Introduction to Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human
Communication 8th edition
Part 2 – chapters 7 to 11
Robin Beaumont Sunday, Sunday, 23 July 2006
e-mail: robin@organplayers.co.uk
Contents
1.
Chapter 7 - The relationship ..................................................................................................... 2
2.
Chapter 8 - The Group ............................................................................................................... 7
2.1
3.
The layout of an ethnographic report ....................................................................................... 7
Chapter 9 - The Organisation ................................................................................................. 12
3.1
4.
Where is the mindmap for this chapter? ................................................................................ 12
Chapter 10 - The Media ........................................................................................................... 12
4.1
5.
Important Additional reading .................................................................................................. 13
Chapter 11 Culture and Society ............................................................................................. 13
5.1
Ethnic / cultural analyses ....................................................................................................... 14
T he pu rpo s e o f th i s d ocu me nt:
This document has been written to help those in the medical and healthcare professions who
are interested in understanding the more theoretical aspects of human communication as
detailed in Littlejohn and Foss’s book ‘Theories of human communication’ but lack a
grounding in the less empirically based research areas (e.g. sociology). This document also
tries to describe some of the theories discussed in the book within the more familiar
healthcare domain.
I hope you enjoy working through this document.
Acknowledgment
Much of the material in this document is the result of many online discussions with the numerous
students that have completed the Diploma in Health Informatics (Royal college of Surgeons
Edinburgh - RCSed) and the MSc in Health Informatics (Bath University UK and the RCSed). Many
thanks to all those who have completed the course and are still involved in them.
Robin Beaumont - Newcastle upon Tyne - July 2006
Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
1. Chapter 7 - The relationship
This chapter contains much information that at first sight may not appear to be at all useful to you but I
think that you may have a different view after the shadowing exercise. Those of you who care for
those suffering from chronic conditions will appreciate the various subsections, I worked as a Dialysis
nurse at one stage and one of my many duties was to teach home dialysis patients – chronic patients
– blur many boundaries – in the ideal patient doctor / nurse relationship and I find that this chapter
provides ways of describing the process and understanding why such changes take place.
The chapter starts with Watzlawick’s theory which is discussed in less detail than in previous editions
which listed her five basic axioms about communication:
1. One cannot communicate (7th edition p235, 8th edition p189 footnote 4)
2. Every conversation no matter how brief, involves two messages – a content message and a
relationship message (7th p235)
3. Interactions are always organised into meaningful patterns called punctuation
4. People use both digital and analogue coding. Digital codes are arbitrary, for the sign and the
referent, though associated, have no intrinsic relation to each other. The relationship between
the sign and the referent is strictly arbitrary (7 th ed. p237). I.e. using bear to designate a large
black animal is arbitrary. Being digital you can only say or not say it. Analogic code is
different; the sign can resemble to object (i.e. drawings). Most non verbal signs are analogic
I.e. facial expressions, emotion in the voice(see 8th ed. chapter 5 p105)
5. Communicators may respond similarly or differently from each other producing symmetrical or
complementary relationships (see 8th ed. p190).
You can see possibly why they did not bother to include them in the new edition, rather banal, or are
they?
Anne Fitzpatricks work about family types I find fascinating, you might say again obvious but all the
same it helps one understand more clearly why we have a particular attitude towards certain families /
people. Those of you who work with families know only too well these types. In English literature
various types of family have been scrutinised by many authors, Ivy Compton-Burnett has exposed
how the stark, mannered dialogue of her families are revealed as a mask concealing (according to
one reviewer writing about her novel “A house and its head”) the abysses of the human personality
and its potential for evil! In the theatre Harold Pinter has done much the same thing and interestingly
a friend of mine who was lucky enough to meet his family in their house said the experience was just
like a Pinter play – right done to the linoleum floor.
Previous editions of this chapter contained more information about marriage (5th ed. p271) and conflict
management (7th ed. p257). I will fill in some of the gaps below.
The families Fitzpatrick studied filled in several other questionnaires besides her own, one of which
was the Dyadic Adjustment scale (DAS) to see how they rated compared to a ‘perfect’? marriage.
There are other marriage questionnaires around such as the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment scale
(MAT) and the Family adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale III (also called FACES III) I have
not managed to find the actual questionnaires online yet, but have managed to find several papers.
As would be expected with research in the Sociopsychological tradition such scales under go a very
formalised development method evaluating such things as validity and reliability. One particular
aspect they obviously aim for is predictive validity and some of these seem to be fairly high in this
area. In fact I’m sure I read somewhere that priests where beginning to use them as part of the premarital assessment. However, with the knowledge that around a third of marriages fail in the UK I
would have thought this is not a very good idea if they want to maximise their, and the organists (my!)
income. Discussing the various marriage assessment questionnaires, possibly within a cultural
context, could be a good discussion board thread?
Considering how different males and females communicate, also within the sociopsychological
tradition, the famous Cambridge (UK) psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen has helped develop and
popularise the concept of the male and female brain possessing different degrees of systemizing and
empathising attributes respectively. He has also worked for many years with large number of people
suffering from various varieties of Autism and proposes that some types of autism reflect an
abnormally excessively male brain (excessive systemizing and very little / no empathising. Alongside
questionnaires to assess the level of systemising and empathising Baron-Cohen et al have developed
a Friendship and Relationship Questionnaire (FQ) 'to discover whether in social relationships, men
and women focused on the other person's feelings or simply on the shared activity . . . They found
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
that, on average, women are more likely to value empathising in friendships, while men are more
likely to value shared interests. Other studies have reported similar results. (p. 35 Baron - Cohen
2004) For more information along with the systemizing and empathising questionnaires see The
Essential Difference by Simon Baron-Cohen (2004).
