Outside of society, a person cannot ensure a decent existence for himself. And although the functions of communication in psychology are interpreted differently, they allow people to interact effectively, develop systematically and conduct certain activities. With their help, it is easy to establish and plan relationships among each other and in groups, and throughout life create new interpersonal contacts. The communication process is stimulated by the needs of certain subjects seeking social relationships.
Basic functions of communication in society
Human communication is a multifunctional process in which functions corresponding to various criteria are simultaneously involved. Moreover, there are not so many basic ones.
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There are various classifications of communication functions in psychology, but the following are considered fundamental:
- Communicative - ensures the exchange of information between interlocutors. It is usually determined in advance what kind of material will be transmitted. For communication to be successful and understanding to be achieved, the communicator transmitting information must take into account all the characteristics of the recipient. He needs to assess the characteristics and personality traits of the person receiving this information: his level of intelligence, education, age, outlook, professional field of activity, knowledge of language. Feedback is a must. The partner should share his thoughts or talk about the impression made by the information and the emotions caused by it.
- Perceptual - corresponds to perception. To process information, it involves not only the senses, but also attention and imagination. The interlocutor not only tries to understand what was said by the communication partner, but also remembers what he previously knew about it, as well as what he knows about the speaker. The recipient monitors the switch on a subconscious level and analyzes its non-verbal manifestations.
- Interactive - directly related to the organization of joint interactions between people in communication, tactics and strategy for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, even actions.
In the interactive function of communication, one of the factors may be the obvious influence of one of the partners on the others. In this case, their regulators of behavior may be: orders, instructions or advice.
Satisfying human needs in the communication process
The main reason we all need communication is the social needs of the individual or group. A person enters into the process of communication in order to satisfy his immediate needs. Therefore, the above objectives of communication serve to satisfy basic human needs. Among them the following stand out:
- survival;
- personal needs;
- collaboration with others;
- maintaining relationships;
- persuading someone to think or act in a certain way;
- unification of organizations and societies into a single whole;
- exercising power over people (in particular, propaganda);
- manifestation of imagination and creative nature;
- awareness of the world around us and our experience in it (what we think about ourselves, what we believe, how we treat others, what is true).
Additional communication features
In addition to the basic functions of communication, there are many others that have a beneficial effect on the quality of transmission and reception of information, contributing to its full perception. Personal activity is most fully expressed in communication, the ability to form social contacts and direct social activities. The individuality of each person influences the characteristics of his behavior and communication style, which serves as a reflection of the prevailing auxiliary functions.
Among them:
- formative - manifests itself gradually, in the process of personality maturation and further human development;
- confirming - carried out when realizing a person’s intention to confirm himself, to know and establish himself;
- contact - analyzes the readiness of interlocutors to begin information exchange;
- coordination - promotes mutual orientation, coordination of actions in a group or social movement, association;
- amotive - evokes emotional responses in interlocutors to the information communicated to them, makes it possible to change their states and feelings;
- cognitive - accumulates information coming from the communicator, improves the quality of knowledge and compensates for its lack in individual members of the group or community;
- regulatory - influences the general attitudes and worldview of all group members, changes their behavior and self-esteem;
- managerial - allows the leader to direct the activities of group members in the direction he needs;
- socializing - promotes the development of the necessary communication skills acceptable in a given community;
- socio-psychological response - a group member who has perceived and processed the information received exchanges it with everyone else, for whom it becomes a means of mutual influence.
The basic and additional functions of human communications can be fully implemented in various types of communication. The conditions and methods, as well as the number of participants, are significant.
Addition
I would like to present to you an expanded sphere of influence of communication on the individual. So, in addition to the main ones, there are also the following functions:
- contact According to the name, it helps to establish contact, which is, in fact, the foundation. Without it, there will be no further communication, transfer or acceptance of material, etc.
- informational. Its purpose is to enable messaging.
- incentive. It motivates to perform actions that are necessary or beneficial to the partner.
- coordination. Makes it possible to organize joint activities. This is important not only in a work environment, but also in everyday life. The structure allows you to reduce the level of anxiety, as actions become more consistent and understandable for all participants in communication.
