- Interpersonal communication is communication between two or more connected individuals that involves dyadic primacy (the two-person unit is of central importance), dyadic coalitions (two-person groups form even in larger groups), and dyadic consciousness (the two persons think of themselves as a pair).
- Interpersonal communication can take place and interpersonal relationships can develop from face-to-face interactions as well as those you have on the Internet.
- Interpersonal communication serves a variety of purposes. It enables you to learn, relate, influence, play, and help.
Elements of Interpersonal Communication
What are the essential elements of interpersonal communication?
- Source-receiver is the person who sends and receives interpersonal messages simultaneously.
- Encoding-decoding refers to the act of putting meaning into verbal and nonverbal messages and deriving meaning from the messages you receive from others.
- Competence is the knowledge of and ability to use effectively your own communication system.
- Messages are the signals that serve as stimuli for a receiver; metamessages are messages that refer to other messages. ~Feedback messages are messages that are sent back by the receiver to the source in response to other messages. ~Feedforward messages are messages that preface other messages and ask that the listener approach future messages in a certain way. ~Messages can quickly overload the channels, making meaningful interaction impossible.
- Channels are the media through which messages pass and which act as a bridge between source and receiver, for example, the vocal-auditory channel used in speaking or the cutaneous-tactile channel used in touch.
- Noise is the inevitable physical, physiological, psychological, and semantic interference that distorts a message.
- Context is the physical, social-psychological, temporal, and cultural environment in which communication takes place.
- Ethics is the moral dimension of communication, the study of what makes behavior moral or good as opposed to immoral and bad.
Axioms of Interpersonal Communication
What general principles help explain what interpersonal communication is and how it works?
- Interpersonal communication is grounded in theory and research. ~The theories of interpersonal communication are the organized generalizations about interpersonal communication and the evidence bearing on them. ~Through theory and research you learn how interpersonal communication works and from this, you can derive principles for achieving more effective interpersonal interaction.
- Interpersonal communication is a transactional process. ~Interpersonal communication is a process, an ongoing event, in which the elements are interdependent; communication is constantly occurring and changing. ~Don't expect clear-cut beginnings or endings or sameness from one time to another.
- Interpersonal communication is ambiguous. ~All messages are potentially ambiguous; different people will derive different meanings from the "same" message. ~There is ambiguity in all relationships.
- Interpersonal relationships may be symmetrical or complementary. ~Interpersonal interactions may stimulate similar or different behavior patterns, and relationships may be described as basically symmetrical or complementary. ~Develop an awareness of symmetrical and complementary relationships. Avoid clinging rigidly to behavioral patterns that are no longer useful and mirroring another's destructive behaviors.
- Interpersonal communication refers to content and relationship. ~All communications refer both to content and to the relationships between the participants. ~Be aware of and respond to relationship messages as well as content messages.
- Interpersonal communication is a series of punctuated events. ~Everyone separates communication sequences into stimuli and responses on the basis of his or her own perspective. ~View punctuation as arbitrary, and adopt the other's point of view to increase empathy and understanding.
- Interpersonal communication is inevitable, irreversible, and unrepeatable. ~When in an interactional situation, you cannot not communicate; you cannot uncommunicate; you cannot repeat exactly a specific message. ~Seek to control as many aspects of your behavior as possible. In listening, seek out nonobvious messages. Beware of messages you may later wish to take back, for example, conflict and commitment messages.
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