Research Theories

1. What is Communication?
• Communication is simply act of transferring information from one place to another. Although this is just a simple definition, when we think about how we may communicate the subject becomes a lot more complex.
Source: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/what-is-communication.html#ixzz2lW2I2Ykb
• Full definition of Communication:
 An act or instance of transmitting.
 Information transmitted or conveyed.
 A verbal or written message.
 A process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs or behaviour.
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communication
• Communication is passed from one place to another/ includes all procedures by which one mind may affect another.
Source: “Communication and Human Behaviour” by Brent D. Ruben/ page 11
• Communication is the process of sharing messages between a source and a receiver, either directly channels, with the former desiring to change the awareness, attitude, skill and/or practice of the latter.
Source: “Conducting and Managing Communication Survey Research: The Asian Experience” by Cesar M. Mercado, Ph.D/ page 18
• Communication brings to a mind an image of a speaker addressing an audience from behind a lectern, the lively discussion of colleagues at a meeting, or an exchange of glands between lovers.

Source: “Communication and Human Behaviour” by Brent D. Ruben from Bachelor in Journalism III-1 SY: 2005-2006/ page 12
ANALYSIS:
Communication is the exchange, flow, sharing of information, messages or data from one person to another. It involves a sender which transmits the data or the message to a receiver. A sender should be adequate in communication skills for him/her to transmit the information correctly. It is a process where in it can change a person’s perception to a thing, can be aware to something they don’t know and may also be improved the individuals skill. They said that effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information that the sender intended to transmit. Communication can be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal in a form of saying it face-to-face to a person or in groups. Non-verbal however is the written form of communication.

2. What are the levels of Communication?
• Levels of Communication:
 Intrapersonal Communication - refers to the communication to our self. It may be silent or verbal type of communication.
 Interpersonal Communication - refers to one-to-one interaction between two persons often occurs face-to-face.
 Small-group Communication - takes place within a small group. This purpose is to communicate information that is common interest to the group members.
 Public Communication - considered as a large group of people of laypersons with a vast difference in a number of factors, socio economic status, literacy level, occupation and habitat.
 Social Communication - it takes place in the social context. Being a social animal, human beings establish relationship to other people to accomplish several purposes through their life span.
Source:http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/medicine/9789332501461/chapter-1-review-of-communication-process/ch1_5_xhtml
• Levels of Communication:
Level of Communication Description
Impersonal/Automatic
Exchange of familiar or automatic phrases (e.g., how are you, good morning). Smooth, pleasant, cheerful, efficient, noninvolvement method of dealing with people.
Impersonal/Factual
Reporting facts. Efficient, noninvolvement method of transmitting information to people.
Impersonal/Personal
Reporting or communicating one's own ideas, thoughts, and judgments. Can range from completely impersonal to deeply personal.
Personal
Communicating personal feelings and thoughts. Personal to deeply personal. Communication requirement for friendship and romantic love.

