Social Work Practice and Reflective Communication SWP22REC

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Social Work Practice and Reflective
Communication SWP22REC

• Lecture Two
• Slides prepared
• by
• Dr Trish McNamara

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What is the science of communication?

• Making sense of the messages given and
  received through
• Physiology of the senses
• Psychology of cognition
• Psychology of emotion
• Linguistics

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Perception

• Self
• Others
• Culture
• Empathy
• Adler and Rodman (2006) pp 33-73

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Perception

• Perception is information which is taken
• which is taken in by the senses, processed by
  the brain, stored in memory and which produces
  some form of physical and mental activity.
• Ellis and McClintock (2nd ed., 1994) Ch 1

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Sensory information

• Smell taste touch (experiment)
• Absolute sense thresholds
• Brain processes interpreting the information
  gained from our senses
• The Muller-Layer illusion
• Ellis and McClintock (2nd Ed, 1994) Ch 1.

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Perception (cont)

• Storing in memory (round red object apple ball
  cherry, Pythagoras theorem)
• Expectancy sets (glowing red pot is hot can lead
  to prejudice dislike of people or group of
  people)
• Subliminal perception (at the extreme limits of
  human senses body odour/ pupils dilate)
• Selected perception (regular flashing vs
  intermittent flashing adverts accommodating to
  sleeping near busy road)

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Communication models

• Maps, flow charts, diagrams
• Attempt to describe a theory, a process, an event
  of communication
• Ellis and McClintock (1994) p.64

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The Shannon-Weaver Model(Transmission-Process)

• S - T - R - D
• send transmit receive dispatch

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Key concepts of Shannon and Weavers Model

• Channel of communication (post or phone)
• Coding or encoding (English or Japanese)
• noise (anything that disrupts or interrupts
  communication flow)
• Channel overload (everyone talking at once)
• Redundancy
• Entropy

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Redundancy

• Jack and --- went up the hill
• Mary --- a little lamb
• Old King Cole was a --- old soul

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Entropy

• a measure of the disorder within any system

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A Morning!B Morning!A Nice day, isnt it?B
For a murder..

• Last line is entropic unexpected,
  unpredictable, difficult to decode

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Semiotic School of Communication Theory

• Concerned with how we interpret and ascribe
  meaning to the messages sent

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Peirces Model

• Focuses upon the interconnectedness between the
  sign,
• the object and the interpretant

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Newspaper advertisement

• First year apprentice wanted for trendy North
  Carlton salon.
• Call Tuesday after 10am. Ph 93476666

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Words and meanings!

• Hairdresser Hello
• Caller May I speak to Tuesday?
• Hairdresser There is no one by that name working
  here
• But the ad said call Tuesday!
• Hairdresser (and listening audience) silenced by
  laughter..

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Can you think of any context in which the word
dog is used to describe anything but a four
footed animal?
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Perceiving the self

• Moods and feelings
• Appearance and physical condition
• Social traits
• Talents you possess or lack
• Intellectual capacity
• Strong beliefs
• Social roles
• Adler and Rodman (2006) p. 48

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Language and meaningAdler and Rodman (2006)
Chapter 3
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The nature of language

• Language is symbolic
• Meanings are in people, not words (John Howard on
  anti- terrorism laws)
• Language is rule governed

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Language is rule governed

• Phonological rules the sound when pronounced (
  buch, book)
• Semantic rules the specificity of meaning
  (Tuesday)
• Pragmatic rules helps us to shape the meaning
  to the context

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The power of language

• Language shapes attitudes
• Language reflects attitudes

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THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISMTHE WAR AGAINST
TERRORTHE WAR AGAINST IRAQTHE WAR IN IRAQ
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Language reflects attitudes

• Power
• Affiliation
• Attraction and interest
• Responsibility
• Adler and Rodman (2006) pp.85-88

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Troublesome language

• Misunderstanding (no)
• Evasive language (I am very sympathetic to the
  people of your street becoming desensitized to
  hate words - A and R p97)
• Disruptive/angry (No! You are not sympathetic!)
• Relative words (large and small)
• Slang and jargon (bacon and eggs legs in
  Cockney)
• see
• Don Watsons
• (2003) Death Sentence The decay of public
  language
• and
• (2004) Weasel Words Contemporary cliche?s, cant
  and management jargon

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Gender and language

• Content (sport, media personalities vs family,
  weight, food and fashion???)
• Reason for communicating (women need same sex
  conversation offer/receive support men want
  same sex conversation to assert
  authority/viewpoint)
• Conversational style (fluid, dynamic, aggressive,
  strong vs tentative and aesthetic)
• Non-gendered variables (cooperative versus
  competitive feminist versus non-feminist)
• Sex roles (feminine speakers are more tentative
  and inclusive masculine speakers are dominant
  and aggressive)
• Adler and Rodman pp.98-100