Human Communication Theory and Research

Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges

Robert L. Heath, Jennings Bryant

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135677053
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Human Communication Theory and Research introduces students to the growing body of theory and research in communication, demonstrating the integration between the communication efforts of interpersonal, organizational, and mediated settings. This second edition builds from the foundation of the original volume to demonstrate the rich array of theories, theoretical connections, and research findings that drive the communication discipline. Robert L. Heath and Jennings Bryant have added a chapter on new communication technologies and have increased depth throughout the volume, particularly in the areas of social meaning, critical theory and cultural studies, and organizational communication. The chapters herein are arranged to provide insight into the breadth of studies unique to communication, acknowledging along the way the contributions of researchers from psychology, political science, and sociology. Heath and Bryant chart developments and linkages within and between ways of looking at communication. The volume establishes an orientation for the social scientific study of communication, discussing principles of research, and outlining the requirements for the development and evaluation of theories. Appropriate for use in communication theory courses at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level, this text offers students insights to understanding the issues and possible answers to the question of what communication is in all forms and contexts.

1

Why Study Theories and Conduct Research?

For a moment, consider one of your typical days. Let’s imagine the following events. You get up in the morning, awakened by your favorite early morning radio program. Perhaps the movement of someone else getting up in the morning awakens you. You engage in conversation. You get ready for school, work, a day of chores, or merely hang around your apartment or house. During the morning you call someone about some service you need performed, perhaps a car repair. You read part, then want to read more, of a newspaper before leaving. While waiting for your car to be repaired, you read a magazine or novel. You have explained the needed repair to the service person, but as you go over the bill you note that something seems incorrect. You get into an argument. As you drive across town, you listen to the radio, tape, or CD player in your car. You meet a friend for lunch and have a pleasant conversation. After lunch you wave, “Good bye, see you later.” In the evening you listen to television news and write a birthday card to a cousin. You spend some time after the news visiting with a neighbor. The landlord comes to see whether you have the rent. You say, “My parents have not sent the money they promised me,” or “The check is in the mail; it should be here tomorrow.” Are those statements deception on your part? You start watching evening television and decide to go to a friend’s house. There you watch a couple of sitcoms and part of a cable movie that turns out to be boring. You discuss going to a movie over the weekend. But now you need to study. Does the person have some notes for one class? “What kinds of tests does the faculty member give?” “What classes are you taking in the spring?” you ask. You go home, and call someone in a student organization. You make plans for the meeting on Thursday when you will begin to get organized for the fall social event. You listen to the CD player. Then you turn on your favorite late night shows. You set the remote control to shut the television off in 30 minutes. You think that tomorrow you need to e-mail a friend who is studying abroad this semester. And you need to do some research using the Internet. You drift into sleep. Then the radio alarm turns on. Another day has begun.

For a moment, think about the features that most distinguish human beings from other animals? People build tools. Other animals do as well, but human tools are more complex and sophisticated. Chimpanzees, for instance, use wet branches to extract termites from their mounds so they can be eaten. Many other fascinating instances of tools can be found throughout many animal species, including playing with snowballs. Humans have much more sophisticated tools, such as automobiles, computers, space travel vehicles, and remote controls for televiewing or for operating radio receivers. Human toys can be as simple as snowballs or as complex as interactive computer games. Each day we more fully develop and understand what is called the information age. If we were impressed before by the ability of humans to communicate, we now have even more opportunities and tools with the advent of cyberspace. It is an ingenious linking of mass communication with interpersonal communication.

Another trait that distinguishes humans is their ability to communicate in quite complex ways. Humans communicate, but so do other animals. Bands of animals could not cooperate for the survival of their species without communication. Animals express emotions, such as grieving over the loss of loved ones. They play and exhibit joy. They let one another know where they are and if they need help. Elephants can communicate over long distances, as can various species of whales. Although we are impressed by the communication capability of other beings, even casual observation leads us to be impressed by how much more vast human communication skills are.