This brings us nicely to both Social penetration theory and communication privacy management which
both see relationships as being likened to economic transactions. I find the idea of dialectics, of which
the second theory is an example, very useful. Baxters dialectical framework (page 201) of integration
versus separation; expression versus non-expression and stability versus change along with Rawlins
(p210) dialectics seems to succinctly sum up the key areas of struggle in all my friendships /
relationships. Make sure you understand the difference between Dialectics (Dialectical) and
Dialogue (Dialogic?), by reading page 199 carefully.
The section describing friendship in terms of interactional dialectics is very interesting when you apply
them to other groups such as the nurse or doctor-patient relationship. This is a long chapter and I felt
it did get a little tortuous at times but I did find it interesting and stimulating.
Another area that has been lost from this chapter is that of conflict management. I think you might find
this interesting given the litigious culture we now live in.
************** Start of abstract (page 257 Littlejohn 7th Edition) *********
An Attribution Theory of Conflict. Recall from Chapter 7 [editors note in 8th ed. chapter 4 page 68
– 72] that attribution theory deals with the ways people infer the causes of behavior. The premise of
this approach to conflict is that people develop their own theories to explain the conflicts they are
involved with, and these theories are largely a product of their attributions. In other words, how you
deal with a conflict depends on how you place blame. Alan Sillars has developed a theory of conflict
based on this idea.46 Sillars' theory is included here because it integrates a great deal of mainstream
work in conflict communication, codifies many types of conflict behavior, and provides a level of
explanation rarely found in conflict theories.
According to Sillars, three general strategies of conflict resolution are seen in interpersonal
relationships. These include strategies designed to avoid or minimize conflict, those that aim to win in
a conflict, and those that attempt to achieve mutual positive outcomes for both parties. Sillars has
refined his scheme over the years and refers to these categories simply as avoidance behaviors,
competitive behaviors, and co-operative behaviours.
Avoidance behaviors employ no communication or, at best, indirect communication. Competitive
behaviors involve negative messages, and cooperative behaviors entail more open and positive
communication. Table 12.2 [editors note see below] illustrates a variety of strategies found by Sillars
in his research.47
As an example of how people use these different strategies in interpersonal conflicts, consider a study
by Sillars and his colleagues on conflict in marriage.48 In this study the researchers solicited the
cooperation of forty married couples. Each couple was given a kit to take home, consisting of a set of
questionnaires for each spouse, a list of ten potential conflict areas, and an audiotape. Each couple
was told to answer the questions separately and to seal them in an envelope before proceeding with
the rest of the protocol. Then, the couple was to discuss each of the ten topics and to tape their
discussions. The topics included such things as work pressures, lack of affection, how to spend
leisure time, and child discipline.
The couples also completed a marital adjustment scale and Fitzpatrick's measure of marital types
(discussed above). One objective of the study was to see how well-adjusted couples in each of
Fitzpatrick's categories differed from less well-adjusted couples in their conflict communication. The
tape recordings were analyzed in terms of the amount of apparent conflict and the various types of
strategies used by the couple in their discussion.
The investigators discovered that in all marriage types, more satisfied couples used a more positive
tone of voice than less satisfied couples. Separates tended to be avoiders: They maintained a fairly
neutral tone and kept their discussions of conflict areas to a minimum. The satisfied separates tended
to be even more extreme in this regard. The independents, whether satisfied with their marriage or
not, tended to express negative feelings. The more satisfied members of the independent category
tended to use more description and self-disclosure than did the less satisfied members of this group.
Finally, there was little difference between the satisfied and nonsatisfied traditionals in the sample.
Perhaps Sillars' most important contribution is his use of attribution theory to explain conflict behavior.
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Recall from Chapter 7 [editor’s note in 8th ed. chapter 4 page 68 – 72] that attributions are inferences
made about the causes of behavior. One may make inferences about the causes of some effect, a
disposition or trait of another person or oneself, or a predicted outcome of a situation. Whenever
people try to explain an event by making inferences, attribution is involved.
Sillars believes that in at least three ways attriibutions are important determinants of the definition and
outcome of conflicts. First, individuals' attributions in a conflict determine what sorts of strategies they
will choose to deal with the conflict. This is true not only because one's reactions and feelings are
colored by their attributions but also because future expectations are formed largely as a result of
what has gone on in the past. If, for example, you were to see a partner as cooperative, you would
probably choose a cooperative strategy, but if you saw this person as competitive, you would
probably use a competitive one.
Your assessment of responsibility is also important: If you thought you were to blame, you would
probably be more cooperative, but if you thought the other communicator were responsible, you
would probably be more competitive. Also if you thought your partner had certain negative personality
traits, you would be less likely to cooperate.
Second, biases in the attribution process discourage the use of integrative strategies. These include a
tendency to see others as personally responsible for negative events and to see oneself as merely
responding to circumstances. People tend to believe that others cause conflict because of bad intentions,
lack of consideration, competitiveness, or inadequacy, but people tend to see their own behavior as merely
responding to the provocations of others.
Third, the strategy chosen affects the outcome of the conflict. Cooperative strategies encourage
integrative solutions and information exchange. Competitive strategies escalate the conflict and may
lead to less satisfying solutions.
45 Thomas Steinfatt and Gerald Miller, "Communication in Game Theoretic Models of Conflict," in Perspectives on Communication in Conflict, eds. G. R. Miller and H. Simons (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974), pp. 14-75.
