Interpersonal communication - types and forms, examples of communication in life

People who are members of different groups inevitably communicate with each other, which is quite natural, moreover, logical. Emerging interpersonal communication and interaction turn out to be a subject that is subject to the study of a science called social psychology.

Due to the specific characteristics of a person, he must communicate within a social group, because otherwise, in the absence of proper contact between individuals, none of the human communities will have any opportunity to implement joint activities.

Group, mass and interpersonal communications

Before moving on to the terminology of the basic concept, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with other types of communication:

Mass communication is the process of disseminating information and influencing others through radio, television, print, cinema, etc., as a result of which messages of this kind reach a large mass of people.
Interpersonal communication is the process of interaction and transfer of information from one person to another, involving information exchange. The main goal of this type is mutual understanding between two or a group of people.
Group communication involves communication within a group of people, the number of which, as a rule, reaches up to twenty people. It is worth noting that interpersonal and group communications have some similarities, since in both options people interact through speech. Returning to group communications, it should be added that the totality of communication interactions allows both to strengthen the group and increase conflict among participants. If the concept of interpersonal communication presupposes information exchange, the main goal of which is mutual understanding between two people, then the goal of group communication is the implementation of interdependent actions and the solution of joint problems.

Communication and interpersonal relationships

In connection with the need for individuals to carry out any collective activity, there is a need for communication, which is a procedure that promotes the development of relationships between individuals.

Literally every interpersonal connection that arises is accompanied by the desire to solve three key problems:

development of interpersonal connections;
expanding the basis of mutual understanding between man and man;
interpersonal assessment.

Interpersonal communication will always depend on a number of factors, in particular on such personality characteristics as: gender and nationality, temperament and age, and finally, the state of health of the individual and his accumulated communication experience. Over time, each individual's perception of the world around him begins to be refracted through the prism of his lifestyle.

The higher the level of social intelligence an individual has, the more effective he is in his ability to determine the mental state, social and physical appearance of those around him with whom he has to maintain relationships.

Initially and first of all, a person’s attention is concentrated on the physical, bodily image of the individual, namely on his characteristics:

physiological - sweating, breathing, blood circulation;
functional – posture, posture, non-verbal features;
paralinguistic.

The formation of an individual’s social image is accompanied by his perception at the level of characteristics:

extralinguistic, such as timbre, pitch of voice, its originality;
proxemic, relating to the relative position of the communicators;
social design of personality, expressed in clothes, shoes, accessories;

Social features turn out to be more informative than features of physical appearance. It is worth noting that in any case, mechanisms are at work that prevent the perception of an undistorted image, which significantly limits the potential for unbiased comprehension of others. In this case, we are talking about the role of the first impression, which greatly influences the formation of an individual’s image.

What is also important is the inclusion of an interpretation mechanism, when the perception of a particular individual is associated with the use of accumulated personal experience. It often happens that interpersonal cognition occurs through the identification of a particular person with another individual, as a result of which motives and characteristics that are not actually characteristic of him can be attributed to him.

The longer individuals interact, the deeper their interpersonal interpenetration. It is quite natural that one of the components of interaction is interpersonal connections.

go to top

A little more detail

Interpersonal communication consists of direct contact with people one-on-one, that is, face to face. Interpersonal communication is characterized by the psychological closeness of the interlocutors, the presence of empathy, understanding and sympathy. This type of communication contains three interconnected aspects:

communicative - consists of the exchange of informational oral messages between interlocutors, the transmission and reception of feelings and opinions;
perceptual - affects the process of understanding and perception of the interacting parties, which contributes to the formation of certain interpersonal relationships;
interactive - consists of the exchange of actions between communication partners (for example, request - agreement or refusal).

Interpersonal communication is one of the most important categories of psychological science, since communication plays a major role in the interaction of people. In this type of communication, there are two types of communication: nonverbal and verbal. The first option dates back to ancient times, and the verbal one appeared much later, but is a universal way of communication today. In other words, interpersonal communication is communication between at least two persons, which is aimed at mutual establishment, cognition and development of relationships, involving mutual influence on the behavior, mood, views, and state of the participants in this process. It is also the most free from formal frameworks that regulate the style and form of the message, which makes it more intelligible and accessible. In addition, in the process of personal communication, the effect of perception can be enhanced due to the intonation of the interlocutor, his gestures, timbre of voice, facial expressions, charm, focused exclusively on a specific person. It is worth noting that in interpersonal communication there are great unlimited opportunities for applying the feedback effect.

