Communication Theory Model

The authors’ posed a series of questions that they strongly believed the family was thinking. Did Don really wonder “will the family undertake changing the whole family without me?” The root underlining problem of the family was that they did not know how to communicate and could not establish their own structure to allow their family system to operate in harmony.

Communication theories are important to learn and understand. Learning these theories helps us apply the theory to our own life. It helps our critical thinking skills as well as benefits one to understand the value of research that has been accomplished in this field. Understanding communication theories can help us make sense of our daily life experiences. There are three Communication theories that I have studied that have touched on my personal and professional life. These theories are Communication Privacy Management, Social Penetration Theory, and Organizational Culture Theory.

John Banmen said “Virginia Satir, the pioneer of conjoint family therapy, has, over the years taught, and developed a family therapy system based on the belief that people have the resources to move their life patterns from a basic survival level to a higher level of becoming more fully human.” A brief overview of Satir’s work will define communication and self-esteem as Satir would use them, create an understanding of family dynamics, which allows the reader to fully conceptualize how Satir’s put her theory into practice.

The communication cycle is a commonly used theory of communication. It was first developed by Charles Berner in 1965; it was then modified by Michael Argyle, who was a social psychologist, in 1972. The concept of a ‘communication cycle’ makes it clear that, in order to have effective communication, it must be a two way process. As well as transferring messages to others in a definite, clear way, health care professionals must be able to respond to the verbal feedback as well as the non-verbal feedback. So, effective communication has to involve effort from both participators (both the sender as well as the receiver) in the communication.

As we know families as always changing and so are the dynamics. Communication is a transactional process that is changing over time. Two central scopes of family behavior are adaptability and cohesion. Each is divided into four levels to create 16 combinations. Overtime it has changed to fit into cohesion, adaptability and communication.

Reconstruction and change are essential for the family system to facilitate the homeostatic process, as explained by the fourth principle of the theory (Minuchin, 1985). It includes family questioning current methods, evaluating and developing potential arrangements. While earlier principles analyse the wholeness of the family system, the fifth principle explains that families can be examined in various segments such as the parent-children subsystem, sibling subsystem and spousal subsystem (Minuchin, 1985). Within the family, relationships between members are formed, and the interactions between each subsystem are regulated by unspoken rules and arrangements, and this is the final principle of family systems theory (Minuchin, 1985). Each subsystem operates independently, and it may encounter changes in the relationship due to various determinants.

Although families may not always feel this connectedness, it is always there. The emotional climate of the family is interdependent of what is going on in the family as a whole. If one unit of the family is distant emotionally, it can have a great affect on the whole family. These attitudes are reciprocated throughout the entire family. It is important that most family members are able to stay healthy emotionally and have that ability to communicate their feelings to one another. Problems arise when individuals don’t fulfill their roles that are needed from all family members. Michael Kerr, explained this idea in an article he wrote to explain the family system theory. He explained that “heightened tension can intensify these processes that promote that promote unity and teamwork, and this can lead to problems” (Kerr,

Humans act toward people, things, and events on the basis of the meanings they assign to them. Once people define a situation as real, it has very real consequences. Without language there would be no thought, no sense of self, and no socializing presence of society within the individual. (Socio-cultural tradition)

Some of the major concepts behind Communications Theory are clarified in the following five categories: Blaming, placating, computing, distracting and leveling. Satir developed these categories to better understand the dynamics behind a variety of behavioral styles that can be observable amongst family members. Blamer behavior finds fault and has trouble accepting responsibility. This person is usually blaming someone or something else. The blamer hides a feeling of alienation and loneliness behind a tough and complacent mask and is more likely to initiate conflict. On the other hand,

Alina’s family has many strengths and weaknesses. An important portion of family dynamics is caring. Wits present with strong bond and the appreciation that every family member has for each other. Alina is the central person that provides a lot of affection to her children as well as her husband. She always wants everyone to be happy. Also, everyone in this family have each other back. For example, when Alina was diagnosed with the breast cancer, everyone was supportive and wanted to provide help. For Alina, it was a devastating situation; she was going through emotional rollercoaster. However her family did not give up on her. Together as a time they helped Alina to go through

It is important to agree and commit to a strategy for communicating as a project team. Consider options. Having a communication strategy that people haven’t had an opportunity to agree on, or who aren’t aware of, will mean that communication won’t be effective.

Conflict as far as communication is concerned refers to a situation where there is no common point between two communicating parties (Uma pp 1033). As it has been elaborated by (Satoko pp 25 – 27), conflict arises when in a communication model; the two communicating parties have no point of agreement. As described in the Osgoods model, this can be explained as a situation where the two circles representing communicating parties in the model has no point of intersection. This means that the circles instead of having a space where they are overlapping, stand-alone independently. People who find themselves in such a communication model have no point to communicate. This explains what happened later in the movie when Hitch met Sarah.

This may be viewed in many perspectives as individuals each sibling or family member will be different from the other. Individual’s backgrounds can play a role in being different or the same. In addition to the type of relationship or bond a child may endure from their family. Personalities, characteristic, may share similarities, but be quite different. Structural influence may change the dynamic of experiences for a family depending on rather the support is for or against a member of the family. The life style, financial stability their career and education orientation for growth.

Theory explains why parties to communication experience conflicting pulls causing relationships to be in a constant state of flux. The closer individuals become to one another, the more conflict will arise to pull them apart.

In interpersonal communication there are many theories that are similar yet different in many ways. The theories can be combined to describe people and how those people interact and communicate with each other. Many of these theories help explain how people in society form impressions of others, how they maintain these impressions, why people interact with certain people in society, and how people will use these impressions that they have formed later on in life. These theories also help people to better understand themselves, to better understand interpersonal communication, and to better understand people in general. There are two theories in interpersonal communication that, despite their differences, can go hand in hand. The first is