46 Alan L. Sillars, Stephen F. Coletti, Doug Parry, and Mark A. Rogers, "Coding Verbal Conflict Tactics: Nonverbal and Perceptual Correlates of the 'Avoidance-Distributive-Integrative' Distinction," Human Communication Research 9 (1982): 83-95; Alan L.
Sillars, "Attributions and Communication in Roommate Conflicts," Communication Monographs 47 (1980): 180-200; "The Sequential and Distributional Structure of Conflict Interaction as a Function of Attributions Concerning the Locus of
Responsibility and Stability of Conflict," in Communication Yearbook 4, ed. D. Nimmo (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1980),
pp. 217-236.
47 Alan L. Sillars, Manual for Coding Interpersonal Conflict (unpublished manuscript, Department of Communication, University of
Montana, 1986).
************** End of abstract (page 259 Littlejohn 7th Edition) *********
I’m sure you are all very familiar with most of the strategies mentioned in the table on the next page. I
always feel it would be interesting to keep a diary for a few days to see which ones I use for particular
situations, and then reflection upon the results. The theory seems to say nothing about which are
unhealthy and should be avoided or those that are the best to use?
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
Conflict Management Coding Scheme Conflict Management Coding Scheme From Alan L Sillars et al Communication and conflict in
marriage 1983. Table in Littlejohn Theories of human communication 7th ed. page 258
3.
Avoidance Behaviors
Denial and Equivocation
1. Direct denial. Person explicitly denies a conflict is present.
Disclosure. Providing "nonobservable" information: i.e.,
information about thoughts, feelings, intentions, causes of
behavior, or past experience relevant to the issue that the
partner would not have the opportunity to observe.
2. Implicit denial. Statements that imply denial by providing a rationale
for a denial statement, although the denial is not explicit.
4. Soliciting disclosure. Asking specifically for information
concerning the other that the person himself or herself would
not have the opportunity to observe (i.e., thoughts, feelings,
intentions, causes of behavior, experiences).
3. Evasive remark. Failure to acknowledge or deny the presence of a
conflict following a statement or inquiry about the conflict by the
partner.
5.
Topic Management
Conciliatory Remarks
4. Topic shifts. A break in the natural flow of discussion that directs the
topic focus away from discussion of the issue as it applies to the
immediate parties. Do not count topic shifts that occur after the
discussion appears to have reached a natural culmination.
6. Empathy or support. Expressing understanding, support, or
acceptance of the other person or commenting on the other's
positive characteristics or shared interests, goals, and
compatibilities.
5. Topic avoidance. Statements that explicitly terminate the discussion
of a conflict issue before it has been fully discussed.
7. Concessions. Statements that express a willingness to
change, show flexibility, make concessions, or consider
mutually acceptable solutions to conflict.
Noncommittal Remarks
6.
Abstract remarks. Abstract principles, generalizations, or
hypothetical statements. Speaking about the issue on a high level
of abstraction. No reference is made to the actual state of affairs
between the immediate parties.
7. Noncommittal statements. Statements that neither affirm nor
deny the presence of a conflict and that are not evasive replies
or topic shifts.
8. Noncommittal questions. Unfocused questions or those that
rephrase the questions given by the researcher.
9. Procedural remarks. Procedural statements that supplant
discussion of the conflict.
Irreverent Remarks
10. Joking. Nonhostile joking that interrupts or supplements serious
consideration of the issue.
Soliciting criticism.
criticism of oneself.
Nonhostile
questions
soliciting
8. Accepting responsibility. Statements that attribute some
causality for the problem to oneself.
Competitive Behaviors
Confrontative Remarks
1. Personal criticism. Stating or implying a negative
evaluation of the partner.
2. Rejection. Rejecting the partner's opinions in a way that
implies personal rejecting as well as disagreement.
3. Hostile imperatives. Threats, demands, arguments, or other
prescriptive statements that implicitly blame the partner and
seek change in the partner's behavior.
4. Hostile questioning. Questions that fault or blame the other
person.
Cooperative Behaviors
5. Hostile joking or sarcasm. Joking or teasing that is used to
fault the other person.
Analytic Remarks
6.
1. Description. Nonevaluative, nonblaming, factual description of the
nature and extent of the problem.
2. Qualification. Discussion explicitly limits the nature and extent of the
problem by tying the issue to specific behavioral events.
Presumptive attribution. Attributing thoughts, feelings,
intentions, and causes to the partner that the partner does
not acknowledge. This code is the opposite of "soliciting
disclosure."
7. Denial of responsibility. Statements that deny or minimize
personal responsibility for the conflict.
The section on Carl Rodgers and client centred therapy is new to this edition. You may be wondering
why it has been placed in the Phenomenological tradition rather than the Sociopsychological strand. I
think the answer is primarily in the techniques used to obtain the data in his work along with the
humanistic language he adopted. He relied much more on qualitative techniques than most
psychologists and even now often patient centred scoring techniques cause problems when assessed
in a quantitative way, often showing very poor inter-rater reliability levels. The chapter ends with a
brief introduction to Bubers work, which seems to me to be in the same vein as the Invitational
Rhetoric approach discussed in the previous chapter (p175) both approaches which I feel are very
important when coming to reflect upon interactions from a more feminine perspective.
There is much in this chapter to help you with the shadowing day not only in helping you focus on the
shadowees interactions with others but also concerning your interactions with them. Read this chapter
very carefully and definitely make sure you do the MCQs for the chapter on the Books web site.
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
Littlejohn & foss (8th ed.)
