Interpersonal Communication

PBP Chp 5Page 71 to 83

IPC

23. The componential definition has come to be associated with inter-personal communication. Harold Lasswell presented five components of IPC: who says – what – in what channel – to whom – with what effect. Four of these components are linear in function, whereas the fifth component tends to make the process circular. Hence, Harold’s componential definition is preferred over other definitions.

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Source-receiverEncoding-decodingCompliance & Performance (knowledge, ability,

skills and other competencies)Messages & their channelingNoise (physical, psychological, semantic)Self-feedback and feedback from others

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Context is the environment in which communication takes place and can distinctly affect our communication. Two distinct examples could be communication at a birthday party and communication at a condolence reference.

Physical dimension: spatial context, a mosque, a club, a library

Social/psychological dimension: status and relationship, teacher:student, boss: subordinate, captain: team member, old: young

Temporal dimension: fitness of communication, ask for a donation, crack a joke, serious talk

Field of experience: common experience for effective communication. Empathize.

Effects: Communication influences people. Determine the impact it creates.

Ethics: are our ideas and understanding about what is right and what is wrong. Should be integral to all acts of communication.

26Developmental definition helps distinguish

personal/interpersonal communication from impersonal communication.

Psychological data base response: when the intended audience is general and large, the communication is impersonal. However, when uniqueness of individuals is involved, it turns more into interpersonal communication.

Explanatory knowledge based interactions: knowing reasons in details, late by 10 minutes, why also

Interaction under the personality laid down rules: social norms and rules make communication impersonal. Individual norms and relationship make communication interpersonal.

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Relational definition: when two or more people interact, they relate to one another in different capacities. Put simply, while communicating people are connected with one another, for example, boss-subordinate relation, father-son relation, lawyer-client relation, customer-shopkeeper relation, teacher-student relation.

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• Understanding of ourselves – what people say about us, other people’s perception about us

• Understanding the external world – sender-receiver, attitudes, values, beliefs, formal education

• Meaningful relations – need to socialize• Changing attitude & behavior – interpersonal

contact can help change attitude

• Helping others – counseling, mourning, sharing good moments, helping friends & colleagues

• Playing and entertaining – work life balance, parties, get together, games, net talk

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• Process• Components interdependent• Participants act and react as wholes

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Six Transactional Axioms

Paul Watzlawick

Janet Helmit Beavin

Don. D. Jackson

Inevitability of Communication

• Deliberate, purposeful and consciously motivated

• A trait of human beings, cannot not communicate

• Example of employees at workplace• Exerting influence• Non-verbal communication

Irreversibility of communication

• An irreversible process• Example of an orange• Efforts may be made to reduce the effect, but

cannot be undone• Interpersonal communication needs to be

meticulous • Tact and caution required

Contents and relationship dimension of communication

• Matter used in communication• Communication indicative of relationship• Example “You do not know how to write a report”• Norm of relationship• Example “Leave it, I will re-do the report myself”• Balance in content and relationship needed• Example “You need to re-do the report”• Please come prepared.• Why are you late today?• What is your salary?• I have forgotten your name.

Communication involving a process of adjustment

• Games, I want a delicacy served, we will compile the report during the two day-retreat, venture-capital, equity, debt, secured loan, while at Rome, doing things your way

• Differences in age, education, experience, psychology and culture of the communicators

• Sharing of common experiences and less common experiences

• IPC between different levels of communicators, thus adjustment required

• Understanding other person’s signals• Adjustment required between source and receiver

Defining relationship by punctuation

• Communication a circular process• Stimulus and response – at times difficult to distinguish• Unique filter, see and interpret things differently, punctuation is

also likely to be different “punctuation of order of events”• Example “John, the boy who entered the office, is my cousin”

“The boy John, who entered the office, is my cousin”“The boy who entered the office is my cousin, John”

• What happened in your college? I will tell you when I come home. Are you O.K? Yes, perfectly. (Strike/called by Principal to improve performance)

• Example “I park car on the road because my neighbor does that”, “I park car on the road since it is a dead end and no one is disturbed”

• Important in analyzing communication

Conversation over the phone

Manager: The minister has agreed to inaugurate our plant early next year.

Manager: He was busy and said he would like to meet you early next month.

CEO: So what date did he give?Manager: Of inauguration or meeting.CEO: MeetingManager: His staff will confirm in a day or two.

Symmetrical or complementary view of communication

• Equality of relationship “symmetrical view of interaction”

• Minimizing differences by mirroring• Not mirroring anger or negativity• Complementing one another (strong and

weak, superior and inferior, active and passive)