- emotive. It evokes different feelings in the interlocutor, or contributes to their change.
- forming relationships. The more often people meet, the closer they become to each other. Provided that they have open, sincere conversations, as they say, heart to heart. Then their connection becomes stronger and moves to a certain level. That is, they become either friends, or partners, spouses, and so on.
- influencing. We all manipulate others, sometimes this happens consciously, sometimes not so much. But for the most part, our words and actions are driven by the need to achieve what we want. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s the need to change the emotional state of another person, or the direction of his actions, activity, behavior in general. The result is important - the realization of your own, in principle, and not only your own, goals, intentions and plans.
- self-knowledge. It is only through contact with others that we come to know ourselves. Because we gain knowledge after comparing ourselves with them. By discovering similarities and differences. When receiving feedback and “trying on” what was said, whether the interlocutor was right, or whether he was still mistaken, and his opinion in no way applies to you.
- socialization. The individual develops the necessary skills and abilities for integration into society. And this allows her to achieve success and realize herself and her needs, both in business and in her personal life.
Functions and goals of communication in psychology
Each person has their own need for communication. The frequency of possible contacts depends on personality characteristics and temperament, and can be caused by a combination of many reasons. Any effective communication is built on the functions of communication in psychology. Their capabilities allow you to develop communication abilities. Otherwise, achieving your goal will be difficult. People who cope effectively with these tasks are called sociable or have high social intelligence.
Communication functions
Since the time of Aristotle, thinkers have noted that the process of communication can manifest itself in different ways. Its essence depends on internal and external environmental conditions, declared and true goals of the parties, the number of participants, strategies and means of execution, etc. The functions of communication should be determined taking into account the influence of numerous factors on it. In the real process of transmitting messages, even in one communicative act, several functions are sometimes combined. Moreover, one or two of them are decisive, basic. We can also talk about the functions of this communication in general, that is, about what its role is in the life and activities of society and people.
As a rule, communication functions are isolated only for the purposes of applied scientific or research analysis. For example, this is necessary for consulting activities. An interaction model can be built by determining which functions are primary and which are secondary.
Communication function
Study of family relationships Read more: Factors of marital stability
4. Communication function.
It consists in satisfying the family’s need for spending time together (leisure), mutual cultural and spiritual enrichment, and this function contributes to the spiritual development of members of society. The degree of development of communication in the family corresponds to the degree of development of communication in society. Thanks to communication, serious personal growth occurs. The implementation of this function leads to serious personal growth of family members.
5. Function of primary social control.
The goal of society is not only to help a person survive, but it also involves the function of control - the introduction of restrictions and prohibitions that help the person who created them to survive. A family is a small social group in which a new member of society is born. Ensuring that family members comply with social norms is an important feature. Especially those family members who do not have sufficient ability to structure their behavior in accordance with existing social norms. Such factors limiting the ability to build one’s behavior are age (the family controls children, elderly and elderly family members), the fact of illness of one of the family members, leading to disability (relatives must exercise social control as guardians)
6. Sexual-erotic function.
It exists to satisfy the sexual needs of the family and regulates the sexual behavior of family members. Ensuring the biological reproduction of society, thanks to which families turn into childbirth that goes on for generations.
Just as a person has a date of birth and death, a family also exists in time, at some stage it appears and then disappears. It also has its own phases of development. The dynamic component is that over the course of a family’s life, the relative weight of each function may change. Some functions may come to the fore, while others may take a back seat or disappear altogether.
A family that adequately performs the entire set of its functions is called functional. If a family has violations of any function or several functions together, then such a family is called dysfunctional. It is the main object of social work, family counseling or family therapy, the main methods and techniques of which will be discussed in Chapter 2.
Family structure is the number and composition of family members, as well as the totality of relationships between its members. Family structure and its functions mutually influence each other. Soloviev N.Ya. identifies the following family forms[3]:
The basic form of family is the nuclear family. This is a triangle - parents and one child. It is represented by representatives of two generations - parents and children. There are two types - a complete nuclear family (two parents and children) and an incomplete nuclear family (the absence of one of the parents). A family without children is also an incomplete nuclear family.
