1: Inter-Act,
th
13
Edition
Orientation
1
Interpersonal
Communication
The complex process through which
people express, interpret, and
coordinate messages in order to create
shared meaning, meet social goals,
manage personal identity, and carry out
relationships
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Purposes of Interpersonal
Communication
•
•
•
•
Share meaning
Meet social goals
Manage our personal identity
Conduct our relationships
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Interpersonal
Communication Process
• Process: systematic series of actions that
leads to an outcome
• Message production: actions you perform
to send a message
• Message interpretation: activities
performed to understand intended meaning
• Interaction coordination: activities
performed to adjust behavior to partner
4
Message – a performance that
uses words, sentences, and/or
nonverbal behaviors to convey the
thoughts, feelings, and intentions of
the speaker
Canned Plan – mental library of
scripts
Script – text that instructs you what
to say in a specific situation
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The Communication Setting
• Physical Context – where communication
takes place, the environment, the distance
between participants, seating, time of day
• Social Context – the nature of the relationship
• Historical Context – the background of
previous communication
• Psychological Context – moods & feelings
• Cultural Context – beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, social hierarchies, religion, notion
of time, and roles of the participants
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Noise
• External noise – the sights, sounds, and
other stimuli that draw people’s
attention away from intended meaning
• Internal noise – the thoughts and
feelings that interfere with meaning
• Semantic noise – distractions caused
by the speaker’s words that interfere
with meaning
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Social Media Context
• Social Media: technologies that facilitate
communication and interaction
• Digital communication: electronic transmission
of digitally encoded information
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Social Network
Common
interests,
beliefs,
knowledge
Friendship
Groups of
individuals
connected
by
Careers
Family
ties
Institutions
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Traits of Social Media Technology
• Facilitates social interactivity
• Takes time to send and receive
messages (temporal structure)
• Lacks social cues
• Can be stored and replicated
• Potentially reaches a large audience
• Allows mobility
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Principles of Interpersonal
Communication
• Is continuous
• Is transactional
• Is irreversible
• Is situated
• Is indexical
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Communication Is
Continuous
• Interpersonal communication can be
verbal or nonverbal. Therefore, we are
always sending messages to others—
whether we are aware of it or not!
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Communication Is
Transactional
• Each person gives and receives
messages, feedback.
• Each person gets needs met and helps
others satisfy needs.
• Each person is changed with each
interaction.
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Communication Is
Irreversible
Once an exchange has taken place,
we can never ignore it, take it back,
or pretend it did not occur.
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Communication Is Situated
• All communication occurs within a
communication setting.
• Setting affects how messages are
produced, interpreted, and coordinated.
• Meaning is dependent upon the
situation.
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Communication Is Indexical
• Index (or measure) of the emotional
temperature of a relationship
• Trust: the extent to which partners rely on,
depend on, and have faith that their partner
will not intentionally harm them
• Control: the extent to which each person has
power or is “in charge” of the relationship
• Intimacy: degree of emotional closeness,
acceptance, and disclosure
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Ethics of Interpersonal
Communication
“A set of moral principles held by a
society, a group, or individual”
1. Truthfulness and honesty
2. Integrity
3. Fairness
4. Respect
5. Responsibility
6. Empathy
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The Dark Side
Bright Side
Ethical
Appropriate
Hard Dark Side
Ethical
Inappropriate
Easy Dark Side
Unethical
Appropriate
Evil Dark Side
Unethical
Inappropriate
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Diversity – variations between
and among people
• Culture
• Sex
• Age
• Class
• Physical
characteristics
• Sexual orientation
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Culture – systems of knowledge
shared by a relatively large group
of people
Culture is a critical concept to
communication because “every
communicator is a product of his or
her culture.”
-Anderson 2000
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Communication
Competence
Competence is the impression that
communicative behavior is both
effective and appropriate.
Competence can be enhanced by:
• Increasing communication knowledge
• Increasing communication skills
• Increasing communication motivation
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Developing
Competence Knowledge
1. Acquire interpersonal communication
knowledge
• Effective messages
• Appropriate messages
2. Emotional Intelligence: ability to
monitor your own and others’
emotions
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Developing
Competence Skills
• Micro communication skills: message
templates, “lines”
• Communication skill scripts: mental
texts that include micro communication
skills
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Developing Competence
Motivation
• Unlearn old ineffective scripts.
• Learn new scripts.
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Behavioral Flexibility
1. Make a prediction about appropriate
communication.
2. Enact that type of communication.
3. Pay attention to reactions.
4. Either change communication or not.
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Writing Communication
Improvement Plans
• State the problem.
• State the specific goal.
• Outline procedure for reaching the goal.
• Devise a method of determining when
the goal has been reached.
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