Perspectives on Communication

I believe the psychological perspective is extremely relevant in the way people communicate with one another.  I feel that when people are communicating with one another they perceive information differently based on their beliefs and experiences.  These beliefs and experiences will affect the way someone thinks about or responds to the information they have taken in.  For instance if someone has been raised in a church environment and they are engaged in a conversation about faith, then they will have very specific ideas and responses in communication with another.

The social constructionist perspective is an interesting way of looking at the communication process.  In a very real sense most of us do learn about our world through communication.  We do not necessarily experience the world on a first hand basis.  Our ideas and thoughts can be shaped by interactions from those around us and our peer groups.  Communication in our direct environments gives us or reality of the world we live in.  Most Americans have the general idea that we should expect to lead a happy and fulfilling life; therefore, Americans should be happy with the line of work they choose and the family life should be fulfilling.  These types of ideas would be difficult to convey too many people of different countries; thus, they perceive you work to provide immediate needs such as food and your family members create more work and food opportunities.  These ideas contribute to the happiness of Americans, since the message is one of self fulfillment and family happiness.

I can see how the pragmatic perspective exists and is followed by many.  In a very interesting sense we all engage in communication with others; thus, our responses have to be thought out, similar to that of you next move in a game.  If someone takes a conversation in a certain direction, the person on the other end of the conversation has to decide if they want to manipulate the flow of the interaction in another direction, or to let it continue to flow in the same direction.  It of course is different from a game in that most of us are not trying to manipulate our everyday interaction with others and our environments do play a role in communication.  Communications do involve our surroundings and groups and is not just between two people as a game would suggest.

A researcher who takes the cultural studies perspective would study the effect of mass appeal or popular culture.  For instance, popular television shows have given many underlying political messages that people may take their own viewpoints from.  For instance a researcher may see a popular show such as “All in the family” and dissect and expose the racism and sexism that is being fed to the general populous.  The cultural studies perspective researcher will uncover and decipher popular messages that may help other to ask questions and have alternative responses to the originators intended response.

I would have to say that the psychological perspective would probably be the closest to how I view my communication process.  I take in the information, formulate my response and do get distracted by noise and outside sources.  I am sure that I could probably identify with a few of the others on some level; however, the psychological approach seems to fit my process.

Reference

Trenholm, S. (2008). Thinking through communication: An introduction to the study of human communication (5^th ed.). New York: Pearson