy, including on such a parameter as communication distance, which allows the use of eye contact to varying degrees. Later, the range of such studies became much wider: signs represented by eye movements are included in a wider range of communication situations. There are works on the role of visual communication for a child. It was revealed that a child tends to fixate attention, first of all, on the human face: the most lively reaction was found to two horizontal circles (an analogue of the eye). Like all non-verbal means, eye contact has the value of complementing verbal communication, that is, it communicates readiness to support communication or stop it, encourages the partner to continue the dialogue, helps to discover one’s “I” more fully, or, on the contrary, to hide it.

For all four systems of nonverbal communication, one common methodological question arises. Each of them uses its own sign system, which can be considered as a specific code. Any information must be encoded, and in such a way that the system of codification and decodification is known to all participants in the communication process. But if in the case of speech this codification system is more or less generally known, then in non-verbal communication it is important in each case to determine what can be considered a code here, and, most importantly, how to ensure that the other communication partner owns this same code. Otherwise, the described systems will not provide any semantic addition to verbal communication.

In general information theory, the concept of “semantically meaningful information” is introduced. This is the amount of information that is given not at the input, but at the output of the system. In the process of human communication, this concept can be interpreted in such a way that semantically significant information is that which influences behavior change, that is, which makes sense. All non-verbal sign systems multiply this meaning and help reveal the full semantic side of information. But such additional disclosure of meaning is possible only if the participants in the communicative process fully understand the meaning of the signs and code used. To build a code that is understandable to everyone, it is necessary to identify some units within each sign system, by analogy with units in the speech system, but it is precisely the identification of such units in non-verbal systems that turns out to be the main difficulty.

Developing methodological problems in the field of kinetics, K. Birdwhistle proposed identifying a unit of human body movements. The main reasoning is based on the experience of structural linguistics: body movements are divided into units, and then more complex structures are formed from these units. The set of units represents a kind of alphabet of body movements. It is proposed to consider the kin, or kinema, as the smallest semantic unit. Although a single kin has no independent meaning, when it changes, the entire structure changes. From kinemes, kinemorphs are formed, which are perceived in a communication situation.

Based on Birdwhistle's proposal, a kind of dictionaries of body movements were built, and even works appeared on the number of kin in different national cultures. But Birdwhistle himself came to the conclusion that it was not yet possible to construct a satisfactory dictionary of body movements: the very concept of kin turned out to be quite vague and controversial. Proposals for constructing a dictionary of gestures are more local in nature. Existing attempts are not too rigorous, but nevertheless a certain catalog of gestures in various national cultures can be described.

In addition to the choice of unit, there is also the question of “localization” of various facial movements, gestures or body movements. We also need a more or less unambiguous grid of the main zones of the human face, body, and hand. Birdwhistle's proposals contained this aspect as well; the entire human body was divided into 8 zones: face, head, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, upper body as a whole, lower body as a whole. The point of constructing a dictionary is to ensure that the units - kin - are tied to certain ones, then a “record” of body movement will be obtained, which will give it a certain unambiguity, that is, it will help fulfill the function of the code. However, the uncertainty of the unit does not allow this recording technique to be considered sufficiently reliable.

A somewhat more modest option is proposed for recording facial expressions and facial expressions. In general, there are more than 20,000 descriptions of facial expressions in the literature. In order to somehow classify them, a methodology was proposed, introduced by P. Ekman and called FAST - Facial Affect Scoring Technique. Principle: the face is divided into three zones by horizontal lines (eyes and forehead, nose and nasal area, mouth and chin). Then, six basic emotions are identified, most often expressed through facial expressions: joy, anger, surprise, disgust, fear, sadness. Fixing emotions by zone allows you to register more or less definitely facial movements. This technique has become widespread in medical practice, and currently there are a number of attempts to apply it in normal communication situations.

