Jumpstart Your Paper

Browse our Free Essay examples and check out our Writing tools to get your assignments done.

The Formation of Communication Theory

INSTRUCTIONS:

Submit a 1500 words paper on the topic Formation of Communication Theory. On the basis of these results, the researchers are able to predict how people will behave, react, communicate or make decisions. Hence, as the past findings help researchers in predicting and understanding the present and future behavior pattern of people, they become the ‘theories’ of human behavior and communication. The ‘past findings’ become a ‘theory’ as the findings remain consistently applicable to current patterns of human life. However, according to the author, these two ways of forming a theory are not sufficient (Chaffee, 1996, p.16). He feels that the past findings of communication cannot be called as theories as they are formed on the basis of observations and manipulations of human behavior to indicate variations in the ideas which were assumed at conceptions (Chaffee, 1996, p.17). Hence, any findings that involve ‘manipulation’ of the behavior cannot be called as theories.Communication research involves human behavior and hence, when conducting communication research, the researcher has to consider the abstract concepts like beliefs, attitudes, values, and faith (Stacks & Salwen, 1996, p.8). However, the interesting thing is that different people have different ‘ideas’ and understanding of these concepts. Hence, it becomes important on the part of the researcher to theoretically define these terms in a specific manner in order to avoid negative reaction and confusion in the mind of people (Stacks & Salwen, 1996, p.8). These definitions are called operational definitions and they help in measuring and observing the variables involved in research (Stacks & Salwen, 1996, p.8).
Related Topics: