INTERPERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS- C.1-2

© 2006 UNITAR All Rights Reserved
INTERPERSONAL ANDINTERPERSONAL AND
COMMUNICATION SKILLSCOMMUNICATION SKILLS

OUR TOPICOUR TOPIC
1) COMMUNICATION PROCESSES
a) Elements of communication
b) Other vital elements of communication
c) Communication models
d) Brief history
e) Context of communication
2) VIEWS OF COMMUNICATION
a) Perspectives in defining communication
b) Levels of communication
c) Communication breakdown

a) Elements of Communication
• The process of communication needs some elements too.
• They are so important that without them communication
may not be able to take place.

The four basic elements in the process of
communication are the:
• source,
• message,
• channel, and
• receiver.

Source
• The source or sometimes
known as the sender, is the
origin of an information or a
message.
• People are an obvious
source of a message.
• It can be a single individual
and it can also be a group of
people or organizations.

Message
• The message is the content of the
communication process.
• It can be in the form of ideas or
emotions.
• The source encodes the message
into verbal codes such as in writings
or speeches.
• The message can also be encoded
into nonverbal codes.

Channel
• The channel is the medium used
to convey the message.
• Channels can be in the forms of
sound waves, light waves, visuals,
smell, touch, or anything that may
stimulate our senses.

Receiver
• The receiver or sometimes called
the decoder is the person or party,
who receives the message.
• The receiver (usually people) will
decode or translate the received
message into something that can
be comprehended or understood.

b) Other vital elements in the
communication process
• feedback,
• noise, and
• context or environment.
which include:

Feedback
• Feedback is the receiver's response
towards the source.
• A feedback informs the sender that the
receiver has received the message
conveyed.
• In the process of influencing or
informing others, feedbacks are very
important to measure the effectiveness
of communication.

Noise
• Anything that causes communication to be
ineffective.
• Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond (1999), define noise
as "anything, either literal or psychological, that
interferes the clear reception and interpretation of
a message".
• Physical noises such as high or low temperatures
or noises caused by machines or people may
prevent communicators from getting the actual
message in a communication.
• On the other hand, psychological noises such as
uncontrollable emotions or pre-conceived ideas
about something or someone may cause
communication to be ineffective.

Context or Environment
• Another element that influence a
• Include the place, time, physical,
and psychological situations as well
as past and current knowledge of
communicators involved.

d) Brief History
basic and
simple model
linear
communication
model
behaviors of the
Communicators
model

Lasswell's Communication Model

Shannon and Weaver's Communication Model

The Shannon and Weaver's communication model is very
technical in nature and includes the following components.
 Information source: ideas or emotions,
 Transmission source: origin of ideas or emotions
(sender),
 Encoding: translation of ideas or emotions into
sets of codes,
 Decoding: interpretation of codes by receiver,
who decodes and gives meanings to the
message received,
 Channel: medium of the message such as
sound, visual, smell or touch, and
 Noise: anything that distorts the real meaning of
the message

Osgood-Schramm's Communication Model

The model also implies that
communication is not a one-
way or linear process and
therefore, suitable to explain
processes in interpersonal
communication.

All communication models generally have the
following components :
 Source or sender, who encodes
ideas into codes (verbal and non-
verbal codes).
 Message.
 Channel or medium of transferring
message.
 Receiver, who decodes the
message into codes that can be
understood

• Communication is a dynamic and
complicated process.
• The process of communication
may change from time to time
depending on the context.
e) Context of Communication

Psychological Context
• Refers to wants, needs, values,
and personalities of the
communicators.
• In interpersonal communication,
an interaction between two
communicators may turn into a
conflict if any one or both of
them are in different
psychological contexts.

Relational Context
• To the level of trust, self-
disclosure, power, and control.
• Related to each other either by
circumstances such as
relationships between family
members or co-workers or by
choice as in relationships
between a husband and a wife or
between intimate friends.
• can be impersonal (formal) or
personal (informal).

