Think Piece #1
To me interpersonal communication describes the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between two different people. Joseph DeVito states that “interpersonal communication is inevitable, irreversible, and unrepeatable” due to these things effective communication is a necessary skill for us to function in our day to day lives (p. 20). Therefore, I have created a theory for interpersonal communication that goes as follows; To experience effective communication you must understand: your culture, the other person’s culture, and how to listen effectively. By knowing these three things you can consistently avoid misunderstandings and promote understanding in your interpersonal and intercultural relationships.
The first point in my theory is that you can better your skills as an interpersonal communicator by better understanding your own culture. DeVito states that there are. “several major cultural distinctions that are crucial for more effective communication” they are: individualism or collectivism, high or low context, high or low power distance, masculinity or femininity, high or low ambiguity tolerance, long or short term orientation, and indulgent or (p. 34). To be able to understand your or anyone else’s culture you must be able to understand the ways that these things affect communication. Once you understand the ways that you are oriented in these seven categories due to enculturation you can understand how you communicate and become a more effective
Interpersonal Communication is a very important ingredient in making strong, healthy relationships. Communicating is how we get a better understanding of one another’s perception of things, as well as how we help someone to better understand ours. We need to express our feelings in relationships and know that they are reciprocated. Not communicating leads to problems and misunderstandings. People need to learn to understand what the other person is trying to communicate. Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages: it is face-to-face communication. It is about what is said, how it is said, and the use of non-verbal communication through
Today, we live in a culturally diverse society due to globalization. As our world grows, expands and become increasingly more interconnected, the need for effective interpersonal communication among differing cultures has become apparent. When people from different cultures interact with one another there is intercultural communication because different cultures create different interpretation and expectations about what is seen as competent behaviors that will enable the construction of shared meanings.
Alberts, Martin and Nakayama (2011) describe communication as “ a transactional process in which people generate meaning through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages in in specific contexts, influenced by individual and societal forces and embedded in culture.”(p.7) They then go on to state that intercultural communication “occurs in interactions between people who are culturally different.”(p.122) Cultural differences thus affect many interactions, with the communication process being one.
In order for effective intercultural communication to occur one must be aware of the different aspects of communication. These can include but are not limited to language usage, types of non-verbal
o you think that online relationships (of any kind) are as satisfying as relationships developed from face-to-face interaction? Why or why not?
Interpersonal is the way in which individuals converse information, feelings, and meaning through one or both verbal and non-verbal messages. Interpersonal communication is often perceived to be face to face contact. Where often it is generally presumed that this type of communication in fact is assumed to be spoken language however, it is not actually what is said, but in fact the way in which language is delivered and perceived by others. This
As the therapy began, the client was looking down and looking away, the client let out a sigh before she began to speak. She did not make eye contact and she fidget with her hands. When she began to address her feelings she crunched her face, and let out an, “MMMMM” sound. She addressed the sort of guilty feelings in regards towards the relationship between her sister, and her. She also brings up the passing of her mother seven years ago. She smacks her mouth on and off. She continued to crunch her face, and fidgets with her fingers. When she addressed the love she and her sister have for one another, she slightly smiled. She stated that her sister and her usto fight a lot and really love each other and she reassured me of this my stating,” We really do, we are crazy about each other.” This reassuring statement expresses to me that she wants to validate that there is love, in spite of fighting, and she is protecting herself from judgment. Her gestures express that the subject is uncomfortable to address. She addresses how much they miss each other since they live in different states, but after a couple days “they can not stand each other.” When she is speaking about these feeling, she has a confused, puzzled look on her face. As if she does not understand why this happens between them. She shared that her sister is going to have a big birthday, her fiftieth and her face crunch up, but she did smile as she continue to talk. This expresses to me that she is happy her sister is turning fifty, but she is worried about what comes along with the party that will be occurring. She discloses that her sister did give her plenty of notice on the up coming event, and smiles/smirks when speaking about not attending and not wanting to be there. When she gets to the part of how tired she is of the cycle, her tone of voice, changed it becomes low, and I could feel how draining this is to her. Her body become limb like for a couple of seconds. When she expressed that she does want to enjoy the party but wants to get there and back. Her voice changed sped up and she used an emphasizing tone. She continued to use a lot of hand and finger gestures. She brings up her guilt
Most people would at first define the word “communication” as the act of speaking, however, in actuality, communication involves the interactions of multiple people with the act of speaking and listening. A business consultant and eloquent write Peter Drucker once said that “the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” and this is nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is the use of other aspects instead of words to communicate. Four significant types of nonverbal communication are kinesics, artifacts, proxemics and silence.