Chapter 7 - The Relationship
Interaction
patterns
Concensual
Cybernetic
Symmetrical
Relationships
Dialogue
Disclosure
and privacy
Schemas
and types
pluralistic
Laissez faire
Managing
difference
4 types of family
Complementary
Relationships
individuality
Knowledge
Schemas p.191
Mary Anne Fitzpatrick
Relational patterns
of interaction
Watzlawick p. 189
protective -> seperate
emotionally divorced
intimacy
p.194
Relational
Control p. 190
boundaries
conversation
p. 192
Orientation to
communication
Sociopsychological
conformity
p. 192
integration/seperation
expression/non expression
stability/change
Sociocultural
Contradictions
Social Penetration
theory p. 194
Altman & Taylor
amplitude
salience
Change
scale
sequence
pace/rhythum
p. 201
Praxis
Self disclosure / intimacy
(action)
Phenomenological
Dialectics
Baxter p. 199
struggle between
various elements
in a system
Bakhtins
Dialogics
p. 196
New to
the 8th ed.
Communication
Privacy management
p. 203
Sandra Petronio
Aesthetic
'being as one'
p. 202
turbulance
boundary management
individual costs / rewards
ownership
risk
Carl rodgers
permeability
linkage
Baber
(religious)
Applications
For you to complete
public/private
old stuff from previous editions
Contextual
dialectics
Friendships
Rawlins
(7th ed. p241)
ideal/real
dependence/independence
Interactional
dialectics
Objective self-awareness
"centres on self"
"self monitoring"
Common uncomfortable state
Judgment/acceptance
expressiveness/protectiveness
Uncertainty
reduction
theory
Low/high information seakers
p246 7th ed.
affection/instrumentality (utility)
Nothing about friendship now!
reduced to sentence on p. 210
Subjective self-awareness
(centres on self in context)
p. 243 7th ed. stuff about self consiousness (now p.66)
+ self monitors 7th p. 244 gone)
Conflict management
(7th ed. p255 - 260)
Attribution theory
Sillars p. 257 (7th ed.)
game theory p.255 (7th ed.)
Prisoner's dilemma
Confess / silent X 2
mixed motive game
competitors can either
cooperate or compete
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Avoidance
behaviours
Competitive
behaviours
cooperative
behaviours
Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
2. Chapter 8 - The Group
This chapter presents a range of approaches to considering communication in groups, and draws on
material from 1910 with Deweys functional theory, up to the present day. I'm sure some of the
concepts will be recognisable to you, such as ‘groupthink’. Others I doubt you will have come across;
such as Gidden’s Structuration concept I certainly hadn’t. This edition seems to explain Structuration
much more clearly than previous editions, at the same time I have now read this numerous times
(from the 4th edition onwards) so it might just be persistence!. It is an important area for you to know
about for the shadowing exercise.
Please note that Structuration is a very different thing to Structuralism, This is important, if
anything they are opposites. Made sure you can explain the difference between them in a few
sentences. Again this could be done as a group exercise on the discussion board.
On a day to day practical level I find Bale's Interaction Process analysis model very useful, simply by
remembering that giving, agreeing, storytelling and friendliness are desirable aspects when
communicating. The section on Intercultural working is new and I would be interested to know what
you think of it? This chapter is really only half the story and you will fill in the gaps in the next chapter
which is concerned with organisations.
The material I am presenting below would just as easy be presented in chapter 9 and I hope you
agree after reading it.
2.1 The layout of an ethnographic report
I am sure than most of the journals you are used to dealing with demand a particular layout for articles
such as key findings, introduction, data, discussion etc. However ethnographic reports, and remember
Littlejohn classes these as similar in nature to phenomenological studies of which you have seem
some examples in part one of this introduction, follow very different formats. Unfortunately many of
the more traditional journals which have often focused on quantitative reports require the same format
for qualitative reports and I'm sure from
Paul Willis called Learning to Labour The ethnographic section
your knowledge of the fundamental
contains the following main sections:
propositions document of qualitative
/quantitative research you can see the
1. Elements of a culture
ridiculousness of this approach.
a. Opposition to authority and rejection of the conformist
2.
3.
b.
The informal group
c.
Dossing, blagging and wagging
d.
Having a laff
e.
Boredom and excitment
f.
Sexism
g.
Racism
Class and institutional for of a culture
a.
Class form
b.
Institutional form
Labour power, culture, class and institution
a.
Official provision
b.
Continuities
c.
Jobs
d.
Arriving
We will now consider in detail two
examples of layouts of ethnographic
studies. Let's look first at a ground
breaking study carried out in 1972 -7
on a group of working class boys in
Northern England following their
transition from school to work. The
resulting study was a book by Paul
Willis called Learning to Labour: how
working class kids get working class
jobs first published in 1977 but still
available in 2006. He believed that a
Marxist lens provided the most helpful
mirror to frame his interpretations,
looking specifically at the culture of the
boys
Although the book is divided into two
main parts Ethnography and Analysis
once you read the book you realise
immediately that the terms are used only in a very loose way, new material is presented in the
analysis section and the ethnographic section contains much analysis (refection). The table above
provides details of the main ethnographic sections.
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Taking the typical layout of a small part of the 'Boredom and excitement' subsection illustrated below,
you can clearly see the mixture of providing data (quotes or detailed descriptions) and analysis reflections.
The actual content of the two pages is provided below.
************** Start of abstract (pages 34-5 Paul Willis Learning to Labour. 1981 Morningside edition.
Columbia University Press. New York) *********
Spanksy
Joey
Coin' down the streets.
Vandalising (.. .)that's the opposite of boredom -excitement, defying the Iaw and when you're down The
Plough, and you talk to the gaffer, standing by the gaffer, buying drinks and that, knowing that you're 14
and 15 and you're supposed to be 18.
