Interpersonal Communication

439 Pages·2021·11.466 MB·English

by  Kristy Callihan, Marcelle Hureau, Shayne McCormick, Katie Wheeler

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Creative Commons Licenses and Acknowledgements
This text is comprised of content developed by the editors along with adaptations of the
following Creative Commons sources:
A Primer on Communication Studies (v. 1.0).
This book is licensed under a CreativeCommons by-nc-sa3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but
that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below),
don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This
book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz
(http://lardbucket.org/) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book.

Gender article on NOBA

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Language and Culture in Context by R. Godwin-Jones

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Communication in the Real World

Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies by University of
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Editors
Kristy Callihan, Assistant Professor of Communication, Pikes Peak Community College
Marcelle Hureau, Instructor of Communication, Pikes Peak Community College
Shayne McCormick, Instructor of Communication, Pikes Peak Community College
Katie Wheeler, Assistant Professor of Communication, Pikes Peak Community College
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: What is Interpersonal Communication
1.1 Interpersonal Communication Introduction
1.2 Why Study Interpersonal Communication
1.3 Functional Aspects of Interpersonal Communication
1.4 Cultural Aspects of Interpersonal Communication
1.5 Communication in the Real World
1.6 Communication Culture, Context, Learned, Rules and Norms
1.7 Communication Meets Needs
1.8 The Communication Process

Chapter Two: The Self
2.1 Self-Disclosure
2.2 Media, the Self, and Relationships
2.3 Perceiving and Presenting the Self

Chapter Three: Perception
3.1 Perception
3.2 Improving Perception

Chapter Four: Deception
4.1 Deception
4.2 Language and Deception
4.3 Nonverbal Cues and Deception
4.4 Deception and Social Media
4.5 Deception and Communication Competence

Chapter Five: Gender
5.1 Gender Introduction
5.2 Gender Differences
5.3 Gender Roles
5.4 Gender Sexism and Socialization
5.5 Sexual Orientation
5.6 Important Gender-Related Events in the United States
5.7 Gender and Communication

Chapter Six: Culture
6.1 What is Culture?
6.2 Culture, Identity, and Communication
6.3 Cultural Taxonomies
6.4 Culture and Communication
6.5 Strengthening our Intercultural Communication Skills

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Chapter Seven: Language
7.1 Language Introduction
7.2 Using Words Well
7.3 Functions of Language

Chapter Eight: Nonverbal Communication
8.1 Nonverbal Communication Introduction
8.2 Principles and Functions of Nonverbal Communication
8.3 Types of Nonverbal Communication
8.4 Nonverbal Communication Competence
8.5 Nonverbal Communication in Context

Chapter Nine: Listening
9.1 Listening Defined
9.2 Understanding How and Why We Listen
9.3 Barriers to Effective Listening
9.4 Improving Listening Competence

Chapter Ten: Emotion
10.1 Emotions
10.2 Evolution and Emotions
10.3 Culture and Emotions
10.4 Expressing Emotions
10.5 Managing and Responding to Emotions

Chapter Eleven: Relationship Theories
11.1 Communication in Relationships
11.2 Foundations of Relationships
11.3 Theories in Relationship Communication

Chapter Twelve: Friendships and Workplace Relationships
12.1 Communication and Friends
12.2 Relationships at Work

Chapter Thirteen: Family and Romantic Relationships
13.1 Communication and Families
13.2 Romantic Relationships
13.3 Listening in Relational Contexts
13.4 The Dark Side of Relationships

Chapter Fourteen: Conflict
14.1 Conflict Introduction
14.2 Conflict Management Styles
14.3 Culture and Conflict
14.4 Handling Conflict Better

