Ch. 1 The features of Interpersonal Communication
The importance of being a skilled communicator
• Humans have a need for connectedness: initiating, maintaining, and developing social
ties, especially close ones
• Compresence: presence of another —> arousing and motivating —> behavior
• If the interaction fails —> loneliness, unhappiness and depression
• Sociation: innate need for relationships with others
• Three types of psychological need —> optimal wellbeing
• Competence: wish to feel con dent and e ective in carrying out actions —>
achieve goals
• Relatedness: desire to have close connections and positive relations with
signi cant others
• Autonomy: wanting to feel in control of the own destiny
• To ful ll these needs, humans need an e ective repertoire of interpersonal skills
• Homo interagens: human mind is especially adapted to enable us to engage in social
interaction (Levinson)
• Social interaction and negotiation —> personal identity
• High levels of interpersonal skills —> more advantages
• Less loneliness, depression and unhappiness
• Cope more readily with stress
• Adapt and adjust better to major life transitions
• Higher self-e cacy in social situations
• Social skills de cit hypothesis: lack of adequate social skills —> inability to foster
positive interpersonal experiences, avoid negative social experiences —> risk of
depression
• Social capital: bene ts from being socially skilled, fostering a large network of conducive
and committed relationships characterized by goodwill, trust and reciprocity, forging
commitments and developing a good social reputation
• Rewards gained because of accurate interpersonal skills:
• Skilled children —> e ectively communicate with the teacher; receive help and
attention; peer friendships
• Skilled managers —> receive pay prises; gain promotions
• Skilled practitioners —> high patient’s wellbeing
• The concept of social skill:
1. Theoretical analyses of how and why people behave as they do have resulted in
various conceptualizations of skilled behavior
2. Research has been conducted into the identi cation and e ects of di erent types
of social behavior
3. Several approaches to training in communication skills have been introduced in
order to ascertain whether it is possible to improve the social performance of the
individual
What is interpersonal communication?
• Communication: the process whereby people share ideas, thoughts and feelings in
commonly comprehensible ways (Hamilton)
• Two central themes at the core of communication:
• Intersubjectivity: striving to understand others and being understood in turn
• Impact: the extent to which a message brings about change in thoughts, feelings or
behavior
• Interpersonal communication: the process by which information, meanings and feelings
are shared by persons through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages (Brooks &
Heath)
• Face-to-face nature and physical closeness of the interaction
• Dydactic or small-group setting where it occurs
Pagina 1
, • Fact that it is shaped by, and coveys information about, the personal qualities of the
interlocutors as well as their social roles and relationships
• Multiplicity of communication channels that are available
• Instantaneity of feedback available
• Extent of self-disclosure engendered
• Intrinsic nature of rewards stemming from intensive person-to-person contact
Communication is a process
Communicators
• The communicators are central in the process
• Inter alia: gender, age, ethnicity, physical appearance and personality —> in uence on
interpersonal skills
Message
• Message: a pattern of thought, con guration of ideas, or other response to internal
conditions about which individuals express themselves
• Encoding and decoding
Medium
• Medium: particular means of conveying the message
• Three types of media:
• Presentational: voice, face, body
• Social presence: the degree to which the medium is experienced as sociable,
warm, sensitive, or personal, creating the impression that the person
communicating is real
• Representational: books, paintings, architecture, photographs
• Technological/mechanical: internet, phone, television, radio
• Media richness: media di er in the wealth of information they carry (face-to-face >
mailing)
Channel
• Channel: which connects interlocutors and accommodates the medium
• Di erent channels:
• Vocal-auditory: speech
• Gestural-visual: nonverbal communication
• Chemical-olfactory: smell
• Cutaneous-tactile: touch
Code
• Code: system of meaning shared by a group; peculiar signs and symbols, speci c rules
and conventions for their use
• Morse, Braille, French
Noise
• Noise: interference with the success of the communicative act that distorts or degrades
the message so that the meaning taken is not that intended
• —> unintended confusion, misunderstanding, insult or hurt
Feedback
• Feedback: monitoring receiver reactions
• —> successful social outcomes
Context
• Context: intermeshing frameworks; physical, social, chronological, cultural and relational
context
• Eg. College at Friday afternoon or Monday morning —> low level of enthusiasm
Pagina 2
,Communication is inevitable
• Communication is inevitable, but are all actions communication? Does the encoder have
to be consciously aware of the intention?