All described nonverbal communication systems play a large supporting role in the communication process. Having the ability not only to strengthen or weaken verbal impact, all nonverbal communication systems help to identify such an essential parameter of the communicative process as the intentions of its participants. Together with the verbal communication system, these systems provide the exchange of information that people need to organize joint activities.

Conclusion

The specificity of interpersonal information exchange is manifested in various aspects of communication. It determines the nature of perception, transmission and interpretation of information. Despite the powerful information field in which modern man lives, his ability to highlight and assimilate messages coming from another person is obvious. It is in direct interpersonal communication that we receive the largest amount of information – 80%. Apparently, personal contact makes it so significant that only with the development of obvious signs of social maladaptation can we talk about a person’s desire to receive information bypassing subjective sources. For example, the phenomenon of autism is considered by modern science as a sign of deviant behavior or even a human disease. The main characteristic of autism is the avoidance of contact with people, and not with other material sources of information.

The significance of information passing from one person to another is associated with a powerful axiological context. By communicating information, an individual, voluntarily or involuntarily, conveys his attitude towards it, determined by his value system. If the person himself has a positive attitude towards her, then his statements sound convincing. Information in which the subject expressing it does not have confidence loses the chance of adequate perception and interpretation. When a person receives information from another person, it is perceived more voluminously, deeply and more reliably than information transmitted through an inanimate source. Personalizing information enhances its meaning and makes it more convenient for perception.

Personalization is of particular importance in forming learning motivation and developing interest in the subject of study.

The concept of communication is used in psychology much more often than the concept of perception or interaction. Sometimes it refers to all communication processes, regardless of its content. Such generalization is completely justified, since perceptual, interactive and communicative processes during real communication of people with each other transform into one another, and their strict isolation is necessary, first of all, for scientific or methodological purposes for understanding and analyzing specific socio-psychological phenomena.

List of used literature

1. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. – M: Aspect Press, 2002.

2. Andrienko E.V. Social Psychology. – M., 2002.

3. Leontiev A.A. Psychology of communication. – M.: Smysl, 1997.

4. Parygin B.D. Anatomy of communication. – St. Petersburg, 1999.

5. Parygin B.D. Social Psychology. Problems of methodology, history and theory. – St. Petersburg: IGUP, 1999.

6. Cialdini R. Psychology of influence. – St. Petersburg, 1999.

Communication barriers

Information about the work “Communicative aspect of communication. Verbal and nonverbal communication"

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What are the types and means of communication?

The concept of communication is one of the main terms in psychology, and for good reason. It is in communication that a person becomes aware of himself as an individual, personal values ​​are formed, thinking and self-awareness develop, and he perceives himself as a full-fledged member of a single community.

Typically, a person considers communication to be only direct verbal dialogue between two people or in a group. But it’s worth thinking about it, and we understand that communication is a deeper and more multifaceted process. It implies not only verbal contact as a way of transmitting information. People are in constant interaction with each other, have a certain impact on the individual, changing and improving both society as a whole and individuals.

Types of communication

There are several classifications of types of communication: by method of transmitting information, by purpose, by means, etc.

By method of information transmission:

• Verbal.
• Nonverbal.

By purpose:

• Business and management communication. Aimed at regulating and managing work processes or an organization.
• Personal. Communication focused on personal contact. More emotional.
• Cognitive (cognitive, educational).
• Spiritual, interpersonal. Deeply emotional communication between people.
• Manipulative. A type of communication in which a person intentionally seeks a certain benefit from the interlocutor.
• Secular. Communication on accepted topics. People don't talk about their own experiences or relationships. This is a formal contact.

Depending on the medium of communication:

• Immediate (direct). Personal communication, which involves direct contact and perception of people with each other. Occurs directly with the help of speech, hearing and allows you to immediately receive a reaction or answer.
• Indirect. Communication occurs using special objects, tools or means. This could be a letter, audio recording, video, etc. An example is social networks.

Communication functions

Different psychological schools highlight different numbers of functions that the communication process performs. However, in each of the existing classifications, three main ones can be distinguished:

• communicative information,
• regulatory,
• affective-communicative.

