Interpersonal Communication
The process of communication
People have always communicated in different ways. In the past one way of communicating was to send smoke signals or light bonfires on series of hilltops. This way was extremely popular with tribes but could only convey a pre-arranged message, such as: danger, be careful. Some people (e.g.: shepherds, hunters, etc.) have played different instruments to be heard by their families, friends or enemies. The melody meant different things, sometimes an invitation to a meeting, a newcomers’ visit or simply warriors fighting against each other. People living in Gomera, in the Canary Islands, used a sophisticated whistling language to communicate across valleys. There, again, the sounds carried different meanings.
How do we communicate today? What has been left by our ancestors and what have we invented?
To understand communication we should focus on different elements of the process.
- sender: a person/persons starting communication either by words or gestures
- receiver: a person/persons receiving information
- encoding: a process of producing messages either by speaking or writing
- decoding: a process of understanding messages either by listening or reading
- channel or medium: the way we communicate; e.g. face-to-face, by email, by snail mail, by telephone. The channel is also the medium we use in order to send a message. For example: vocal-auditory channel, gestural-visual channel, cutaneous-tactile channel. There are different ways of communication as every individual selects his/her own unique way. New technologies have created new ways of getting in touch with one another. Facebook, one of social mediums, makes communication possible via photos, videos and short messages
- feedback: a way of showing understanding or misunderstanding of what has been sent to the receiver. Feedback is given by senders and receivers to improve communication. It can be nonverbal (e.g.: head nods, gestures), or verbal (e.g. Yes, sure; Sorry I do not understand, Could you repeat, please, etc.)
- context: It is important to take into account the context of a given communication process. The context can be classified as:
- Physical context. It can be an area where communication takes place, e.g.: a room, a building, countryside; but can also include other values, such as size, temperature, number of people participating, etc.
- Cultural context. We need to understand that representatives of different cultures will perceive and conduct communication differently.
- Social context. It identifies and characterizes the group that people communicating belong to; their status, age, profession, etc.
- noise or interference: Depending on the way people communicate we can distinguish different types of interference:
- Physical noise is anything that leads to misunderstanding of messages. It can have a form of noise coming from the street, but also illegible handwriting, ungrammatical structures or spam in your emails.
- Physiological noise depends on individual characteristic including e.g. hearing loss, memory loss, pronunciation problems (especially in inter-national settings).
- Psychological noise is a name given to interference created by such barriers as stereotypes, prejudices, misunderstandings in perception, emotions, or lack of interest between sender and receiver.