Research on communication models has shifted from linear models, which didn’t take into account the effects that the recipients of the message can send back to the sender (McQuail and Windhal, 1982), to circular models, such as the one theorised by Watzlawick et al. (1967).
Circular models of communication consider communication as a circular process that starts from one subject, reaches another and returns to the starting subject, in a circular process that involves feedback.
Based on these studies, the CQ methodology has developed a communication model of what is referred to as the “Communication Loop™”.
The Communication Loop™ describes the communication process as an exchange of information capable of producing a change, a circular interactive process in which the behaviour of the effector influences and is influenced by the behaviour of the recipient in a perspective of circular causality.
The development of this model also gave light to the study of how the Communication Loop™ can be broken.
Some specific types of listening, such as passive, selective and competitive listening, can interrupt the circular flow of the Loop in different ways, stopping or altering the communication process.