The 'laff', talking and marauding misbehaviour are fairly effective but not wholly so in defeating boredom -a boredom
increased by their very success at 'playing the system'.
The particular excitement and kudos of belonging to 'the lads', comes from more antisocial practices than these. It is these
more extreme activities which mark them off most completely both from the 'ear'oles', and from the school. There is a
positive joy in fighting, in causing fights through intimidation. in talking about fighting and about the tactics of the whole
fight situation. Many important cultural values are expressed through fighting. Masculine hubris, dramatic display. the
solidarity of the group, the importance of quick, clear and not over-moral thought, comes out time and again. Attitudes to
'ear'oles' are also expressed clearly and with a surprising degree of precision through physical aggression. Violence and the
judgement of violence is the most basic axis of 'the lads' ascendence over the conformists, almost in the way that knowledge
is for teachers.
In violence there is the fullest if unspecified commitment to a blind or distorted form of revolt. It breaks the conventional
tyranny of 'the rule'. It opposes it with machismo. It is the ultimate way of breaking a flow of meanings which are
unsatisfactory, imposed from above, or limited by circumstances. It is one way to make the mundane suddenly matter. The
usual assumption of the flow of the self from the past to the future is stopped: the dialectic of time is broken. Fights, as accidents and other crises, strand you painfully in 'the now'. Boredom and petty detail disappear. It really does matter how the
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
next seconds pass. And once experienced, the fear of the fight and the ensuing high as the self safely resumes its journey are
addictive. They become permanent possibilities for the alleviation of boredom, and pervasive elements of a masculine style
and presence.
Joey
There's no chivalry or nothing, none of this cobblers you know, it's just . . . if you'm gonna fight, it's
savage fighting anyway, so you might as well go all the way and win it completely by having someone
else help ya or by winning by the dirtiest methods you can think of, like poking his eyes out or biting
his ear and things like this.
(. .. .)
PW
Spike
PW
Eddie
Spanksy
PW
Joey
PW
Joey
PW
Joey
What do you think, are there kids in the school here that just wouldn't fight?
It gets you mad, like. if you hit somebody and they won't hit you hack.
Why?
I hate kids like that.
Yeah, 'I'm not going to hit you, you'm me friend'.
Well, what do you think of that attitude?
Id's all accordin'what you got against him, if it's just a trivial thing, like he give you a kick and he
wouldn't fight you when it come to a head, but if he's . . . really something mean towards you, like,
whether he fights back or not, you still pail him.
What do you feel when you're fighting7
(. . .) it's exhilarating, it's like being scared . . . it's the feeling you get afterwards . . . I know what I feel
when I'm fighting . . . it's that I've got to kill him, do your utmost best to kill him.
Do you actually feel frightened when you're fighting though?
Yeah, I shake before I start fighting, I'm really scared, but once you're actually in there, then you start
to co-ordinate your thoughts like, it gets better and better and then, if you'm good enough, you beat the
geezer. You get him down on the floor and just jump all over his head.
It should be noted that despite its destructiveness, anti-social nature and apparent irrationality violence is not completely
random, or In any sense the absolute overthrow of social order. Even when directed at outside groups (and thereby, of
course. helping to define an 'in-group*) one of the most important aspects of violence is precisely its social meaning within
'the lads" own culture. It marks the last move in, and final validation of, the informal status system. It regulates a kind of
'honour' -displaced, distorted or whatever. The fight is the moment when you are fully tested in the alternative culture. It is
disastrous for your informal standing and masculine reputation if you refuse to fight, or perform very amateurishly. Though
one of 'the lads' is not necessarily expected to pick fights -it is the 'hard knock' who does this, a respected though often not
much liked figure unlikely to be much of a 'laff -he is certainly expected to fight when insulted or intimidated: to be able to
'look after himself, to be 'no slouch', to stop people 'pushing him about'.
Amongst the leaders and the most influential -not usually the 'hard knocks' -it is the capacity to fight which settles the
final pecking order. It is the not often tested ability to fight which valorises status based usually and interestingly on other
grounds: masculine presence, being from a "famous' family, being funny, being good at 'blagging', extensiveness of informal
contacts.
Violence is recognised, however, as a dangerous and unpredictable final adjudication which must not be allowed to get
out of hand between peers. Verbal or symbolic violence is to be preferred, and if a real fight becomes unavoidable the
normal social controls and settled system of status and reputation is to be restored as soon as possible:
PW
Joey
(. . .) When was the last fight you had Joey?
Two weeks ago . . . about a week ago, on Monday night, this silly
************** End of abstract (pages 34-5 Paul Willis Learning to Labour. 1981 Morningside edition.
Columbia University Press. New York) *********
The second example is from Goffman Asylums, which has been mentioned in the fundamental
propositions of qualitative / quantitative research document. His 'essay' appears even less structured
than that of Willis, not providing a detailed table of contents or index, although this is probably as
much to do with the fact that it was produced before word processing! The detailed structure however
is very similar to Willis's book, sections of very detailed descriptions / quotes sandwiched between
reflections and discussions of similar examples. The extract below is from the introduction.
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
************** Start of abstract *********
Erving Goffman Asylums: Essays on the Social Situations of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. 1961
Page 18 -19 Introduction - On the characteristics of total institutions.
The handling of many human needs by the bureaucratic Organization - of whole blocks of people -whether or
not this is a necessary or effective means of social organization in the circumstances - is the key fact of total
institutions. From this follow certain important implications.
