Understand interpersonal communication on a deeper level as we offer some top tips for communicating effectively.
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Never underestimate the importance of soft skills in helping you to navigate challenges in life. Communication skills are one of the most essential soft skills, coming in handy throughout all areas of life, including relationships, your career, and negotiations.
In this article, we’ll be focusing specifically on interpersonal communication, which is a huge part of everyday life. We’ll discuss the 4 principles of interpersonal communication, the main types, some potential barriers, and the difference between interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Finally, we’ll give some top tips on how to communicate more effectively with other people.
What is interpersonal communication?
Even if you haven’t heard of interpersonal communication, you do it every day without necessarily thinking about it. Essentially, it’s the process of people exchanging ideas, information, feelings and intent through messages and signals.
Interpersonal communication consists of any exchanges between people – this can be face-to-face but can also exist online or over the phone. The messages people get across to each other can be verbal and nonverbal – we communicate not only through what we say but also through things like body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures.
The difference between interpersonal and intrapersonal communication
It can be easy to mix up terms like interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, but the truth is, they’re complete opposites. While “inter” refers to communication between people or groups, “intra” refers to communication inside a person or group.
Generally speaking, when we talk about intrapersonal communication, we refer to how we communicate with ourselves. Some examples of uniquely intrapersonal communication include our self-concept, perceptions, and expectations.
While both kinds of communication are useful in many areas of life, neither is more important than the other. It’s also okay to be better at one type than the other – we’re all different after all. If you struggle with interpersonal communication, hopefully, this article will clarify some things for you.
Interpersonal Communication came to being when men began to exchange ideas and thoughts to one another. Interpersonal Communication is a kind of communication in which people communicate their feeling, ideas, emotions and information face to face to each other. It can be in verbal or non-verbal form. Interpersonal communication is not only about what is said and what is received but also about how it is said, how the body language used, and what was the facial expression.
In simple words the communication between two people is referred as Interpersonal communication. It is one of the basic means of communication. The Interpersonal communication skills can be improved by practice, Knowledge and feedback. The Interpersonal Communication takes place when two people are at same place and aware of each other’s presence, no matter how unintentional or unpremeditated it is. It may not be in the form of speech, it may be a gesture, an expression, the dress, or the body. The essential factor is there should be a message and it should be send by the sender and it should be received by the receiver.
There are certain elements involved in the process Interpersonal communication, they are as follows
The Communicators
The communicators refer to the sender and the receiver. The sender is the person who sends the message and receiver is the person who receives the message. For the occurrence of Interpersonal communication there should be at least two individuals, one to send the message and other to receive the message.
The Message
It is the idea conveyed through speech, facial expression, body language, tone of voice, gestures and other verbal and non-verbal means. The non-verbal means have the ability to bear additional information such as the persons attitude and interests.
Noise
Noise refers to any sort of distortion causes to the message while it is sent. The noise causes differences in what is received from what is sent. The background sound of a jet while talking is a kind of noise, the other kind of noise include the use of complicated jargon, inappropriate body language, inattention, disinterest, cultural differences, language difference etc…
Feedback
Feedback is the respond of the receiver, it comprises the message he sends back. Feedback enables the sender to know how accurately the message is being received and how it is being interpreted. The feedback includes respond for the intentional as well as unintentional message. The feedback can be even in the form of a gesture.
Context
How the message is being interpreted is mostly depend on the context he receives the message. The process of communication is influenced by the context it occurs. The emotional climate and expectations of the people, the place of occurrence, and social, political cultural and environmental conditions comprise context.
Channel
Channel is the means through which communication happen. The message is sent and received through the channel. It is also referred as the medium through which message transmitted. The speech and vision are the channels in a face to face communication whereas the cable or electromagnetic waves in a communication through telephone.
Example 1
Joe texts Rachel “I am throwing a party tonight, please come” when they were in class and Rachel replied texting “I am in”.
Here
Sender – Joe
Receiver – Rachel
Message – ‘I am throwing a party tonight’
Noise – All the barriers which occurred
Feedback – ‘I am in’
Context – Class, emotional situation of Joe and Rachel
Channel – Mobile phone.
Example 2
Sam was driving his car in 100 miles per hour, cop followed him, blows the siren but Sam was listening to music so he couldn’t hear. Then cop drove closer blows the siren, this time Sam listened and stopped his car.