Source: http://www.shlomifish.org/n-t-/neo-tech/Neo-Tech/advantage95.html
• Levels of Communication:
 Intrapersonal Communication - is the basis of all other forms of human communication.
 Interpersonal Communication - communication in a face-to-face situation.
 Mass Communication - is the process of distinct from interpersonal and intrapersonal communication.
Source: “Mass Communication, An Introduction” by John Bitner/ pages 8-10
• Levels of Communication:
 Intrapersonal Communication - basic unit of communication.
 Interpersonal Communication - is the communication between members of different cultures.
 Interviewing - defined communication transaction that emphasized questions and answers.
 Small-group Communication - defined as the process by which three or more members of a group exchange verbal and non-verbal message in an attempt to influence one another.
 Public Communication - it occurs in public rather than private places – that is in auditorium, classroom, ball room and so on.
 Mass Communication - communication that is mediated. The source of a message communicates through some print or electronic medium.
Source: “Human Communication” by Stewart L. Tubbs
• Levels of Communication:
 Intrapersonal Communication - communicating with one-self.
 Dyadic/ Interpersonal Communication - social scientist call two persons interacting a dyad, and they often use the term dyadic communication to describe this type of communication.
 Small-group Communication - is common fixture of everyday life.
 Public Communication - occurs when a group becomes too large for all members to contribute. One characteristic of public communication is an unequal amount of speaking.
 Mass Communication- consists of messages that are transmitted to large, wide-spread audiences via electronic and print media.
Source: “Understanding Human Communication 7th Edition” by Ronald B. Adler and George Rodman/ pages 4-6
ANALYSIS:
In my over all research, there are five levels of communication; intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, small-group communication, public communication and mass communication. Intrapersonal communication is a communication to our self. It also said that it is the basic unit of communication. Because I think that before we communicate to other people we should talk to our self the probability of result when we said something to others. Interpersonal communication is a communication between one people to another or a face-to-face instance. Small-group communication is a defined as three or more person in the group exchange communication. It is common scenario of our life. For example is talking to your family during your meal time. Public communication is a form of communication when you are in a large body of group. Too large for some not to participate and have an unequal part of sharing thoughts. Mass communication is a form of communication where in the messages is transmitted through print or electronic medium like television, computer, radio and newspaper.

3. What are the powers of communication?
• Communication is the absolutely indispensable leadership discipline. But, too often, leaders and professional communicators get mired in tactics, and fail to influence public attitudes in the ways that would help them the most. The Power of Communication builds on the U.S. Marine Corps' legendary publication Warfighting, showing how to apply the Corps' proven leadership and strategy doctrine to all forms of public communication — and achieve truly extraordinary results. World-renowned leadership communications expert, consultant, and speaker Helio Fred Garcia reveals how to orient on audiences, recognizing their centers of gravity and most critical concerns. You'll learn how to integrate and succeed with all three levels of communication: strategic, operational, and tactical. Garcia shows how to take the initiative and control the agenda… respond to events with speed and focus… use the power of maneuver… prepare and plan… and put it all together, becoming a "habitually strategic" communicator.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Power-Communication-The-Inspire-Effectively/dp/013288884X
• If you’re reinforcing the need for data to drive teacher effectiveness, meet your college and career readiness goals, or implement the Common Core State Standards, the way you communicate with your peers, stakeholders, and the public will be critical to your success. Engaging in effective communication about the connection between education data and policy will help prevent mistrust and confusion; allow state leaders to be proactive about messages about data—or “own” the conversation; and provide stakeholders at every level with common language to discuss tricky issues.
Source: http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/files/Pwr%20of%20communication.pdf
• Powers of Communication:
 Pleasure - the purpose of public communication can also be pleasure.
 Attitude Influence- we are interested in influencing a person’s attitude as well as having him or her understand what we are saying.
 Improved Relationships - it is commonly believed that if a person can select the right words, prepare his or her message ahead of time, state precisely, perfect communication will be ensured.
 Action - it seems easier to get someone to understand your message that is to get the person to agree with.
Source: “Human Communication” by Stewart L. Tubbs/ Chapter 1
• Powers of communication:
 Awareness- this refers to a person’s consciousness about a new idea, object, or a person such as awareness of a project, technology or extension worker.
 Knowledge- this refers to all the amount of facts or info about an idea, object or a person.
 Attitude- This refers to a person’s feeling toward an idea, object or a person.
 Practice- This refers to a person’s continuous, actual use of such techniques.
 Skill- This refers to a person’s ability to finish a certain task correctly and on time.

Source: “Conducting and Managing Communication Survey Research: The Asian Experience” Cesar M. Mercado, Ph.D/ page 23

• Powers of communication:
 Communication is consequential. Understanding the theory, research, and application of communication wills make significant difference in your life and in the lives of the people around the world.
 Communication is ubiquitous. You cannot avoid communication, and you will engage in communication nearly in every minute of every day of your life.

