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INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Basic components: participants (sender and receiver), situation, task, format,

processes and message.

Stages: 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: (type of organization of the situation) interview, oral presentation,

meeting, etc.

Processes: speaking and listening; writing and reading.

Message:

1. channel and interference;

2. code;

3. components (text, visual aids, sound, smell (Japanese cook book);

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 (Tell me about yourself ?),

closed (How old are you ?), primary (What is your favorite hobby ?),

secondary (How much time do you spend watching TV ?), neutral (Are

you going with us?), leading (You are going with us, arent you ?),

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sequences of questions (begin with an open-ended q. and continue with

ever more restricted qs.);

7. answers (reliable, unreliable);

8. turntaking;

9. wording (vocabulary; choice of words; phrasing) characterized by

precision, relevance, complexity, register;

10. meaning (overt, underlying, intended, communicated).

Example of a communication event: the casual communication:

is not planned;

has no specific purpose;

may have more than one topic;

is not organized, it includes hesitations, rephrasing, pauses, repetitions;

does not belong to the formal register.

5 Principles of Interpersonal Communication

These principles underlie the workings in real life of interpersonal

communication. They are basic to communication. We can't ignore them.

People are not mind readers

Another way to put this is: people judge you by your behavior, not your intent.

Interpersonal communication is inescapable

We cannot avoid communication. The very attempt not to communicate

communicates something. Through words, tone of voice, gesture, posture, facial

expression, etc., we constantly communicate to those around us. Through these

channels, we constantly receive communication from others. Even when you sleep,

you communicate.

Interpersonal communication is irreversible

You can't really take back something once it has been said. The effect must

inevitably remain. Despite the instructions from a judge to a jury to "disregard that

last statement the witness has made," the lawyer knows that the words will remain in

the minds of the jurors.

Interpersonal communication is complicated

No form of communication is simple. Because of the number of variables

involved, even simple requests are extremely complex. Theorists note that whenever

we communicate there are really at least six "people" involved: 1) who you think you

are; 2) who you think the other person is; 3) who you think the other person thinks

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you are; 4) who the other person thinks he/she is; 5) who the other person thinks you

are; and 6) who the other person thinks you think she/he is.

We don't actually swap ideas, we swap signs that stand for ideas. This also

complicates communication. Words (signs) do not have inherent meaning; we simply

use them in certain ways, and no two people use the same word exactly alike.

Interpersonal communication is contextual

In other words, communication does not happen in isolation as it involves:

Psychological context, which is who you are and what you bring to the

interaction. Your needs, desires, values, personality, etc., all form the psychological

context. ("You" here refers to both participants in the interaction.)

Relational context, which concerns your reactions to the other person.

Situational context deals with the psycho-social "where" you are

communicating. An interaction that takes place in a classroom will be very different

from one that takes place in a bar.

Environmental context deals with the physical "where" you are

communicating. Furniture, location, noise level, temperature, season, time of day, allare examples of factors in the environmental context.

Cultural context includes all the learned behaviors and rules that affect the

interaction. If you come from a culture (foreign or within your own country) where it

is considered rude to make long, direct eye contact, you will out of politeness avoid

eye contact. If the other person comes from a culture where long, direct eye contact

signals trustworthiness, then we have in the cultural context a basis for

misunderstanding.

4 Communication Maxims

If communication can fail, it will.

If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just

that way which does the most harm.

There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by

your message.

The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to

succeed.

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