Youth environment and interpersonal communication

The turning point in the process of evolution of interpersonal relationships is adolescence and especially adolescence. It is during this period, at the age of 14, that different relationships are established towards older people, towards one’s own parents, classmates, friends, teachers, towards people of other nationalities, towards sick people.

Usually a teenager is turned inward, often immersed in his own fantasies, thoughtful. At the same time, he is often intolerant of others, extremely irritable, and displays aggression. At the age of 16, a period of self-knowledge with self-affirmation usually begins, the young individual shows his powers of observation. Because of their extremely critical attitude to reality, young people do not accept and deny many things.

The youth environment, due to the frequent inability of students to sympathize and respect the feelings of others, is filled with conflicts, which causes destabilization of the emotional background of student groups. At this age, young people of both sexes often violate the principles of cultural behavior. To avoid the activation of such situations, adults should try not to increase the degree of communication, maintaining a respectful tone. It is recommended not to use categorical judgments with teenagers in matters related to music and fashion.

Exceptionally good relationships are the key to balanced interpersonal communication among young people, which adults should strive for. Avoiding scandals and striving to achieve compromises is the main goal of adults, who need to try to give in softly, without developing conflicts and demonstrating them to as many others as possible. It is this approach that will be conducive to establishing consistently good relationships.

go to top

Forms

Depending on the transmission channel, interpersonal communication is usually divided into oral and written. The written form of interpersonal communications in communication includes information in the form of reports, reports, orders, etc., where the coding symbol is the written word. The following advantages of this form of communication are highlighted:

possibility of storing information;
the greatest precision and care when creating a message.

The disadvantages include:

it takes more time to formulate a message, in contrast to the oral form of communication;
there is no possibility of establishing feedback and exchanging information.

When choosing a form of communication, you should adhere to the following rules:

the oral form is preferable in cases where it is necessary to convey a personal, new, ambiguous, emotional message to the interlocutor (telephone conversation, personal meeting);
the written form is most effective when conveying routine, impersonal, simple and long messages (e-mail, official letter).

For effective interpersonal communication, it is recommended to combine both forms. For example, using a telephone call you can notify about an important meeting and receive an immediate response from the interlocutor, and a reminder message in writing with a specified time and date ensures that the recipient will not forget about it. Today there are a lot of different tablets, mobile phones, faxes, computer networks that blur the boundaries between written and oral forms of communication and make each of them more effective.

The oral form consists of a dialogue, conversation, discussion, telephone conversation, where the coding symbol is a word. In addition to oral speech, nonverbal communication plays a huge role in interpersonal communication: intonation, smile, facial expressions, gestures, facial expressions, etc. Such information can convey feelings and thoughts in a more effective way than any carefully chosen words. Oral communications also have disadvantages. Typically, these include the following:

difficulty in storing information due to the fact that this type does not leave notes, records and documents;
the emergence of some barriers to interpersonal communications, which can subsequently lead to errors and misunderstandings; barriers usually include: inability to listen, stereotypes, different perceptions, etc.

Let's look at them in more detail.

Perception

Perception is the process of receiving and transforming information through which an individual gains an understanding of reality. It is worth noting that it is subjective in nature, since each person tends to interpret a particular situation differently. With the help of sound, visual and tactile channels of receiving information, a person perceives only what matters to him. Thus, it depends on perception how accurately a person receives the information that the sender wanted to convey to him.

Inability to listen

Lack of concentration on the interlocutor and inability to listen is a serious barrier to interpersonal social communication. To correctly receive an oral message, you need to hear it. During the conversation, it is important to accept information from the interlocutor, interpret it correctly and give an adequate answer if the situation requires it.

Experts provide several tips for increasing the effectiveness of interpersonal communication during the listening process:

It is not recommended to speak and interrupt your interlocutor;
during a conversation, ask questions, thereby maintaining your partner’s interest;
create a favorable atmosphere for your interlocutor, find interesting and common topics;
During a conversation, do not criticize or argue with the speaker, try to evaluate the essence, not the words.
Let your interlocutor know that you are listening.

Interpersonal interaction and learning

In the process of interaction between people, the sphere of consciousness is constantly expanding and learning new social roles. The most effective learning occurs in adolescence, before the age of 21, when the brain is most active.