• In the most extreme form, this would be communication:
• Performed with the intention of shared meaning
• Perceived as such by the recipient
• Executed with conscious understanding
• Accomplished by means of a shared arbitrary code
• —> problems with concept of nonverbal communication: informative rather than
communicative
Communication is purposeful
• Action is directed by goals that reliably control and motivate the behavioral system
• Interact —> achieve a goal
• Communication as purposeful activity has to be adjusted: the communicators fashion
what they say and do, on an ongoing basis, in response to the goals they are pursuing and
the likelihood of their attainment
Communication is transactional
• Communicators are, at the same time, senders and receivers
• Transactional conceptualization: stresses dynamic interplay and the changing and evolving
nature of the process
Communication is multidimensional
• Multi-dimensionality: messages exchanged are seldom unitary or discrete
• Two separate, but interrelated levels:
• Content: substantive matters (discussing a lm)
• Relationship: connection between the interlocutors
• Identity projection and con rmation
- Who and what they are; how they wish to be received and reacted to by
others
- Interaction with others —> identity
- Impression management and self-reputation
• Relationship negotiation
- Two dimensions that shape relationships:
(a) A liation
(b) Dominance
(c) (Intensity)
• Conversation low stays-dominant power
• Initiating fewer topics for discussion
• Being more hesitant in what they say
• Being asked more questions
• Providing more self-disclosures
• Engaging in less eye contact while speaking
• Using politer forms of address
• Using more restrained touch
Communication is irreversible
• Once something is said, it cannot be taken back
• Account: explanations for troublesome acts (excuses, apologies, justi cations)
Pagina 3
, Ch. 2 A conceptual model of skilled Interpersonal
Communication
Communication as interpersonal skill
• Interpersonal skills: the skills we employ when interacting with other people
• Interpersonal skills are sometimes described as ability, learning or behavior
• Interpersonal skills (Hargie): a proces in which the individual implements a set of goal-
directed, inter-related, situationally appropriate social behaviors, which are learned an
controlled
• Skilled performance is part of a transactional process
• Skills behaviors are goal-directed
• Skills behaviors are inter-related
• Skills should be appropriate to the situation
• Skills are de ned in terms of identi able units of behavior
• Skilled behaviors are learned
• Skills are under the cognitive control of the individual
Skilled performance is part of a transactional process
• Interaction requires skilled co-ordination
• Skilled performance is a transactional process that involves:
• Formulating appropriate goals
• Devising related action plans
• Implementing these plans
• Monitoring the e ects of behavior
• Being aware of, and interpreting, the responses of others
• Taking cognizance of the context in which the interaction occurs
• Adjusting, adapting, or abandoning goals and responses in the light of outcomes
Skilled behaviors are goal-directed
• Goals: behaviors the individual employs in order to achieve a desired outcome
• Goals are pivotal
• Unconscious control: responses are hard-wired or become habitual, people automatically
and subconsciously regulate their behavior in order to achieve their goals
• Successful learning of new skills:
• Unconscious incompetence: we are totally unaware that we are behaving in a
incompetent manner
• Conscious incompetence: we know what we should be doing and we know we are not
doing it very well
• Conscious competence: we know we are performing at a satisfactory level
• Unconscious competence: we just do it without thinking about it and we succeed
• Skill: the degree to which a performed behavior proved successful
Skilled behaviors are inter-related
• Skilled behaviors are co-ordinated to achieve a particular goal
• Encouraging to talk <— smile, head nods, eye contact etc.
Skills should be appropriate to the situation
• Contextual propriety: behavior is in uenced by situational demands; skilled individuals
employ context appropriate behaviors
• The key feature of social interaction is adaptation
Skills are de ned in terms of identi able units of behavior
• Performance of communicative behaviors —> enactment of knowledge and motivation ->
skill
Pagina 4
