This was a part of my assignment at College, its Health and Social Care related; however, it still fits.

I shall now describe each of the six stages of the communication cycle.

1.Ideas Occur

This part of the stage is all to do with what one person is thinking of saying. Things that could disrupt the thinking process could be:

•Excessive noise from the environment
•Distractions from other things.

2.Message Coded

This is where the ideas from stage 1 are formatted into how to say them. This stage determines how the person is going to say the ideas that occurred. As well as thinking about how to say it, the person will think about how the other person will react. Problems that could happen when thinking about how to say things are:

•Which way to say it; angrily, happily etc.
•Which tone of voice to use
•Which language to use, formal, informal, slang, swearing etc.
3.Message Sent

This is the stage where the person knows how to say it and actually sends the message. This is communicating to the other person using speech.
Different things can affect the message sent such as:

•Barriers in-between the two people
•Proximity between the two people
•Confidentiality (linked in to hospital environments)
•How urgent the message is.

Problems could be:

•Wasted time if the message is urgent
•Cost, (public telephone)
•Wrong way of saying things.

4.Message Received

This stage is where the other person receives the message. Questions the person that sent the message might ask himself are:

•Did he receive the message?
•Did he understand the message?
•I wonder how he’ll react
•Did it make sense?
•Did I use the correct tone?

5.Message Decoded

This is the stage where the receiver decodes and breaks the message down so that they can understand what the other person said. It is where the receiver attempts to comprehend the language used. Problems that could occur are:

•If the sender used slang
•If the sender used jargon
•If the sender used formal language
•If the sender used informal language.

6.Idea Understood

This is the stage where the receiver has understood the message that was originally sent. However problems that could arise are:

•Was the message meant in a different way?
•Could the receiver be unclear on the message sent?
•Could the message sent have had more than one meaning?

The communication cycle may help a person to communicate difficult, complex and sensitive issues in that from each stage they will be able to predict how the other person will react. From predicting how another person will react, the sender may wish to change what they were originally going to say. The sender can also think about the emotional problems that can occur and should think of a way of dealing with them before sending the message. Difficult issues would be situations where you’d have to tell someone that they have gotten a bad illness. Complex issues would be situations where you’d have to tell someone that they’d need counselling for something. Sensitive issues would be situations where you’d have to tell someone that a relative had just died.

Difficult, complex and sensitive issues that arise in hospital environments may be things like:

•Someone dying
•Breaking other bad news
•Counselling
•Informing someone of an illness they have
•Telling an elderly person that they have to leave home and be cared for.

The communication cycle can be used to help people to give the news in each of these situations and by knowing how they will react; you will know how to respond. Using the communication cycle to tell people news may help them to control their emotions and so they are able to take the news rather than being hysterical. As well as it being a possible way to control their emotions, it may also help to control their behaviour; they might become angry and lash out.

There are many different types of communication:

•One-to-one
•Group
•Formal
•Informal
•Text
•Oral
•Visual
•Touch
•Music and Drama
•Arts and Crafts
•Communication using technology

One-to-one communication is conversation between two individuals. Examples of one-to-one communication are:

•Someone being interviewed
•Someone talking to their GP

In a hospital environment, one-to-one conversation is sometimes used because of confidentiality.

Group communication is talking with more than 2 people. This type of communication is used in any educational environment. In a hospital environment, group communication is used if there is a staff briefing.

Formal communication is used when talking with someone professionally. It is where language is used at its best and is mostly used all the time by the older generation. This type of communication is also used when in an interview. In a hospital environment, formal conversation might be used to tell a family member that someone had died.

Informal communication is mostly used when talking to friends or relatives. It is where people can let their spoken English include dialect and idiom. In a hospital environment, informal conversation is used when comforting and talking to a patient.

Text in communication normally refers to books and magazines. Certain books communicate to us in the form of stories whilst others inform and teach us. Other ways of using text to communicate to others would be in letters; people write to each other to keep in contact. In a hospital environment, family writes to patients, or sends get well cards, to show they care.

Oral communication is using speech rather that writing. This would happen if a relative or nurse was beside a patient.

Visual communication is a way of showing ideas through a visual display. This could be used as a way of therapy for anger management. Therapy is basically medical treatment for disabilities and diseases. In this case it is used to control behaviour. This type of therapy would be used in hospitals or public halls.

Touch communication could refer to blind people and the way they communicate through brail. Most public places will have brail underneath signs or at the bottom of leaflets allowing blind people to know what it says. It helps them to understand and respond.

Music and drama communication, for example, theatre. Theatre can teach us about moral values. Music and drama help people to express themselves and communicate to an audience about what they are like. Music and drama are also similar to visual communication; they can also be used as a form of therapy.

Arts and crafts communication helps people to communicate using colour and other objects. Artwork, objects and ornaments can also communicate emotions to certain people. As well as being sentimental value in some cases, vases, paintings and photos can describe to someone about a place or person; it can provide a lot of information.

Communication using technology is used by the majority of people. Examples of communicating with technology are:

•E-mail
•Text-messaging
•Telephone
•Mobile Phone
•Msn Messenger
•Websites

These are used when trying to communicate with a person remotely. People can be contacted by using these simple devices. There are advantages and disadvantages of using technology as a way of contacting someone:

•The advantages are that they can be used virtually anywhere, with the exception of computers unless they are laptops. Someone can ring you up on your home phone if your there and if not, they can try your mobile number. A large percentage of people nowadays use text-messaging and MSN Messenger on the computer as a way of contacting their friends.
•Disadvantages of using these are that people on the receiving end cannot always tell how a person is feeling. This can cause confusion.

There are many different types of interpersonal interaction:

•Speech
•Language (1st language, dialect, slang, jargon)
•Non-verbal (posture, facial expression, touch, silence, proximity, reflective listening, body language)
•Variation between cultures

Speech is the most basic form of communication however it may be expressed.

The advantages of spoken communication are:

•It is more personal
•Emotions and feelings from both sides of the conversation are easily expressed
•The message sent can easily be understood
•When the message is understood, their reaction can be judged.

The disadvantages of spoken communication are:

•It can be hard to tell if the other person is paying attention
•Facts sent through messages can sometimes be distorted
•Sometimes conflict can occur, causing e.g. the loss of temper.

First language refers to the language that a person was born into. It is the language you inherit and it is used in everyday life. First language depends on either:

•Where you are from, or,
•Where your parents are from.

Language is also split up into dialect, slang and jargon. Dialect is like accent and is dependant upon where someone is from, e.g. Liverpudlians have a strong and sometimes hard to understand, dialect. Slang is different everywhere you visit. Different towns and cities have their own slang and may have the same words but different meanings. If someone visits a town and doesn’t understand, it could become uncomfortable for that person and they may have to ask them to say it again. Jargons are terms used by staff in certain environments. In a hospital environment, jargon would be used all the time, patients and the public would hear staff using medical terms which they would not know themselves.

Non-verbal interaction is communication using hand gestures and basic body language. A person’s posture can tell an audience a lot about that person. A person slouched in a chair may give the impression that

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