The development of social activity requires that during the school years he receives an education based on freedom of expression and support for active behavior rather than passive behavior.

To develop student social activity, there is a model of the educational environment developed by V. I. Panov. The model is based on the scientist’s belief that learning should come from the student’s existing inclinations and interests.

Bad feedback

Successful activity through interpersonal communications is determined by the effectiveness or, conversely, ineffectiveness of feedback. In any conversation there is always a two-way direction implied. Simply put, during a conversation, feedback from the interlocutor is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the exchange of oral messages. Do not forget about its importance, as it allows you to assess how correctly the interlocutor understood the information. An obstacle to effective communications can be not only poorly established feedback, but also its complete absence.

Principles in Interpersonal Communication

Probably, many have noticed that some have difficulty communicating with people, while others, on the contrary, very quickly find a common language. The secret is simple - for a successful and productive information exchange, everyone should know the processes and principles of interpersonal communication. Every day we encounter a large flow of people and, at times, social contacts are inevitable. Without noticing it, when communicating a person has a certain impact on his interlocutors, and thereby develops his own individual line of behavior. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the simple rules of interpersonal communications:

When communicating with your interlocutor, it is important to remain calm, because excessive emotionality can interfere with the perception of information. After your opponent has finished his speech, be sure to show that you understood and heard him.
Don’t forget about your appearance, as this allows you to create the first impression of your interlocutor. During a conversation, it is common for a person to involuntarily observe his opponent and form his own opinion about him, not only based on his words, but also on his appearance. Therefore, it is so important to monitor your gait, manner of speaking, hairstyle, and clothing.
As previously mentioned, interpersonal communication is a process of interaction between two or more people, therefore for successful communication you need to listen carefully to your interlocutor. During the conversation, try to concentrate solely on the participant in the dialogue and not be distracted by composing the questions you plan to ask.
Don't forget the fact that it only takes about five minutes of conversation to form a first impression of your interlocutor. In the first minutes of communication, all senses are aimed at getting to know the opponent as best as possible. Typically, after just four minutes, a person is ready to make a choice about whether to continue the conversation. Therefore, if you want to gain trust and succeed in communicating with your interlocutor, you need to monitor your facial expressions, gestures and tone from the very beginning.
Experts advise touching on neutral topics at the beginning of the conversation. In the communication process, you should show kindness, politeness and tact. One of the proven and simple ways to win over your opponent is an open and sincere smile.
During a conversation, it is important to monitor your facial expressions and facial expressions. Vivid expression of emotions (both negative and positive) can become an obstacle to constructive conversation.

Interpersonal communication and its culture

The development of interpersonal relationships and their culture contributes to the ability to correctly identify human character traits with the correct perception of surrounding individuals, the choice of the appropriate style and tone of communication. Often the same words can provoke different reactions when communicating with different people, calm or excited.

With the development of interpersonal relationships, their culture is formed, which is based on a high need for deeply emotional, meaningful communication. It is satisfied when a person is able to empathize with other people, perceiving their thoughts and feelings. To maintain a culture of interpersonal communication, it is important to have the ability to correctly formulate questions, as well as to be able to answer them exhaustively and accurately, which requires having a large vocabulary and figurative speech.

Peculiarities

We propose to consider the distinctive features of interpersonal communication:

Irreversibility lies in the inability to return spoken words.
Relationships are a determining factor in the stages of the process of interpersonal communication, which develop as a result of creative and business contacts, as well as the ability of people to emotionally perceive each other - empathy.
Inevitability and inevitability is explained by the fact that man is a social phenomenon, the existence of which is impossible without communication.

Thus, speaking about the features of interpersonal communication, the following aspects should be highlighted:

Activity of communication partners. By sending information messages, one participant assumes the activity of the other, who, in turn, also needs to focus on the goals, motives and attitudes of his interlocutor.
The active exchange of thoughts between conversation participants helps to establish interpersonal communication.
In the process of verbal interaction, mutual understanding occurs or misunderstanding occurs, which is obtained in the presence of feedback.
The essence of interpersonal communication is that information is not only accepted by the interlocutor, but analyzed and comprehended.
The information that was received by the interlocutor and returned back organizes the participants in interpersonal relationships into a common information field.

