COMMUNICATE July 3th, 2015
First Edition available online on ISSUU
Interpersonal Communication
Dive into the magical and natural process of relationships development.
We communicate everyday in every way, sometimes without even knowing…
Why do we need to communicate?
THEORIES
¨The study of interpersonal communication looks at a variety of elements that contribute to the interpersonal communication experience…¨
Why is interpersonal communication important to human life?
Let’s find out…
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ditorial Board E Why do we need to communicate? As humans we interact with each other
we want to know more about
on a daily basis, and as a happy Happy holidays from our something family or aboutto that someone, we consequence relationships start to want to be heard.. And this can’t yours! show development and growth. It is in happen if we don’t communicate. It is the human nature to share feelings, an important process that allows us to emotions, thoughts, ideas, etc, and we connect with people in such levels that always do it like a basic instinct, without it almost feels like it is meant to be. even knowing it. We need to communicate in order to make a connection with someone else, the other end in the process of communication, we want to share stuff,
Interpersonal Communication
Let’s talk about…
Happy holidays from our family to yours! Interpersonal communication is a process where a sender and a receiver exchange information between each other. It starts with a sender who transmits the information or a message through a channel until it reaches to the receiver who translates the information and then it becomes the sender with a follow up information or answer. Obviously, Communication is effective when there is a feedback between the people involved in the process.
It is also important to point out that Interpersonal Communication happens between two or more people, and it order to be successful the message has to be understood between the people involved. Also, there are lots of ways people use to communicate nowadays, Internet is and always will be an important factor that affects the communication, it could be for good or bad, it is changing the way we communicate, but at the end of the day we still communicate.
Welcome to theories Exploring theories of interpersonal communication.
Uncertainty is unpleasant and therefore motivational; people communicate to reduce it. Uncertainty reduction follows a pattern of developmental stages (entry, personal, exit). During the entry stage information about another’s sex, age, economic or social status, and other demographic information is obtained. Much of the interaction in this entry phase is controlled by communication rules and norms. When communicators begin to share attitudes, beliefs, values, and more
TONGUE TWISTER!!: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Uncertainty reduction theory personal data, the personal stage begins. During this phase, the communicators feel less constrained by rules and norms and tend to communicate more freely with each other. The third stage is the exit phase. During this phase, the communicators decide on future interaction plans. According to the theory we reduce uncertainty in three ways: 1. Passive strategies: observing the person. 2. Active strategies: asking others about the person or looking up info. 3. Interactive strategies: asking questions, self-disclosure.
As humans we interact with each other on a daily basis and relationships are developed, some you may refer to as acquaintances this is a very complex process that we go through every day of our lives, repeating it over and over, encountering people that we may end up either knowing or not until the day we die. There are also people that you go so as far as to love them, which for me is the highest level of human communication and involvement. Using the word love is the highest honor that I can give someone because it puts him/her at the same level as the woman that gave me life, my mother.
Personal Thought… “When I first started with this research. I was thinking “I will find a bunch of difficult theories” However it was very interesting to find a bunch of ways and ideas to develop the process of communication. It’s very important to remark that interpersonal communication is an interactional process between two people (a dyad), either face-to-face or through mediated forms. And for our knowledge it’s very proactive to know how we had an idea about the configuration of reality.”
Written by: Carlos López
Dig a little deeper in interpersonal communication.
Social Exchange Theory The Communication Theory of Social Exchange is a theory based on the exchange of rewards and costs to quantify the values of outcomes from different situations for an individual. People strive to minimize costs and maximize rewards and then base the likeliness of developing a relationship with someone on the perceived possible outcomes. When these outcomes are perceived to be greater, we disclose more and develop a closer relationship with that person.
When hearing a contradictive message we have a tendency to believe the non-verbal hints we receive.
The social exchange theory uses Thibaut and Kelley’s (1959) theory of interdependence. This theory states that "relationships grow, develop, deteriorate, and dissolve as a consequence of an unfolding social-exchange process, which may be conceived as a bartering of rewards and costs both between
the partners and between members of the partnership and others" (Huston & Burgess, 1979, p. 4). Social exchange theory argues the major force in interpersonal relationships is the satisfaction of both people’s self-interest. This is a humanistic theory because it has intuitive credibility, it makes sense and is relative to actual communication practice. It has a systematic approach and is timely. There are multiple truths. It also has heuristic value because it is easily applicable to situations.
