Behavioral communication

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Communicative behaviors are psychological constructs that influence individual differences in expressing feelings, needs, and thoughts as a substitute for more direct and open communication. [1] More specifically, communicative behaviors refer to people's tendency to express themselves using indirect messages. [2] Much of our communication is, in fact, non-verbal.

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Any behavior (or absence of it) may be judged as communicative if it intends to convey a message. For example, an expressive hairstyle, a show of a particular emotion, or simply doing (or not doing) the dishes can be means by which people may convey messages to each other.

Behavioral communication can be understood as a variable of individual differences. Some people, more than others, tend to engage in indirect or behavioral communication, whether consciously or unconsciously, despite the different alternatives to verbal communication. [1] An individual's behavioral style significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication. [3] Someone rarely utilizes all behavioral communication styles. Identifying one's behavioral style requires a high level of self-awareness. [3]

There are different way to communicate such as direct and indirect communication. Direct communication clear states what their intentions or instructions are, while indirect communication relies on different forms of communication to relay their meaning or intentions.

Direct communication strategies: using imperatives, statement of prohibition, instructions, statement of permission/preference, or suggestions.

Indirect communication strategies: using questions, attributed directions, appeal to feelings, or rationals/hints.

Different types of communication behavior

There are four types of communication behavior: aggressive, assertive, passive, and passive-aggressive.

Aggressive

Aggression is defined as a random act of anger in which the aggressor intends to hurt someone or something. [4] Aggressive communicators typically create avoidable conflict by engaging in personal attacks and put-downs. [5] Aggressive communicators create a win-lose situation and use intimidation to get their own needs met, often at the expense of others. [6] Aggressive communicators typically feel a strong sense of inadequacy, lack empathy, and believe the only way to meet their needs is through power and control. [6] Aggressive communicators are usually close-minded, are poor listeners, and tend to monopolize others. [3]

Behaviors often seen during aggressive communication include: putting others down, overpowering others, not showing appreciation, rushing others unnecessarily, ignoring others, not considering others' feelings, intimidating others, and speaking condescendingly. [3] [7] Nonverbal behaviors exhibited during aggressive communication include: [3]

While engaging in this type of communication, individuals typically feel anger, superiority, frustration, and impatience. [3] Aggressive communication often results in counter-aggression, alienation, and the creation of resistance or defiance. [3] Additionally, individuals receiving aggressive communication typically feel resentful, defensive, humiliated, hurt, and afraid. [8]

Nonetheless, there are times when aggressive communication is pertinent, however. For example, an aggressive communication style is essential during emergencies or when decisions must be made quickly. [3]

Assertive

Assertiveness is the ability to express one's desires and feelings appropriately. [7] Assertive communication is the halfway point between passive communication and aggressive communication. [7] Assertive communication is based on the belief that each individual is responsible for their problems; therefore, they are responsible for directly communicating these problems to the other parties involved. [6] Assertive communication is direct communication that respects both the communicator's and the receiver's rights and opinions without being argumentative. [6] Engaging in assertive communication helps individuals avoid conflict, maintain relationships, and usually end in a compromise. [8] Assertive communication is the communication style that is least utilized, however. [9]

Individuals who engage in assertive communication are open to hearing the opinions of others without criticizing and feel comfortable enough to express their views. [6] Assertive communicators generally have high self-esteem, as they have the confidence to communicate effectively with others without getting offended or being manipulative. [9] While conversing, assertive communicators will state limits and expectations, state observations without judgment, be active listeners, and check on others' feelings. [3] Essential problem-solving skills that assertive communicators acquire include negotiations, confronting problems as soon as they arise, and not letting negative emotions build up. [3]

Behaviors that may be present when an individual is engaging in assertive communication include: being open when expressing their thoughts and feelings, encouraging others to openly express their own opinions and feelings, listening to other's opinions and appropriately responding to them, accepting responsibilities, being action-orientated, being able to admit mistakes, setting realistic goals, maintaining self-control, and acting as an equal to those who are on the receiving end of the communication. [3] [7]

Many nonverbal behaviors represent assertive communication as well. Individuals engaging in assertive communication convey open and receptive body language with upright posture and relaxed movements. [6] Assertive communicators have a clear tone of voice and make appropriate eye contact. [6] Assertive communicators typically feel more confident and self-respecting while engaging in this type of communication. [7] People on the receiving end of assertive communication usually feel as though they can believe the communicator, know where they stand with the communicator, and possess a sense of respect for the communicator. [9]

Assertive communication has positive effects on both the communicator and the receiver. Some positive effects include the communicator feeling connected to others, feeling in control of their lives, and can grow as individuals because they can address and solve issues as they arise and create a respectful environment for others. [10]

Passive

Passive communication involves not expressing one's thoughts or feelings and putting their needs last in an attempt to keep others happy. [8] Passive communicators will internalize their discomfort to avoid conflict and to be liked by others. This communication style is typically exhibited when individuals feel as if their needs do not matter and that if they voice their concerns, they will be rejected. [6] Individuals who demonstrate a predominately passive communication style usually have low self-esteem and may not be able to recognize their own needs effectively. [6] They tend to trust others, but they do not trust themselves. [3]