It seems that in today’s fast paced society filled with smartphones, computers, mobile tablets and all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, that we forget the subtle art of nonverbal communication and how it affects human interactions. By non-verbal communication I am not talking about things such as emails, texts, carrier pigeons and whatever other method of messaging system you prefer to use. I am referring to the face to face exchanges with real humans and how small things such as personal space or body language can alter the outcome of any connections we have throughout the day. There are varying influences that come play a part during these exchanges. Kinesics, haptics and proxemics are merely a few of these aspects. If extra people paid attention to the soundless ways humans communicate their needs and desires, consequently I feel there would be less miscommunication, misinterpretations and an overall improved human experience. Simply observing someone’s body language can clue you in on what could possibly be running through their mind during your communication.
“Non-verbal communication is especially significant in intercultural situations” (Businesscom, 2015). In a business setting duties performed are the main reasons for an employees success, though studies and reports show that nonverbal communications can hinder or excel an employees relationships. Ultimately, nonverbal communications can benefit a business. With the communication of nonverbal there are many forms that help to read body language and true feelings including: adapters, a body movement, as well as eye contact (Krauss, Chen, & Chawla, 1996). These examples are just a few of several hundreds non-verbal communications (Hawk, Fischer, & Van Kleef, 2012; Snider, 2012). Not only does nonverbal communication play a role in communication, but also it plays a role at a staggering greater than 50%, and some studies higher percentage, of the total message (Vintean, 2007). Visual clues also play a large role in nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication has been a long time institute and is rooted from primal instincts (Hecht & Ambady, 1999). To prove the positive role that nonverbal communication plays in business the following writing will show various nonverbal and how they work.
The key aspect for nonverbal is communication by expressing through nonlinguistic means, there are various types of nonverbal communication in which I will explain what is proxemics, kinesics, and paralanguage.
Angela K. Y. Leung (2011) singles out two obstacles in the intercultural communication which are the most major and common among people. First of them is an obstacle called Person-Level Obstacle. It describes that there are two types of people. There are people who has no problem while communication with people from other culture and they are curious about them and have no problems with communication however, the group of people who has problems while having a contact with people with other values, beliefs and from other culture is bigger. Those people often feel distressed and anxious. Some of people may even experience a cultural shock when it comes to the meeting (A. K. Y Leung, 2011), (p. 245). It happens because both of them possesses different beliefs, values, behaviours and even gestures. Another obstacle is close-mindedness. According to Leung (2011), “People who are open to experience have a predisposition to learn from new cultural experiences and engage in intercultural interactions”. Those people are curious about people from different culture, they would like to know it, but there are also people “with low levels of openness” and they “may find encountering foreign cultures to be overwhelming, shocking and even threathening” (A.
John Warren Stewig in an article published in the professional journal Language Arts provides an excellent commentary on nonverbal communication. His article is an exceptional example of academic writing that has been formatted as a primer or tool to be used by other educators. Professor Stewig provides a breakout of how much of a given message can be considered verbal and how much nonverbal. He also introduces the term kinesics and divides kinesics into two categories: personal and professional gestures. He closes his article by consulting the reader of their obligation to improve a child 's appreciation of the total range of message sending and their effectiveness as communicators.
In order to be an effective communicator, it is important that people should have a solid understanding of intercultural communication. "The term 'intercultural communication ' is often used to refer to the wide range of communication issues that inevitably arise within an organization composed of individuals from a variety of religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds."(uslegal definition) Whether in study, business or travelling, a good understanding of intercultural communication will help you understand others better.
Intercultural communication is now a common experience as a result of globalisation. It is extremely important to understanding how culture impacts on employee relationships and communication as it can affect the success of multinational and culturally diverse businesses. Hofstede (1984) defines culture as “the mental programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another”. Intercultural communication refers to the communication between people from different cultures. According to Samovar and Porter (1991), intercultural communication occurs whenever a message is produced by a member of one culture to a member of another culture, the message must be understood. Because of