Source: “Human Communication Third Edition” by Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth & Harter

ANALYSIS: It is really a fact that communication is powerful. It can give you anything you want. Pleasure, Improved relationship to others, Influence others attitude, Action, can be Skilled and Practiced. It can also gives us awareness and to be knowledgeable. Pleasure in terms of we can get what we want when we are successful to persuade others by our communication skills. Improved our relationships with others through expressing our feelings to them. Influence others attitude in a positive way because we can say to them what the facts really is. To be knowledgeable in terms of communication. We can both exchange thoughts or ideas so in that way, we can benefit to one another. 4. What are the misconceptions in communication?
• 55% of the meaning of communication is body language, 38% is in tonality, and 7% rests in the words themselves. In fact, Mehrabian's research said NOTHING at all about the relative contributions in general speech. Nothing. Anyone who took the time to actually look at the research would know that, but, well, most communications trainers and instructors don't -- call it laziness or ignorance, and the misconception continues, passed on person to person. In fact, Mehradian's results have to do with what happens when the words themselves are ambiguous, OR there is a conflict (incongruity) between the words a person uses and the non-verbal (actually and preverbal like tone). When there is ambiguity or conflict between the channels people tend to rely more on the non-verbal to evaluate the emotional state of the person speaking. Clearly though, even without reading the research, a little common sense here would tell us that the old saw about percentages of meaning makes absolutely no sense at all. If it was true, does it mean the when you read a book 93% of the meaning is lost? Because there's no non-verbal? Of course not. People who cite these statistics mark themselves as ignorant, and their ability to teach communication should be immediately suspect. And, yes, I hate to say this, but even Toastmasters (certainly a reputable but somewhat over praised group) is known to throw these numbers about.

Source: http://work911.com/communication/mehrabian.htm

• Misconception about communication:
 Communication does not require complete understanding - in this fast-paced metropolis we all live in, usually, one does not have time to chit-chat it up with someone.
 Communication is not always a good thing -we learn to miss other person and long for them
 Communication is not simple - we should always use the right words at the right time.
 Meanings rest in people, not in words - we are all pods of filled with thoughts and emotions. We all think and feel relatively the same way.

Source:http://ourhumancommunication.blogspot.com/2009/01/misconceptions-about-communication.html

• Misconception about communication:
 Communication does not always require complete understanding - some understanding is necessary for us to coordinate you interaction, there are some types of communication in which understanding as usually conceived it isn’t the primary goal.
 Communication is not always a good thing - for most people, belief in the value of communication rates somewhere close to parenthood in their hierarchy of important values. In truth, communication is neither good nor bad itself. Rather its value comes from the way it is used.
 No single person or event causes another reaction - many factors play role in how others will react to your communication in a single situation.
 Communication will not solve all problems - many unhappy people who believed that if they could just express themselves better, their relationship could just improve. Though this is sometimes true, it’s an exaggeration to say that communicating – even communicating clearly – is guaranteed panacea.
 More communication is not always better- sometimes; excessive communication simply is unproductive as when we talk. One key of successful communication then is to share amount of information in skillful manner.
 Meaning rest in people, not in words - it’s a mistake to think that, just because you used the word in one way, others will do so too. Sometimes/ differing interpretations of symbols are easily caught as when we heard the statement “HE’S GAY” to mean the subject homosexual preference only to find out he is cheerful – and straight.
 Communication is not simple - most people assumed that communication is not aptitude that people develop without the need of training—rather like breathing.

Source: “Understanding Human Communication 7th Edition” by Ronald B. Adler and George Rodman/ pages 20-23

• Communication Misconception:
 More Communication is not always Better - Excessive communication is simply unproductive as when two people "talk a problem to death," going over the same ground again without making progress. There are other times when talking too much actually aggravates the problem.
 Communication will not solve all problems - even the best-planned, best timed communication won't solve a problem. Sometimes clear communication is even the cause of problems.
 Communication is not a Natural Ability- communication skills are rather like athletic ability. Even the most inept of us can learn to be more effective with training and practice.

