The interaction model of communication adds what two elements

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Communication and Communication Theory in Nursing

The Interaction Model of communication (see Figure 1.4) describes communication as a process in which participants alternate positions as sender and receiver and generate meaning by sending messages and receiving feedback within physical and psychological contexts (Schramm, 1997). Rather than illustrating communication as a linear, one-way process, this model incorporates feedback, which makes communication a more interactive, two-way process.

Feedback includes messages sent in response to other messages. For example, a patient may ask you a question in response to health information you provide them. The inclusion of a feedback loop allows a more complex understanding of the roles of participants in a communication encounter. Rather than having one sender, one message, and one receiver, this model has two sender-receivers who exchange messages. Each participant alternates roles as sender and receiver in order to keep a communication encounter going. You alternate between the roles of sender and receiver very quickly and often without conscious thought.

The Interaction Model of communication is more interaction-focused. In this model, communication isn’t judged as effective or ineffective based on whether or not a single message was successfully transmitted and received. In fact, this model acknowledges that because so many messages may be sent at one time, many of them may not even be received. Some messages are also unintentionally sent. Thus, the model acknowledges that communication is nuanced and complex.

Figure 1.4: The Interaction Model of Communication

The Interaction Model takes physical and psychological context into account.

• Physical context includes the environmental factors in a communication encounter. The size, layout, temperature, and lighting of a space influence your communication. Imagine the different physical contexts in which the nurse-client encounter takes place and how this can affect communication. You may be attempting to have an emotionally laden discussion with a client in a room where the beds are only separated by curtains. You may be assessing a client in the community where the lighting is dim. Whether it’s the size of the room, the temperature, or other environmental factors, it’s important to consider the role that physical context plays in communication.
• Psychological context includes the mental and emotional factors in a communication encounter. Stress, anxiety, and emotions are just some examples of psychological influences that can affect communication. For example, you may be communicating with a client who is in pain and afraid in the emergency room. You may be introducing yourself to one client, but worried about another client who is grieving. Alternatively, you may be communicating with groups of clients and families who are experiencing myriad of emotions.

Nursing Example

A nurse has worked 11 hours and is attending to a client recently admitted to the hospital. The 68-year-old client is waiting for a bed and is stationed on a stretcher in the emergency room hallway. The client sought emergency care after experiencing severe abdominal pain and passing substantial blood when having a bowel movement. The client was informed that it is likely they have end-stage bowel cancer but is still awaiting a formal diagnosis and referral to oncology (cancer specialist). The nurse asks the client if the nurse can take a set of vital signs. The client responds “yes.” The nurse also tries to make the client comfortable by adjusting the head of the stretcher and asks the client if they need anything. The client has many questions and concerns and has not had anything to eat or drink in several hours but responds “no.” The nurse says “OK, well let me know if you need anything.”

Analysis: The physical context that played an important role in this example is the lack of privacy and overstimulation in a waiting area located in an emergency room hallway. The physical space likely played a role in the client’s response, which resulted in the client’s needs being unmet. The psychological context relates to the burden of a looming terminal diagnosis juxtaposed with the undignified environment. The nurse may have sensed that probing further about the client’s needs and current state of mind was needed but may have been physically tired and emotionally drained after working 11 hours. All these factors contributed to the interaction between the nurse and the client.

Pros: This model allows the user to reflect on the environment (both physical and psychological) and how this contributes to good communication. In this case, communication was deemed inadequate because the interaction was limited by the environmental context.

Cons: Although this model attends to the broader context in which communication takes place, it is also inattentive to social, political, and economic realities that shape communication. In other words, it does not consider how the nurse’s and the client’s identity inform their communication with each other.

Attribution Statement

Remixed with original content and adapted, with editorial changes, from:

Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies by University of Minnesota. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

The transaction model differs from the transmission and interaction models in significant ways including the conceptualization of communication, the role of sender and receiver, and the role of context. (Barnlund, 1970)  

The transaction model of communication describes communication as a process in which communicators generate social realities within social, relational, and cultural contexts. In this model, we don’t just communicate to exchange messages; we communicate to create relationships, form intercultural alliances, shape our self-concepts, and engage with others in dialogue to create communities. In short, we don’t communicate about our realities; communication helps to construct our realities.

