Interpersonal Communication Elements Essay Example

At times people are better communicators as they have been exposed to richer communication situations and have extrovert personalities. These people are regarded easy and comfortable to be with. It is observed that better interpersonal communication skills result in academic competence, job satisfaction, and meaningful relationships.

Messages may be auditory [hearing] visual [seeing] tactile [touching] olfactory [smelling] gustatory [tasting] or any other combination. The outfit worn by the communicator, the gait, the handshake, the smile or frown, the gaze all communicate messages that are sent and received. Interpersonal need not occur face to face. It can take place by telephone, through prison cell walls, through video phone or computers. Also notice that messages need not be sent intentionally all the time, slip of the tongue or a slight eye movement may contain a strong meaning as well. Messages refer to people, world, events, and other messages.

Messages that are about other messages are called metamessages, for example: “Do you understand? ”, “Did I say that right? ”, “what did you say? , “Is it fair to say that…”, “I want to be honest. ”, “that’s not logical…”, “Correct me if I’m wrong”. 2 important types of messages are feedback and feedforward. E. Feedback Messages Throughout the interpersonal communication process feedback is exchanged. It is the message sent back to the sender concerning the reaction to what is being said. Feedback tells the sender what effect he is having on the listeners. On the basis of this feedback the speaker may adjust, modify, strengthen, de-emphasize or change the content or form of the messages to get a desired result. Feedback, just like the initial message may be written, spoken

or non verbal. Feedback may take 5 different forms. E1.

Positive / Negative: Feedback may be positive when appreciation or agreement is shown, or negative, when criticism or a negative reaction is transmitted. Positive feedback communicates that the sender is right on track and must continue in the same way. Negative feedback tells the person that something is essentially wrong and readjustment is required. A puzzled look from a listener may mean that the speaker needs to clarify a term or explain a concept in greater detail. E2. Person focused / Message focused: Feedback may center on a person, “You have a great smile” or it may center on the message, “Can you repeat that number? ” E3. Immediate / Delayed: In interpersonal situation feedback is immediate. With the help of word or a gesture a response is communicated.

On the other hand in other situations it may be delayed, like the supervisor reads questionnaires after the completion of the course. In media situation the feed back is immediate, but in buying and selling situation it may be delayed until the product is used and results observed. E4. Low Monitoring / High Monitoring: Feedback varies from spontaneous and totally honest reaction to carefully constructed response to serve a specific purpose. Most interpersonal situations deal with spontaneous reactions but at times, depending on the relationship and situation one may be more cautious in responding, for example head of state in press conference on a foreign soil. E5.

Supportive / Critical: Supportive feedback accepts the speaker and what the speaker says, for example as a person is consoled he is encouraged to talk and whatever he says then is accepted by the audience. Critical feedback

is evaluative and judgmental. When critical feedback is given, another person’s performance is judged, as coaching someone in learning a new skill. F. Feedforward Messages Feedforward is information that is provided before sending in primary message. They reveal something about messages to come. For instance the content page in a book, the opening para, movie previews, magazine covers and introductions in public speeches. The functions that feedforward performs are opening channels of communication, previewing the message, disclaiming and alter casting. There exists the initial willingness to communicate that opens the communication channel. Keeping in view the environmental factors and other contextual features communication is initiated.

• These messages preview other messages, like content ‘I’m afraid I have bad news for you’ the importance ‘listen to this before you make a move’ the form or style ‘ I’ll give you all the intricate details’ or the positive or negative quality of subsequent messages ‘you’re not going to like this but here is what I heard’.
• The disclaimer is a statement that aims to ensure that the message will be understood and will not reflect negatively on the sender. Feedforward is often used to place the receiver in a specific role and requests that the receiver responds in terms of the assumed role.

For instance if it is asked of the receiver that ‘As an advertising executive what do you think of corrective advertising? ’ This question asks for a response from a specific perspective. G. Channel To communicate channel is the medium through which messages pass. The channel acts as a bridge connecting sender and receiver. Communication rarely takes place over only one channel. Multiple channels are used

to communicate messages, like in face to face interaction mainly speaking and listening takes place but at the same time gesturing and hand movements are also present. H. Noise

Noise enters into all communication systems no matter how well designed and sophisticated. Noise is anything that distorts or interferes with the message reception. Five main types of noise are physical, psychological, technical, social and semantic [language based]. Noise cannot be eliminated, but its effect can be reduced. I. Context Communication always has a context which influences the form and content of your messages. At times the context is obvious, like the difference in the manner of communication in a funeral home, a huge stadium, a rock concert a quiet restaurant. At other times the context is intrusive as underlying rivalry between 2 members of a bigger group. There are 4 basic dimensions to it:

1.The physical dimension is the concrete environment in which communication takes place.

2. The temporal dimension refers to the time, day and moment in history and the overall placement of message in the sequence of communication.

3. The socio psychological dimension includes status, relationship, roles, norms of society, formality, friendliness etc.