Communication as interpersonal interaction

Entering into communication, i.e. When turning to someone with a question, request, order, etc., people necessarily set themselves the goal of influencing another person, getting the desired answer from him, fulfilling an order, understanding something that he did not understand until now. The goals of communication reflect the needs of people in the process of joint activity. This does not exclude cases of empty chatter, the so-called phatic communication (Latin word - stupid), the meaningless use of communication means for the sole purpose of maintaining the communication process itself. If communication is not phatic, it necessarily has, in any case, presupposes some result - a change in behavior in the activities of other people. Here communication acts as interpersonal interaction, i.e. a set of connections and mutual influences of people that develop in the process of their joint activities. Interpersonal interaction is a sequence of people’s reactions to each other’s actions unfolded over time: the action of individual A, which changes the behavior of B, causes responses on his part, which in turn affect the behavior of A. Joint activity and communication take place under conditions of social control exercised by based on social norms - socially accepted patterns of behavior that regulate the interaction and relationships of people. The appeal of people to social norms makes them responsible for their behavior, allows them to regulate actions and misdeeds, assessing them as conforming or not conforming to these norms. Orientation to norms allows a person to correlate the forms of his behavior with standards, select the necessary, socially approved ones, direct and regulate his relationships with other people. Learned norms are used by people as criteria by which they compare their own behavior with that of others.

Social control in interaction processes is carried out in accordance with the repertoire of roles “performed” by generalizing people. In psychology, a role is understood as a normatively approved pattern of behavior expected by others from everyone who occupies a given social position (by position, age, position in the family, etc.). Each role must meet very specific requirements and certain expectations of others. The same person, as a rule, performs different roles when entering different communication situations.

The multiplicity of role positions often gives rise to their collision - role conflicts (the father is a teacher, a teacher at school, but at home he shows weakness; a teacher in the student’s home is a guest, on the other hand, as a teacher, he is obliged to talk with the parents).

The interaction of people performing different roles is regulated by role expectations. Whether a person wants it or not, those around him expect him to behave in a way that corresponds to a certain pattern.

So, a necessary condition for the success of the communication process is that the behavior of interacting people matches each other’s expectations.

A person’s ability and ability to accurately attribute others’ expectations of what they are ready to hear from him or see in him is called tact. Tactlessness is the destruction of expectations in the communication process, disrupting the interaction of those communicating and sometimes creating conflict situations.

Interpersonal conflicts, origins and ways to overcome

It is impossible to imagine communication always and under all circumstances flowing smoothly and devoid of internal contradictions. In some situations, differences in positions, tasks, goals are discovered, and this sometimes turns into mutual hostility - an interpersonal conflict arises. In the process of joint activity, two types of determinants can act as causes of conflicts: substantive and business disagreements, and divergences of personal and pragmatic interests. In the event that the interaction of people carrying out well-organized joint activities is dominated by substantive and business contradictions, the resulting conflict does not, as a rule, lead to a rupture in interpersonal relationships.

At the same time, contradictions in the sphere of personal and pragmatic interests easily turn into hostility and enmity. The lack of a common cause puts people pursuing their own narrow personal goals in a conference situation where one person's gain means another person's loss. This cannot but aggravate interpersonal relationships.

The cause of conflicts is also insurmountable semantic barriers in communication that impede the establishment of interaction between those communicating. A semantic barrier in communication is a discrepancy in the meanings of a stated demand, request, order for partners in communication, creating an obstacle to their mutual understanding and interaction (for example, communication between adults and children: “the problem of fathers and children.”). The way is to teach children to use the language of adult children and to teach adults to understand the language of children). An adult should try to penetrate the child's deep personal meaning. An important role in this is the ability to put yourself in the place of the person you are communicating with and identify with him.

A special form of communication between people, friendship, is a stable individual-selective system of relationships and interactions, characterized by mutual affection of those communicating, a high degree of satisfaction with communication with each other, mutual expectations of reciprocal feelings and preference.

Communication as understanding each other

The perceptual aspect of communication is the perception, understanding and evaluation of a person by a person. By getting to know other people, an individual gets the opportunity to better and more reliably determine the prospects for joint activities with them. The success of coordinated actions depends on an accurate “reading” of their inner world. In acts of mutual cognition, the action of three most important mechanisms of interpersonal perception should be highlighted: identification, reflection, stereotyping.

