Chapter 1 Study Guide - Summary The Interpersonal Communication Book PDF

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Chapter 1—Study Guide Foundations of Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal communication connects people. This chapter studies why IPC is important, the nature of IPC, the elements in the IPC process and the basic principles of IPC. Chapter Outline I. Why study IPC? A. Intellectual Benefits— it’s a major part of human existence that every educated person needs to understand. B. Practical Benefits— personal success and happiness depend largely on effectiveness as an interpersonal communicator. 1. Relationships— close friendships and romantic relationships are made, maintained, and sometimes destroyed largely though interpersonal interactions. Also, success of family relationships depends heavily on the IPC between family members. Social success in interacting with neighbors, acquaintances, and people met every day depends on ability to engage in satisfying conversation that is comfortable and enjoyable. 2. Professional— skills at interpersonal communication will largely determine your success. Ranked as one of the most important skills to have in the professional field. Ranked as very important in hiring decisions. Very important for the professional competence for doctors and trainees. 3. Understanding theory and research– interpersonal skills offer a “key career advantage for finance professionals, play an important role in preventing workplace violence, reduce medical mishaps, and improve doctor-patient communication. Employers were asked what colleges should place more emphasis on – most said better communication orally and in writing.  Effective communication is learned; engage in quality communication II. The nature of IPC A. It can be defined as…. The verbal and nonverbal interaction between 2+ interdependent people. B. Interdependent people are… people who are in some way “connected” and also interdependent; e.g. parent and child, employer and employee, sisters, teacher and students, lovers, etc. What one person does affects the other person. Can also refer to groups (e.g. a family) but the communication that takes place is often dyadic.

C. Inherently relational means… Because of the interdependency, IPC is relational in nature. IPC takes place within a relationship – it impacts and defines the

relationship. The way you communicate is determined in great part by the kind of relationship that exists b/w you and the other person. Interaction is different depending on who we are talking to. D. Exists on a continuum… IPC exists along a continuum that ranges from relatively impersonal to highly personal. E.g. server and customer vs. longtime lovers.  Role versus personal information: More impersonal (e.g. server/customer) act with their roles rather than as a unique individual. More personal (e.g. father/son) act as unique individuals rather than as roles.  Societal versus personal rules: Server/customer act according to rules of society governing the server-customer interaction. Father/son interact on basis of personally established rules. The way they address each other, touch, physical closeness are unique to them and established by them rather than society.  Social versus personal messages: Messages exchanged between server/customer are impersonal; little personal information exchanged and little emotional content in messages. With father/son, messages may run entire range and at times may be highly personal. E. Involves verbal and nonverbal messages— Words, facial expression, pictures/videos shared, send interpersonal messages. We receive interpersonal messages through our senses, even through silence. Myth: nonverbal communication accounts for >90% of the meaning behind any message. In truth, it depends.

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F. Exists in varied forms—both face-to-face and online. Synchronous form: allow you to communication in real time; messages are sent and received at the same time as in face-to-face and phone messages. Asynchronous: do not take place in real time; e.g. poke on Facebook but person may not see until tomorrow. G. Varies in effectiveness— IPC involves choices.

III. Elements of IPC A. Source-Receiver–– Each individual involved in IPC performs source functions: formulates and sends messages and also receiver functions: perceives and comprehends messages. Term source-receiver emphasizes that both functions are performed by each individual in IPC.  Competence: ability to communicate effectively (as source and receiver); includes knowing how to adjust your communication according to the context of the interaction, person with whom you’re interacting, etc. B. Encoding-Decoding— Encoding: the act of producing messages (e.g. speaking, writing). Decoding: reverse; refers to the act of understanding messages (listening, reading). C. Messages— signals that serve as stimuli for a receiver and are received by one of our senses (auditory, visual, tactile, etc.).

1. Metamessages: messages that are about other messages. “Do you understand?” “Did I say that right?” “What did you say?” Feedback and feedforward are types of metamessages. 2. Feedback messages: tells the speaker what effect she/he is having on listeners. Speaker may adjust, modify, etc. the form of the messages. E.g. can selffeedback by hearing yourself, frown/smile or yea/nay from others. 3. Feedforward messages: information you provide before sending your primary message. Reveals something about the message to come. E.g. table of contents, movie preview, magazine cover, “You better sit down for this; you’ll be shocked” D. Channel— Communication channel is the medium through which messages pass; vocal-auditory, gestural-visual, online. E.g. means of communication, e.g. snail mail, Twitter, phone call, face-to-face.

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E. Noise— Noise is anything that distorts a message. E.g. phone static. Physical noise: screeching of cars, sunglasses, illegible handwriting, extraneous information. Physiological noise: visual impairments, hearling loss, memory loss. Psychological noise: preconceived ideas, wandering thoughts, prejudices. Semantic noise: language and dialectual differences; e.g. words taken for different meaning.

F. Context— Communication always takes place in a context, or environment, that influences the form and content of your messages. 1. Physical Dimension: tangible or concrete environment in which communication takes place. Can be positioning of articles in magazine, Twitter wanting small messages, Starbucks coffee date wanting more communication. 2. Temporal Dimension: Time of day, moment in history, where a particular message fits into the sequence of communication events. E.g. joke about illness right after disclosure of sickness versus same joke after series of similar jokes. 3. Social-Psychological Dimension: includes relationships among participants, roles and games people play, norms of society or group, friendliness/formality of situation. 4. Cultural Dimension: includes the cultural beliefs and customs of the people communicating. G. Ethics– each communication act has a moral dimension, rightness/wrongness

H. Competence— IV. Principles of IPC A. IPC is a transactional process— Transactional perspective: views IPC as a process with elements that are interdependent. See pg. 18. . B. IPC is ambiguous— Ambiguous message: can be interpreted as having more than one meaning. E.g. soon, right away, early, etc. All messages are ambiguous to some degree. E.g. seen grammatically when we paraphrase. C. IPC is purposeful— Purposes of IPC: learn, relate, influence, play, help. D. IPC may be symmetrical or complementary— Symmetrical: two individuals mirror each other’s behavior. E.g. when one is passive, so is the other. When one is jealous, so is the other. Complementary: two individuals engage in different, complementary behaviors. E.g. one is passive, one is active. One is strong, one is weak. E. IPC refers to content and relationship- Messages may refer to the real world (content messages), e.g. events and objects we see before us. Or, they can also refer to the relationship between the people communication (relationship messages). E.g. judge says to lawyer “See me in my chambers immediately.” Content message would be that the lawyer is expected to show up in the chamber. Relationship would be that the judge is superior to the lawyer and giving orders.  Relationship or content may differ. E.g. “You better see me immediately.” Versus “May I please see you?” Content is the same, relationship differs. Or… “May I please go out tonight?” versus “May I use the car this weekend?” Content is different, relationship is the same.  Men seem to focus more on the content while women focus more on the relationship. F. IPC is a series of punctuated events–– No clear-cut beginning or end. Communication is segmented into smaller pieces. Label some as causes, stimuli, effects, responses, etc. Punctuation: tendency to divide communication transactions into sequences of stimuli and responses.

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G. IPC is inevitable, irreversible, and unrepeatable–– Inevitability: in many instances you’re communicating even though you might not think you are or might not even want to be. E.g. assistant staring outside “expressionless”; assistant may say they were not communicating, but manager may interpret as bored, worried, etc. Lack of response is still a response. Irreversibility: Some processes can be reversed and others can’t. E.g. can delete FB post but not the memory of those who have seen it. What you communicated remains communicated; you cannot uncommunicate. Unrepeatability: Everyone and everything is constantly changing....