Structure of communication: types, forms and models

The concept of communication and its role in the development of humanity

The psychology of communication is a huge layer of theoretical and practical knowledge accumulated thanks to the work of many psychologists and sociologists. Scientists have identified and continue to study the features, types, forms and structure of communication.

There are many theories and points of view on communication problems. Soviet scientists made a significant contribution to the study of this phenomenon, as well as to social psychology in general. Their experiments and experiences, carried out in the middle and second half of the last century, became classic examples of the peculiarities of communication and people’s perception of each other, as well as the scientific basis for subsequent scientific research.

Interpersonal and intergroup interaction is the area of human activity in which psychological difficulties most often arise. It is extremely important for every person to be able to interact competently and effectively with the people around them.

Communication is a mutual action of two or more people with the goal of exchanging information, as well as a necessary component of work, educational, and play activities.

In addition, it can act as a separate, relatively independent occupation. After all, people do not always talk to each other with the goal of inventing, controlling, and carrying out a joint action.

The transmitted verbal or nonverbal signal can be both informational and affective-evaluative in nature. It is believed that it was the need of our distant ancestors to transfer knowledge to each other, not only through signs and shouts, that served as the main reason for the development of human speech. Animals interact with each other, but speech is unique to humans.

The characteristics of communication between different people and groups depend on the extent to which the subjects of interaction have a pressing need for social contacts. The need to be involved, to belong and to interact developed in the process of phylogenesis, the socio-historical development of humanity.

Interestingly, satisfying the need for social contact supposedly led to the birth of such a wonderful feeling as joy. Joy is still the leading motive that motivates people to interact with each other.

Features of communication that can bring pleasure and joy are its humanity and democracy. Rude, disrespectful interaction, ignoring and manipulation are immoral and do not fit into the principles of communication that usually guide a cultured person.

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION:

self-esteem;
respect for the interlocutor, recognition of his rights and interests;
tolerance, tolerance;
justice, honesty;
unbiased attitude towards people.

Components and their characteristics

Transfer of information

Despite the fairly simple definition of information exchange, this side has a number of nuances.

The famous psychologist Vygotsky mentioned that a thought is not identical to the meaning of the words that express it.

Therefore, those communicating must have a similar understanding and perception of the situation, which is achieved by including communication in some common area of activity.

In addition, barriers to communication those communicating in the form of differences, for example, in religious or political terms, allowing for different interpretations of the same event, differing worldviews and personal qualities of partners, for example, shyness, mistrust, secrecy, isolation.

Delving deeper into the structure of communicative communication, we can identify two types of information, motivating (for example, advice or an order) and stating (not implying a change in behavior).

The information itself has such a qualitative indicator as persuasiveness.

At the same time, the following factors help to increase confidence in the transmitted information:

Logic . The initial message should be perceived by a person as truth, and all subsequent information should logically follow from this message. Moreover, the shorter the logical chain of conclusions, the more convincing the information will be.
Desirability . Information will not be perceived so critically if the person likes it or if the partner communicating it is liked by the interlocutor.
Emotionality , the persuasive power of information in ascending order from handwritten text, radio messages, television, public speaking, one-on-one conversation.
Direct participation of the interlocutor.
If the narrator was directly related to the information he presented, it is perceived less critically.
Associativity . Several individually convincing-sounding statements will be even more convincing if you connect them with a single logical chain.
Indifference . If the person receiving the information is indifferent to it, the power of its persuasiveness for him is significantly reduced.

The importance of communication in ontogenesis

In ontogenesis (individual human development), the role and characteristics of communication are no less important than in phylogenesis. The development of an individual is impossible without interaction with other people.

Newborn babies, not knowing how to speak, already react to the voice and affection of an adult, and later begin to smile back at him. Later, the so-called revitalization complex appears - the first form of interaction of a new person with his own kind.

Forms of communication that arise in the process of ontogenesis:

Directly emotional

When a baby develops a revival complex, he does not yet interact with his parents as an equal partner, but expresses his attitude through facial expressions and gestures: he cries and laughs, is surprised and frightened, and so on. Such forms of communication are characteristic of infants up to the first year of life.

