All communication takes place in a context that has at least four dimensions: physical, social–psychological, temporal, and cultural.
■ The physical context is the tangible or concrete environment in which communication takes place—the room or hallway or park, for example. This physical context exerts some influence on the content of your messages (what you say) as well as on the form (how you say it).
■ The social–psychological context includes, for example, the status relationships among the participants, the roles and the games that people play, and the cultural rules of the society in which people are communicating. It also includes the friendliness or unfriendliness, formality or informality, and seriousness or humorousness of the situation. For example, communication that would be permitted at a graduation party might not be considered appropriate at a funeral.
■ The temporal (or time) context includes (1) the time of day (for example, for some the morning is not a time for communication; for others, it’s ideal), (2) the time in history in which the communication takes place (for example, messages on racial, sexual, or religious attitudes cannot be fully understood outside of their time in history), and (3) how a message fits into the sequence of communication events (for example, the meaning of a compliment would be greatly different depending on whether you said it immediately after your friend paid you a compliment, immediately before you asked your friend for a favor, or during an argument).
■ The cultural context has to do with your (and others’) culture: the beliefs, values, and ways of behaving that are shared by a group of people and passed down from one generation to the next. Cultural factors affect every interaction and influence what you say, how you say it, and how you respond to what others say.
These four dimensions of context interact with one another (symbolized by the double-headed arrow in Figure 1.1). For example, arriving late for a scheduled lunch meeting (temporal context) might violate a cultural rule, which might lead to changes in the social–psychological context, perhaps creating tension and unfriendliness, which in turn might lead to changes in the physical context—for example, choosing a less intimate restaurant for your meeting.
■ The physical context is the tangible or concrete environment in which communication takes place—the room or hallway or park, for example. This physical context exerts some influence on the content of your messages (what you say) as well as on the form (how you say it).
■ The social–psychological context includes, for example, the status relationships among the participants, the roles and the games that people play, and the cultural rules of the society in which people are communicating. It also includes the friendliness or unfriendliness, formality or informality, and seriousness or humorousness of the situation. For example, communication that would be permitted at a graduation party might not be considered appropriate at a funeral.
■ The temporal (or time) context includes (1) the time of day (for example, for some the morning is not a time for communication; for others, it’s ideal), (2) the time in history in which the communication takes place (for example, messages on racial, sexual, or religious attitudes cannot be fully understood outside of their time in history), and (3) how a message fits into the sequence of communication events (for example, the meaning of a compliment would be greatly different depending on whether you said it immediately after your friend paid you a compliment, immediately before you asked your friend for a favor, or during an argument).
■ The cultural context has to do with your (and others’) culture: the beliefs, values, and ways of behaving that are shared by a group of people and passed down from one generation to the next. Cultural factors affect every interaction and influence what you say, how you say it, and how you respond to what others say.
These four dimensions of context interact with one another (symbolized by the double-headed arrow in Figure 1.1). For example, arriving late for a scheduled lunch meeting (temporal context) might violate a cultural rule, which might lead to changes in the social–psychological context, perhaps creating tension and unfriendliness, which in turn might lead to changes in the physical context—for example, choosing a less intimate restaurant for your meeting.
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