1. Functions of Human Communication
Dr. Hanif Suhairi Abu Bakar
Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)

2. Upon completion of this topic students
should be able to
Describe the functions of communication.
Identify in general the types/contexts/fields of human communication.

3. The Outline Functions of human communication SOCIAL NEEDS
IDENTITY NEEDS
PRACTICAL PURPOSES
PHYSICAL NEEDS
OFFER HELPS
TO PLAY
Fields of human communication
SPIRITUAL
INTERPERSONAL
INTRAPERSONAL
SMALL GROUP
ORGANIZATIONAL
CORPORATE
PUBLIC
MASS
INTERCULTURAL

4. WARNING ~ EXPLICIT CONTENT
THE FOLLOWING PRESENTATION IS INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES BUT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL VIEWERS.
VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED.

5. The Evolution of Communication

6. FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE MAY LEAD TO

7. FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION
The functions of human communication explain the question why human need to communicate.
According to Adler & Towne (2003),
man communicate because of:
Social needs
Identity needs
Practical purposes
Physical needs

8. Social Needs
Social needs is defined as the need to have relationship with other people in order for us to:
be liked and be loved ..no matter who we are.
communication is also used to:
avoid others, to fight, to abandon relationship and etc.
Human CANNOT, NOT communicate.

9. Identity needs
Through communication, human learns about his/her self identity.
All these were identified through the way we interact with others.
What about those who have identity crisis? She’s a man, he’s a woman…thats going to end like this!

10. Those people who have high level of self-esteem relatively tend to find friends who are ready to approve their personality.
Those people with low self-esteem or who think that they are useless, usually will find people who treat them in a rough/rude manner.
Therefore,
We need to practice supportive communication in order to change the imperfect feeling of others to a more meaningful state of emotion.

11. Practical Purposes
Practical purpose of communication is communication with the aim to persuade people (in order to change their attitudes and behaviour)
Examples:
Marketing communication is meant for influencing people to buy a product which sometimes does not required by them.
Negotiation used to resolve conflict (which caused by a struggle for the same objective, or to make the best choice when we face a various number of sources.

12. Communication skills (ability to deliver speech and listen effectively) is a necessity for job applicants during interview session #1 , interview session #2
Communication at work is to create better work environment [if only it were that simple :)].
Political communication purpose is to influence people for voting.

13. Physical Needs Several researches show that
human communication closely related to:
The health state of a person .
Human life span
Examples:
Mortality rate among divorced people (before they reach 70 year old) because of heart disease, cancer, and stroke is Double compared to those who are married.
Triple because of hypertension,
Five fold because of committing suicide,
Seven fold because of liver disease), and
Ten fold because of tuberculosis.

14. In addition…

15. according to Jeseph A. Devito (1997), people communicate to:
Offer HELP, examples:
- Therapist (helping someone to reduce their physical or emotional pain).
- Teachers (helping students to understand certain knowledge),
- Counselors (helping client to find the best way to resolve problems faced by the client),
- Team members (help the team in problem solving).

16. To PLAY
Communication is an act of play means we communicate in order to have fun, trying to avoid problems, or as a mean of relaxing.
Examples:
listening to jokes by a comedian or jokes shared by others.
share something that can make the listeners feel happy or escape from any form of pressure.

17. 9 FIELDS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION

18. Spiritual Communication
refers to communication process with
GOD
praying, repenting , etc.

19. Intrapersonal Communication
Intrapersonal communication is the active internal involvement of the individual in symbolic processing of messages.
(Go to GAP to buy a pair of pants – male v.s female)
The individual becomes his or her own sender and receiver, providing feedback to him or herself in an ongoing internal process.

20. Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication also recognized as dyadic communication which is the process almost done through face to face in order to establish, maintain, repair, or deteriorate interpersonal relationship.

21. Small Group Communication
refers to the nature of communication that occurs in a group (between 3 and 15 to 20 individuals) who share ideas, thought, and feelings in order to resolve problems, to make decision (examples: meeting, discussion, team building or trust building session).
Small group communication will be discussed further later

22. Organizational Communication
Occurs within members in organization (internal communication) or individuals or groups from outside organization (external communication)
Internal communication happens in upward, downward and horizontal communication
whether in a face-to-face manner or through channels such as memos, letters, policy statement, brochures or bulletins.

23. Corporate Communication
A field of study that involved communication aspect in corporate.
The field is related to image building, corporate reputation, branding, financial report, corporate culture and company performance report.

24. Public Communication How? Present Like Steve Jobs Feedback is limited
Communication occurred in large group
(more than 20 people)
with the aim
to share information or feelings
with the hope to change the values, attitude, and/or behavior of the audience or to make the receivers/audience agreed with the source/sender pattern of thought.
How? Present Like Steve Jobs
Feedback is limited

25. Mass Communication A form of communication by which messages are created by sender and distributed to mass audiences through traditional media (smoke etc); printed media (books, reports, magazine); or electronic media (radio, tv, Internet etc). Mass media is any medium used to transmit messages. Feedback is very limited – or none at all.

26. Intercultural Communication
Communication between human with different culture (religion, norms, rules and roles) background.
Lain padang lain belalang
Which will be disscussed further later during week 14

27. Before I ended this class…please remember that you could submit the assignment before semester break (Last Week to submit is number 9) you are going to submit your written assignment and cd of your presentation.
Also please remember:

28. Example REAR Page Format UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PERLIS
Lecture : Miss Zainab
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PERLIS
TITLE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Group Name
School:
SEMESTER 1
ACADEMIC SESSION 2015/2016
No.
Name
Matric No.
IC No.
Contact No.

29. THANK YOU