course material

1. COU101A Interpersonal Communication
Answers:
1. From the definition of interpersonal communication, this system of communication refers
to the whole practice of exchanging of information, thoughts, ideas, concepts, feelings and,
experiences from one end to the other end in an effective way is known as interpersonal
communication. There are ample of reasons for the failure of interpersonal communication,
refers to as the barrier to the process. Many a times, it may happen that the delivered
message may not be the exactly the same as the sender wanted to convey. Therefore, it is
important that the sender demands for a feedback to the message in order to check if it is
clearly delivered or not by the receiver on the other end, as said by Kapur, (2018). On the
other hand, to avoid the barriers in the communication process, some skills like
clarification, concentrated listening, active generation of feedback as well as reflection may
be developed by both the sender and the receiver. These may emphasize to the effective
transformation of the message intended to the receiver and also the generated feedback
message by the receiver as well.
Barriers to the interpersonal communication may take place at any phase of the process of
the communication, which may lead to the distortion of the intended message, information
or idea (Buarqoub, 2019). Few of the barriers are as follows-
Language barrier- Linguistic inability acts as oneof the barriers to the communication.
When a person from another community, state or country belonging to a particular
linguistic background tries and communicates to a person speaking in a different language
in order to transfer a message, information, or idea, distortion or misinterpretation of the
message may occur.
Psychological barrier- The state of psychological stage of the sender influences the intended
message, information or ideas sent, received, analysed or observed by the both end of the
communication process. As an example, when the sender is tired, sick or stressed out,
angry, or under the hold of personal concern and so as the receiver, the intended message
can be distorted.
Attitudinal barrier- It influences the intended message in terms of behaviour, perception, or
belief that surfaces prevention to communicate effectively. It may result in the form of
personal conflicts, poor managerial system, resistant to change or from lack of motivation

2. (Muhammadkulova and Petrosyan, 2019).
To overcome the barriers to interpersonal communication is to practice the art of active
listening. This is one of the most important ways that can help in effective communication
process and avoid any distortion. Also, to use simpler language to initiate the process of
communicating whenever needed also helps in avoiding difficulty in decoding the message.
Lastly, sending a feedback by the receiver’s end whether the message has been successfully
and decoded or not is another important ways to over the barriers to communication
(Fandrejewska and Wasilik, 2018).
For example, in childhood, when I went for a vacation to a suburban area in South Africa, I
faced the linguistic barrier to communicate with the local people there. This is because they
communicated with their regional tribal language which I was unaware of.
2. As per Rodriguez et al., (2020), interpersonal conflicts are problems which takes place
between people involved in the interpersonal communication. It may be also called internal
conflicts between two or more people in other terms. It can take place due to any kind of
differences of opinion, expression, thoughts, or ideas that other person on the other end
may not agree to. Even though it is not always a bad motive whenever a conflict arises
between two or more persons involved in an interpersonal communication because with
each conflict, many doubts, misunderstandings, and issues can be cleared out face to face
(He et al., 2019). Few of the reasons why conflicts take place between two or more people in
the interpersonal communication are as follows-
Poor communication skills- Every communication process depends on how much effectively
a sender communicates the message and in the same way, how well a receiver decodes the
intended message in the most effective way so that no distortion of the message takes place.
But whenever this process is interrupted by any external stimuli such as language barrier,
lack of experiences, and cultural differences- poor communication arises, thus, conflicts may
take place.
Misunderstanding- People involved in the interpersonal communication process might not
always regard to the same mindset, experiences, and expectations as well. Many a times, it
may occur that the sender tries to explain the importance of a message or information and
expects the receiver to understand and acknowledge the message with the same intensity of
importance.
Personal differences- This may arise from ego conflicts. Ego is something that, if not
resolved at the correct time, may ruin any kind of relationship. It requires understanding,
showing respect to each other’s values, experiences, feelings, expectations, cultural
background, and traditions. Egoistic behaviour may take hold of someone’s mind whenever
he or she does not recognise to any of the above mentioned criteria. Thus, not valuing and
not addressing to the message of the other person may lead to the arrival of some serious
kind of conflicts (DeVito, 2019).