When persons are moved in blocks, they can be supervised by personnel whose chief activity is not guidance or
periodic inspection (as in many employer-employee relations) but rather surveillance -a seeing to it that
everyone does what he has been clearly told is required of him, under conditions where one person's infraction
is likely to stand out in relief against the visible, constantly examined compliance of the others. Which comes
first, the large blocks of managed people, or the small supervisory staff, is not here at issue; the point is that
each is made for the other.
In total institutions there is a basic split between a large managed group, conveniently called inmates, and a
small supervisory staff. Inmates typically live in the institution and have restricted contact with the world
outside the walls; staff often operate on an eight-hour day and are socially integrated into the outside world. 2
Each grouping tends to conceive of the other in terms of narrow hostile stereotypes, staff often seeing inmates as
bitter, secretive, and untrustworthy, while inmates often see staff as condescending, highhanded, and mean.
Staff tends to feel superior and righteous; inmates tend, in some ways at least, to feel inferior, weak,
blameworthy, and guilty.3
Social mobility between the two strata is grossly restricted; (social distance is typically great and often formally
prescribed. Even talk across the boundaries may be conducted in a special tone of voice, as illustrated in a
fictionalized record of an actual sojourn in a mental hospital:
'I tell you what,' said Miss Hart when they were crossing the day- room. 'You do everything Miss Davis says. Don't
think about it, just do it. You'll get along all right.'
As soon as she heard the name Virginia knew what was terrible about Ward One. Miss Davis. 'Is she the head nurse?'
'And how,' muttered Miss Hart. And then she raised her voice. The nurses had a way of acting as if the patients were
unable to hear any-thing that was not shouted. Frequently they said things in normal voices that the ladies were not
supposed to hear; if thcy had not been nurses you would have said they frequently talked to themselves. 'A most
competent and efficient person, Miss Davis,' announced Miss Hart.4'
Although some communication between inmates and the staff guarding them is necessary, one of the guard's
functions is the control of communication from inmates to higher staff levels. A student of mental hospitals
provides an illustration:
Since many of the patients are anxious to see the doctor on his rounds, the attendants must act as mediators between the
patients and the physician if the latter is not to be swamped. On Ward 30, it seemed to be generally true that patients
without physical symptoms who fell into the two lower privilege groups were almost never permitted to talk to the
physician unless Dr Baker himself asked for them. The per-severing, nagging delusional group -who were termed 'worry
warts', 'nuisances', 'bird dogs', in the attendants' slang -often tried to break through the attendant-mediator but were
always quite summarily dealt with when they tried.5
Just as talk across the boundary is restricted, so, too, is the passage of information, especially information about the
staff's plans for inmates. Characteristically, the inmate is excluded from knowledge of the decisions taken regarding
his fate. . . .
Footnotes
2. The binary character of total institutions was pointed out to me by Gregory Bateson, and has been noted in the literature. See, for
example, Lloyd E. Ohlin, Sociology and the Field of Corrections (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1956), pp. 14, 20. In those situations
where staff are also required to live in, we may expect staff to feel they are suffering special hard ships and to have brought home to them a
status dependency on life on the inside which they did not expect. See Jane Cassels Record, 'The Marine Radioman's Struggle for Status'.
American Journal of Sociology, LXII (1957), p.359.
3. For the prison version, see S. Kirson Weinberg. 'Aspects of the Prison's Social Structure', American Journal of Sociology, XLVII (1942),
PP. 717-26.
4. Mary Jane Ward, The Snake Pit (New York: New American Library 1955), p. 72.
5. Ivan Belknap, Human Problems of a State Mental Hospital (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956), p. 177.
************** End of abstract *********
Remember to do the online MCQ at the books website.
If anyone is interested I have compiled a number of group work evaluation tools in another document
- you will not be questioned on the content in this document; it is simply there as a resource.
http://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/chap21/s8/group_working.pdf
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
Littlejohn & foss (8th ed.)
Chapter 8 - The group
interpersonal
task
problems
Messages, roles
personalitites Environment /
system / context
interaction
Diversity
Group
structure
outputs
Group
task
rew ards
self/group
Input, process, output model
p. 219
Collins & Guetzkow 1964
positive
seems friendly
assembly effect
bonuses
synergy
individual
productivity
dramatizes (story telling)
agrees
Cybernetic
gives suggestion
give opinion
tension
decision
reduction
reintegration
gives information
asks for information
new to 8th. ed.
asks for opinion
asks for suggestion
disagrees
shows tension
seems unfriendly
Bona fide groups
Putman & Stohl
p. 218
communication evaluation control
negative
interaction process analysis
=human system model
robert bales 1970
Dramatizing - relieving tension b y story telling.
p216
Idea taken from ->
categories:
Effective Intercultural Work
open Systems approach
Oetzel 2001
p. 223
individualism /
interact system model
collectivism
aubrey fisher 1980
p. 221
self-construal
(independent / interdependent)
Bormann (fantasy theme analysis)
actions not divided into
task /socioemotional dichotomy
"interacts"
rather than seperate actions
face concerns
(self / other / mutual)
Sociopsychological
4 phases (p. 222)
"The more heterogeneous
the group, the harder
it will b e to communicate
effectively . . ." p. 224
Sociocultural
1. orientation
2. conflict
3. emergence
4. reinforcement
Anthony Giddens
(originator)
marshall scott poole 1985
convergence (agreement) p. 227
standard unitary
explains macro - micro process
/structure link
3
dimensions
decision paths
sequences
accepts both external forces & intention
solution orientated
unintended consequences of establishing structures (groupings)
that affect future goals (e.g. cleaning makes you = the cleaner also ethnicity)
structures
action
interpretation
morality
pow er
m ediation
e.g. one may encourage the
development of another, e.g. role structure
may result in a new communcations structure etc.
