Communibiology is a term referring to a research paradigm that emphasizes the "

neurobiological Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

foundations of human communication behavior". Communibiologists take the nature side of the

nature versus nurture Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the balance between two competing factors which determine fate: genetics (nature) and environment (nurture). The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English h ...

debate in communication development. The communibiological paradigm was developed by Beatty and McCroskey as an alternative to the nature side supporting social learning paradigm. They believe

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

to be far more important in the development of communication behavior than

learning process Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learnin ...

es and the environment. These researchers do concede, however, that genetic factors are not the sole source of communication behavior. One accepted ratio is 20% influence of cultural, situational, or environmental stimuli and 80% influence of inborn, neurobiological structures on behavior. A main idea of communibiology is that

temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...

s are based on genetics and not learned. Communication behavior is an expression of a person's temperament, though the behavior and the temperament do not completely correlate with one another. Identical genetics producing identical temperaments may result in non-identical communication behaviors because one's temperament can be expressed in various ways. The behaviors, though, will be very similar.

Influences on the communibiological paradigm

Hans Eysenck's personality theory

Hans Eysenck Hans Jürgen Eysenck (; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a German-born British psychologist who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, although he worked on other ...

found that the two main aspects of

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

are temperament and

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

. He identified three personality types: * Extraversion –sociable, lively, active, assertive, sensation-seeking, carefree dominant, surgent and venturesome. *

Neuroticism In the study of psychology, neuroticism has been considered a fundamental personality trait. For example, in the Big Five approach to personality trait theory, individuals with high scores for neuroticism are more likely than average to be moody ...

–

anxious Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

, depressed,

guilt Guilt may refer to: *Guilt (emotion), an emotion that occurs when a person feels that they have violated a moral standard *Culpability, a legal term *Guilt (law), a legal term Music *Guilt (album), ''Guilt'' (album), a 2009 album by Mims *Guilt ( ...

feelings,

low self-esteem Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) d ...

, tense, irrational, shy, moody emotional. *

Psychoticism Psychoticism is one of the three traits used by the psychologist Hans Eysenck in his P–E–N model (psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism) model of personality. Nature Psychoticism is conceptually similar to the ''constraint'' factor i ...

–

aggressive Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...

, cold, ego-centric, impersonal, impulsive,

antisocial Antisocial may refer to: Sociology, psychiatry and psychology *Anti-social behaviour *Antisocial personality disorder *Psychopathy *Conduct disorder Law *Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 *Anti-Social Behaviour Order *Crime and Disorder Act 1998 * ...

, unempathic, creative, and tough-minded. Eysenck argues that these three personalities are inherited lending it useful to the communibiological paradigm. Other research has also found that the genetic component of these three personalities is between 50% and 80%.

J.A. Gray's theory of neuropsychology of temperament

J.A. Gray proposed a behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and a behavioral activation system (BAS). The threshold for activation of the BIS or BAS is inherited.

Cary Horvath's twins study

Horvath compared identical and

fraternal twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

in order to determine if communicator styles were inherited. This was the first study of heredity and communication and it found that communicator style variables are partially inherited, leading the way for the future studies regarding inheritance and communication behavior.

Model for communibiological research (as used by Beatty, et al.)

#Select or create a theory that proposes an explanation for an aspect of human communication behavior. #Relate the theory to specific biological elements or processes. #Select or create a measure related to those biological elements or processes. #Establish a relationship between the measurements, human communication behavior, and biological elements or processes.

Opponents

There exist many opponents to the communibiological paradigm. First are the "nurture" and social learning paradigm supporters that believe learning has more to do with communication behavior than genetics. Then there are others who believe the whole argument is pointless. Condit calls for a multi-causal model that would incorporate both nature and nurture. Condit also claims that the 80% genetic influence found by Beatty and McCroskey lacks solid evidence and a number in the 40-60% range is more likely, helping to support her view of incorporating both nature and nurture.

Communibiological perspective on communication apprehension

Communication apprehension Communication apprehension is a degree or measure of the anxiety triggered by the real or anticipated communication act, as defined by James C. McCroskey. The fear of judgment from the audience and self-image is what fuels the anxiety. Communicati ...

afflicts millions of people worldwide. Much of the communibiological research conducted in the area of communication apprehension has found that many causes of the affliction are inherited.

Beatty and McCroskey

Beatty and McCroskey first developed their communibiological paradigm in order to more effectively diagnose communication apprehension. Using Eysenck's personality theory they identified the primary components of communication apprehension to be introversion and neuroticism. They also used Gray's theory to say that activation of the behavioral inhibition system is related to anxiety. They make note that both the personalities of Eysenck's theory and the activation threshold of the BIS in Gray's theory have been found to be inherited. Differences in communication apprehension correspond to differences in BIS activation threshold, supporting the idea that communication apprehension is genetically determined.

Interpersonal communication motives

Interpersonal communication motives explain why people with communication apprehension communicate the way they do. People with low communication apprehension communicate for

pleasure Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious anima ...

, affection, control, and relaxation while people with high communication apprehension communicate for

inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, aims to create an environment that supports equal opportunity for individuals and groups that form a society. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabiliti ...

and escape. Paulsel and Mottet (2004) found that interpersonal communication motives such as these are at least a partially influenced by genetically inherited traits.

Communication apprehension in second languages

Jung and McCroskey (2004) studied the presence of communication apprehension in those speaking their

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

and those speaking their

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

. Communication apprehension in the first language predicted communication apprehension in the second language. This combated the social learning perspective which would say that the learning of the second language would influence and change the communication apprehension in the second language. They concluded that communication apprehension is a cross-linguistic trait and that the trait is genetically inherited.

Treatment

The fact that the causes of communication apprehension are inherited has major implications in how it can be treated as some believe that if communication apprehension is genetically inherited then it cannot be changed. Others contend, as Beatty and McCroskey did, that since traits are not exclusively genetically inherited, treatment is viable. Treatment in terms of the communibiological paradigm involves learning to control the negative aspects of one's inherited temperament.

The role of culture

Comminubiologists argue that people are born with specific temperaments based on their genetics. This does not, however, mean that they do not learn.

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

plays an important role in this learning process. While they are born with a certain temperament a person learns how to respond to specific temperamental demands based on the culture they are surrounded by. As children they learn which temperamental actions are appropriate and which are not. So while the basis of a person's communication behavior is based on genetics, a good portion of their behavior is also affected by the culture they are raised in. In fact, the communication behaviors

ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of ...

and

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

were found to have no relationship with a person's

genetic make-up In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...

or temperament.{{Cite journal , last1 = Wrench , first1 = J. S. , last2 = McCroskey , first2 = J. C. , title = A communibiological examination of ethnocentrism and homophobia , journal = Communication Research Reports , volume = 20 , pages = 24–33 , year = 2003 , doi = 10.1080/08824090309388796, s2cid = 144692760 These traits are instead developed through culture.

References

Human communication