Symbolic Interaction Theory This theory says how humans develop a complex set of symbols that gives meaning to the world in their perspective. The meanings are molded from the interactions with the society. And these interactions are subjectively interpreted by them to suit the meaning in accordance with the existing symbols. It can be said that if we need to understand the behavioral patterns of the society we need to understand the existing symbols. The Interactions which molded the symbols also create a social structure. The symbolic interactionism also articulates that the individuals build a sense of self identity through these interactions with the society.
3. Thought: The third core principle of symbolic interactionism is thought. The thought implies the interpretations that we have assigned to the Blummer suggests that there are three core principles symbols. The basis of of this theory. thought is language. It is a process of mentally 1. Meaning : It suggests that people act and behave towards the other people and things conversing about the meanings, names and based upon the meaning that they have symbols. The thought given to them. The principle of meaning is includes the central to the theory of symbolic imagination. Which interactionism. have the power to 2. Language : The second core principle which provide an idea even about an unknown thing makes the symbols and interactions based on known comprehensible to the mind. And which knowledge. helps in formulating assumptions
“Symbolic Interactionism is the way we learn to interpret and give meaning to the world
through
our
interactions with others.” - Scott Plunkett.
Written by: Carlos López
RELATIONSHIPS = INTERACTIONS
Relational Dialectics Theory
Its a concept introduced in 1988 by professors Leslie Baxter and Barbera M. Matgomery; it focuses on the contradiction in relationships. A relationship is a union of two different individuals that compromise in many ways. They experience internal tension while being in that relationship and over the time that pressure could break the bond, or make it stronger. It leads then to consider what could be the best solution; a break up or being open with each other and solve the problem. We have some common dialects in a relationship, like openness and closeness; which is when both partners expect an open communication in order to keep healthy the relationship. But on the contrary, the individual desires privacy.
Another is connectedness and separateness. People need to be bonded physically and mentally for a relationship to continue. But on the other hand, too much connectedness can blur a person’s individuality. The relational dialectics can be applied in studying interpersonal relationships. The changes on the behavior of the partners can be comprehended applying the contradictions that balances the relationship. If they want to maintain a relationship, it is important to understand the core concepts of relational dialects.
Written by: Gabriela Flores
Coordinated Management of Meaning Theory
93% of communication is no-verbal
Taken together, the six elements of the CMM model (content-speech act-episode-relationship-self concept-cultural pattern) define a hierarchy of situations and actions that describes the "communicational dance." When we interact with others, we do so in the context of a relationship, and each contact occurs as a particular event or episode. Our face-to-face communication consists primarily as speech acts which frame the actual words or the content of our speech.
Written by: Gabriela Flores
RELATIONSHIPS = INTERACTIONS
This theory doesn't focuses on the individual thoughts of the communicators, nor on the characteristics of the society in which they live. Instead, it focuses on the interaction between the communicators and the members of the society. It is this interaction that generates the meaning of the messages that are sent and received. CMM is not a single theory. It is rather a unified collection of interrelated definitions and explanations.
OCIAL!
E
BE SOCIAL! Social Penetration Theory The social penetration is a type of affective relationship in which the individuals spend more than a superficial communication to a more intimate (privacy in this case exceeds the physical aspect). According to Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, relations vary greatly in their social penetration (is not the same a relationship employee-head that wife-husband); note that all relations are still some kind of particular path, organized in some way, and with a predictable development.
The process of social penetration account with four systematic steps:
2
1
Stage of Orientation: reveal certain parts (small) of ourselves to the other.
Affective exploratory stage: emergence of an individual's personality. Expands the private to the public.
3 *
4
Effective stage: spontaneous communication and use of personal drawings, which pose a greater commitment to the other. This phase includes details that make a unique relationship.
Stable phase: efficient communication; establishment of a personal system of communication. There is total honesty, spontaneity and confidence; very few relationships reach this stage. There are few errors or misunderstandings and establishing a system of communication itself.
