The deaf community and Communication Theories



The deaf community and Communication Theories12/7/2009Amanda ZabotskyThe deaf community is many things; it also falls into several categories. Some of those categories interact with theories consisting of: Symbolic Interaction Theory, Cognitive Dissonance, Cultural Studies, Spiral of Silence Theory, Communication Accommodation Theory, Muted Group and Social Exchange Theory. Symbolic interaction theory is applied to the deaf community begins with the importance of meanings for human behavior. The theory states that the goal of interaction is to create shared meaning. CITATION Wes10 \l 1033 (West & Turner, 2010) The deaf use this through several interactions. The most common in the United States is that they use American Sign Language. The second being Pidgin Sign language, American Sign Language that is in English word order. Thirdly being signed exact English and lastly reading lips. By using more than 1 form of language they have adapted to the hearing world in means to communicate with the hearing. This is shown strongly by the use of reading lips. Even mute individuals can interact in the hearing world. Total communication as addressed by is the method of opening all avenues and modes of communication for deaf children CITATION Lar \l 1033 (Hawkins & Brawner, 1997) They also address that deaf children need to be able to interact with the members of the deaf culture also, not only the hearing home that they are raised in. CITATION Lar \l 1033 (Hawkins & Brawner, 1997)Meaning is created in interaction between people in the deaf community by accepting the use of Sign Language and reading lips. In an article addressed by Psych today titled The Psychology of body language the use of non verbal’s by ancient civilizations is referred to as body language, chemical scent, physiological changes, gestures, facial reactions, symbols, personal markers and vocal noises such as grunts and shrieks. Everyday interactions that occurs, even on the chemical level are examples of symbolic interaction. CITATION Nav09 \l 1033 (Navarro, 2009) These topics also apply to cognitive dissonance. Without the use of facial recognition people feel the need recover from inconsistent attitudes. An example of this is someone smiling while signing hello instead of having a neutral face. Actions like this are universally recognized and are essential so that we may be attended to even when we cannot speak CITATION Nav09 \l 1033 (Navarro, 2009)Cognitive dissonance is addressed in relation to the deaf community because they received the idea from the media that it is wrong to be deaf. Just like the media still believes that being of the GLBTQ (gay lesbian bisexual transgendered and questionable) community is wrong. That they (both the GLBTQ and the deaf community) need to be fixed because they are broken; this stems so much debate on if everyone who is deaf should receive a Cochlear implant or not to fix them being deaf even though in return the media shows that cochlear implants are not successful in every case. A second instance of cognitive dissonance is the assumption that humans desire consistence in their beliefs attitudes and behaviors. CITATION Wes10 \l 1033 (West & Turner, 2010) The media portrays the attitude that the deaf are lesser beings when in reality that the deaf ex president, I. King Jordan of Gallaudet said that "Deaf people can do anything a hearing person can, except hear." There is even a term for the discrimination against the deaf it is called Audism. CITATION Aud06 \l 1033 (, 2003-2006) Following Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Cultural Studies also applies to the deaf community. Children who are from hearing families must also be able to communicate with the deaf community CITATION Lar \l 1033 (Hawkins & Brawner, 1997) according to a presentation given by Dr Michael McKeen he states that “Hearing loss is a cultural identity not a disability”. CITATION McK \l 1033 (McKeen, 2009) The deaf community is alienated or receives alienation making them feel as though they have little control over one’s future when they are bombarded with information on how to adapt to the hearing world. This is even occurring in the technological world. There has been so much more development in speech recognition where there is so much difficulty making any great strides in deaf community. An article from the Computer Vision and Image Understanding titled A Framework of Recognizing the Simultaneous Aspects of American Sign Language; states that although speech recognition has made significant advances in the past 10 years, gesture recognition has been lagging behind. Yet, gestures are an integral part of human-to-human communication and convey information that speech alone cannot. CITATION Vog01 \l 1033 (Vogler & Metaxas, 2001) These types of advancements only drive home the idea that they (the hearing impaired population) must adapt or be a lesser being in a functioning society even though advancements have been made to help them “adapt” to the hearing world. Deaf individuals do not need to adapt; they need to be able to be proud deaf individuals who are functioning members of society; who can do any task that a hearing individual of equal capacity can, except hear. Deaf individuals