There are many behavioral characteristics identified with this communication style. These behavioral characteristics include, but are not limited to: actively avoiding confrontation, difficulty taking responsibility or making decisions, agreeing with someone else's preferences, refusing compliments, sighing a lot, asking permission unnecessarily, and blaming others. [10] Many non-verbal behaviors reflect passive communication. Typically, individuals engaging in a passive communication style have a soft voice, speak hesitantly, and make themselves very small. [10] They also tend to fidget and avoid eye contact. [10]

Passive communicators elicit numerous feelings in themselves as well as in others. They typically possess feelings of anxiety, depression, resentfulness, feelings of powerlessness, and confusion. [9] They feel anxious because their life seems to be out of their control, and they acquire depressive feelings from a perceived sense of hopelessness. [9] Passive communicators may become resentful because they feel as if their own needs are not being met and may become confused because they cannot identify their feelings. [9] People on the receiving end of passive communication typically feel frustrated, guilty, and may discount the passive communicator for not knowing what they want. [10] While engaging in this type of communication, passive individuals typically feel anxious during the conversation and hurt or angry later. [10]

Passive communicators tend to build dependent relationships; they often do not know where they stand in situations and will over-promote others, all resulting in the depletion of their self-esteem. [3] Passive communicators do not regularly respond to hurtful situations but instead let their discomfort build until they have an explosive outburst. [9] This outburst causes shame and confusion, leading the individual back into a passive communication style. [9]

There are, however, numerous instances in which passive communication is necessary. A few situations may include: when an issue is minor, when the problems caused by the conflict are worse than the actual conflict, and when emotions are running high. [3]

Passive-Aggressive

The Passive-Aggressive style incorporates aspects of both passive and aggressive communication styles. Individuals utilizing this style appear passive but act out their anger indirectly. [1] People who develop this communication style usually feel powerless, resentful, and stuck. [2] Passive-aggressive individuals expose their anger through procrastination, being exaggeratedly forgetful, and or being intentionally inefficient, among other things. [3]

Many behavioral characteristics are identified with this communication style. These behavioral characteristics include but are not limited to sarcasm, being unreliable, frequent complaining, sulking, patronizing, and gossiping. [1] Non-verbal behaviors, such as posture or facial expression, can also reflect passive-aggressive communication.

Typically, individuals engaging in passive-aggressive communication display asymmetrical postures and jerky or quick gestures. [1] They may also have an innocent facial expression and act excessively friendly to conceal their anger or frustration. [1] People on the receiving end of passive-aggressive communication are usually left confused, angry, and hurt. [1] They tend to be alienated from others because they elicit these unpleasant feelings. [2] A passive-aggressive communication style does not adequately address pertinent issues or problems. This maladaptive problem-solving style keeps passive-aggressive communicators in a state of powerlessness, resulting in continued passive-aggression. [2]

Examples of Passive-Aggressive Language/Behavior include wistful statements, backhanded compliments, purposefully ignoring or saying nothing, leaving someone out, sabotaging someone, and muttering to oneself instead of confronting the issue. [4]

Related Research Articles

Communications management is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all the channels of communication within an organization and between organizations. It also includes the organization and dissemination of new communication directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology. Aspects of communications management include developing corporate communication strategies, designing internal and external communications directives, and managing the flow of information, including online communication. It is a process that helps an organization to be systematic as one within the bounds of communication.

Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body language</span> Type of nonverbal communication

Body language is a type of nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Although body language is an important part of communication, most of it happens without conscious awareness. In social communication, body language often complements verbal communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice, physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance noted. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Silent treatment is the refusal to communicate verbally or electronically with someone who is trying to communicate and elicit a response. It may range from just sulking to malevolent abusive controlling behaviour. It may be a passive-aggressive form of emotional abuse in which displeasure, disapproval and contempt is exhibited through nonverbal gestures while maintaining verbal silence. Clinical psychologist Harriet Braiker identifies it as a form of manipulative punishment. It may be used as a form of social rejection; according to the social psychologist Kipling Williams, it is the most common form of ostracism.

Assertiveness is the quality of being self-assured and confident without being aggressive to defend a right point of view or a relevant statement. In the field of psychology and psychotherapy, it is a skill that can be learned and a mode of communication. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines assertiveness as:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contempt</span> Disgust and anger towards something or someone

In colloquial usage, contempt usually refers to either the act of despising, or having a general lack of respect for something. This set of emotions generally produces maladaptive behaviour. Other authors define contempt as a negative emotion rather than the constellation of mentality and feelings that produce an attitude. Paul Ekman categorises contempt as the seventh basic emotion, along with anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. Robert C. Solomon places contempt on the same emotional continuum as resentment and anger, and he argues that the differences between the three are that resentment is anger directed towards a higher-status individual; anger is directed towards an equal-status individual; and contempt is anger directed towards a lower-status individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social behavior</span> Behavior among two or more organisms within the same species

Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to an exchange of goods, with the expectation that when you give, you will receive the same. This behavior can be affected by both the qualities of the individual and the environmental (situational) factors. Therefore, social behavior arises as a result of an interaction between the two—the organism and its environment. This means that, in regards to humans, social behavior can be determined by both the individual characteristics of the person, and the situation they are in.

