The Social Psychology of Communication – Summary of Articles
Articles Week 1
A Cognitive Approach to Human Communication: An Action Assembly Theory (Green, 1984)
Fundamental to the cognitive perspective is the assumption that in order to yield falsifiable
predictions a theory must specify both the information structures of the mind and the
processes which operate over those structures. The aim of cognitivism is not to develop the
model of the mind, but rather to develop a sufficient model. Where multiple sufficient
models exist, criteria of parsimony and elegance can be used to determine their relative
adequacy.
Procedural knowledge refers to stored action specifications, at a range of levels of
abstraction, upon which an individual may draw in order to accomplish his/hers desired
ends. It represents those things we have learned to do, and not to do, in order to act
effectively.
Action assembly theory:
• Individuals store action-outcome contingencies in procedural memory. If the procedural
store is to be of any use, then the organism must be able to rely upon past action-
outcome relation in order to guide subsequent behavior. The procedural memory is
organized on the basis of a large number of elemental units, each of which related to
some limited aspect of an output problem. The action component of each procedural
element, then, specifies only a subset of the parameters which define a complex of
behaviors.
• Central is the assumption that these elements of the procedural store which allow us to
produce communicative behaviors. Behavior is conceived as the end result of aspect of
the whole.
• There must be some process of selection operating over procedural records. In order for
a particular record to impact upon behavior its level of activation must exceed some
threshold value.
• A procedural record is formed when a given action results in a particular outcome.
• In short, the content of any representational level at any moment is due to: constraints
imposed by higher-level representations; existing procedural records at that level of
abstraction, and activating conditions relevant to that level of abstraction.
Constituting Relationships in Talk: A Taxonomy of Speech Events in Social and Personal
Relationships (Goldsmith & Baxter, 1996)
A descriptive taxonomy of jointly enacted speech events in everyday relating. The speech
event/speech genre/joint action/social collaboration/social episode/frame is conceived as a
jointly enacted communication episode that is characterized by an internal coherence or
unity and punctuated by clear beginning and ending boundaries.
• Alternative constitutive function of communication: Our social and personal
relationships are embodied or constituted by the various kinds of jointly enacted
communication episodes that occur.
,• Small talk has typically been viewed as an instrument by which the individual reduces
uncertainty in initial interaction, thereby providing the groundwork for the
accomplishment of the relational goal of increased intimacy in the relationship.
Four dimensions that appear to organize talk cross-culturally: directness; degree of structure
or rigidity; emotional pitch (e.g., seriousness, valence); and efficacy or importance. These
dimensions are not unrelated.
Events that constitute relationships:
• Study 4 - Diary study: The diary was designed to shed
insight on the baseline frequencies of the speech events
in everyday life and their occurrences in a variety of
commonly understood relationship forms. Overall,
friendship, close friendship, and romantic partner
interactions were reported more frequently than other
relationally based exchanges. The informal superficiality
of acquaintanceship was dominated by small talk, with
the secondary presence of joking around, getting to know
someone talk, and gossip. The informal superficiality of
close friendship is dominated by gossip, with secondary
emphasis on catching up, joking around, and recapping
the day’s events. Informal superficiality among friends is
multi- stranded, with gossip, joking around, small talk,
catching up, and recapping emerging with more or less
comparable frequencies in reported interactions.
Superficial informal talk between romantic partners
emphasizes recapping the day’s events and morning talk,
with secondary emphasis on joking around, gossip, and
bedtime chat. Informal superficiality in parent-child
interactions is enacted most frequently in the form of
catching up, recapping the day’s events, and gossip.
Siblings enact information superficiality largely through
gossip, catching up, and joking around. In short, different
relationship forms appear to enact qualitatively different
types of informal, superficial speech events. In fact, making
plans emerged as the second most frequent kind of speech
event enacted by our participants. These data suggest that
task-oriented talk is a strand of relating personally that
should not be overlooked in the everyday construction of
personal relationships.
Gossip was the most frequently enacted speech
event over the 2-week period of data collection.
Goal-directed talk, particularly making plans, also
occupies an important constitutive strand in the
enactment of friendships, romantic relation- ships,
and kin relationships. Making plans was the second
most frequent event.
,Primary and Secondary Goals in The Production of Interpersonal Influence Messages (Dillard,
Segrin & Harden, 1989)
In this paper is argued that an individual’s activities, prior to and during an interpersonal
influence attempt, may be explained by his or her goals.
1. Primary/influence goals: Instigate the influence process.
2. Secondary goals: Shape the influence process. Results suggest the existence of five
secondary goals: identity goals, interaction goals, personal resource goals, relational
resource goals, and arousal management goals. With the exception of personal
goals, each of the goals makes a unique contribution to shaping the source’s actions.
Goals are desired future states of affairs.
• Exchange theory (Marwell & Schmitt, 1967) – Approach to compliance-gaining
behavior: Two general goals which are considered when making an influence attempt.
Social actors must confront the issue of how to behave to produce the desired
outcome.
• Cody et al., (1986): Persuasive strategy selection is based on 1. The desire to be
effective and 2. the desire to conform to the constraints inherent in the particular
situation in which the influence attempt takes place.
• Researchers: Primary goals are the desire to bring about behavioral change in a target
person. Secondary goals are objectives of several sorts that derive directly from more
general motivations that are recurrent in a person’s life. Four secondary goals:
1. Identity goals are objectives related to the self-concept. They are internal
standards of behavior which may or may not overlap with expectations about
how others would or should behave and derive from one’s moral standards,
principles for livings and personal preferences about own conduct.
2. Interaction goals are concerned with social appropriateness. They represent the
desire to manage impression successfully to ensure a smooth communication,
to avoid threatening the conversation partner, and to produce relevant and
coherent messages.
3. Resource goals focus on increasing or maintaining valued assets. These are
relational assets (all personal rewards and gratifications); material assets (all
physical objects), and physical assets (all aspects of health).
4. Arousal management goals mean that people attempt to dampen the
apprehension induced by participation or in anticipation of making an
interpersonal influence attempt.
Study 1 – The substance of goals (open-ended self-reports):
Functions were to gather data reflecting the concerns which
individual sources face in interpersonal influence situations
and to generate a pool of statements closely tied to the
decisions which shape interpersonal influence behavior. The
results provided an indication of the potential utility of the
set of goal constructs. It suggests that persons engaged in
strategic influence are aware of and concern themselves with
these goals.
, Study 2 – The structure of goals (set of statements about goals in interpersonal influence):
Purpose was (1) to conduct a more rigorous test of the goals schema and (2) to develop
some understanding of the relationship among the goals themselves.
A Taxonomy of Behavior Change Techniques Used in Interventions (Abraham & Michie,
2008)
This research aimed to develop and test a theory-linked taxonomy of generally applicable
behavior change techniques (BCTs).
Developing a Theory-Linked Taxonomy of BCTs: Useful available lists of discrete BCT’s used
in health behavior interventions
1. Transtheoretical model: S10 processes of behavior change, namely, consciousness
raising, self-reevaluation, self-liberation, counterconditioning, stimulus control,
reinforcement, helping relationships, dramatic relief, environmental reevaluation,
and social liberation.
