COMMUNICATION

Communicating in Health and Social Care Organizations



Communicating in Health and Social Care Organizations

Task 1 : Communication skills used in health and social care

Scenario 1

Theories of Communication

Communication and interpersonal interactions are important in almost every field of life. The communication theories are dependent upon the behaviourist, humanistic, cognitive and psychoanalytic theories that defines the importance of interpersonal communication and the benefits it holds in for the communicator and the listener.

The humanistic theory defines some of the important aspects of the personality of the human beings and correlates wit with the communication process. The theory was developed in the 1950s and it is backed by the psychodynamic and behavioural approaches while defining the personality and interpersonal relationships among human beings. The focus of the humanist's theory is on the concept of humanism. It is because the humanistic theory deeply analyzes and takes interests in the behaviour of human beings. The theoretical orientation of the concept of humanism and the humanistic theory focuses on the qualities an characteristics of human beings particularly emphasizing on the aspect of the personal growth of the personal and the free will hold by them. Thus, the humanistic theory argues that human beings have a strong desire towards personal growth and development, they hold a freedom to devise their own course of actions depending upon the environment and that are rational and conscious rather than being irrational and unconscious. Some of the popular humanistic theorists in the history include Abraham Maslow and Cal Rogers who presented the popular psychological theories such as self actualization theory and Person cantered theory respectively.

The behaviourist approach determines the characteristics of the society that the people want to believe on the reward and recognition system obtainable through the behaviourist approach and theory. Most of the people belong to those families that tend to raise their children in an environment where they are being recognized and rewarded on the basis of their performance, grades or house works. The theory of behaviourists believes that the intention to receive rewards and this behaviour might not be the best but it influences the people to change their behaviours and accept the challenges according to the approach of their thinking and knowledge. They also tend to try new things due to the knowledge that they will be rewarded against it. It is different from the humanistic theory because the humanist's theory does not believe in the rewards system and they focus on the responsibilities and choices of the person.

Cognitive theory in the personality development and psychology believes in the learning from the past experiences. The people concerning the cognitive theoretical approach believe that the prior knowledge, expectations and experiences paves a way towards learning and development. It influences the ways of thinking and motivates the people towards thinking on the basis of the cognition and the cognitive point of view. The changing of the thinking and thoughts would lead to the change in the mood which might help us in the improvement of our ...