Expectancy violations theory (EVT) is a theory of communication that analyzes how individuals respond to unanticipated violations of social norms and expectations. The theory was proposed by Judee K. Burgoon in the late 1970s and continued through the 1980s and 1990s as "nonverbal expectancy violations theory", based on Burgoon's research studying proxemics. Burgoon's work initially analyzed individuals' allowances and expectations of personal distance and how responses to personal distance violations were influenced by the level of liking and relationship to the violators. The theory was later changed to its current name when other researchers began to focus on violations of social behavior expectations beyond nonverbal communication.

Dyssemia is a difficulty with receptive and/or expressive nonverbal communication. The word comes from the Greek roots dys (difficulty) and semia (signal). The term was coined by psychologists Marshall Duke and Stephen Nowicki in their 1992 book, Helping The Child Who Doesn't Fit In, to decipher the hidden dimensions of social rejection. These difficulties go beyond problems with body language and motor skills. Dyssemic persons exhibit difficulties with the acquisition and use of nonverbal cues in interpersonal relationships. "A classic set of studies by Albert Mehrabian showed that in face-to-face interactions, 55 percent of the emotional meaning of a message is expressed through facial, postural, and gestural means, and 38 percent of the emotional meaning is transmitted through the tone of voice. Only seven percent of the emotional meaning is actually expressed with words." Dyssemia represents the social dysfunction aspect of nonverbal learning disorder.

Collaborative methods are processes, behaviors, and conversations that relate to the collaboration between individuals. These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to objectively document personal traits with the goal of improving performance in current and future projects.

In interpersonal communication, an I-message or I-statement is an assertion about the feelings, beliefs, values, etc. of the person speaking, generally expressed as a sentence beginning with the word I, and is contrasted with a "you-message" or "you-statement", which often begins with the word you and focuses on the person spoken to. Thomas Gordon coined the term "I message" in the 1960s while doing play therapy with children. He added the concept to his book for parents, P.E.T.: Parent Effectiveness Training (1970). Not every message that begins with the word I is an I-message; some are statements about the speaker's perceptions, observations, assumptions, or criticisms.

Non-verbal leakage is a form of non-verbal behavior that occurs when a person verbalizes one thing, but their body language indicates another, common forms of which include facial movements and hand-to-face gestures. The term "non-verbal leakage" got its origin in literature in 1968, leading to many subsequent studies on the topic throughout the 1970s, with related studies continuing today.

Power and dominance-submission are two key dimensions of relationships, especially close relationships in which parties rely on one another to achieve their goals and as such it is important to be able to identify indicators of dominance.

Verbal self-defense or verbal aikido is the art of using one's words to prevent, de-escalate, or end an attempted verbal or physical assault.

Body-to-body communication is a way of communicating with others through the use of nonverbal communication, without using speech or verbalization. It can include body language, facial expressions, and other bodily gestures in order to communicate with others without the need of verbal communication. Body-to-body communication accounts for postures, body language, physical touch, nonverbal language, and other bodily gestures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Posture (psychology)</span> Aspect of nonverbal communication

In humans, posture can provide a significant amount of important information through nonverbal communication. Psychological studies have also demonstrated the effects of body posture on emotions. This research can be traced back to Charles Darwin's studies of emotion and movement in humans and animals. Currently, many studies have shown that certain patterns of body movements are indicative of specific emotions. Researchers studied sign language and found that even non-sign language users can determine emotions from only hand movements. Another example is the fact that anger is characterized by forward whole body movement. The theories that guide research in this field are the self-validation or perception theory and the embodied emotion theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verbal aggression</span> Personality trait or a mainly destructive form of communication

Verbal aggressiveness in communication has been studied to examine the underlying message of how the aggressive communicator gains control over different things that occur, through the usage of verbal aggressiveness. Scholars have identified that individuals who express verbal aggressiveness have the goal of controlling and manipulating others through language. Infante and Wigley defined verbal aggressiveness as "a personality trait that predisposes persons to attack the self-concepts of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics of communication". Self-concept can be described as a group of values and beliefs that one has. Verbal aggressiveness is thought to be mainly a destructive form of communication, but it can produce positive outcomes. Infante and Wigley described aggressive behavior in interpersonal communication as products of individual's aggressive traits and the way the person perceives the aggressive circumstances that prevents them or something in a situation.

Affiliative conflict theory (ACT) is a social psychological approach that encompasses interpersonal communication and has a background in nonverbal communication. This theory postulates that "people have competing needs or desires for intimacy and autonomy". In any relationship, people will negotiate and try to rationalize why they are acting the way they are in order to maintain a comfortable level of intimacy.

Nonverbal influence is the act of affecting or inspiring change in others' behaviors and attitudes through tone of voice or body language and other nonverbal cues like facial expression. This act of getting others to embrace or resist new attitudes can be achieved with or without the use of spoken language. Many individuals instinctively associate persuasion with verbal messages. Nonverbal influence emphasizes the persuasive power and influence of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal influence includes appeals to attraction, similarity and intimacy.

References

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