Communication is one of the perspectives that gives us the most insight into human nature. Human beings are “symbol users,” as well as “symbol makers” and “symbol misusers.” With this observation, Burke (1966) underscored how people communicate to manage interpersonal relationships, express feelings, share views of reality, and disseminate informative and persuasive messages through media. Through words, great and magnificent cities are created, problems of health and famine are solved, and great dramas and comedies are written. Words and other symbols allow people to plumb the depths of their souls as well as those of their friends and enemies. People share ideas in order to work together. They can plan and operate complex business, nonprofit, and governmental organizations that span the globe. Other animals, such as humpback whales and elephants, communicate for social purposes by calling to others of their species. Whether other animals use symbols to communicate is a moot issue here; people are more elaborate and complex communicators.

As Burke said, people are symbol misusers. Through symbols, people define and categorize one another in ways that lead them to discriminate against some and think favorably of others. If people hold one religious orientation too firmly, they can become intolerant of people who do not hold similar views. Symbols can lead nations to wage war in order to impose their values on enemies. Symbols allow people to scream racial or ethnic slurs at persons they do not like. Words support the development of the science needed to go to the moon and to solve health problems; words provide means to attempt genocide. Words can be used to cast people away as well as to welcome them. Advertisers can use misleading advertisements to entice people to buy defective products unworthy of their cost. They also provide customers with details so they can make intelligent purchases.

We begin this chapter by asking, why should we study communication? One answer is that people study communication because it is vital to their lives. From infancy, you have watched other people communicate. You have imitated some communication behavior to see if you could successfully use those strategies to improve relationships, motivate others, or persuade people to go along with your ideas and plans. As a child, you enacted conversations that you observed between your parents and teachers. By this time in your life, you have engaged in thousands of communication interactions. You know that friendship and business success require effective communication. You learned early in life that communication can help you satisfy your needs, perhaps by making requests of your parents or by creating friendships with other children in your neighborhood.

Whether you actually stopped to think about it or not, you were quick to realize that communication is strategic. Some words are appropriate in certain social contexts but not in others. You noticed that the method in which messages are framed and delivered nonverbally increased their chances of success or failure. Even though you may not have formal theories about how people communicate, you have informal ones. Now it is time to study communication instructively, perhaps to make it serve your interests even more.

Communication research is not interested in knowing about the world independent of people. It focuses on how people interact in all contexts: interpersonal, group, organizational, and mediated.

This chapter lays a foundation for the remainder of the book by setting the study of communication into perspective. It (a) explains the conditions and processes of inquiry, (b) presents the criteria that can be used to compare and evaluate theories, (c) supplies key terms that are vital to understanding how scholars think, (d) examines several broad research perspectives, (e) discusses assumptions that we make about human nature that have implications for our thoughts on communication, and (f) shows how communication is best understood by taking a broad perspective based on research into key subdisciplines. These subdisciplines are featured as chapters in this book.

Systematic Study of Communication

Understanding of the phenomena of our lives begins with a hypothesis that can be tested and a theory that can be examined. In explaining the usefulness of theories, McGuire (1981) called them maps. “Knowledge is not a perfect map of the thing known but without it one has to move through the environment with no map at all” (p. 42). Each of us has maps, theories about communication.

The trick is in making proper use of the theory, which involves recognizing the brilliant partial insight into reality that is provided by any theory’s special perspective, seeing its applicability to a specific problem whose puzzling aspects it can illuminate, while at the same time recognizing its limitations and being open to alternative theoretical insights from which guidance can be obtained as one’s initial theory begins to prove unsatisfactory (p. 42)

Theory is needed because no matter how long and hard people examine any object of inquiry—communication in this case—it will not reveal itself. Only by developing and testing hypotheses and weighing the lines of arguments advanced by different theories can the secrets of human communication be unlocked.