Penetration stage (optional): there is imbalance in the relationship and reaches its extinction. Written by: Berliomar RodrĂguez
PATTERNS ORSIMILARITIES? Relational Patterns of Interaction Theory Interactions of a person with the other can be thought as in certain patterns. There is always some template that you can define any communication. Some patterns of interaction are:
65% of what we learn about another
Symmetric Relations: When the individuals involved in the communication respond in a similar way, are mirror images of each other.
person when communicating is by observing non-verbal body language.
Complementary Relationships: The participants in the communication are totally different in the way in which they react. Like if a person is stupid and the other always argues that are complementary to each other.
Written by: Berliomar RodrĂguez
IN Identity Management Theory This theory explains the basis of the theories of identity management Erving Goffman, which were developed by the authors William R. Cupach and Tadasu Todd Imahori. They described as intercultural communication refers to how people interact with others of theirs same environment and origin differ, and intercultural respect to the communication of a with respect religion, ethnicity, education or social background. Also speaks of what is identity, which nothing but personality possessed by each individual and can also be the view that people have of themselves either individually or in a social setting.
7% of communication is what you say (words), 38% is how you say it, and 55% is body movement.
ACTION
IDENTITY
group of people who differ from their origin, whether
Written by: Gabriela Acosta
NOT A PRIVATE
THEORY
Communication Privacy Management Theory It was first developed by Sandra Petronio in 1991, but it truly came together as a theory in 2002 when she published her book, giving it its title. This theory talks about the limits and barriers we place on our privacy, how much information about ourselves we disclose to people and how much information we keep private. This allows us to know step by step people and inquire more about their privacy, people choose to say or not, the information we choose to disclose or keep private can bring about both risks and rewards.
The rule based management system allows for management on the individual and collective levels and is a complex arrangement consisting of three processes: privacy rule characteristics, boundary coordination, and boundary turbulence.
Written by: Gabriela Acosta
LeT’s TheORiZE… Cognitive Dissonance Theory… This theory suggests that people tend to look for new situations when they feel discomfort about it. Let’s see what that means: People have thoughts, attitudes or opinions about something, so when they receive new information or when they are in the middle of a situation they use those thoughts, attitudes or opinions in order to process it, so when the outcome doesn’t feel right to them that’s when the dissonance or the discomfort happens.
So basically, people avoid situations that would potentially cause discomfort. For example: Someone would think that maintaining a healthy life is important, but they don’t usually go to the gym, work out or even eat healthy; there’s a contradiction there, between what they think and their actions. The theory was developed in the 1950s by Leon Festinger.
Attribution Theory Attribution theory is all about how individuals make assumptions towards seen behavior in their surroundings. This theory assumes that we make judgments before an action or a behavior happens, so it means, we make conclusions beforehand. For example: If we make a joke in front of people and they don’t laugh, you start to think if you aren’t funny enough, there is something wrong with them or they decide not to laugh to make you feel bad. The attribution doesn’t also apply to internal thoughts, there is also external factors that can be attributed to an existent situation, in that example could be that maybe they didn’t hear you well, they didn’t understand the joke, or that is was a bad joke or offensive to someone in the group.
When hearing a contradictive message we have a tendency to believe the nonverbal hints we receive.
Written by: Javier Benitez
…oUr beHAVIors Expectancy Violations Theory We have now reached to the theory that confuses everyone, and not because the theory is hard to explain but because it is all about non-verbal communication and that sometimes confuses people when they try to read sign and body language.
This theory states that individuals expect the non-verbal behavior to be based on the social rules, past experiences and situational aspects of that behavior, so when that non-verbal communication follows the pattern people could judge them to be positive or not, same thing for the other way around, when the pattern of non-verbal communication isn’t right.
I communicate On a personal note, all of these theories are important to have a better understanding of how interpersonal communication works. We now know that it isn’t just about talking to another person or a group of people, it is more than that, there are factors and situations that affect or are involved in the process of communication than just sharing information back and forth. We can conclude that there are too many things going on inside our heads before the communication starts, even though, we are still sending signals without even knowing it. Interpersonal communication goes to show that without it, there wouldn’t be something to talk about.Written by: Javier Benitez
This Magazine was brought to you by: Acosta, Gabriela. Benítez, Javier. Flores, Gabriela. López, Carlos. Rodríguez, Berliomar.