1. Welcome to Interpersonal Communication!

2. Interpersonal Process

3. Physical Needs Identity Needs Social Needs Practical Needs
Why Do We Communicate?
Physical Needs
Identity Needs
Social Needs
Practical Needs

4. Or another way to look at this…
“Being all that we can be”
Self respect, autonomy,
achievement, status, recognition, attention
affection, belonging, acceptance, friendship
Security, protection from physical and emotional harm
Hunger, thirst, shelter, warmth, etc.

5. Interpersonal Process (continued)
The Communication Process
How we define “Interpersonal Communication”
Communication Principles and Misconceptions
Communication Competence

6. The Communication Process
The Linear View:
Message
Noise
External
Physiological
Psychological
Sender encodes ideas and feelings into a message
Receiver decodes the message

7. The Communication Process
The Interactive View:
Sender sends message through behavior (verbal and nonverbal)
Receiver decodes the message
Message
Feedback
Receiver sends feedback through behavior (verbal and nonverbal)
Sender decodes feedback

8. The Communication Process
The Transactional View:
Messages & Feedback
Communicator sends and receives messages, responds and decodes
Communicator sends and receives messages, responds and decodes

9. How we define “Interpersonal Communication”
We can define interpersonal communication
Quantitatively or
Qualitatively

10. The Quantitative Definition:
“Interpersonal Communication includes any interaction between two people, usually face to face.”
Can be any two people
Occurs only between 2 people

11. The Qualitative Definition:
“Interpersonal Communication occurs when people treat one another as unique individuals, regardless of the context in which the interaction occurs or the number of people involved.”
Opposite of interpersonal communication is impersonal communication, not group, public, or mass communication.
-- Uniqueness -- Interdependence
-- Irreplaceability -- Disclosure

12. We can think of communication as lying on a continuum:
Interpersonal
Talking to your best friend about something that made you feel really embarrassed
Half-listening to your significant other because you’re distracted thinking about a big test you have to take tomorrow
Making small talk with a professor, talking about the latest Gator game
Ordering a cup of coffee from a cashier at Starbucks
Impersonal

13. Communication Principles and Misconceptions
(Laura’s amazing educational video)

14. To recap in a slightly clearer version…
Communication Principles
Communication can be intentional or unintentional
Communication is irreversible
All messages have a content and a relational dimension
Communication is unrepeatable
Communication Misconceptions
Not all communication seeks understanding
More communication is not always better
Communication will not solve all problems
Effective communication is not a natural ability

15. Communication Competence
“Effective communication involves achieving one’s goals in a manner that, ideally, maintains or enhances the relationship in which it occurs.”
There is no “ideal” or “effective” way to communicate
Competence is situational
Competence can be learned

16. How do you know when you have “arrived”?
You make use of a large repertoire of skills
You are adaptable
You perform skillfully
You are involved
Care about the other person
Care about what is being discussed
Care about understanding/being understood
Produce good results for you and the other person
***You are empathetic ***
You demonstrate cognitive complexity
You self-monitor

17. But it’s still a matter of balance…
You can be so adaptable that you aren’t really being true to yourself…
You can be so involved that it’s intimidating or overwhelming…
You can self-monitor so much that you become overly self-conscious…
You can think about so many interpretations or approaches to take that you don’t ever act…
Performance
Use of the competency characteristics