Page 95 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Evolution and Theories of Communication | 83

• Perceptual accentuation: Perceptual accentuation is similar to the
fact that bitter gourd may taste horrible but when you are starving,
it can taste like any sweet dish and so it goes down easily. There is a
rather strong tendency to maintain balance or consistency among our
perception.

self-fulfilling propheCy

Psychologists argue that we live by scripts which are given to us by our
parents and that essentially we act in the way in which we are told to act. All
of us, according to transactional psychology, live by the scripts given to us as
children. For example, people who enter a group dispute are convinced that
the other members will dislike them. What they may be doing is acting in
such a way as to encourage people to respond negatively. When we enter a
classroom and expect that it will be a dull class, it turns out, more often than
not to be a dull class. Now it might be that it was in fact a dull class. But it
might also be that we defined it as dull, and hence made it dull. We made a
prophecy and then fulfilled it (Devito 1978).
So far we have been discussing the evolution of communication theories
over the years as developed by successive sociologists and psychologists. As a
sequel to the development of theories there has always been a conceptualiza-
tion of these theories in the form of models. In the next chapter, an attempt
has been made to review the different models developed by the scholars in
communication studies in different contexts.

s ummar y

A theoretical base to any knowledge is essential in understanding any concept.
In this chapter, we tried to familiarize you with the evolution of the theories of
communication to give you a historical perspective of communication. This
knowledge will not only help you to understand in depth the communication
process—a mind blowing growth and movement—but also take you into an
interesting and intriguing voyage into one of the most important aspects of
our civilization—communication. This information and scholarly knowl-
edge is very important for any learning institute and especially for a teacher
who cannot function with superficial knowledge. An in-depth knowledge of
this part is essential for future growth and effectiveness.

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