Subject-effective

The child interacts with people by manipulating objects and playing. The baby extends his hand when he wants to take or give something, and understands that in order to establish contact he needs to get closer to the person. This form of interaction undergoes significant changes, but is generally maintained during the first six years of life.

Extra-situational intimate-personal

It appears by the end of preschool age, but the main forms of this communication develop already in the puberty period (puberty).

Forms of communication undergo changes as an individual grows and matures; they are combined and complemented differently in different individuals.

Without a child's contact with adults, he will not be able to develop as a person. The importance and necessity of communication between a child and his parents cannot be overestimated. Relationships with parents are the foundation, guideline and measure by which all subsequent connections of a person with people, society, and himself will be measured.

Correctly chosen methods of communicating and raising a child are the key to his successful socialization and self-realization.

Types and forms of communication are formed especially intensively in adolescence. This is the age of active interaction with peers, the time of first love and the formation of the self-concept.

The teenager’s activities become multifaceted, the content of communications and actions is enriched. A qualitatively new level of forms and types of interaction between young people contributes to the development of awareness, responsibility, independence and personality as a whole.

The structure of communication affects the structure of personality. Violation or lack of interaction with people invariably leads to a transformation of the individual’s “I”. Personality changes that are not for the better (including pathological ones) cannot but affect the ability to interact and understand other people and oneself.

Language becomes a means of communication, a means of establishing mutual understanding for those who speak it.

At the same time, he becomes a means of isolation for those who do not know him.

In addition to the meaning common to all individuals, a sign can have its own subjectively colored personal meaning for each person. It is generated by a person’s personal experience, his desires, hopes, fears, and other feelings.

In the afterword to L. S. Vygotsky’s work “Thinking and Speech,” his associate A.R. Luria speaks of the meaning of a word as an “internal meaning”, which “... the word has for the speaker himself and which constitutes the subtext of the utterance. The words “Carriage for me, carriage!” does not at all mean that Chatsky points to the carriage and asks for it to be brought. The internal meaning of the statement is that Chatsky is breaking with a society that is unacceptable to him, and the hero’s exclamation is not at all a conveyance of a specific event, but a “clump of meaning” that stands behind it.

When communication is formalized, the most important thing about people's words and actions is their generally accepted meaning. In order to ensure accuracy in recording these meanings, lawyers, diplomats and scientists take care of the rigor of wording in their professional activities.

In principle, this is very important in any professional field of activity. If in communication a person acts as an individual and expresses his own views and feelings, then for the interlocutor, in addition to the generally accepted meaning of behavior, its personal meaning becomes important.

We can say that we can understand a person as a bearer of a certain culture only by understanding the meaning of his words and actions.

Three sides of communication

The structure of communication conditionally divides it into three processes that are interconnected and interdependent:

Social perception - the perception of an interaction partner

People perceive each other through their senses, evaluate their appearance, speech, behavior and draw conclusions about the possibility of continuing social contact. The first impression is especially important. How another person is perceived for the first time, when meeting for the first time, influences the willingness to exchange information and interact with him.

Communication – exchange of information

Contacts are meaningless if people do not know how to convey the necessary information, knowledge and experience to each other verbally and non-verbally.

Interaction – exchange of actions

A conversation without the ability to perform actions that affect the interlocutor and exchange actions with him would be ineffective and ineffective.

Description of communication models

The structure of communication determines the patterns of communication. Some people are more sociable, love to be in company and can talk for hours about nothing, while others are closed, prefer internal dialogues to external ones, talk little and only about business.

Sociability as a character trait develops, you can improve communication skills, the ability to objectively perceive people and interact effectively with them.

Communication patterns, as a rule, are formed in childhood or adopted from parents. Also, communication patterns can be determined by the specifics of the position held and even be a sign of professional deformation of the individual (for example, a teacher communicates with relatives, as well as with students).

