THEORIES OF
COMMUNICATION

Aneesah Khan
570454

Michael Argyle believed that communication is cycle, because for him good communication involves the process of checking, understanding, using reflective or active listening.
Argyle emphasised the importance of feedback, because it conveys that you have understood the other persons message. According to Argyle skilled interpersonal interaction involves a cycle in which you have to translate or ‘decode’ what people are communicating and to adapt our own behaviour in order to communicate effectively.
The process of the cycle means that you will have to work out what the other person’s behaviour really mean and what they actually mean.

Tuckman believed that group communication can be influenced by the degree to which people feel they belong together.
He believed that when people first meet in a group they go through a process of ‘formation’, it is when the team members don’t know much about each other and they remain positive and polite, they start to establish clear objectives.
They then go through a process called ‘storming’, where they establish processes and structures, they start to build trust and good relationships with the team members. They remain positive, and resolve conflicts if they occur.
The third process is called ‘norming’ this is when the team members take a step back and help team members take responsibility for progress towards the goal.
They than reach the fourth stage ‘performing’ and become and effectively performing group.

During my placement I found that the communication cycle is used on a daily basis; when the care home manager needs to communicate with other staff, an idea that she wants to communicate first occurs, she then thinks about how to put her idea in to words, this is known as the ‘message coded’ stage. She will then say her idea/message, such as wanting them to call the doctors for one of the service users.
The other person then notices her message that has been communicated. After the message has been received the staff have to try and decode the message, this can sometimes be difficult and they could jump to a conclusion especially if she did not use the right words or body language. When they understand that she wants them to ring the doctors for an appointment for a service user, they then feedback and show they have understood the message, this does not always happen the first time.

There are some similarities and differences between Argyle’s communication and Tuckman’s stages of group interaction. The similarities include; the fact that both need the right method of communication for the communication to be effective and they both have to figure out what the other person is saying, this could sometimes lead to arguments due to misunderstandings. You also have to use active or reflective listening for both the communication