Psychology of Communication Course

Lesson 1 • Ethics and Responsibility in Communication

Introduces honesty, transparency, and respect as foundational ethical principles. Sets the ethical standard applied in every subsequent chapter.

Lesson 2 • Verbal and Nonverbal Dimensions

Contrasts linguistic content with paralinguistic and kinesic cues. Establishes the dual-channel nature of all face-to-face communication.

Lesson 3 • Major Theoretical Frameworks

Surveys Shannon-Weaver, Berlo's SMCR, and constructivist models. Provides the theoretical lens used throughout the course.

Lesson 4 • Channels and Contexts of Communication

Distinguishes interpersonal, group, organizational, and mass communication contexts. Clarifies how channel choice shapes message effectiveness.

Lesson 1 • Cognitive Schemas and Mental Models

Explores how prior knowledge structures guide interpretation of new information. Links schema theory directly to miscommunication and message design.

Lesson 2 • Emotion Regulation and Communication

Analyzes how emotional states alter encoding and decoding accuracy. Provides regulation strategies that improve communicative clarity under stress.

Lesson 3 • Cognitive Biases Affecting Communication

Identifies confirmation bias, attribution errors, and halo effects as communication distorters. Equips students to recognize and counteract these biases.

Lesson 4 • Perception and Selective Attention

Covers how the brain filters sensory input and constructs meaning. Explains why two people can receive the same message and interpret it differently.

Lesson 1 • Nonverbal Listening Signals

Covers eye contact, posture, and nodding as signals that regulate speaker behavior. Shows how listener nonverbals shape the quality of information shared.

Lesson 2 • Listening in High-Stakes Contexts

Applies listening skills to conflict, crisis, and evaluation scenarios. Bridges foundational technique to the complex listening demands of professional life.

Lesson 3 • Techniques for Active Engagement

Teaches paraphrasing, clarifying questions, and minimal encouragers as engagement tools. Directly builds the behavioral repertoire assessed in listening exercises.

Lesson 4 • Barriers to Effective Listening

Catalogs internal and external obstacles that degrade listening quality. Prepares students to identify and remove specific barriers in real interactions.

Lesson 1 • Conflict Communication Patterns

Examines Gottman's Four Horsemen and constructive conflict alternatives. Equips students to de-escalate and redirect destructive interaction cycles.

Lesson 2 • Power, Status, and Communication

Analyzes how power differentials shape turn-taking, interruption, and topic control. Enables students to navigate asymmetric interactions more effectively.

Lesson 3 • Self-Disclosure and Relational Development

Applies Social Penetration Theory to explain how disclosure depth builds intimacy. Teaches calibrated self-disclosure as a relationship management tool.

Lesson 4 • Repair and Reconciliation Strategies

Covers apology structure, forgiveness communication, and relationship re-negotiation. Completes the relational lifecycle from formation through repair.

Lesson 1 • Emotional Appeals and Attitude Change

Analyzes fear, hope, and empathy appeals as attitude-change mechanisms. Balances emotional impact with ethical responsibility in message design.

Lesson 2 • Message Framing and Structure

Applies gain-loss framing, narrative transportation, and two-sided arguments. Teaches students to structure messages for maximum persuasive effect.

Lesson 3 • Classical and Modern Persuasion Theory

Traces persuasion from Aristotle's ethos-pathos-logos to Elaboration Likelihood Model. Provides the theoretical scaffold for all applied persuasion work.

Lesson 4 • Resistance, Reactance, and Boomerang Effects

Explains why heavy-handed persuasion backfires through psychological reactance. Equips students to design messages that minimize resistance and avoid boomerang outcomes.

Lesson 1 • Vocal Cues and Paralanguage

Analyzes pitch, rate, volume, and pause as carriers of relational and emotional meaning. Teaches deliberate vocal modulation for persuasive and empathic effect.

Lesson 2 • Detecting Deception Nonverbally

Reviews empirical research on deception cues and common detection myths. Provides a calibrated, evidence-based approach to assessing message authenticity.

Lesson 3 • Facial Expressions and Microexpressions

Covers universal and culture-specific facial action patterns including microexpressions. Trains rapid recognition of emotional leakage in high-stakes interactions.

Lesson 4 • Gesture, Posture, and Body Movement

Classifies emblems, illustrators, regulators, and adaptors as gesture categories. Links specific postures and movements to psychological states and relational signals.

Lesson 1 • Groupthink and Decision-Making Failures

Diagnoses Janis's groupthink symptoms and their communication antecedents. Provides structural and linguistic interventions that restore critical deliberation.

Lesson 2 • Group Development and Communication Norms

Maps Tuckman's stages to evolving communication patterns within groups. Explains how norms emerge and how to shape them productively from the start.

Lesson 3 • Virtual and Hybrid Team Communication

Addresses reduced social cues, asynchronous lag, and trust deficits in distributed teams. Equips students with protocols that sustain cohesion across digital channels.

Lesson 4 • Roles, Status, and Participation Patterns

Identifies task, maintenance, and disruptive roles and their effects on group output. Teaches facilitation moves that balance participation across status levels.

Lesson 1 • Framing Narratives for Strategic Impact

Applies narrative framing, metaphor, and contrast to shape audience interpretation. Builds on persuasion theory to craft messages with lasting cognitive impact.

Lesson 2 • Audience Analysis and Segmentation

Applies psychographic and demographic analysis to identify audience values and resistance points. Grounds every strategic message in a rigorous audience profile.

Lesson 3 • Goal Setting and Message Architecture

Teaches SMART communication objectives and hierarchical message architecture. Ensures every communication act serves a clearly defined strategic purpose.

Lesson 4 • Feedback, Measurement, and Iteration

Introduces qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing communication effectiveness. Closes the strategic loop by translating feedback into message refinement.