interpretation/
understanding
'how '
complex
task - process
tracks
relational
contingenies
topic focus
morality
conflict/dialectic
proper conduct e.g. equal opportunity p153-4
contradiction
pow er 'w hat'
objective task
'how '
group task
clarity of problem
extent of impactexperience
group structural
characteristics
cohesiveness
power structure
size
"Group adopts particular courses
etc
of action but in so doing creates structures
that limit future action" p230
'How w e think'
Dew ey 1910
6 steps p. 230
expressing
a difficulty
defining
problem
4 aspects of good
group functioning
Hirokaw a1988
clear objectives
rationalize
morality
stereotyped
(evil, w eak,
Irving Janis 1982
stupid outsiders)
high group satisfaction but
ineffective output
direct pressure
symptoms p. 232:
Groupthink
assessment
of alternatives
bad
points
analysing
problem
suggesting
solutions
illusion of
invulnerability
understanding
of problem
self-censorship
good
points
mindguards
illusion of
unanimity
comparing
alternatives
implementing
Concerning Homogeneity, both Oetzel and Janis, have very different things to say about it
can the two viewpoints be reconciled?
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
3. Chapter 9 - The Organisation
Most of you will be exposed to one type of organisation or another for the shadowing exercise and
this chapter helps you to understand what is happening in a more theoretical manner. However it is
important to realise that you are not carrying out an organisational analysis – you primary interest is
the shadowee and there perceptions / attitudes / beliefs about the organisation.
I think you will find these theories more accessible, the Sociopsychological theories (Weber and
Likert) and straightforward and easily applied. Structuration appears once again (giving a hint as to
how important it is) in the Sociocultural section. You might find it useful to know that the
Organisational Culture subsection has been of use to quite a few students when reflecting upon the
shadowing day as others have found the critical theories section.
3.1 Where is the mindmap for this chapter?
Because it is important that you really get to grips with the material in this chapter I have left the
mindmap for you to do yourself. You might want to start by looking at the mindmap I produced for
chapter 14 of the 7th edition - Communication and organisational networks at http://www.robinbeaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/chap5/s5/littlejohn/index.htm
Remember to do the online MCQ at the books website.
Space for your mindmap:
4. Chapter 10 - The Media
Personally I find that this chapter seems to lack focus. It starts by discussing Marshall McLuhan and
the Global village concept and then moves on to mass communication, rather than discussing various
aspects of the global village in detail. Having said that, I did find the sections discussing mass
communication very interesting; particularly living in the UK, which seems to be the centre of ‘spin’
nowadays The concept of Dependency theory I also clearly identified with. Unfortunately several of
the diagrams and tables from previous editions that helped me to understand some of the material
have been removed from the present edition.
The chapter is very useful by presenting clear exemplars of the various traditions of theories
mentioned in the previous chapters of the book and therefore those of you who had problems with
much of the abstract discussions earlier in the book should find that this chapter makes things
somewhat clearer for you.
Remember to do the online MCQ at the books website.
Space for your mindmap:
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
4.1 Important Additional reading
Chapter 10 does not focus on the Web or internet in any great detail. To supplement your reading I
would be grateful if you could read through the following two documents.
1. Organisational & confidentiality Issues Learning outcomes (to end of section 3):
http://www.robin-beaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/chap4/soc1/soc1.pdf
2. This document presents one of the most common metaphors for the modern information age;
the Panopticon, and also briefly discusses technological determinism, a similar concept to
Dependency theory discussed in Littlejohn's chapter above This document is basically an
introduction to the following one. Being Online – The Internet: http://www.robinbeaumont.co.uk/virtualclassroom/chap4/soc3/soc3.pdf This document, like Littlejohn's
chapter, starts by discussing Marshall McLuhan but then moves on to consider his ideas in
relation to Teleworking and Cyberspace. This is only a very basic introduction to the area; for
example, the few paragraphs on e-mail research could have been expanded to fit many
chapters. Personally I find these topics very interesting having made the effort to write about
them, and have always had a weak spot for Science Fiction. Possibly for one of the
residential meetings we should arrange a late night showing of The Matrix or eXistenZ
(http://www.haro-online.com/movies/existenz.html ). The book 'The philosopher at the end of
the universe' provides an excellent introduction to philosophy by Mark Rowlands via the
science fiction film genre. Made sure you do the MCQs in this second document some of
them may well appear in the final MCQ test.
If you want to learn more about the psychology of the Internet probably one of the better books
(based more on research findings than polemic) is Psychology and the Internet by Jayne Gackenbach
(ed.)
Please note that it is unlikely that much of this material will be of use to you during the shadowing day
– you are concentrating on human - human communication, try not to be allured to situations involving
electronically mediated communication (EMC) no matter how much you prefer to focus on them in
preference to the old fashioned techniques!.
5. Chapter 11 Culture and Society
This chapter is new to this edition although nearly all the material was dotted about chapters in the
previous edition.
This is an important chapter for you particularly the sections concerned with the Phenomenological,
Sociocultural and Critical traditions. You should be very familiar with all the theories presented in the
first two of these sections, and preferably have read around them if at all possible. Within the semiotic
section Bernsteins elaborated and restricted codes are interesting and of use in trying to understand
different peoples narrative style.
A similar concept was made popular in the late 1950’s in the UK popularised by (Nancy Mitford) ‘U’
and non-U speech to enable people to recognise the upper classes and emulate them. The collection
of the original academic article along with several other comments and Mitfords short paper was
published as Noblesse Oblige (penguin books, 1956) which also contained several very funny
cartoons I have included these as a bit of light relief as another document as I feel you have deserve
it by now.
