Педагогические науки/3.Методические основы
воспитательного процесса
Омарова Г.Н.
Старший преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков
Карагандинского государственного университета имени Е.А.Букетова
POSITIVE
COMMUNICATION:
DEFINITION
AND CONSTITUENT FEATURES
Abstract
Whereas positive communication is generally seen
as an appealing phenomenon of interaction, it remains under-researched
from the theoretical point of view. The topic warrants special attention
because in today’s Russian world negativity prevails, which is due to opposing
political views, incompatible values in public discourse. The paper aims at the
study of the constituent characteristics, structural components and basic
mechanisms of positive communication. The analysis of the dictionary
definitions of the term positive
and its combinability in the National Corpus of the Russian Language, the
British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English allows to
describe positive communication as an interaction based on positive attitude,
aimed at mutual understanding and satisfying for all the parties involved.
Positive communication is constructive, effective, supportive and coloured with
good emotions; these characteristics can be regarded as its constituent
features. The universal components of positive communication include: positive
intentionality, initiative, adaptation to the interlocutor, empathic listening
and social support. On the other hand, assertiveness is culturally specific: it
is regarded as part and parcel of positive communication in the US, but is not
seen as desirable in Russia and a number of other countries. The research will
be continued in order to further identify the characteristics of positive
communication, trace and test the validity of the theoretical claims and
predictions on the basis of real-life situations.
Key words: positive
communication, intentionality, initiative, adaptation to the interlocutor, social
support.
ДЕФИНИЦИЯ
И КОНСТИТУТИВНЫЕ ПРИЗНАКИ
Аннотация
Несмотря на значимость позитивной
коммуникации и ее важную роль в интеракции между людьми, данное понятие
недостаточно исследовано с теоретической точки зрения. В настоящее время
актуальность проблемы возрастает в связи с преобладанием деструктивных форм
коммуникации в современном российском обществе, особенно в сфере политики и
публичного дискурса. Цель исследования – выявление конститутивных признаков,
структурных компонентов и базовых механизмов позитивной коммуникации. Анализ
словарных дефиниций слова “позитивный” и его сочетаемости в Национальном
корпусе русского языка, Британском национальном корпусе, Корпусе современного
американского английского языка позволяет сформулировать определение позитивной
коммуникации как взаимодействия, основанного на положительных эмоциях,
направленного на достижение взаимопонимания и приносящего удовлетворение всем
ее участникам. К ее универсальным составляющим относятся: положительная
интенциональность, инициатива, адаптация к собеседнику, эмпатическое слушание и
социальная поддержка. Ассертивность, в свою очередь, является
культурно-специфичной: в США она воспринимается как неотъемлемая характеристика
позитивной коммуникации, в то время как в России и ряде других стран считается
нежелательной. В перспективе предполагается продолжить рассмотрение признаков
позитивной коммуникации, средств ее выражения и закономерностей их реализации в
дискурсе.
Ключевые слова: позитивная коммуникация, интенциональность, инициатива,
адаптация к собеседнику, социальная поддержка.
Introduction
Whereas it is
generally accepted that positive communication is an appealing phenomenon, it
is not easy to give it a distinct definition. Is this communication that is
effective in getting the meaning across to the interlocutor? Constructive as
opposed to destructive? “Supporting, affirming and respectful” [14, 117]? Or,
as scholars and psychologist often put it, “communication leading to happiness”?
The topic
warrants special attention because, sad as it might be, in today’s Russian
world negativity prevails, which is due to opposing political views,
incompatible values, and growing financial differentiation. This is especially
obvious in public discourse and is easy to encounter on social networks like
Facebook. People holding different opinions tend to use derogatory language and
curse-words against each other, display intolerance towards their counterparts’
views and are passionately looking for negative facts to defame their opponents
instead of offering positive alternatives. The communication is predominantly
hostile, destructive rather than constructive, demoralizing and ineffective.
Recent developments in society show that people are overwhelmed with this
negativity and are desperately looking for something positive to lean on.
The content
analysis of the term positive communication on English and
Russian Internet sites has produced a rather striking result: the search
for the English term generated 267,000,000 results, whereas the Russian term –
only 1,250,000 results. What is implicit in this observation is that,
surprisingly, very little attention is being paid to this topic in Russia.
One of the
reasons is that optimism and positive thinking have always been important for
Western, especially American, cultures, and this accounts for the fact that, as
Meriam-Webster’s dictionary indicates, the use of the word “positive” is on the
grow and has reached its peak by 2010. Russians, on the other hand, have a
tendency for what is sometimes referred to as “communicative pessimism” [13,
232] – they are apt to complain and self-deprecate. As Chekhov once said: “It’s
a wonderful day today – shall I go have a cup of tea or hang myself?”
The understanding
of what makes communication positive and what prevents it from being so can
shed light on the dynamics and quality of human interaction.
