PS28A INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS

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PS28AINTERPERSONALDYNAMICS
The Interpersonal Interpersonal Communication
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Introduction

• Dealing with people is an everyday occurrence,
  taking up most of our waking moments. And while
  we all need some solitude now and then, our
  interactions with others are probably the most
  important parts of our lives. How we interact
  with our fellow human beings does more to shape
  our lives, our reputations, and our careers than
  any other single thing we do.
• Terrie Williams (1994), The Personal Touch

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Why We Communicate?

• Communication serves several functions
• a) Physical Needs
• The presence or absence of communication affects
  physical health. In extreme cases communication
  can even become a matter of life or death.
• The rate of all types of cancer is as much as
  five times higher for divorced men and women,
  compared to their married counterparts.

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Why We Communicate?

• b) Establishing Identity
• Communication enables us to learn who we are.
  Our sense of identity comes from the way we
  interact with out people.

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Why We Communicate?

• c) Social Needs
• It is viewed by some social scientists as the
  principal way relationship are created.
• Communication provides a vital link with others,
  satisfying a range of social needs such as
  pleasure, inclusion, affection, escape,
  relaxation and control.

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The Interpersonal

• The Interpersonal is largely about the
  negotiation of self and the situation in our
  social intercourses.
• When we speak about negotiations we are looking
  at how we organize thoughts about ourselves,
  about others, in light of the context of our
  exchange.

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Interpersonal Communication

• 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
• (Adler Towne, 2003).

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Interpersonal Communication

• The basis of the interpersonal therefore is
  communication - communication involving feelings,
  emotions and perceptions, which guide an
  individuals patterns of observable behaviour,
  and are transferred to another person or persons
  in an encounter in a social setting.

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Interpersonal Communication

• Our interpersonal encounters can be
  characterized by three basic factors
• A definition of who we are
• the different contexts in which our social
  intercourses take place and two
• the nature of these intercourses.
•  

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Interpersonal Communication

• a) Defining Who We Are
• An appropriate definition of self is drawn
  from an inventory of self-perceptions, which
  determine a suitable set of attitudes and
  behaviour for the situation and towards the
  person/s involved the interaction.

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Interpersonal Communication

• b) The Context of the interaction
• The different contexts in which our interactions
  take place may be explained in terms of a
  continuum ranging from public and/or impersonal
  to private and/or personal interactions (the
  Interpersonal Continuum).

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Interpersonal Communication

• The Interpersonal Continuum
• Public/ Impersonal Domain
• Passing Encounters
• Defined Aggregates
• Groups Large Identity Groups
• Private/Personal Domain
• Groups - Teams
• Close Relationships
• Intimate Relationships

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Interpersonal Communication

• c) The nature of our interaction
• Stewart, 1999 stated, the interpersonal
  designates a quality of contact that emerges
  between people whenever they are able to
  highlight in their interaction aspects of what
  makes them human What is this quality of
  contact?
• The real example of the interpersonal is about
  civilities, or civil/uncivil exchanges.

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Interpersonal Communication

• Civilities and Relational Messages
• Civilities are about acknowledging each other,
  and they are our responses to honouring each
  other.
• Relational Messages show how parties feel about
  each other the emotional or psychological
  dimension of the conversation

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Conclusion

• The interpersonal is not a group reality. It
  relates to the way individuals are assessing each
  other and relating to each other. It is a
  reality that can affect our behaviour.
• Within the interpersonal therefore, we need to
  develop skills that will facilitate positive
  interactions with each other.