Communication Behaviour and Social Psychology

As attitudes are predictors of behaviour, so are contexts central to communication. This is particularly true in communication processes and communication behaviours. Underpinning this thought is the connection between communication behaviour and social psychology and its triple imperatives of theoretical constructs viz: social cognition, social exchange, and symbolic interaction. Social psychology and communication are two methodical disciplines that deal with humans as their central subject. Things are not what they are; they are what we think they are (Rory Sutherland, TEDx Athens). Often the reason our solutions are ineffective or highly inefficient is because we assume people will behave like computers or spreadsheets with predictable responses to rational inputs or incentives. Instead, we need to understand natural human preferences and build our understanding of communication behaviour from this foundation. Many times, the most efficient and effective path to understanding communication behaviour is paved with irrationality. This chapter dwells on the intersection of communication behaviour processes and its linkages with social psychology and to an extent around behavioural science. To achieve this, a deep dive into various aspects of communication behaviour, which results from both the situation (for instance, cultural inspirations, social functions, and the occurrence of onlookers) and the person (e.g. personality features) undertaken. The chapter also uses the lens of Attribution Theory and subfields of social psychology like Situationism (which hold opinion that our behaviour and actions are decided by our direct ecosystem and environs) and dispositionism, (that holds that our behaviour is affected by internal causes) (Heider, 1958). The chapter revisits Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Theory and 3-stage model of change theory to reveal interesting intersections of communication behaviour and social psychology in an organizational setting. Such an analysis is expected to help scholars by supporting a wider view of intersection of these two disciplines and interdisciplinary critical thinking in communication studies.