Remember to do the Inline MCQ at the books website and if you find it helps create your own
mindmap for the chapter.
Finally some students have also focused on shadowing someone who is either part of, or working
within or is part of an ethnic community, unfortunately Littlejohn provides little in the way of references
concerning this topic so I have provided a short list of references below for those of you who decide to
go down this interesting route.
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
5.1 Ethnic / cultural analyses
Web sites:
The most famous writer at the national level concerning culture is Hoftstede he developed a number
of measures to help frame a discussion of culture including:
Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance Index
(UAI) Long-Term Orientation (LTO) You certainly need to consider these things among others if you
are planning on doing a cultural analysis. There is a web site devoted to his work at http://www.geerthofstede.com/geert_hofstede_resources.shtml Other web sites:
http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/PRELIMS/Culture/cumisc1.html
http://www.itcs.com/elawley/bourdieu.html - Interesting but rather basic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/asian_britain.stm Asian Britain:
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/econ/workingpapers/emdp432.pdf An excellent reference for telling you
something about cultural analysis but the results or his research are poor - shows how useless a
questionnaire is in this situation (or possibly it is just a bad questionnaire) "The Interaction Between
Culture And Entrepreneurship In London's Immigrant Businesses" this contains a introduction
discussing what is culture etc.
Books
Paul Willis (various reprints) Learning to Labour - is an excellent introduction to how to present
ethnographic evidence and reflect upon it.
Paul Willis 2000 The ethnographic imagination - policy press
Articles:
Sheila Scraton 2005 'Bend It Like Patel: Centring 'Race', Ethnicity and Gender in Feminist Analysis of
Women's Football in England. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 40, No. 1, 71-88
(2005)
Ruben G. Rumbaut, 1997. "Assimilation and its Discontents: Between Rhetoric and Reality."
International Migration Review. 31 (4).
Ruth Frankenberg, 1993. The Social Construction of Whiteness. White Women, Race Matters.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Chapter 7.
Bethany Bryson, 1996. "Anything but Heavy Metal": Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes"
American Sociological Review 61 (5): 884-899.
Bonnie Erikson, l996. "Culture, Class, and Connections." American Journal of Sociology, 102: 217251.
Joane Nagel. 2005?. "Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations."
Ethnic and Racial Studies.
William Julius Wilson, l996. When Work Disappears. The World of the New Urban Poor. New York:
Vintage. Chapter. 3.
Douglas Massey and Nancy E. Denton, 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of
the Underclass. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 6.
Wendy Griswold, l992. "A Methodological Framework for the Sociology of Culture" Sociological
Methodology.
Elisabeth Long, l997. From Sociology to Cultural Studies. New York: Basil Blackwell. Introduction.
Michael Schudson, l997. "Cultural Studies and the Construction of Social Construction: Notes on
'Teddy Bear Patriarchy." Pp. 379-398 in From Sociology to Cultural Studies, edited by Elizabeth Long.
New York: Basil Blackwell.
Sarah Corse, l997. Nationalism and Literature: The Politics of Culture in Canada and the United
States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1 and 7.
Paul DiMaggio, l997. "Culture and Cognition." Annual Review of Sociology. 23:263-87.
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Littlejohn & Foss - Theories of Human Communication – An introduction - part 2 chapters 7 - 11
Roger Friedland and Robert Alford, 1991. "Bringing Society Back in: Symbols, Practices, and
Institutional Contradictions." Pp. 223-62 in The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, edited
by W.W. Powell and Paul DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nicolas Dodier, 1993. "Action as a Combination of Common Worlds." The Sociological Review. 41 (3):
556-71.
Michèle Lamont, 1992, Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American UpperMiddle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Introduction and conclusion. Also excerpts
published in Reading Sociology, Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, ed. by David N.
Newman, Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, pp. 199-214.
Mustafa Emirbayer, l997. "Manifesto for a Relational Sociology." American Journal of Sociology. 103
(2): 281-317.
Ewa Morawska, Forthcoming. "Ethnicity as the Double Structure: A Historical-Comparative
Approach." Cultural Analysis and Comparative Research in Social History, edited by Willfried Spohn.
Opladen: Budrich and Leske.
Adrian Favell. 1997. "Citizenship and Immigration: Pathologies of a Progressive Philosophy." New
Community 23 (2): 173-195.
Aihwa Ong, 1996. "Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial and Cultural
Boundaries in the United States." Current Anthropology 37 (5): 737-762.
Bonnie L. Mitchell and Joe R. Feagin, 1995. "America's Racial-Ethnic Cultures: Apportion within a
Mythical Melting Pot." Pp. 65-86 in Toward the Multicultural University, edited by Benjamin P. Bowser,
Tery Jones and Gale Auletta Yougn. Westport: Praeger.
Douglas B. Holt, 1997. "Distinction in America? Recovering Bourdieu's Theory of Taste from its
Critics." Poetics. 25: 93-120.
Ruth Horowitz, 1997. "Barriers and Bridges to Class Mobility and Formation: Ethnographies of
Stratification." Sociological Methods and Research. 25 (4): 495-538.
Andrea Press, 1994. "The Sociology of Cultural Perception: Notes towards an Emerging Paradigm."
Pp. 221-45 in Sociology of Culture: Emerging Theoretical Perspectives, edited by Diana Crane.
London: Basil Blackwell.
Richard Peterson and Roger Kern, 1996. "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore."
American Sociological Review. 61: 900-907.
End of document
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