Previous
research
In spite of
the existence of voluminous literature devoted to different aspects of
communication in Russia and abroad, positive communication remains very
under-researched from the theoretical point of view. Most of the works devoted
to positive communication are textbooks and guidelines for students, teachers,
spouses or parents containing practical advice about how to establish and
maintain good relationships, such as: “Talk to me: how to create positive
loving communication” [8]; “Soul Talk: Powerful, Positive Communication for a
Loving Partnership” [1]; “Stop the Screaming: How to Turn Angry Conflict With
Your Child into Positive Communication” [10], etc. The most recent book “The
Art of Positive Communication: Theory and Practice” by J.C. Mirivel [9] covers
the following issues: “Positive Communication Creates Contact – Positive
Communication Discovers the Unknown – Positive Communication Affects the Self –
Positive Communication Deepens Relationship – Positive Communication Gives
Support – Positive Communication Transcends Separateness – Positive
Communication Influences Others.” An important publication is the book “The
Positive Side of Interpersonal Communication (Language as Social Action)” [11],
where the authors discuss such topics as the conceptual foundation for positive
interpersonal communication, affection and intimacy, humor as personal
relationship enhancer, supportive communication, etc.
However,
there still remains the need for the research of the constituent features,
structural components and basic mechanisms of positive communication. The
present paper can be viewed as the starting point of this discussion.
Definition
of positive communication
Our first
step towards defining the meaning of positive communication was to
analyse the definitions of the term positive (with the exception of
those referring to medicine, photography and science) in Collins English
Dictionary, Collins Thesaurus of the English Language, the American Heritage
Dictionary and Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary. The
analysis allowed to group the definitions and synonyms of the notion in the
following way:
·
first, expressing or implying certainty, acceptance,
affirmation, agreement, or permission; decisive, convinced, confident, sure,
certain, satisfied, assured, definite, approving;
·
second, (having a good effect, laudable, favourable,
advantageous, beneficial, worthwhile, pleasing, heartening;
·
third, supportive, encouraging, enthusiastic, reassuring,
upbeat, buoyant, sanguine, helpful, corroborative;
·
fourth, showing progress or improvement, tending
to promote development, moving forward or in a
beneficial direction, promising, forward-looking, hopeful, optimistic;
·
fifth, effective, useful, practical, productive, pragmatic,
efficacious, constructive, concerned with practical rather than theoretical
matters.
The
combinability of the term positive used in contexts connected with
communication from the British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary
American English and the National Corpus of the Russian Language can be classified
into the following semantic groups:
·
attitude: positive thinking, frame of mind, perception,
impression, approach, mood, outlook;
·
result: positive experience, contribution, effect;
·
dynamics or potential: positive factor, energy,
impulse, charge, forecast, development, influence;
·
person: positive man, woman, guy, girl; form of
communication: positive tone, answer, response, reaction, evaluation,
criticism;
·
genre of communication; positive report, text,
film.
The
application of the definitions of the term positive to the nouns listed
above characterizes positive communication as: 1) accepting and affirmative;
2) favourable, having a good effect;
·
supportive, encouraging and helpful;
·
optimistic and tending to promote development;
·
effective and constructive.
We will
further be able to make use of these results in order to identify the
constituent features of positive communication and formulate its definition.
Constituent
features of positive communication
The fact that
positive communication is seen as an art indicates that it requires a
conscious effort and is therefore not a natural mode of human behaviour. This
is further confirmed by numerous findings in linguistics showing that words and
phraseological units with derogatory meaning by far outnumber positive ones. In
human interaction positive communication is regarded as a desirable skill that
has to be developed, and it is critically important to understand what in
particular makes it positive.
Does positive
communication have to be informative?
According to
the famous quote by the journalist Sydney J. Harris, “the two words
‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they
signify quite different things: information is giving out; communication is
getting through.” (Positive communication can provide information, but
not necessarily. E. g. phatic communion can establish a connection and show
good attitude without giving new knowledge about facts and phenomena. We
conclude that being informative does not belong to the constituent features of
positive communication.
Does positive
communication have to be constructive?
If
destructive communication is harmful for the addressee and can have a
devastating effect on a relationship, constructive communication, as the name
suggests, has to ‘construct,’ create something and entail a positive result –
be it action, idea, mood or feeling.
The attitude
of a naysayer – a “person who often offers criticism of ideas, or always
provides reasons why something won’t work, <…> rarely offers suggestions
or alternatives, but is very good at picking holes in the ideas of others” [2]
– is destructive, whereas a positive communicator is characterized by acceptance,
affirmation, agreement, or permission, as was shown by the
dictionary definitions. The latter also describe it as showing
progress or improvement, tending to promote development, moving forward
or in a beneficial direction, promising, forward-looking, hopeful, etc. So
being constructive and showing potential can be viewed as the basic
features of positive communication.
