To the student: The following outline is offered as a guide to the nature of the course and in general highlights things you should read and memorize. Material in the Littlejohn & Foss textbook pertinent to the various topics is presented in brackets; for example, [L2-3]. You will jump about quite a bit in the Littlejohn & Foss textbook. Material not referenced will emerge in lectures, discussions, or reports, and your own explorations on the Internet and in the Library. Take good notes in class and plenty of them.
Theories of Human Communication is a course designed to introduce upper division students to communication theory from a scientific perspective. Against a background of the nature of science and theories, a multidimensional model, the Communication Mosaic, is offered of communication theory.
A theory is a scientific account of phenomena. At a minimum it is a strategy for handling data in research, providing a conceptual system for describing and explaining. It includes an identification of the components or conceptual categories by which we classify the elements of a system; a specification of the characteristics of these components; and a specification of a set of laws in conformity with which states of the system precede or succeed each other. In other words, a theory identifies elements of the phenomena (as categories, variables, factors) and identifies functional relationships among these elements.
Communication is a complex, pervasive phenomena. Virtually every human endeavor involves communication in some way. Consequently, there are a great many communication theories--each, in its own way, appropriate to those aspects of the phenomena germane to its purpose.
As a science, communication is rather new. A staggering amount of research and theories has been coming forth in the past two decades. There is so much of it, in fact, that both specialist and generalist are bewildered, often led to bemoan the absence of theory in the field.
The Communication Mosaic attempts to do two things. First, it offers a theoretical orientation that can serve to illumine the inter-connectedness among all communication theories. Second, it provides an overview of some of the more interesting, provocative, and heuristic theories within the major types of communication theories.
A overview of important concepts and structural principles of communication theory are presented in a PowerPoint slideshow.
In developing the multidimension mosaic model of communication, several landmark ideas and theories will be summarized, as each contains kernals that illumine the theoretical orientation of the model.
1.2.2 Franklin Fearing
1.2.3 Frank E. X. Dance [L12-13]
1.2.4 Kenneth Pike's Etic and Emic
1.2.5 Noam Chomsky's competence and performance [L104]
1.2.6 Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson's systems paradigm [L189-190]
1.2.7 Bowers & Bradac: Axioms and Issues
1.2.7.1 Axioms
1.2.7.2 Issues
Among important issues discussed by Bowers & Bradac is the difference between a communication theory and a rhetorical theory.
1.3.1 Multidimensional Mosaic
1.3.1.1 Model
The Multidimensional Mosaic Model of Communication Theory is offered as a way of synthesizing and integrating the many theories of human communication. The main dimensions of the model:
Context
Function
Intention
Variable
Level of analysis
Audience
2.1.2 Two Imperatives of Science
2.1.2.1 Verifiability
2.1.2.2 Corrigibility
2.1.3 Philosophical Approaches
2.1.3.1 Rules
2.1.3.2 Systems
2.1.3.3 Laws
2.1.4 Gustav Bergmann and Philosophy of Science
2.1.5 Rudner and Philosophy of Social Science
2.2.1 Kaplan's Levels of Thinking
2.2.2 Hawes's Typologies of Theories
2.2.3 Darnell's definition of theory
2.2.4 Steps in Theory Building
2.2.5 Analysis of a Theory
2.2.6 Criteria to Evaluate Theories
2.3.1 Dynamic Isomorphism:
There exists a dynamic isomorphism among reality, phenomena, theory, research design, instrumentation, statistical analysis, and computer technology. More elements are involved, but these illumine the character of science as we move into the 21st Century.