Situational Context
• Refers to the physical settings or
environment of communication such
as in formal meetings or informal
social functions.
• In formal meetings, there is etiquette
to be followed but in informal social
gatherings, we sometimes omit the
use of protocols or titles in our
communication because the
environment doesn't seem
appropriate for such formality.

Cultural Context
• refers to the elements of culture
that influence the interaction
between the communicators.
• Communicating with people from
different cultures is sometimes very
confusing because there is
information not explicitly
communicated through language
such as environmental or nonverbal
cues (Beebe, Beebe, and
Redmond, 1999).
• we may have to apply different
communication styles to people
from the low-context culture and the
high-context culture.

• Different scholars
describe communication
differently because they
study and observe it
through different
perspectives.

a) Perspectives in defining
communication

The Linear Perspective
• it as a one-way communication
process.
• One-way communication
minimizes the importance of
feedbacks, where the source
does not know whether the
receivers have received the
message as there is no
feedback from the receivers.

• A good example to demonstrate the
process of a linear communication
perspective is in mass
communication.
• It involves a communicator with large
audiences such as a speaker
delivering a speech on the radio or a
news anchorman reading the news
on TV.
• In both these situations, there is only
a one-way communication process,
where the receivers are not able to
give feedbacks on the message
received.

The Interactional Perspective
• In the 1940s and early 1950s, our
understanding of the communication
process was as an interaction or
exchange of message. This
perspective emphasizes the following
components in a communication
process.
• Feedback: the response to the
message.
• Context: the physical and
psychological environment of the

• Although the interactional
perspective is regarded as a
two-way communication
process, communication still
occurs in a limited linear
process.

The Transactional Perspective
• Originated from communication models
formulated by scholars during the
1960s.
• It explains communication as a
transaction or the formation of
messages based on the following
process.
• Both communicators send and receive
messages simultaneously.
• During the transaction, both
communicators mutually encode
messages and decode symbols. The
process of communication is said to
occur simultaneously. It is not only a
process of exchanging messages.
• The sending and receiving of messages
take place in episodic stages involving
mutual influencing between the
communicators.

• The linear perspective is observed in
mass communication involving large
audiences and a communicator.
• The interactional and transactional
perspectives are observed in
interpersonal communication.

• The interactional perspective is best
illustrated in computer-mediated
communication (CMC) or in
telephone conversations.
• Nonverbal messages in CMC or
telephone conversations are very
limited and verbal messages are
transferred and received in a linear
fashion.
• The transactional perspective is
associated with interpersonal, face
to face communication.
• Communication is said to occur
simultaneously and messages are
encoded and decoded continuously
through nonverbal cues during the
transaction.

b) Levels of Communication
• Every educational level
differs in terms of age and
the knowledge acquired.
• Like education and our
biological life,
communication has its levels
too.

Intrapersonal Communication
• Is a communication within oneself
or someone interacts with him or
her own self.
• Also known as monologue,
intrapersonal communication does
not involve other people but only
one communicator.
• Helps us analyze and evaluate
ourselves.
• It is also useful in the process of
making decisions or changing
behaviors.

Interpersonal Communication
• Is a two-way communication between
two communicators.
• Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond (1999)
define interpersonal communication as
"a special form of human
communication that occurs when we
interact simultaneously with another
person and mutually influence each
other, usually for the purpose of
managing relationships".
• Interpersonal communication serves
many functions, include improvements
in family relationships, relationships with
friends and colleagues as well as
physical and emotional health.

Small Group Communication
• Is a two-way communication
involving three to twelve people in a
group.
• According to Cragan and Wright
(1999), a small group is defined as
"a few people engaged in
communication interaction over time,
usually in face-to-face settings, and
have common goals in an
interdependent manner".
• To share information, search ideas,
solve problems, and help each other.

Public Communication
• Refers to a communication, whereby a
speaker addresses a relatively large
audience with a relatively continuous
discourse, usually in a face-to-face
situation (DeVito, 1997).
• The speaker in public communication acts
as a provider of information with
continuous talk.
• The speaker communicates by delivering
the speech and the audience by
responding to the speech with feedbacks.
• Public communication serves the
functions of informing, persuading,
entertaining, and influencing the audience.