COMMUNICATION MODELS:

"Mont Blanc". Aloof, cold interlocutor. He focuses on the communicative side of interaction; he is not interested in interactions.
"Chinese Wall". A person who considers himself higher and more significant than others. Perceives others as less successful/beautiful/smart people, which makes it difficult to interact with him.
"Locator". A person who chooses a narrow circle of friends. Often one loved one or close friend is enough for him.
"Grouse". A very uncommunicative person who creates only the appearance of communication and interaction. At the same time, the structure of Teterev’s internal communication with himself is preserved and oversaturated with dialogues and introspection.
"Hamlet". Social perception is extremely important for this type of communication model. He tries to make the best impression, which is why he often plays to the public.
"Robot". This person talks and acts “dryly”, unemotionally, always knows what, when and why to do or not to do.
"Egoist". A person speaks only about himself, all his actions are aimed at obtaining personal gain.
"Ally". The best form and type of communication, as it is two-way. The interlocutors are interested in productive interaction, take into account personality, strive to understand each other and come to an agreement.

Types of communication barriers

When expressing his opinion or communicating important information, a person hopes that his interlocutors will understand his words correctly.
But this doesn't always happen. There are so-called semantic or communication barriers - psychological obstacles that prevent the understanding of information transmitted between participants. The components of communication include barriers of three types: understanding, socio-psychological differences and relationships. There are several barriers to understanding:

phonetic - inexpressive, monotonous speech, unclear pronunciation of words, accelerated rhythm, abundance of filler words;
stylistic - inconsistency of the chosen style with the situation or the state of the interlocutor;
semantic - differences in the vocabulary of participants, possible misunderstanding due to the polysemy of words;
logical - when the partner does not see a logical connection between statements or considers some statements absurd.

Social and psychological barriers arise in the case of similar differences between interlocutors. Includes religious, social and professional differences. May lead to the development of a conflict situation.

The relationship barrier depends on the attitude of the participants in the conversation towards the speaker. If his authority is high enough, the barrier will disappear, and all the information said will be learned correctly.

Description of types of communication

The concept of “type of communication” is close to the concept of the model. Types of communication, as well as models, are used to indicate the characteristics of communication.

Types of communication:

Mentorsky. With this type of communication, a person constantly teaches, instructs, and subjugates his interlocutor.
Informative. A type of communication that is simply a relay of information, without the ability or desire to receive feedback.
Inspiring. The individual participates in the fate of the interlocutor, supporting him, guiding him, helping him, advising him. With this type of communication, there is a productive dialogue, cooperation, and mutual assistance between the subjects of the relationship.
Confrontational. Unlike other forms of communication, it involves discussion, dialogue with an opponent, constructive criticism with the goal of finding the truth through confrontation between personal subjective and objective views, reality.

Types of communication are needed in order to be able to select the most appropriate methods of communication in different situations: persuasion, suggestion, infection, request, coercion, ignoring and even manipulation.

Components of communication and its varieties

Components of communication are those components that are not included in the structure of communication.

These include:

content,
target,
facilities,
subjects (participants of interaction),
type of connection between subjects,
style,
tactics,
techniques, methods,
result.

Depending on the components, various types and forms of communication are distinguished:

emotional – exchange of emotions;
cognitive – knowledge sharing;
activity - exchange of skills and abilities;
motivational – exchange of desires and goals;
material – exchange of objects or products.

Types of social interaction can be defined as its levels. Level – certain behavioral manifestations of a personality that allow us to draw conclusions about a person and the ways of his interaction with other people. The types and levels of communication change as it becomes more complex from simple, primitive to complex, spiritual.

From this point of view, signs are divided as follows:

intentional – specially produced to transmit information;

non-intentional - unintentionally giving out this information.

Non-intentional signs can be signs of emotions that a person would sometimes like to hide (for example, a student’s anxiety in front of an audience can be revealed by trembling hands, even if he has good command of his voice and face).

Speech can also contain non-intentional signs (for example, slips of the tongue in which the emotional state of the speaker is revealed). Non-intentional signs can contain information not only about the emotional state of the partner.

Thus, accent and subtle features of pronunciation can become an indicator of a person’s place of origin and life, as well as the social environment in which he was raised. Frequent references in a speech to the opinion of a person can show who the speaker is guided by in his judgments.

Since non-intentional signs primarily speak about the person himself, his immediate, spontaneous reactions, it is very important to learn to notice them and correctly decipher them.

** Brief psychological dictionary. – M., 1985. – P. 213

* Brief psychological dictionary. – M., 1985. – P. 420