BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

COMMUNICATION and BEHAVIOR 1)4)

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D. Mac KAY states: "The object of communication is to select some particular conditional readiness in the recipient from the range of states that are possible" (1963, p.28).

A specific behavior may be thus elicited, but it may also remain potential, or be different, depending of complementary circumstances.

Mac KAY gives the following example:"… someone is telling you: "it's raining". What happens? You may be immersed in a book, and may not even feel inclined to grunt an acknowledgment. But this does not mean that your understanding of the message had no effect on you. If a sudden call comes for you to go outdoors, for example, you may be ready to reach for umbrella or mac" (1963, p.22).

Thus communication acts as either a potential or effective trigger of behavior. Ethological research shows this to be also the case with animals.

Communication is always in some sense an attempt by an sender to modify the behavior of one or various receivers. Communication is obviously a social phenomenon. In G.R. JOHNSON's words: "Communication is found wherever social life is found, from microorganisms to insects to humans. Some times these processes are dependent on visual clues… Sometimes they are based upon chemical clues… (or) anchored in auditory clues. And sometimes other clues are used – for example, tactile and electrical" (1992, p.1142).

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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