3. Some of the conflict resolution strategies are as follows-
Withdrawal- It is important for everyone to understand when to stop in between a conflict
in order for it to not grow into a bigger one, by refusing to address the issue at that very
moment.
Accommodation- It refers to considering the other person’s need at the first place; it creates
a sense of positivity between the two people. It also may occur that resolving the conflict by
talking and sorting things out.
Compromise- With compromise to resolve the problems, people involved in the
communication process get some grounds where at least some of the requirements are
fulfilled. Compromising can lead to the strengthening of a relationship as well (Safianov et
al., 2021).
For example, as I mentioned earlier, at the time of my tour to South African villages, I had a
hard time in understanding the language they spoke, which compelled for a small conflict
between us though we quickly resolved it with understanding each other’s point of view.
3. The statement ‘not to communicate is to communicate’ means it is not always necessary
for a communicator to use the verbal communication in order to transfer a message,
thoughts, ideas or concept to the targeted receiver for that matter. Such forms of
communication can be termed as non verbal communication, which is referred to as the
form of communication process without the use of actual speaking to the other targeted
receiving end as per Vrij, Hartwig and Granhag, (2019). Silence is one of the most effective
forms of nonverbal communications. Being silent in the process of communication is also a
strong form of feedback put forward to the sender in the loop. It holds more importance the
hurled speech of one. The destructive silence forms barriers that may discourage the flow of
communication making the speaker unable to express the thoughts, whereas the
constructive silence takes the conversation forward. Even though silence in the
communication may be considered as embarrassed, awkward, fearful, numb, still it holds
much importance in exchanging messages in communication process. Minimal
communication refers to the use of languages in a very precise and discrete way yet very
much engaging in the form in order to get the information correct. It is a process of
briefness of the intended message forwarded to the receiver without using much word but
with very much concise form of language is used as per Rainero and Modarelli (2021). An
example of just a nod to answer a question of someone can be considered as the form of
minimal communication. As per Sattler, (2019), unintentional communication is something
that is not intended to the receiver by the sender in the whole communication process. It
can be in the form of some chosen words hurled with carelessness, or it may be occur that
the receiving end has been misunderstood and the chosen message has been transmitted to
a different receiving end, for example, facial expression, body postures and gestures, or
calling at the wrong number to send some message. It is considered for everything that has
been expressed by the virtue of the presence or absence of the sender at the time of the
delivering the message to the targeted receiving end. Power is also considered a form of

4. effective communication because the ones considered as powerful is considered as
authority to the ones at the ground level. There is a conception that the people with power
can get away with every misdeed while others cannot. It can be in terms of manpower,
money or politics (Bisconti, 2021).
For example, as I mentioned earlier about my trip to South African village and the problems
I faced in understanding their language, so my silence made them realise my incompetence.
My silence communicated them with my inability. Hence, a person was called who could
speak English to talk to me about my need for finding a hotel nearby. When I reached to the
hotel by accompanying the person who could translate to me, I only nodded to the
questions I was being asked. This communication can be considered as the example of
minimal communication.
References
Bisconti, P. (2021). How Robots’ Unintentional Metacommunication Affects Human–Robot
Interactions. A Systemic Approach. Minds and Machines, 31(4), 487-504.
https://philarchive.org/archive/BISHRU
Buarqoub, I. A. S. (2019). Language barriers to effective communication. Utopía y Praxis
Latinoamericana, 24(6), 64-77.
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/279/27962177008/27962177008.pdf
DeVito, J. A. (2019). The interpersonal communication book. Instructor, 1, 18.
https://catalogue.pearsoned.ca/assets/hip/ca/hip_ca_pearsonhighered/preface/01346231
0X.pdf
Fandrejewska, A., & Wasilik, K. (2018). Cultural differences and barriers in communication
and functioning of an international organisation. Handel Wewn?trzny, (1 (372)), 203-215.
https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-b77fe813-3d35-
4790-9714-627a66470d6d/c/HW_1_2018.203-215.pdf
He, G. H., Strodl, E., Chen, W. Q., Liu, F., Hayixibayi, A., & Hou, X. Y. (2019). Interpersonal
conflict, school connectedness and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents:
Moderation effect of gender and grade level. International journal of environmental
research and public health, 16(12), 2182. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-
4601/16/12/2182/pdf
Kapur, R. (2018). Barriers to effective communication. Delhi University.
https://leverageedu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Barriers-of-Communication-
Notes.pdf
Muhammadkulova, M. K., & Petrosyan, N. V. BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
AT SCHOOL. ?????? XXI ????, 31.

5. https://www.uch21vek.com/assets/uch21vek_6_3_2019..pdf#page=32
Rainero, C., & Modarelli, G. (2021). Doing communication history in sanitary systems
beyond a “shell game”: a mirror comparison on silence and managerial delay practices in
communicating epidemics. Economia Aziendale Online-, 12(2), 143-169.
https://193.204.40.129/index.php/ea/article/download/2062/2232
Rodriguez, L. M., Lee, K. D., Onufrak, J., Dell, J. B., Quist, M., Drake, H. P., & Bryan, J. (2020).
Effects of a brief interpersonal conflict cognitive reappraisal intervention on improvements
in access to emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms in college students.
Psychology & health, 35(10), 1207-1227.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lindsey-Rodriguez-
2/publication/339385555_Effects_of_a_brief_interpersonal_conflict_cognitive_reappraisal_i
ntervention_on_improvements_in_access_to_emotion_regulation_strategies_and_depressive_
symptoms_in_college_students/links/5e4e9af392851c7f7f48dcb8/Effects-of-a-brief-
interpersonal-conflict-cognitive-reappraisal-intervention-on-improvements-in-access-to-
emotion-regulation-strategies-and-depressive-symptoms-in-college-students.pdf
Safianov, V., Sokolovskaya, I., Shcherbakova, O., Belobragin, V., & Tkach, R. (2021). Ethical
and psychological features of conflict prevention in interpersonal communication contacts.
In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 291, p. 05021). EDP Sciences. https://www.e3s-
conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2021/67/e3sconf_sdgg2021_05021.pdf
Sattler, F., Wiedemann, S., Müller, K. R., & Samek, W. (2019, July). Sparse binary
compression: Towards distributed deep learning with minimal communication. In 2019
International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.08768
Vrij, A., Hartwig, M., & Granhag, P. A. (2019). Reading lies: Nonverbal communication and
deception. Annual review of psychology, 70, 295-317.
https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/files/13540389/Reading_Lies.pdf