The theories of communication are many people’s opinions on how communication works within healthcare settings.

Bales’ theory is based on how behaviour is listed and explain under 2 main categories. These are the task based people and the socio-emotional ones. He believes those who are tasked based are the ones who want to get the task completed as soon as possible, without asking other team members how they want things done. Whereas those who focus on the socio- emotional section are those who aren’t too fussed on getting the work complete but are there to motivate the other members into completing the work. An example of this is in a school during group activities. If the pupils have to do a group activity for a project, then certain pupils are more focussed on getting the work done and ensuring they complete it to a good standard, whereas other group members are more focussed on having a good time and motivating them to the work that they can not be bothered to do themselves. This can be seen as useful within health and social care settings because it helps us to understand how people think while working in group tasks and it gives us a reasonable explanation to why certain group members also do more work than others. It would work in most if not all group settings as this tends to always happen.

Overall Bales’ theory is useful to some degree in health and social care settings as it gives us an overview to the structure of group tasks and how people work while situated within them. It would be useful in schools and maybe in certain situations within a doctors meeting. In schools it is useful as the socio- emotional people motivate the task based people to actually do the work, they do this by saying things that will encourage laughter, this enables people to feel more relaxed and comfortable while working. They also demonstrate the ability to show an