The roles of sender and receiver in the transaction model of communication differ significantly from the other models. Instead of labeling participants as senders and receivers, the people in a communication encounter are referred to as communicators.  The transaction model suggests that we are simultaneously senders and receivers. This is an important addition to the model because it allows us to understand how we are able to adapt our communication—for example, a verbal message—in the middle of sending it based on the communication we are simultaneously receiving from our communication partner.

Figure 1.3 The Transaction Model of Communication

The transaction model also includes a more complex understanding of context.  Since the transaction model of communication views communication as a force that shapes our realities before and after specific interactions occur, it must account for contextual influences outside of a single interaction. To do this, the transaction model considers how social, relational, and cultural contexts frame and influence our communication encounters.

Social context refers to the stated rules or unstated norms that guide communication. As we are socialized into our various communities, we learn rules and implicitly pick up on norms for communicating. Some common rules that influence social contexts include don’t lie to people, don’t interrupt people, don’t pass people in line, greet people when they greet you, thank people when they pay you a compliment, and so on.

Norms are social conventions that we pick up on through observation, practice, and trial and error. We may not even know we are breaking a social norm until we notice people looking at us strangely or someone corrects or teases us.  Even though breaking social norms doesn’t result in the formal punishment that might be a consequence of breaking a social rule, the social awkwardness we feel when we violate social norms is usually enough to teach us that these norms are powerful even though they aren’t made explicit like rules. Norms even have the power to override social rules in some situations. We may break the rule about not lying if the lie is meant to save someone from feeling hurt. We often interrupt close friends when we’re having an exciting conversation, but we wouldn’t be as likely to interrupt our manager when she is talking at a team meeting. Since norms and rules vary among people and cultures, relational and cultural contexts are also included in the transaction model in order to help us understand the multiple contexts that influence our communication.

Relational context includes the previous interpersonal history and type of relationship we have with a person. We communicate differently with someone we just met versus someone we’ve known for a long time.  Since communication norms and rules also vary based on the type of relationship people have, relationship type is also included in relational context. For example, there are certain communication rules and norms that apply to a supervisor-supervisee relationship that don’t apply to a brother-sister relationship and vice versa. Just as social norms and relational history influence how we communicate, so does culture.

Cultural context includes various aspects of identities such as race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, and ability.  For now it is important for us to understand that whether we are aware of it or not, we all have multiple cultural identities that influence our communication. Some people, especially those with identities that have been historically marginalized, are regularly aware of how their cultural identities influence their communication and influence how others communicate with them. Conversely, people with identities that are dominant or in the majority may rarely, if ever, think about the role their cultural identities play in their communication.

Since intercultural communication creates uncertainty, it can deter people from communicating across cultures or lead people to view intercultural communication as negative. But if you avoid communicating across cultural identities, you will likely not get more comfortable or competent as a communicator. Intercultural communication has the potential to enrich various aspects of our lives. In order to communicate well within various cultural contexts, it is important to keep an open mind and avoid making assumptions about others’ cultural identities. While you may be able to identify some aspects of the cultural context within a communication encounter, there may also be cultural influences that you can’t see. A competent communicator shouldn’t assume to know all the cultural contexts a person brings to an encounter, since not all cultural identities are visible. As with the other contexts, it requires skill to adapt to shifting contexts, and the best way to develop these skills is through practice and reflection.

Key Takeaways

• Communication models are not complex enough to truly capture all that takes place in a communication encounter, but they can help us examine the various steps in the process in order to better understand our communication and the communication of others.
• The transmission model of communication describes communication as a one-way, linear process in which a sender encodes a message and transmits it through a channel to a receiver who decodes it. The transmission of the message many be disrupted by environmental or semantic noise. This model is usually too simple to capture FtF interactions but can be usefully applied to computer-mediated communication.
• The interaction model of communication describes communication as a two-way process in which participants alternate positions as sender and receiver and generate meaning by sending and receiving feedback within physical and psychological contexts. This model captures the interactive aspects of communication but still doesn’t account for how communication constructs our realities and is influenced by social and cultural contexts.
• The transaction model of communication describes communication as a process in which communicators generate social realities within social, relational, and cultural contexts. This model includes participants who are simultaneously senders and receivers and accounts for how communication constructs our realities, relationships, and communities.