We explain what interpersonal communication is and the codes that influence it. In addition, the elements that it comprises.
What is interpersonal communication?
Interpersonal communication is called the exchange of information that usually occurs between people who share a physical space, that is, who cohabit and therefore find themselves in the need to emit and receive messages to regulate or organize the coexistence. This can refer to various areas, such as home, work, the street, etc.
When speaking of interpersonal communication, however, it is not only alluded to the verbal one, that is, to the one carried out by the language. It is clear that Humans we distinguish ourselves from animals precisely because of our ability to organize and communicate our reality by means of a system of signs represented sonically and graphically (the spoken and written language respectively), but it is not exclusively through this mechanism that we transmit information to ourselves.
For example, interpersonal communication is also influenced by other types of code, such as proxemics ("personal space"), pragmatics (contextual content), body language, and other forms of non-verbal communication that, however, allow two people to share certain senses and meanings.
Many times this communication Non-verbal takes place without taking consciousness into account, that is, automatically or symptomatically, without express intention of the issuer. This is what happens during flirting, for example.
In this way, we understand by interpersonal communication the set of transmission relations and information encoding that occurs between two or more people, or even the set of abilities that a person possesses to deal with such relationships.
For example, when we say that someone "has terrible relationships”, We mean that this type of communication situation is difficult for him or that he usually comes out badly out of it, regardless of the area in question.
Comunication elements
Every communicative process, it should be noted, is made up of a series of elements, which are:
- Transmitter. The one who emits the message, that is, the one who sets in motion the communication mechanism. A sender, except in certain monodirectional contexts (in which communication flows from one side to the other only), does not usually only play that role, but alternates it with that of receiver: speaking, for example, and then listening .
- Receiver. Similarly, the receiver is the one who receives the transmitted message and decodes it to retrieve the information inside. In the case of the speech act, it is equivalent to the listener. Again, a receiver never remains purely passive, but alternates positions with the sender.
- Channel. The physical medium used for the transmission of the message. It can be him air through which sound waves travel, it can be a paper on which the message is printed, or many other means. For communication to occur, the channel must be clear of obstacles or barriers and available to be used.
- Code. Every message has an encoding, that is, a key to understand and order its senses. We call these keys, for example, in verbal language languages or languages: a conventional, social ordering of the signs that make up a language. Thus, the message code must be handled by both sender and receiver, for communication to take place.
- Message. In this context, the message is the content of the information, that is, what you want to transmit to the receiver, whatever it is.