Contemporary Communication Theories

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Contemporary Communication Theories

• A. Goldrick-Jones
• Centre for Academic Writing
• 786-9324 rm 3G08

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Week 5 Relationships

• A Paradigm of Change/Evolution . . .
• 1.Dialectical Theory relationships have inherent
  tensions between contradictory impulses --gt
  dialectical tensions
• 2.Relationship Trajectories personal
  understandings of various tracks leading to or
  away from closeness

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• Background . . .
• Coordinated Management of Meaning a rules
  theory. To interpret social experiences, we rely
  on hierarchies or levels of meanings (Wood pp.
  141-42) and interactive rules (Wood pp. 145-47).

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• Background . . .
• Coordinated Management of Meaning
• This article (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)
  provides a fuller explanation of CMM.
• You might also like to explore this Pearce and
  Cronen site

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Week 5 Relationships

• Interactional Systems
• Relationships require a constant balancing
  between change stability (Wood p. 161).
• see von Bertanlanffys general systems theory and
  Wikipedia
• this will lead you to more info. about the Palo
  Alto Group

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Week 5 Relationships

• Interactional Systems
• The whole is more than the sum of the parts (Wood
  p. 164).
• Systems strive for, but never achieve,
  equilibrium (p. 165)
• The apparent contradiction between change and
  stability dynamic equilibrium (p. 166).
  (Search for this term using Google. What does
  your search tell you about gen. systems as a
  communications theory?)

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Week 5 Relationships

• Interactional Levels of meaning
• (Wood p. 167) . . .
• Content literal substance
• Relationship indications about power or
  emotional state
• Metacommunication commentary about the content
  or relationship meanings

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• Interactional Punctuation (Wood p. 168)
• designating when/how communicative episodes start
  stop
• parties must agree on how and where they
  punctuate communication

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• Interactional Power Relations (Wood p. 169)
• Not merely symmetrical or complementary but ---gt
  one UP, one DOWN, or one ACROSS

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• Dialectical Theory
• Some definitions of Dialectics
• Contradictory tensions or desires are normal and
  inevitable

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• Dialectical Theory
• Baxters understanding of dialectics based on
  Mikhail Bakhtin and his notion of dialogue
  (lecture materials by Dr. Mary Klages, Associate
  Professor of English, University of Colorado at
  Boulder)

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• Dialectical Theory features
• Dialogue three elements a speaker, a
  listener/respondent, and a relation between the
  two . . . (Klages)
• Dialogue is social, and the idea of struggle is
  inherent in dialogical processes (paraphrased
  from Klages)
• Dialectics are built on contradiction and process

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• Relational Dialectics more details here

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• Responses to Dialectics
• How do people manage these contradictory
  impulses? See Wood pp. 178 - 180. Some other
  views
• Student article on Relationship Maintenance
• Reframing thinking directly about the tensions
  and interpreting them in a new way. My partner
  isnt boring, hes just under a lot of stress so
  he cant go out and party right now.

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Week 5 Relationships

• Relationship Trajectories
• Another Paradigm of Change/ Evolution . . .
  (Wood, pp. 203-206)
• Starting Event meet new co-worker
• Some possible trajectories ---gt

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• Relationship Trajectories
• Direct Knowledge we learn from experience and
  reflection
• Indirect Knowledge observations media
• Applications not only personal but business
  relationships

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• Relationship Trajectories
• Focus of theorists is on how relational schemata
  (subjective trajectories) are formed and how they
  guide communication

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Try it . . . see Wood p. 205