3.1 Edward Hall
3.2 Dell Hymes' Functions of Communication [L312-314]
3.3 Basil Bernstein [L303-305]
3.4 Frederick Williams's Poverty Cycle
3.5 Everett Roger's Diffusion of Information [L308-310]
3.6 Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and Edmund Carpenter [L227-279]
3.7 Standpoint Theory [L89-90]
4.1 Ogden & Richards' symbol [L35-37]
4.2 Peirce/Morris's Levels of Language Analysis [L37-38]
4.2.1 Phonological
4.2.2 Syntactics
4.2.3 Semantics
4.2.4 Pragmatics
4.3 Osgood's Mediation Hypothesis [L125-127]
4.4 Eco's Semiotics
4.5 Samuel Bois's Semantic Reactor
4.6 Noam Chomsky [L65-67]
4.7 Gary Cronkhite's AESOP
4.8 Pearce & Cronen's Coordinated Management of Meaning [L170-174]
4.9 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [L302-303]
4.10 Hall's Proxemic Theory [L107-108]
5.1 Bowers & Ochs' Rhetoric of Agitation and Crontrol
5.2 Burke's Dramatism [L113-113]
5.3 Fisher's Narrative Paradigm
6.1 Scott's Components of Attitude
6.2 Fotheringham's Functions of Persuasion
6.3 Graber's Condensation Symbols
6.4 Theodore Newcomb's model of communicative acts
6.5 Charles E. Osgood's Cognitive Dynamics
6.5.1 Summary of cognitive dynamics theories
6.5.2 Osgood's application to international relations
6.6 Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance [L77-79]
6.7 Fishbein's Attitude [L75-77]
6.8 Rokeach's Beliefs, Attitudes, & Values [L79-80]
6.9 Sherif, Sherif, & Nebergall's Social Judgment Theory [L70-72]
7.1 Becker's Mosaic
Becker's Mosaic as the Total Field of Communication Stimuli model as an analog of communication theories.
7.2 Communication and Media [L303-326]
7.3 Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and Edmund Carpenter: Communication, Technology, and Culture [L277-279]
7.4 Mass Communication
7.4.1 Lasswell's model [L279]
7.4.2 Agenda Setting [L279-284]
7.4.3 Uses, Gratifications, & Dependency [L286-288]
7.4.4 Diffusion of Information and Influence [L308-310]
7.4.5 Cultivation Analysis [L288-289]
7.4.6 Baudrillard's Semiotics of Media [L276-277]
7.5 Propaganda
8.1 Thayer's Communication & Communication Systems
8.2 Networks [L247-249]
8.3 Hersey, Blanchard, & Dewey's Situational Leadership
8.4 Blake & Mouton's Managerial Grid
8.5 Lippitt's Organizational Renewal
8.6 Weber's Theory of Bureaucracy [L242-244]
8.7 Likert's Four Systems [L244-245]
8.8 Tompkins & Cheney's Organizational Identification [L254-257]
8.9 Weick's Process of Organizing [L245-247]
8.10 Structuration in Organizations [L227-230 & 252-254]
9.1 Bales' Personality and Interpersonal Behavior [L216-218]
9.2 Fisher's Interaction Analysis [L221-223]
9.3 Collins & Guetzkow [L219-222]
9.4 Thibaut & Kelley
9.5 Hirokawa's General Functional Theory [L230-233]
9.6 French & Raven's Sources of Power
9.7 Janis's Groupthink [L232-233]
9.8 Putnam & Stohl's Bona Fide Group Theory [ L218-219]
10.1 The Nature of Relationship and Communication
10.2 Timothy Leary's Interpersonal Circumplex
10.3 Relational Perception
10.4 Relational Development
10.5 Altman & Taylor's Social Pentration [L194-196]
10.6 Cronkhite & Liska's Communicator Acceptability Model
10.7 Lashbrook's Social Styles
10.8 Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson [L189-191]
10.9 Berger's Uncertainty Reduction Theory [L145-146]
10.10 Baxter et al.'s Dimensions of Dialectics [L199-202]
11.11 Carl Rogers [L204-206]
11.1 Shannon and Weaver's Mathematical Theory of Communication, better known as Information Theory [L41-43]
11.1.1 Darnell's Clozentropy
11.2 Cybernetics [L40-42]
11.3 Shroeder, Driver, and Streufert's Information Processing theory.
11.4 Heider's Attribution Theory [L68-70]
11.5 Chaos and Communication
11.5.1 Chaos Theory as an analog to Communication
11.5.2 Super Computers and advanced mathematical modeling
12.1 Language and thought
12.1.1 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [L302-303] Revisited
12.2 Gestalt psychology
12.2.1 Perception
12.2.1 Figure-ground