This book offers many maps. Each should increase your understanding of communication even if you do not agree with the points it makes. The theories may give you insights into how to communicate more effectively. Many theories in the chapters that follow probably will confirm your own observations about the dynamics of how people communicate in relationships, in organizations, and as they encounter mass media. The discussions may give you new and important insights into how communication works. Without maps, people wander helplessly and aimlessly. A good theory should help you to avoid being helpless and aimless. In fact, you have spent a lifetime developing theories of communication, probably without realizing what you were doing.

When you ask why you should study communication theories and research, realize that you already are a communication theorist. Each day you may watch television programs to be entertained, view commercial advertisements to learn about new products, or watch news broadcasts to find out information. You might say, “Tonight I deserve to reward myself with a couple of laughs on TV.” Or you might decide to tune into the news to find out what is happening or to see how the weather report might affect your weekend plans. Researchers, as well as you, want to know why and how people select, think about, and respond to such programs.

When you begin to converse with someone, you follow a theory that you have worked out regarding interpersonal interaction. If you want to borrow something from someone, you are likely to use a theory about what to say and do if the person is reluctant to grant your wish. You might be less mindful of what you say on the way into an office to work than if you are going to visit a friend who is suffering from cancer. When you participate in a meeting you do so according to some theory you have formed about group dynamics, leadership, and turn taking. You may not consciously think of these theories all the time, or even much of the time, but, if you were pressed to do so, you would be able to explain why you are communicating as you are. To understand and explain why people do what they do are key roles of theories.

Scholars have discovered that people employ theories they have created to guide the way they engage in communication. Exploring this line of analysis, B. J. O’Keefe and McCornack (1987) reasoned that during conversations, each participant operates out of a theory of conversation. The success of each set of conversational participants may depend on the extent to which their conversational goals are similar and whether they use their theories competently as they communicate to achieve their outcomes.

Theory can give orderly, as opposed to whimsical, explanations of events, interactions, and processes in which you engage each day. When you study theories and research that supports them, you should be able to clarify and improve your theories. Reading the theories and research in this book should increase your insight and help you communicate better, but we make no guarantees.

Theory, research, and practice of communication are interrelated. Broadcasters and editors want to understand how and why viewers use television, listeners use radio, or readers use print journalism. This knowledge can help them develop programming. It can shape editorial policies. By understanding communication, government regulators and media managers can create laws and policies, such as designating movies by codes (G, PG, R, or NC-17). Research is used by advertisers of products and services, public relations practitioners, public speakers, and other professional communicators. Many large advertising and public relations companies support extensive applied research programs. Insight into communication can improve employee performance in many occupational contexts: business, health and medical service, legal practice, and others. For instance, researchers study doctor–patient communication to increase the likelihood that patients will tell their doctors the truth about symptoms and to improve the likelihood that doctors can persuade patients to take the prescribed medication. Understanding interpersonal communication may help people communicate more effectively with family members, thereby increasing the pleasure of family life.

For these reasons, we are convinced that studying communication is a benefit. People are naturally curious about communication and generate explanations for the vital aspect of their lives. Professional researchers (e.g., faculty members) study theory and research to be able to assist students’ understanding of the phenomena of their life experiences. Applied researchers use theory and research to increase the effectiveness of applied communication, such as advertising. For these reasons, the study of communication is not merely an intellectual challenge. It has value because it can make our personal and professional lives better.

This chapter lays a foundation for studying communication. It explains how systematic inquiry entails observation, analysis, generalization, and prediction. As people engage in daily communication activities, they naively construct and apply theories of communication. In contrast, social scientists go beyond mere intuition and personal observation to understand human communication by constructing theories and then conducting research to test them. Behind systematic inquiry and research is the desire to discover order in our social universe. Systematic study requires researchers to go beyond mere observation of behavior, such as noting that some people watch more television or are more persuasive than others. Researchers are interested in observable behavior patterns, such as noting that people meet and greet one another ritualistically. Research probes the human mind and looks for patterns of communication behavior to discover why people communicate as they do and to learn what effects communication has on opinions and relationships.