run into ideology also; we as hearing individuals do not have to make as much sense of our existence. We all as humans still have the question of “why am I here” but the deaf receive a more negative message from the Medias and masses. That they need to define their reason for being and not being lesser beings. Where hegemony is concerned the deaf community is the non dominant group in comparison to the hearing community when interacting in a group of both hearing and non hearing people. The deaf community has a sense of false consciousness to a certain age because they are unaware of the domination in their lives in relation to the hearing world. There is a line clearly drawn in the sand where the hearing impaired and the hearing are separated.Spiral of Silence Theory is applied to the deaf community because of the public opinion. Attitudes and behaviors expressed in public to avoid isolation are shown by the deaf using hearing aids, cochlear implants and even lip reading to fit in. In the hearing world in hopes to avoid isolation, however the hearing impaired can remove their hearing aids, turn off their TTY enabled phones and any other means of communication and go into isolation willingly to get away from the stresses of daily life just as we in the hearing community do when we turn off the computer and take the landline off the hook. The assumption of the Spiral of Silence Theory that address the deaf community is that public behavior is affected by public opinion assessment. CITATION Wes10 \l 1033 (West & Turner, 2010) The fact sheet from NCDHR states in their Problem Statement that “Little is known about disease trends, underlying attitudes, or health behaviors among Deaf or hard-of-hearing people,” says Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, FACPM and Principal Investigator/Director of NCDHR. “This population is woefully understudied and underserved.” CITATION Res09 \l 1033 (Research, 2009) Also that those in the deaf community were more likely to be “publicly insured poorer (lower family incomes), less educated and have a higher unemployment rate, the same criteria as seen with other minority groups”. CITATION McK \l 1033 (McKeen, 2009)Communication Accommodation theory is a theory based on the idea of accommodation. Most of what Steven Barnette addresses in his presentation at the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) conference in March of 2009 is about accommodating the Deaf so that they can use the BRFSS survey. He states that the “processes for adapting a survey for use with deaf sign language users is by using computer-based survey that allows the user to choose the best communication modality.” CITATION Bar09 \l 1033 (Barnette, 2009) With teaching of Bi-Bi; or Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural it is easier for individuals to move between the hearing and deaf communities CITATION Vic09 \l 1033 (Vicars) resulting in more in-groups with both hearing and deaf members, and less out-groups where the hearing feel less welcome in the deaf community and the deaf feeling less welcome in the hearing community. In and Out groups will still exist in the hearing and deaf community however by teaching Bi-Bi it makes each community more accepting of the other ,causing less dissonance between the two communities in hopes to one day relieve the conflict between the two cultures. Two assumptions that relate to Communication Accommodation Theory are that the manner in which we perceive the speech and behavior of another will determine how we evaluate a conversation; and secondly, language and behaviors impart information about social status and group belonging. CITATION Wes10 \l 1033 (West & Turner, 2010) These two assumptions are reinforced by the research article titled Children Creating Language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language acquired a spatial Grammar. The article states that language is not purely learned but arises from an interaction between environmental exposure and innate abilities. CITATION Sen01 \l 1033 (Senghas & Coppola, 2001)In all three conference presenters focused on in this paper, “Working Collaboratively for the First Community-Based Comprehensive Health Survey of a U.S. Deaf Community.” From the Summer in the City Seminar, University of Rochester Medical Center, June 17, 2008 Rochester NY “Adapting the BRFSS to survey deaf sign language users.” from the CDC 25th Annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Conference, March 18, 2008, Orlando, FL and "Better Health Through Accessible Communication." from Better Communication for Better Health Conference, April 25, 2009, St. Louis Park, Minnesota address convergence and instructing heath care professionals to adapt to another’s behaviors which in this case is referring to using American Sign Language in hopes to assist them in received the heath care that they require and more importantly deserve. In the Working Collaboratively for the First Community Based Comprehensive Health Survey of a US Deaf Community the authors address that those of the deaf community have similarities as those in other minority groups such as “infrequently encounter a doctor from their own cultural group, often experience language differences as barrier to good healthcare, often