The communicative function of communication allows it to act as a means through which people have the opportunity to exchange various information, their own ideas, experiences, impressions, and knowledge. In the process of communication, the information received is perceived, accepted and passed on.

The regulatory function of communication is manifested in changing, correcting people’s behavior in the process of interaction, developing and organizing joint activities. In the process of communication, a person can consciously or unconsciously influence the behavior and activities of a partner.

The affective function is directly related to a person’s feelings and emotions, the regulation of processes affecting the emotional sphere. In the process of emotional communication, rapprochement occurs or, on the contrary, interest in the interlocutor fades away.

Communication means

When we pronounce this term, we mean any methods of transmitting information that allow the communication process to be carried out at the proper level.

Like communication itself, its means are also divided into verbal and non-verbal.

In addition, there are a number of classifications that divide the means of communication according to various criteria. Thus, M.I. Lisina highlights:

• expressive facial expressions (looks, facial expressions);
• objective-active (postures, gestures);
• speech means of communication (words, speech structure and manner of presentation).

Communication functions –

These are the roles and tasks that communication performs in the process of human social existence:

1) information and communication function

consists of the exchange of information between individuals. The components of communication are: the communicator (transmits information), the content of the message, the recipient (receives the message). The effectiveness of information transfer is manifested in the understanding of information, its acceptance or non-acceptance, assimilation. To carry out the information and communication function, it is necessary to have a unified or similar system of codification/decodification of messages. The transmission of any information is possible through various sign systems;

2) incentive function -

stimulating the activity of partners to organize joint actions;

3) integrative function –

function of uniting people;

4) socialization function

– communication contributes to the development of skills for human interaction in society according to the norms and rules accepted in it;

5) coordination function –

coordination of actions when implementing joint activities;

6) function of understanding –

adequate perception and understanding of information;

7) regulatory-communicative (interactive) function

communication is aimed at regulating and correcting behavior during the direct organization of joint activities of people in the process of their interaction;

affective-communicative function

communication consists of an impact on the emotional sphere of a person, which can be purposeful or involuntary.

Means of communication are methods of encoding, transmitting, processing and decoding information transmitted in the process of communication.

They are verbal and non-verbal.

Verbal means of communication are words with assigned meanings.

Words can be spoken aloud (oral speech), written (written speech), replaced by gestures for the blind, or spoken silently.

Oral speech is a simpler and more economical form of verbal means. It is divided into:

1) dialogical speech in which two interlocutors take part;

2) monologue speech - a speech delivered by one person.

Written speech is used when oral communication is impossible or when accuracy and precision of each word are necessary.

Nonverbal means of communication are a sign system that complements and enhances verbal communication, and sometimes replaces it.

About 55–65% of information is transmitted through nonverbal means of communication. Nonverbal means of communication include:

1) visual aids:

a) kinesthetic means are visually perceived movements of another person that perform an expressive-regulatory function in communication. Kinesics includes expressive movements manifested in facial expressions, posture, gesture, gaze, gait;

b) direction of gaze and visual contact;

c) facial expression;

d) eye expression;

e) posture - the position of the body in space (“leg to leg”, crossed arms, crossed legs, etc.);

f) distance (distance to the interlocutor, angle of rotation towards him, personal space);

g) skin reactions (redness, sweating);

h) auxiliary means of communication (physique features (gender, age)) and means of their transformation (clothing, cosmetics, glasses, jewelry, tattoo, mustache, beard, cigarette, etc.);

2) acoustic (sound):

a) related to speech (loudness, timbre, intonation, tone, pitch, rhythm, speech pauses and their localization in the text);

b) not related to speech (laughter, gnashing of teeth, crying, coughing, sighs, etc.);

3) tactile – associated with touch:

a) physical influence (leading a blind person by the hand, etc.);

b) takevika (hand shake, pat on the shoulder).

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