Mass Communication
• Is a one-way communication that
involves a sender and the public
through various media channels.
• Occurred when an organization
"employs a technology as a medium to
communicate with a large audience"
(Baran and Davies, 2000).
• Serves the functions of informing,
persuading, entertaining, and
influencing (although very seldom) the
masses.
• Is an effective means to reinforce the
beliefs, values, and behaviors of the
target audiences.

c) Communication Breakdownc) Communication Breakdown
1) Is a phenomenon where the
message delivered does not
reach the recipient, or is
misinterpreted.
2) Can cause many problems in any
institution, be it family unit,
businesses or large
organizations.

The factors that lead to communication blockagesThe factors that lead to communication blockages
Communication breakdown is often
caused by three factors namely:
communication climate,
psychological disturbance, and
language.

Communication ClimateCommunication Climate
Is one of the factors that can
contribute to communication
breakdown.
Like the weather we experience
everyday, communication climate can
be warm, cold, stormy, or may be
healthy.
A good communication climate
creates a positive atmosphere where
communicators involved in the
communication are able to
communicate productively with each
other.

•Two types of communication climate, that is, positive and
negative.
• Positive communication climate is sometimes termed as
confirming communication.
•According to Adler and Towne (1999), confirming communication
occurs on three increasingly positive levels that is:
e.g.: replying an e-mail message to a friend or visiting a
friend.
The ideas and feelings of others. For example, when we
listen attentively to our friend it is a form of
acknowledgement or confirming communication.
(to agree with the other communicator). A sincere praise
can also be considered as an endorsement, for example,
"You did a great job, thank you".

In contrast, negative
communication climate is known
as disconfirming communication.
A disconfirming communication in
a defensive climate may cause
communication breakdown.

communication climate, also
refer to physical climate or
environment such as
culture, technology, and
social structure that can
create communication
breakdowns if we fail to
identify and understand
their significance in
communication.

Psychological DisturbancePsychological Disturbance
Personal factors such as our
behavior, emotion, and cognitive
competency contributes to
communication breakdowns.
For example, our communication
with others may be more effective if
we are more self-confident. On the
other hand, we may find it difficult to
influence others if we have low self-
concept or esteem.

Emotion can ruin our
communication with others if
not properly managed.
We often fail to control our
communication if we cannot
control our anger but our
positive emotion always
leads us to a better
communication and
understanding of others.

Emotion can be a channel of our
message.
Example, facial expression may
determine the type of
communication climate that will
take place in our communication
with others.
Facial expression suggesting
sadness may interfere with others'
jovial and lively conversation.
Emotion of fear or anxiety can
interfere with our voice intonation
causing distortion to the message
we want to convey to others.

LanguageLanguage
Communication is affected when
the message we convey does not
share the same interpretation or
meaning with our audience.
Sometimes, we fail to share
meanings of messages because
we do not speak the same
language as others.

Language has a great impact on
effective communication.
Proper and precise use of language
will avoid ambiguity.
The use of destructive language such
as sharp personal criticism and static
evaluation must always be avoided.
We must be wise in applying
equivocation, abstraction, euphemism,
and relative language to avoid
breakdowns in our communication.

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
• An effective communication way attained if there are feedback from
the receiver, reduction in the level of noise, and the right context pr
environment of the communication.
• They are many models formulated to describe definitions of
communication, but generally the all from following components is
source or sender, who encodes idea into codes (verbal and non
verbal codes).
• A successful communication knows how to communicate in different
context of communication and adapt easily to the changes.
• Different perspectives imply different effect of communication.
• Different communication processes occur at different level of
communication.
• Communication breakdown is a sign a interaction failure and
meaningless communication.

a) Elements of communication
b) Other vital elements of communication
d) Brief history
e) Context of communication
a) Perspectives in defining communication
b) Levels of communication
c) Communication breakdown

THATS ALLTHATS ALL
THANK YOUTHANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONSANY QUESTIONS

INTERPERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS- C.1-2

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INTERPERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS- C.1-2