COMM 250 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Shyness, Human Behavior
30 Apr 2018
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Module 7: Laws, Rules and Systems Approaches to Theory Building
Paradigms (set of assumptions that guide scholarly activity) in the Field of Communication
• Metatheoretical assumptions
• All lean more towards Social Scientific than Humanistic
Covering Laws Approach
• No choice
• Believe that people communicate the way they do because some prior condition caused them
to respond in a certain way
• Communication is governed by forces that are predictable and generalizable
• Forces are called laws
Laws Paradigm
• Universal
o Transcend time and space
o Ex: Water boils at 100 degrees C (will always be true)
• Laws based on relationship between phenomenon
o If X, then Y
o Ex: If I invade your personal space, you will move away from me
Types of Laws
• Positivistic Laws
o Deterministic
• If X, then Y
o Examples:
• Increased source credibility causes increased persuasion.
▪ X: source credibility
▪ Y: amount of persuasion
• Shyness causes conversational incoherence.
▪ X: shyness
▪ Y: Conversational incoherence
• Self disclosure by one individual in a conversation is followed by self disclosure by
the other individual.
▪ X: Self disclosure by one individual
▪ Y: Self disclosure by the other individual
• Probabilistic Laws
o Based on probability
o If X, then probably Y under certain conditions Z
• If you flatter me, I will probably like you, but only if I am attracted to you
o Law like
o Examples:
• Heavy viewing of TV violence will probably lead to aggression among viewers who
already have latent aggressive tendencies.
▪ X: heavy viewing of TV violence
▪ Y: aggression
▪ Z: in viewers who already have latent aggressive tendencies
Laws Theorists
• Want to discover the conditions that will "cause" people to communicate in some way
• Why?
o Explain; predict
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