Your study of human communication will be easier and more rewarding, even fascinating, if you catch the spirit of observing and thinking about communication behavior with a sense of wonder. You may, for instance, wonder why sometimes a person will understand you quite clearly and at other times you can’t seem to get that person to understand you no matter what strategies you try. Are you causing the problem or is the other person? Or are both of you at fault?

Many other questions may prompt research. Why are some television shows entertaining and others not? Why do some people prefer one kind of television show over other programs? Why do some television programs make you laugh and others make you cry? Do all people greet one another in the same ways, for instance, saying “Good morning,” even when the weather is miserable and they are ill? If not, why are there differences? And what are the different greeting patterns? Why do people ask the questions they do when they meet for the first time? How do they communicate to reduce the uncertainty they feel toward the world around them, their relationships with other people, and their own sense of competence? Why do some companies run smoothly with each employee seeming to understand what is going on, whereas in other companies nothing goes properly? Why do some employees feel miserable about their jobs and believe that no one in the department involves them in the flow of information and decision making?

Questions such as these show how inquisitive people can be about the ways they communicate. Seeking answers to these and other questions indicates the desire to understand communication to make it serve us better. To do so requires systematic investigation of the major factors that influence how and why people communicate as they do.

Theories as Competing Perspectives

Warning! You will encounter many theories and research findings in this book. Some theories and research findings challenge and contradict one another. Some findings support one theory but not another.

This book does not present one theory but demonstrates the robust debate that results when many researchers strive to unlock the mysteries of communication. The goal of this book is not to convince you that any one or even several theories can best explain the phenomena of communication. Rather the purpose of the book is to help you expand your capacity to investigate and understand communication from different perspectives by weighing one theory against another. For this reason, the book features a philosophy of social scientific inquiry, touches on factors related to that way of approaching intellectual problems, and uses a variety of theories and research findings to demonstrate problems and progress of such inquiry.

Life would be ideal if we had only one theory that explained all communication behavior and processes. It would be nice if all hypotheses led to helpful and noncontradictory results. But life is imperfect. Communication research and theory building are dynamic activities. Any theory may compete against one or several alternative explanations. The activities of research and theory construction are a debate between alternative views. One researcher thinks she or he has a sound explanation of some phenomenon. That explanation is set out as a theory. Persons agree or disagree with that explanation. Other theories, explanations, are proposed. So the process of academic inquiry progresses.

Posing theories and producing research findings are informative and persuasive activities. Researchers work to explain their ideas and their research findings. They build what they believe is a persuasive argument to support the conclusions they draw. No theory is without flaws; each has its critics and detractors. In the study of communication, as in other social and physical sciences, you will benefit from thinking of researchers and theorists as advocates who assert a thesis on a topic. They are expected to provide research to support their assertions. Without research findings, a theory is mere speculation.

Nature, Processes, and Limits of Human Inquiry

What makes one theory better than another? How do we know which theory is worth our attention? Questions such as these direct our attention to an examination of the processes and criteria of inquiry.

Each theory is tested by the extent to which it is insightful, accurate, encompassing, and predictive. A theory must accurately describe and account for the important observable events in the communication behavior being scrutinized. Any theory is only as good as its ability to explain what happens and make predictions. It should be useful. Keep in mind that scholars do not dream up theories just to frustrate students—not usually anyway! To more fully understand the process of inquiry, let’s focus on some key topics.

Inquiry Begins With a Sense of Curiosity. You probably can remember some of the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Why Study Theories and Conduct Research?
• 2. Anatomy of the Communication Process
• 3. Language, Meaning, and Messages
• 4. Information and Uncertainty: Concepts and Contexts
• 5. Persuasion: Concepts and Contexts
• 6. Interpersonal Communication: Relationships, Expectations, and Conflict
• 7. Interpersonal Communication: Social Cognition and Communication Competence
• 8. Communication in Organizations
• 9. Mass-Mediated Communication
• 10. New Communication Technologies
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index