Whereas US
authors often define good, positive communication as assertive, meaning
“able to pursue one’s own best interests without denying a partner’s rights”
[3, 402], we believe it cannot be seen as its constituent feature because it
turns out to be culturally specific.
Assertiveness
is not part of Russian culture and is not seen as very desirable. In the
Russian language there is even no word, which would describe this characteristic.
Assertiveness is more typical of individualistic cultures that value
competition, individual success and independence [6, 88]. Research has shown
that US students tend to be much more assertive than students from Korea and
Japan [15].
But in Western
cultures, too, the attitude towards assertiveness is not the same. According to
G. Hofstede’s observations of job interviews, “American applicants, to Dutch
eyes, oversell themselves. Their curricula vitae are worded in superlatives,
mentioning every degree, grade, award, and membership to demonstrate their
outstanding qualities. During the interview they behave assertively, promising
things they are very unlikely to realize – such as learning the local language
in a few months. Dutch applicants, in American eyes, undersell themselves. They
write modest and usually short CVs, counting on the interviewer to find out how
good they really are by asking. They expect an interest in their social and
extracurricular activities during their studies. They are careful not to be
seen as braggarts and not to make promises they are not absolutely sure they
can fulfil” [7, 136].
Positive
communication is usually described as effective in achieving its aim. It
is necessary to point out though that success in communication can be seen in
two ways: first, as getting the message through to the addressee and second,
as achieving satisfaction by all the parties involved. The first
understanding means that the message need not necessarily be positive –
sometimes a person does not want to hear negative information (as during a row)
but cannot avoid it – the sender manages to get the message through and make
the point. It is like a game of chess when the players are trying to achieve
their strategic goals: they either win, lose or tie the score. The second
variant means a victory for all the parties involved – rewarding interaction is
what we mean by positive communication.
Does positive
communication have to be emotional?
Research
shows that it does not always have to be accompanied by the display of strong
emotions. On the other hand, it is necessary to note that practically all the
dictionary definitions of positive given above are coloured by good
emotions, e. g. laudable, advantageous, beneficial, worthwhile,
pleasing, heartening, etc.
Positive
communication is typically described as supportive, which agrees with
the above definitions, such as encouraging, enthusiastic, reassuring,
helpful, etc. Authors writing about positive communication associate
it with comforting messages, empathic listening, nurturing communication,
negotiation and the use of humour as its intrinsic qualities.
Mechanisms
and components of positive communication
The starting
point of positive communication is a positive intention. It does not
mean, however, that if a person means well, the interaction will necessarily be
positive – it is well known that the road to Hell is paved with good
intentions. Sometimes people wish to mend a conflict and end up making things
even worse. Nevertheless, for positive communication a good intention is
critically important.
Another
relevant component is initiative – a positive communicator is expected
to be actively involved in the interaction. According to O. V. Chernichkina,
initiative in communication is activity-based, intentional, dynamic, generated
by the situation, interlocutor-oriented, linear, monothematic, and
transferrable [5]. It demonstrates the willingness to make and sustain contact,
thus contributing to positive communication, but has to be evenly distributed
to provide for a smooth interaction. The latter means that activism and
initiative are not always positive and constructive. It depends on whether
initiative is given up voluntarily or taken by force, whether the communicator
monopolizes the communication or on the contrary keeps silent making the
situation awkward or hostile.
In the course
of positive communication the interlocutors are expected to adapt to each
other.
Communicative
adaptation is the adjustment to the addressees determined by
their age, gender, social status and cultural identity, as well as the
situation and the addresser’s individual characteristics. Adaptation improves
the quality of communication, unless it is insufficient, excessive, or
inappropriate [12].
An important
part of positive communication is empathic listening “that fosters
intimate interaction by enhancing feelings of being understood, a vital
component of interpersonal need fulfilment” [4].
Social
support is
part and parcel of positive communication. It can be provided on the
emotional, informative, material and instrumentallevels and is realized in such
genres as the expression of sympathy, consolation, reassurance, condolences,
praise, compliment, encouragement, etc. Their adequate form and relevance for
the situation can make a very positive impact on communication, whereas pseudo
social support can have a destructive effect.
The
components described above are only part of those, which constitute the realm
of positive communication and have yet to be researched.
Conclusion
The analysis
brings us to the conclusion that positive communication is a complex set of
multiple variables, which, combined in a situation of live interaction, produce
a new quality. It can be defined as an interaction based on positive emotions,
aimed at mutual understanding and satisfying for all the parties involved.
Positive
communication is constructive, effective, supportive and coloured with good
emotions. These characteristics can be regarded as its constituent features.
The components of positive communication include: positive intentionality,
initiative, adaptation to the interlocutor, empathic listening and social support.
The research
will be continued in order to further identify the constituents of positive
communication, trace and test the validity of the theoretical claims and
predictions on the basis of real-life situations.
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