Research Assignments

People live in communities. We manage to live together with others using communication. Making plans, passing on knowledge, joking around with friends: communication helps us to satisfy our needs. It is only through communication that you are able to develop your own consciousness. What makes you stand out as a person?

Football, classical music, eating with chopsticks? Every culture has its own characteristics. It has an influence on how we dress, speak and behave. This helps you to decide which people you approach: this creates your surroundings. Who do you communicate with – and who do you not?

Communicating means coding and decoding. So it means packaging a message in images, gestures or sentences for the other person to then decode. We can only understand each other when we use the same code. Mistakes often occur – and from misunderstandings, conflicts can arise. How do you deal with that?

Communication is complicated and requires all of our senses. Disturbing noises, uncontrolled feelings, different languages: many things can jeopardise the exchange. This is where abilities and skills are required – in short, social competencies. Are you proficient at communication? How can you get even better?

Radio set, television set, smart phone: analogue and digital forms of communication are taken for granted nowadays. We can reach several people at the same time – over a much larger distance than with our voice or our bodies. At the same time, these tools place new demands on us. How do you prefer to communicate?

Memories give us security and a sense of orientation – because without them, there is no awareness and no communication. Privately and professionally, we all deal with memories. The Easter Bunny, William Tell or 9/11 – even entire communities have a so-called 'collective memory’ that unites them. What do you like remembering?

E-mail, SMS, searching on the Internet: digital communication means transferring data via technical devices. A market has developed out of this, in which a lot of money flows. But what is valuable? Who pays, who earns? And: what role do you have to play?

Communication is permanently changing and getting faster and faster. New inventions have a significant effect on our behaviour: this is exciting, but it can also make us fearful at the same time. Drones, robots, chips: which means of communication are new to you – and which will exist in the future?

The phenomenon of staircase wit, white lies, or salami tactics – many clever people have already studied communication and examined it right down to the smallest detail. But what are these theories about? And where do they come up in your everyday life?