Interpersonal communication is the process of people exchanging messages in relationships. Ranging from role relationships, to interpersonal relationships, to close and intimate relationships, each one of our interactions contribute to the formation, strengthening or weakening of relationships. Through these interactions and relationships, people fulfill the main interpersonal needs, consisting of social inclusion, affection and behavioral control. By exploring communication theories, such as social identity theory, self-expansion theory, uncertainty reduction theory and expectancy violation theory, I learned more about myself, as well as my relationships and surroundings.
Through communication, we socially construct our identities; how we see ourselves and how the world sees us. Our identity, from a young age through present age, constantly alters and changes through various interactions with different people and surroundings (Hall & LaFrance). As humans, it is in our nature to want to define our individual identities and discover how we fit into the world around us. Identity is defined as the “person we think we are and communicate to others.” The more people interact with others, the more they discover about their own identities and who they really are. Along with constantly changing interactions, “people form their identities through group association,” as explained in the social identity theory (Hall & LaFrance). This theory describes how individuals maintain self-view with association to different groups, ranging from general, such as gender, to more defined social groups, such as family and friends. Human nature drives the need for belonging to these various social groups, where people can continue constructing their perso...
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...ay, my sister is still my sister and our sibling relationship itself will not change. She may have a new identity that she will now portray openly to the world, but on the inside, she is still the same person I have known and loved for the past seventeen years.
Works Cited
Burgoon, J. (2009). Expectancy violations theory. In S. Littlejohn, & K. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communication theory. (pp. 368-370). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959384.n137.
Cohen, E. L. (2010). Expectancy Violations in Relationships with Friends and Media Figures.Communication Research Reports, 27(2), 97-111. doi:10.1080/08824091003737836.
Hall, J., & LaFrance, B. (2012). “That's Gay”: Sexual Prejudice, Gender Identity, Norms, and Homophobic Communication. Communication Quarterly, 60(1), 35-58. doi:10.1080/01463373.2012.641833.
According to article entitled “ Marriage Quality” published by Comstock and Sterzizweick in 1990 states that “it is not absence or presence of problem which determines the marriage quality but it is how successful to handle conflicts, that determine marital relationship quality.
In every society nonverbal communication is one of the most powerful tools that a person can use to interpret the message that is being delivered. Even though verbal communication is fairly straightforward, nonverbal communication allows others to sense the true emotions of the person that is expressing them. For example even though a person may say that they are not irritated, their usage of voice may display otherwise. Nonverbal communication not only reveals hidden messages, but it also complements, substitutes, and exaggerates verbal communication.
"Identity is a dynamic feature of social life. That is, it is something that is constantly evolving and changing. For some people, identity can change rapidly and dramatically, of course, but for most of us our identities evolve slowly and imperceptibly" (Livesey, n.d., p.1).
The social identity theory is a person’s sense of who they are based on their social
Some of the strengths of the social identity theory are that; throughout the years it has supported many empirical studies, it has also demonstrated the social categorization in intergroup behaviors, allowed us to differentiate between social and personal identities and has provide explanations for other areas of psychology (conformity). A weaknesses of the Social identity theory is that its application is restricted in the sense that it has very low ecological validity. Another weakness is that SIT favors situational factors rather than dispositional is not supported by evidence. The social Identity theory can be used to how to explain how we form our social and personal identities in the terms of in and out groups. SIT can also be used to explain why there is conflict between humans and different societies.
Social identity theory can be applied to many different problems and real life situations. It demonstrates the role of categorization in behaviors, and explores how being part of a group affects social interaction in everyday life.
What happens when things don’t go as planned? What do we do when our beliefs are challenged? Do we hold true to our values or can we be persuaded to change our views? That is what we will discuss over the next few pages using the Social Judgement Theory (Griffin, Ledbetter, Sparks, 2015) and the Expectancy Violation Theory (Griffin, Ledbetter, Sparks, 2015).
