Abstract

The Journal of Social Psychology, 1953, 38, 23-30 Department of Psychology, Lor Angeles State College RAYMOND E. BERNBERG A. THE PROBLEM Human communication is a form of social behavior in which the following are involved : an interpreter; a communicator; the context or “field situation”; and the content, or body of signs or symbols utilized for significant meanings between communicator and interpreter with varying degrees of commonality. Human communication occurs in a field in which a communicator and inter- preter are brought into certain inter-dependent relationships through sign- symbol material produced by the communicator. There are basic postulates for human communicative behavior which have been stated by Fearing (5). These postulates seem to hold true for the many variations possible in the parts of a communicative act. An example of such variation is the fact that there are many types of media, viz., Radio, Cinema, Music, Painting, Language, Television, etc. Paralleled to these different media are the differences in symbols used. Here is a complex system of acting, painting, writing, designing, instrumentalizing; vocalizing, etc., as a basis for the production of symbols which could be identified by various means and which could exist within any medium in a variety