experience cultural insensitivity as barrier to good healthcare, often have limited health knowledge, poorer health status than general population, and that they are less frequent with physician visits than general population.” CITATION Roc \l 1033 (Aggas J, 2008) The fact that these ideas are addressed is wonderful and much anticipated for the deaf community however NCDHR risks the notion of over accommodation. Yes, it is needed for health care professionals to understand how to interact with the deaf community however there are still deaf individuals out in the world that do not believe that hearing individuals are as proficient in sign language as they are, and if the hearing world overly accommodates they run the risk of losing select individuals patronage.This paper would not be complete without the mentioning of Muted Group Theory; however the sex and gender roles do not apply to the deaf community as much as they do the hearing. Yes, a Deaf man may be the head of the house hold but I believe because there is so much said in such few hang gestures that the deaf community must be more lax on the idea that men or women are more dominant. Dominance is however addressed between the hearing and deaf community, when looking into educating individuals in Deaf culture and their language of American Sign Language it is suggested by ASL University,(an online curriculum resource for American Sign Language students, instructors, interpreters, and parents of deaf children) that the problem with having the dominant community learning about the non-dominant community is that “with allowing hearing students to use their voice is that they tend to jabber away excessively and never get down to signing and never develop serious signing skills.” CITATION Vic09 \l 1033 (Vicars) Suggesting that they receive 90:10 ASL: English time between the languages as to no defeat the learning process. CITATION Vic09 \l 1033 (Vicars) Gallaudet Research Institute also considers this approach in their research priorities by stating that “Teaching, Learning and the Communication EnvironmentResearch on how pedagogical practices and accessibility of information affect learning for deaf and hard of hearing students.” CITATION Gal06 \l 1033 (University, 2006) Also that “Linguistics of Signed LanguagesLinguistic studies of signed languages, including phonological, morphological, and syntactic phenomena as well as meaning construction, discourse, and variation. This priority supports cross-linguistic comparison among signed languages as well as research on language contact and historical change.” CITATION Gal06 \l 1033 (University, 2006) Making it understood that these ideas are important in their research priorities as in instruction on and ass a forerunner in the excelling of education on the deaf community.Lastly Social exchange theory slightly interacts with the deaf community in the assumption that relationships are interdependent, and relationships in the deaf community are very different than those in the hearing world. In the deaf community if someone is late the group is interrupted asking why the individual was late which may take up to five minutes; where as in the hearing community if someone is late they slip in the back door and try to be discreet as possible.In conclusion the deaf community is many things; it also falls into several categories. Some of those categories interact with theories consisting of symbolic interaction theory, cognitive dissonance, cultural studies, spiral of silence theory, communication accommodation theory, muted group and social exchange theory.Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Aggas J, B. S. (2008). Working Colabroatively for the First Community Based Comprehensive Heath Survey of a US Deaf Community. Summer in the City Seminar. Rochester: University of Rochester Medical Center.. (2003-2006). . Retrieved December 2009, from : , S. (2009). Adapting the BRFSS to Survey Deaf Sign Language Users.Hawkins, L., & Brawner, J. (1997). Help Kids Hear-communication strategies. Retrieved December 2009, from Help Kids : McKeen, M. (2009). Better Heath Through Accessible Communication. Better Communication for Better Heath conference. St. Louis Park: National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR).Navarro, J. (2009, November 29). The Psychology of Body Language. Retrieved December 2009, from Psychology Today: , N. C. (2009). NCDHR Fact sheet. Retrieved December 2009, from Welcome to the NCDHR a member of the Prevetion Research Centers Program: , A., & Coppola, M. (2001). Children Creating Language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language Acquired a Spatial Grammar. Psychological Science , 12 (4), 323-328.University, G. (2006, April). Galludet University Research Priorities 2007. Retrieved Deceber 2009, from Revised Research Priorities : , D. W. (n.d.). Teaching ASL BiLingual BiCultural Approach. Retrieved December 2009, from ASL American Sign Language: , C., & Metaxas, D. (2001). A Framework for Recognizing the Simultaneous Aspects of American Sign Language. Computer Vision and Image Understanding , 358-384.West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory Analysis and Applicaion. Boston: McGraw-Hill. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download