4. The cultural dimension is the influence of one’s nationality on the over all message encoding or decoding. J. Purpose The purpose of interpersonal communication is to learn, to relate, to influence, to help etc. In this world human beings are dependent on other people to fulfill their own roles.

If they are unable to form communicative links they will fail in their own various responsibilities. Hence the importance of IPC is immense and gaining conscious knowledge of it gives one an edge to communicate more effectively. Elements of Interpersonal Comm Source-receiver is the person

who sends and receives interpersonal messages simultaneously. Encoding-decoding refers to the act of putting meaning into verbal and nonverbal messages and deriving meaning from the messages you receive from others. Encoding refers to the act of producing messages thru speaking or writing Decoding refers to the act of understanding messages. Speakers and writers are encoders. Listeners and readers are decoders.

Feedback messages are messages that are sent back by the receiver to the source in response to other messages. There are positive feedback and negative feedback. Positive feedback eg: compliment. Negative feedback eg: critism. Immediate or delayed feedback Feedback about how fast you respond to a question. Some will answer without hesitant. Some will answer with consideration. For example, when a guy propose to a girl, sometimes they take days to reply back, but some just agrees to it immedietly. Low Monitoring and High Monitoring Feedback varies from the spontaneous and totally honest reaction (low monitoring feedback) to the carefully constructed response designed to serve a specific purpose (high monitoring feedback).

Feedforward messages are messages that preface other messages and ask that the listener approach future messages in a certain way. Altercasting A strategy to persuade people to act in a specific social role. So that they can bahave more prim and proper. Phatic Communication Communicate for its own sake. Also known as social grooming, essential in initiating the interactions. It can increased relationship satisfaction, trust, and experience of family affection while growing up. To preview a message A type of Feedforward message, to preview the content such as “I got a good news to tell you” To Disclaim a message The disclaimer is a statement that aims to ensure that your messages will

be understood and will not reflect negatively on you.

Elements of interpersonal communication The three elements of communication that transmit pieces of information when you are speaking to someone are: verbal, paraverbal, and non-verbal. The listener perceives and uses all of this information to extract meaning from your messages. • Verbal Elements These are the specific words, grammar and style of language chosen to articulate the meaning contained in the message being sent. The actual words selected to relate your message will greatly affect the form and quality of the information transmitted. Word choice and how those words are organized can either increase or decrease ambiguity and therefore affect the clarity of the message.

In addition, selecting an extremely formal or informal language style can impact the message.

• Paraverbal Elements These are the ways in which the words and style of language are articulated in the message being sent. Some paraverbal elements include, but are not limited to: ? Pitch:  The musical quality of the voice, which is actually determined by the frequency of vibrations created in the vocal cords. The more elongated the vocal cords, the higher the pitch. Similar to tone below, pitch can communicate information about the state of the speaker. ? Tone:  The psychological and/or emotional aspects communicated by the speaker that impact the prosody or vocal quality of what is being said.

For example someone speaking with minimal emotion (i. e. , boredom) they may have a flat or blunt intonation of speech compared to someone speaking in an agitated state (i. e. , excited or scared) or with a whine (i. e. , tired) or condescending (i. e. , arrogant) manner of

voice. ? Stress:  The placement of stress on a particular syllable or word can alter the intended meaning communicated by a phrase. The table below provides an illustration of how meaning can change depending on the word that is stressed. |Statement |Possible Interpretation | |I didn’t spill milk on the floor. |Someone else spilled the milk. | |I didn’t spill milk on the floor. Milk was not spilled on the floor. | |I didn’t spill milk on the floor. |Somehow milk got on the floor by means other than| | |spilling. | |I didn’t spill milk on the floor. |Possibly something other than milk was spilled on| | |the floor. | |I didn’t spill milk on the floor. |Possibly milk was spilled somewhere not the | | |floor. | ? Rate or speed of speech:  The pace of the words and sentences can communicate things such as hurriedness or nervousness, or whether something is important or not.

For example, students may notice when a professor is stating something of particular importance, as their rate of speech will often change: either slow down or speed up, depending on the individual and their normal pattern of speech. ? Volume or amplitude:  The loudness of what is spoken. Someone shouting information is received differently than someone whispering. • Non-Verbal Elements These are the signals sent through body language that affect meaning contained in the message being sent. Approximately half of what is communicated is done so through non-verbal means. Non-verbal elements include: ? Body posture – are you sitting or standing facing the other person while slouched or poised for flight? ? Arms and legs – are you shielding your body with crossed arms and legs? ?

Hands and feet – are they still or busy moving around or fidgeting with things? Eye contact – are you looking at the other person and holding their gaze appropriately, looking elsewhere while they speak or rolling your eyes? ? Facial expressions – are you smiling, scowling, showing boredom or disapproval? ? Distance or proximity between the speaker and listener – are you too close or far away from the other person? When the three elements transmit congruent information, then the messages sent are usually clear and effective. This increases the chances that the listener will correctly interpret the messages you are trying to convey. If however any of the three elements transmit conflicting information, then the messages sent may be confusing to the receiver. This decreases the chances that the messages will be correctly interpreted.