Communication: A Goal-Directed, Plan-Guided Process

Abstract

Translate Article

The era during which the volume Social Cognition and Communication and Communication (Roloff & Berger, 1982a) was published was an exciting one in the communication discipline’s history. The cognitive approach to the study of communication was in its nascent stages and its effects were beginning to be reflected in the work of several communication researchers, especially those with interests in social interaction (Berger & Bradac, 1982; Delia, O’Keefe, & O’Keefe, 1982; Greene, 1984; Hewes & Planalp, 1982, 1987; Planalp & Hewes, 1982). One source of excitement surrounding this surging interest in cognitive approaches stemmed from the promise that they would spawn theoretical frameworks that would illuminate basic communication processes. The hope was that these theories would transcend and integrate such ostensibly unique domains of communication inquiry as health, intercultural, interpersonal, mass, organizational, and political communication, as well as others (Berger & Chaffee, 1987, 1988; Roloff & Berger, 1982b). Cognitively based approaches have continued to exerted considerable influence within these subdomains of the communication discipline, as the contributions to this volume attest; however, it remains to be seen whether the promised theoretical integration of these areas will occur.