Identification is a way of understanding another person through conscious or unconscious assimilation of his characteristics to the subject himself; in situations of interaction, people make assumptions about the internal state, intentions, thoughts, motives and feelings of another person based on an attempt to put themselves in his place. (a student, seeing applicants taking the exam, reconstructs their state of mind, and remembers his own state in the process of entering the institute).

However, it is important for the subject of communication not only to understand another person from the outside, but also to take into account how the individual who entered into communication with him will perceive and understand him.

The subject’s awareness of how he is perceived by his communication partner is called reflection. To understand another means to understand his attitude towards himself as a subject of perception. Consequently, the perception of a person by a person can be likened to a double mirror image.

In everyday life, as a rule, a person does not have complete information about another person, this forces him to attribute to others the reasons for their actions and actions. A causal explanation of the actions of another person by attributing to him feelings, intentions, thoughts and motives of behavior is called causal attribution (Latin word - cause, attribute - I give, I endow) or causal interpretation. Casual attribution, as a rule, is carried out unconsciously - or on the basis of identification with another person.

Stereotyping is the classification of forms of behavior and interpretation (sometimes without basis) of their causes by attributing them to already known or seemingly known phenomena, i.e. corresponding to social stereotypes. A stereotype is a formed image of a person that is used as a cliche. For example, when perceiving a stranger, the initial information that the subject of perception received plays a big role. An experiment conducted by American psychologists: university teachers were given 400 personal files of students to characterize the students. After the experiment, all cases could be divided into two groups: some of them received positive characteristics, some received negative characteristics. In fact, everyone was given the same thing. But 200 personal files contained photos of a handsome, serious, thoughtful young man, 200 - photos of an unattractive, frivolous person. The answers were influenced by photography. Although no one asked students to evaluate their appearance, it was appearance that mattered in the answers.

Thus, an essential basis for the formation of bias and subjectivism is the preliminary information that a person receives about the object of perception.

Nonverbal communication

Psychologists pay great attention to body language, as it can tell a lot about the intentions and feelings of any person. The movements and postures of people cannot be considered completely innate: as a rule, they are acquired in the process of communication. Body language includes such components as:

facial expressions are a way of using facial expressions;
gestures - information is transmitted using hands;
proxemics is a method of using space where the distance between interlocutors is taken into account when communicating;
body position - implies control of your body;
tactile communication - speaks of status, degree of intimacy or friendship between communication partners.

Ways to improve interpersonal communications

Any communication involves the interaction of people with each other. In order for every conversation to be successful, psychologists pay a lot of attention to the development of interpersonal communications. By adhering to the following rules during contact with an opponent, you can significantly improve interpersonal communications:

Learn to abstract yourself from psychological barriers, which are a significant obstacle to fruitful communication. Internal barriers can arise quite often during a conversation. You can avoid them by concentrating on important points during the conversation.
Don't forget about good manners and charm. Many people have access to such a “superpower” as charisma, thanks to which they can get everything they need from communication without any problems. This trait is not exclusively an innate quality, which means that it can be developed.
Say “no” to psychophysical clamps. Loose or too constrained body movements will become a signal to the interlocutor about the presence of psychological and physical abnormalities. Perhaps the opponent will not be able to give a clear definition of this state, but he will immediately sense that something is wrong. In this regard, the success of your conversation will be in great question. To avoid such cases, it is important to be able to relax during a conversation and, of course, to train.
Become a protégé. If among your friends or acquaintances there are people who are excellent at communication, then you should try to watch and imitate them. By adopting an already proven model of behavior, you can achieve significant success.
Talk as much as possible, especially for very shy people. Conversations on abstract topics about which everyone can express their opinion can help save you from feeling embarrassed: about the weather, about gasoline prices or traffic jams. This simple secret will help improve interpersonal relationships.
Communication implies active interaction between individuals, but we should not forget that all people are different, and the approach to each should be purely individual. By communicating daily on a variety of topics with those around you, be it a work colleague or a supermarket clerk, you will gain invaluable experience in communicating in different styles and increase your self-confidence.
Master the art of asking questions. Scientific research has shown that asking the right question is half the solution to the problem. During the conversation, the correct and accurate question will be the one that the opponent wants to answer and think about. In order to get a communication partner to talk, it is worth using open-ended questions, which usually begin with the words “why”, “why”, “how”, etc. In addition, during the conversation it is important to soften the questions so as not to offend the interlocutor.