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Chapter 1.1 - Interpersonal Communication
Introduction
By its very nature communication is not a skill we are born with. If lucky, we are born with
the senses necessary to learn to use the communication skills. Studying interpersonal
communication takes the senses that we have and enhances them. Exploring
interpersonal communication is a journey. This journey begins with the core of who we
are, why we make the decisions we do, how we approach relationships, identity,
emotions, language, listening, and the layers of conversations we have in a variety of
contexts. Only when individuals understand themselves better, can they improve their
own communication skills.
In chapter one, you will have an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of communication.
The very process of communication is complex even to explain, yet in real time occurs
very quickly. As each section is explained, try to apply it to your own life and you will have
more comprehensive learning experience.
In order to understand interpersonal communication, we must understand how
interpersonal communication functions to meet our needs and goals and how our
interpersonal communication connects to larger social and cultural systems. Interpersonal
communication is the process of exchanging messages between people whose lives
mutually influence one another in unique ways in relation to social and cultural norms.
This definition highlights the fact that interpersonal communication involves two or more
people who are interdependent to some degree and who build a unique bond based on
the larger social and cultural contexts to which they belong. So a brief exchange with a
grocery store clerk who you don’t know wouldn’t be considered interpersonal
communication, because you and the clerk are not influencing each other in significant
ways. Obviously, if the clerk were a friend, family member, coworker, or romantic partner,
the communication would fall into the interpersonal category. In this section, we discuss
the importance of studying interpersonal communication and explore its functional and
cultural aspects.

This is the book A Primer on Communication Studies (v. 1.0).
This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more
details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author
(but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else
under the same terms.
This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy
7
Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book.
Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has
asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors,
title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name
has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this project's
attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header).

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Chapter 1.2 Why Study Interpersonal
Communication?
Interpersonal communication has many implications for us in the real world. Did you
know that interpersonal communication played an important role in human evolution?
Early humans who lived in groups, rather than alone, were more likely to survive, which
meant that those with the capability to develop interpersonal bonds were more likely to
pass these traits on to the next generation (Leary, 2001). Interpersonal skills have a
measurable impact on psychological and physical health. People with higher levels of
interpersonal communication skills are better able to adapt to stress, have greater
satisfaction in relationships and more friends, and have less depression and anxiety
(Hargie, 2011).

Image by Cheryl Holt from Pixabay
In fact, prolonged isolation has been shown to severely damage a human (Williams &
Zadro, 2001). Have you ever heard of the child who was raised by wolves? There have
been documented cases of abandoned or neglected children, sometimes referred to as
feral children, who survived using their animalistic instincts but suffered psychological and
physical trauma as a result of their isolation (Candland, 1995). There are also examples of
solitary confinement, which has become an ethical issue in many countries. In “supermax”
prisons, which now operate in at least forty-four states, prisoners spend 22.5 to 24 hours
a day in their cells and have no contact with the outside world or other prisoners (Shalev,
2011).
Aside from making your relationships and health better, communication can impact your
employment opportunities and chances for promotion. According to the National
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Association of Colleges and Employers (2010), interpersonal communication skills are
highly sought after by potential employers, consistently ranking in the top ten in national
surveys. Each of these examples illustrates how interpersonal communication meets our
basic needs as humans for security in our social bonds, health, and careers. But we are not
born with all the interpersonal communication skills we’ll need in life. So in order to make
the most out of our interpersonal relationships, we must learn some basic principles.
Think about a time when a short communication exchange affected a relationship almost
immediately. Did you mean for it to happen? Many times we engage in interpersonal
communication to fulfill certain goals we may have, but sometimes we are more
successful than others. This is because interpersonal communication is strategic, meaning
we intentionally create messages to achieve certain goals that help us function in society
and our relationships. Goals vary based on the situation and the communicators, but ask
yourself if you are generally successful at achieving the goals with which you enter a
conversation or not. If so, you may already possess a high degree of interpersonal
communication competence, or the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately
in personal relationships. This chapter will help you understand some key processes that
can make us more effective and appropriate communicators.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
You may be asking, “Aren’t effectiveness and appropriateness the same thing?” The
answer is no. Imagine that you are the manager of a small department of employees at a
marketing agency where you often have to work on deadlines. As a deadline approaches,
you worry about your team’s ability to work without your supervision to complete the
tasks, so you interrupt everyone’s work and assign them all individual tasks and give them
a bulleted list of each subtask with a deadline to turn each part in to you. You meet the
deadline and have effectively accomplished your goal. Over the next month, one of your
employees puts in her two-weeks’ notice, and you learn that she and a few others have
been talking about how they struggle to work with you as a manager. Although your
strategy was effective, many people do not respond well to strict hierarchy or
micromanaging and may have deemed your communication inappropriate. A more
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