INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
The study of communication processes
After World War II the development of new communication
technologies increased the volume of information transmitted, thus
turning the planet into a ‘global village’ (Global Village -Marshall
McLuhan and Quentin Fiore).
The economic, political and social implications of this situation
highlighted the necessity to dedicate more means to the understanding of
communication interactions.
An indication of this evolution is the creation of university
departments focusing on the analysis of communication, the introduction
of the domain as a subject in the curriculum, and the inclusion of
communication skills among the requirements to be met by future
employees.
Levels of communication
Generally speaking, there are five levels of communication.
Intrapersonal communication describes an individual taking to
himself/herself by using internal monologue, or dialogue and by engaging
in dream analysis.
Interpersonal communication is that between individuals.
Communication here can be considered a mode of decoding each other's
private worlds.
Group communication deals with small groups and the modes in
which a group can communicate like an individual, or how
communication dynamics differ in a group setting rather than a one-on-
one setting.
Third, organizational communication deals with bureaucratic
organization and extended networks. Communication here must be
tailored to many people with different responsibilities where efficiency
and simplicity is stressed.
Lastly, mass communication is public, media communication that
is designed to speak to a huge number of diverse peoples.
General description of interpersonal communication
Any form of communication between two or more people is
interpersonal communication. It can be a face-to-face discussion with a
colleague at work, an email to your friend, a text message to your brother
or a telephone call to a tech support representative trying to fix your PC.
All people eventually must engage in interpersonal communication of
some kind, as it is the most common form of communication in our daily
lives.
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The ability to be good communicators is continually stressed at
management conferences, teacher conventions, business forums and on
the psychologist's couch. If you are a "people" person with good
interpersonal communicative skills, you get along better with others, can
get your point across in a diplomatic way, earn the trust of others, get
others to follow your lead, stand up for yourself without losing your
temper and are often more likely to get a promotion at work because your
manager knows you communicate well.
Normally, interpersonal communication involves the presence of a
relatively small group of participants who are in close physical proximity
to each other; the process requires the use of many sensory channels and
feedback is immediate.
Basic components of interpersonal communication: participants
(sender and receiver), situation, task, format, processes and message.
Stages of interpersonal communication: producing the message
(encoding), sending it through a channel, receiving the message,
processing the message (decoding), storing the information, and
retrieving it.
Description of the components
Participants: they bring in this exchange their identity
(biological, psychological, social, and cultural), a background
knowledge of the situation and of the topic, and their training,
that are condensed in their assumptions as well as in their
competence (social and linguistic).
The process that unfolds is determined by the perceptions and
the feed-back of the participants, their contextual knowledge,
and by the relations that are established between them, which
are characterized by the following factors: common ground and
differences, participation, control, emotion, levels of interaction,
role taking and turntaking.
Situation: motive, time, format, place and position.
Task: the purpose of the interaction, its complexity, and the time
limit.
Format: interview, oral presentation, meeting, etc.
Processes: speaking and listening; writing and reading;
generating and interpreting nonverbal messages.
Message:
1. channel (direct and indirect – [message recognized
subconsciously: body language]) and interference;
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2. code;
3. components (text, visual aids, sound);
4. type: verbal, nonverbal; static (description), dynamic
(process), abstract;
5. topic and information (quantity, amount of new items,
structure);
6. questions (types and examples):
open (What can you tell me about yourself?)
closed (How old are you?)
primary (What is your favorite hobby?)
secondary (How much time do you spend watching TV?)
sequences of questions (begin with an open-ended q. and
continue with ever more restricted qs.)
neutral (Are you going with us?)
leading (You are going with us, aren’t you?)
7. answers (reliable, unreliable);
8. turntaking;
9. wording (precision, relevance, complexity, register);
[Link] (overt, underlying; intended, communicated).