Having a social identity is important to be able to live in a world surrounded by others. Personal identity is also important and is the one most people are familiar with. This identity is mainly formed by looking at external and physiological features, including “how we are born,” like our gender and physical traits, but it also is formed by our “ideas and ideologies” (“Who Are You?”). People want “a sense of personal continuity and of uniqueness from other people” to make their identity more personalized to themselves (“Identity/Identity Formation”). It includes characteristics
Violations of expectations in turn may confuse their receivers, shifting more attention to the violator and the significance of the violation itself. Someone who can assume that they are well regarded by their listeners is safer engaging in violations and more probable to profit from doing so than someone who is poorly regarded. When the act of violation is one that is likely to be unclear in its meaning or to convey numerous interpretations that are not consistently positive or negative, then the reward valence of the communicator can be particularly important in moderating clarifications, assessments, and consequences. Violations have comparatively consensual meanings and valences related to them, so that engaging in them produces similar effects for positive and negative communication.
Interpersonal communication is one of the significant skills while communicating with other individuals. It normally covers an extensive area and includes both verbal and non-verbal communication. Body language and facial expression may affect the accurateness of the message transmission directly. Interpersonal communication skills normally ensure that the message is sent and received correctly without any alteration thus improving the communication efficiency. Learning diverse aspects of interpersonal communication has greatly aided me in better understanding of what it consists. I am capable of applying the knowledge gained from this course to my personal experiences. This paper reflects on my personal experience in learning interpersonal communication.
1. What are the three purposes for which people communicate? What percentage of a manager’s time is spent communicating? Give examples of the types of communication managers use.
The purpose of this paper is not to teach you, or to show you how interpersonal communication is essential to everyday life at home or work. But, I am going to do my best to at least show you how essential communication skills are in all areas of life by using me as the example. My plan is to focus on some of the elements of interpersonal communication that we have been touching on this semester. While reading our Interpersonal Communications Book, three goals kept being highlighted that I personally wanted to accomplish by the end of course. I’m sure that by now have noticed that I keep referring to my topics as goals. The reason why I’m doing so is because I’m still on that learning curve…an ongoing process. If can recall back to all of our assignment in this course they all bring one collective point. That point is that, Interpersonal communication is an essential skill in everything that we do in life.
Social identity theory is based on four interrelated concepts: social categorization, social identification, social comparison and positive distinctiveness. Social categorization is tendency to divide and therefore categorise individuals into in-groups (individual belongs) and out-groups (individual does not belong); it groups different social circles based on the members’ stereotypical culture and behaviour. This often leads to category accentuation effect, which is exaggerating of intergroup differences and intragroup similarities; individual underestimate perceived variability within groups but overestimate variability between groups. Social identification is way of identifying individual with a particular social group based on their in-group norms and by doing so, may adopt some of the values and behaviours of that particular group. Social comparison and positive distinctiveness is when social identity contributes to our self-image so we seek positive social identities to maintain and enhance self-esteem. We compare in-group with out-group and also discriminate the out-group to establish the superiority of in-group, enhance their self-image...
In today’s society, there has been a greater emphasis on identity than in the past. The perception of identity has changed due to the growing human population, and being able to distinguish oneself from the general population. Identity is the uniqueness of a person. As people get older, their identity might change since they become more aware of the society and also are more independent. By creating and recognizing an identity, one can interact with others who have a similar identity. Identity can be formed socially. There are several factors that influence an identity.
Interpersonal communication is very important in everyday life. It helps us build a relationship with another, also it helps us to satisfy our physical needs, identity needs, social needs and practical goals. Communication lets people exchange their feeling and information through verbal and non-verbal communication through social media or face to face communication. Communication can be effective and ineffective depend on the individual communication skills. The ways we communicate with another can be influenced by family, friends, significant other also within the culture and region where we stay. Each person has a different set of rule to communicate with another, so this is how miscommunication happen. There are some expectation and way