Source: Interplay: “The Process of Interpersonal Communication 4th Edition” by Ronald B. Adler, Lawrence B. Rosenfeld & Neil Towne/ pages 16-18

• As we have seen, Communication has generally been used to refer the activity of sending and receiving messages and to descriptive as a whole.

Source: “Communication and Human Behavior” by Brent D. Ruben

ANALYSIS: There are plenty of misconceptions in communication. Let me begin with its word itself, 55% of the meaning of communication is body language, 38% is in tonality, and 7% rests in the words themselves. The meaning of a message rest in people not in words, we may over think the real message because of the common thing we knew. It may always depend to a persons understanding. They said that communication is an easy task to do. But the real thing here is that to be a good communicator, you should deliver the message correctly. Some people have trainings to be a good communicator because that is their passion. The excessive way of communication can’t help the receiver to understand the message. You should know how to build a correct sentence, choose right words and deliver it clearly.

5. Why we communicate?

• Importance of communicating:
 Communication can indeed satisfy our needs. It can gratify physical healthy needs.
 Communication can also satisfy our needs to be social people as well as our identity needs.
 Communication can provide practical needs.

Source:http://ourhumancommunication.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-do-we-need-communication.html

• Why do we communicate at all? In general terms they are as follows:
 We communicate to persuade: It means that we want someone to do something and this desire of ours is communicated. The mother patting the child to stop crying, the advertiser displaying a model in a new T-Shirt and the politician haranguing (urging) his audience to vote for him are all having the same objective of persuading, while communicating it differently.
 We communicate in order to give or provide information: The science teacher demonstrating an experiment, the bank announcing a reduction in interest rates and the finance minister, presenting the budget are all communicating to provide information.
 We communicate seeking information: A passer by asking you the way to the post-office, the student asking the teacher for some clarification or the investigating policeman making discreet enquiries are all seeking information by using this communication skill.
 We communicate to express our emotions like courage or fear, joy or sorrow, satisfaction or disappointment with appropriate gestures and words. Some people have unlimited skill to emote, (i.e., to display excessive emotion) to suit the occasion. Our politicians are capable of emoting well, which by itself is a communication skill.

Source: http://communicationtheory.org/why-do-we-communicate/

• Why we need to communicate? Simply it follows:
 Survival of the species- perpetuation of a particular species of living thing from one generation to the next involves rules in which communication is vital.
 Adaptation- among the most fundamental is adaptation, in which the information processing plays a role.

Source: “Communication and Human Behavior” by Brent D. Ruben

• We communicate for:
 Physical needs- evidence suggests that an absence of satisfying communication can even jeopardize life itself.
 Identity Needs- communication does more than enable us to survive. It is the way – indeed, the only way we learn who we are.
 Social Needs- besides helping defined who we are; communication provides a vital link with others. Researchers and theorists have identified a range of social needs we satisfy communicating: pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, and control.
 Practical Needs- we shouldn’t overlook the everyday important functions of communication servers.

Source: “Understanding Human Communication 7th Edition” by Ronald B. Adler and George Rodman/ pages 6-9

• We need to communicate:
 You communicate to learn more about yourself, to discover who you are.
 You communicate to learn more about others, to reduce uncertainty about your relationships with those around you.
 You communicate to learn more about the world around you.
 You communicate to share the world with others and to help them.
 You communicate to persuade or influence others or to test and resist influence on you.
 You communicate to have fun, to play, to relax from the rigors of the other kinds of communication we have listed above.
Source: “The Dynamics of Human Communication: A Laboratory Approach 6th Edition” by Gail e. Myers and Michele Tolela Myers/ pages 4-6

ANALYSIS: On my own understanding, I communicate to express myself, to have a better relationship to others, and to explore new things in life. We communicate not only to share information but also to know something to others. It is necessary to communicate to continue living. There is a saying that “No man is an island”, man is a social being that cannot exist without his fellows. No one is self-sufficient and everyone relies on the other for successful survival. There are several things I gathered to explain this question. The main objective of this is that, communication is the key for a better relationship to others. That is the best way on how I can explain “why we communicate”.