2nd form – extended family. This is a family that unites blood relatives of more than two generations who are united by a common household. The most common option is families with grandparents and other relatives.
3rd option – large family. This is a group of blood relatives of different generations, which lives in one place, does not necessarily lead a joint household, and is headed by a patriarch or matriarch. This form is typical for villages or small towns or on the outskirts of large cities. There is a parents’ house, nearby there are 2-4 houses where families of children with a certain type of relationship live. Parents play the role of patriarch, influencing the existence of families. Such a family is hierarchical.
4th option – “family - clan”. This is a group united by blood relationships, which does not necessarily live in the same place and does not necessarily have the same leader. An example is the Sicilian mafia.
5th option – “family - yard”. It was typical for Russia in the 17th-19th centuries, but is now rare. It unites several generations of family members, and the family includes people who are not related by blood (governesses, servants, maids).
Disorders of family structure are also common, as are dysfunctions. These are features of the family structure that make it difficult or prevent the family from performing its basic functions. For example, often the household function is divided asymmetrically, when the husband does not take part in it, and the wife does everything. The main form in which disturbances in the structure of relationships manifest themselves is family conflict.
Family structure and its functions change at different stages of family life. In the literature on family psychology, there are many classifications of the stages of family life. The main ones are related to the presence or absence of children, as well as their age. Each stage has its own tasks and has its own crises that are important to overcome in order to move to the next stage.
Druzhinin V.N. identifies the following main stages[4]:
Stage 1 – the stage of a young family (0-5 years).
It starts from the birth of the family until the appearance of the first child in the family. Gregory Bateson called this the dyad stage. The main developmental tasks at this stage are the problems of adaptation of young spouses to each other. Adaptation includes mutual sexual adaptation, as well as the task of initial family accumulation. At this stage, family relationships with other families develop. Family psychologists believe that marriage is not between people, but between families. Internal family habits and values are formed. This period of adaptation causes intense emotional stress. Many young families cannot stand this - this stage marks the peak of divorces, which are associated with the following reasons:
· unpreparedness for marriage;
· poor living conditions;
· lack of living space;
· interference of relatives in the relationships of young people.
Stage 2 – family with minor children. This is a triad, square, pentad, etc., depending on the number of children. It begins with the birth of the first child and ends when the last child leaves the family. This is the central stage of the life cycle, lasting at least 18 years. In the process, the family becomes mature. This is the period of greatest economic activity. Here the educational function becomes very relevant. On the one hand, the family becomes more stable, on the other hand, 3 sides appear in the triad and the distance between people increases. The birth of a first child is very traumatic for a father. Someone called it primary divorce, when the mother's love switches from the father to the child. The peak of divorce is between the ages of 2 and 5 years.
The educational function is the main feature of this stage. The spouses are characterized by overload, overexertion of their strength and lack of opportunity to recover. A dilemma arises - what to save - yourself or your family. And the need to adapt to constant changes in the structure of relationships and functions in the family. Substages can be distinguished depending on the age of the children:
This stage is accompanied by the 2nd crisis in the family, which is also marked by the peak of divorce. This crisis occurs at the age of 17-25 years of family life. This crisis is interesting because, on the one hand, it is a crisis of the family (gray hair in the head, and a demon in the rib), on the other hand, it is a situation when family members are experiencing their own crises (for children - a crisis of ego identity - searching for oneself; for parents – crisis of achievements). When you add a crisis of circumstances, you get extreme pressure on the family with a confluence of 3-4 crises. The next crisis could be fatal, the family breaks up.
Stage 3 is the final stage. It begins from the moment when the last of the children leaves the family and begins working life - the empty nest crisis. The husband suddenly begins to see his wife after 25 years of marriage. The stage begins with loss, a new adaptation to each other is needed at the end of adulthood, the beginning of old age. The educational function disappears. This stage is characterized by intense resistance from mature children and disruption of emotional interaction. The problem arises of an elderly parent accepting an adult son or daughter. Physical strength weakens, rest becomes important, health is a problem. The roles of grandparents are being mastered, and the problem of surrogate mothers arises. The main problem of this age is satisfying the need for recognition and respect, especially from children.
Study of family relationships Read more: Factors of marital stability
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