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Interpersonal CommunicationModule Two

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Communication In Your Life• Communication is the process of using verbal and nonverbal messages to generate meaning across various contexts, cultures, and channels.

• Although we communicate all the time, we can always learn how to communicate better.

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• A national survey of 1,000 human resource managers concluded that oral communication skills are the most critical factor for obtaining jobs and advancing in a career.

• Fortune 500 companies claim the college graduates they employ need stronger communication skills as well as a demonstrated ability to work in teams and with people from diverse backgrounds.

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So What?....

• We need to learn how to apply interpersonal communication theories, strategies, and skills to multiple communication contexts.

• Complete the following in your EZ Guide

What Do You believe About Interpersonal Communication?

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Respond to each of the following statements with T (true) if you think the statement is always or usually true, or F (false) if you think the statement is always or usually false.

1. Good communicators are born, not made.2. The more you communicate the better your

communication will be.3. Unlike effective speaking, effective listening

really cannot be taught.4. Opening lines such as “Hello, how are you?” or

“Fine weather today” serve no useful communication purpose.

5. The best way to communicate with someone from another culture is exactly as you would with someone from your own culture.

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6. When verbal and nonverbal messages contradict each other, people believe the verbal message.

7. Complete openness should be the goal of any meaningful interpersonal relationship.

8. Interpersonal conflict is a reliable sign that your relationship is in trouble.

9. Like good communicators, small-group leaders are born, not made.

10.Fear of speaking is detrimental, and the effective speaker must learn to eliminate it.

How did you do?

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What will you do?

• This is a good time to start practicing the critical thinking skill of questioning commonly held assumptions about communication and about thinking of yourself as a communicator.

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Know Yourself• Answer the following questions: YES or NO• Personal: Do I have meaningful personal relationships with close friends, relatives, and romantic partners?• Professional: Do I communicate effectively within and on behalf of a business, organization, or work team?• Educational: Do I demonstrate what I have learned in collegiate, corporate, and other training settings?• Intercultural: Do I understand, respect, and adapt to people from diverse backgrounds?• Intellectual: Do I analyze and evaluate the meaning of multiple and complex messages in an ever changing world?• Societal: Do I critically analyze and appropriately respond to public and mediated messages?• Ethical: Do I apply ethical standards to personal and public communication in a variety of situations?

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Communication Principles

• Communication is a process – that is constantly moving and the elements interact with one another to bring about a result.• The characteristics of other communicators can affect your communication• Communication is a psychological, emotional and behavioural process that asks you to make multiple, interdependent decisions about how you will use verbal and non verbal messages to generate meaning.

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Communication Principles (cont)

• Ensure you understand how your characteristics and attitudes affect the way you communicate

• Communication is relational; the nature of your relationship with others affects what , when, where, why, and how you communicate

• What you and others are trying to accomplish by communicating – is purposeful

1.Know yourself

2. Connect with others

3.Determine your purpose

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Communication Principles (cont)

4. Adapt to the context

5. Select appropriate content

• The context is the circumstances and setting in which the communication takes place

• Enlist the power of good ideas and language; since there is no tangible relationship between a symbol, the thing it represents, and how you may feel about it, there is always potential for misunderstanding

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Communication Principles (cont)

6. Structure your message

7. Practice skillful expressions

• Refers to how the components or parts of something are assembled and arranged to form a whole – organize message into a coherent and purposeful order

• You can’t undo communication; it is irreversible; interpersonal communication channels are the physical and electronic media through which we express messages

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Communication Models • Communication models:• Identify the basic components in the communication process•Show how the various components related to and interact with one another•Help explain why a communicative act succeeds or fails

The Elements of Interpersonal Communication

• Source-Receiver• Encoding-Decoding• Messages• Message Overload• Feedback• Feedforward

• Channel• Noise• Context

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Encoder

Participants

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Encoder

Participants

Sending Channel

Decoder

Meaning

Encoder

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Encoder

Participants

Sending Channel

Decoder

Meaning

Encoder

Feedback Channel

Decoder

Meaning

Noise

Noise

Context Context

Context Context17

Messages

Verbal and non-verbal messages thatexpress your thoughts and feelings;

must besent and received.

•Message Overload• Feedback• Feedforward

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Channel

The medium through which message signals pass. The channel works like a bridge connecting source and receiver.

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Noise

Anything that interferes with either sending or receiving a message.

• Physical• Physiological• Psychological• Semantic• For examples, see Table 1.1 on page 6

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Four Types of Noise

Type of Noise Definition Example

Physical Interference that is external to both speaker and listener; interferes with the physical transmission of the signal or message

Screeching of passing cars, hum of computer, sunglasses

Physiological Physical barriers within the speaker or listener

Visual impairments, hearing loss, articulation problems, memory loss

Psychological Cognitive or mental interference Biases and prejudices in senders and receivers, closed-mindedness, inaccurate expectations, extreme emotionalism (anger, hate, love, grief)

Semantic Different meanings assigned by speaker and listener

Language difference, use of jargon or overly complex terms not understood by listener

Context

The environment that influences the form and content of communication.

•Physical•Cultural•Social-Psychological•Temporal (timing)

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Context – the Setting

• Physical – where communication takes place, the environment, the distance between participants, seating, time of day• Social – the nature of the

relationship • Historical – the background of

previous communication• Psychological – the moods and

feelings• Cultural – the set of beliefs, values,

and norms that are shared by a large group of people

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Critical Thinking

• Competence in interpersonal communication depends on critical thinking• Critical thinking is logical thinking; it’s

thinking that is well reasoned, unbiased, and clear• It enables you to ask and answer questions of clarification or challenge, to draw and evaluate conclusions, and to organize your thoughts and speak or write them coherently.

The Nature of Critical Thinking

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• Critical thinking is the thought process you use to analyze what you read, see, or hear to arrive at a logical conclusion or decision

• Good critical thinkers know how to develop and defend a position on an issue, ask probing questions, be open-minded, and draw reasonable conclusions. They are highly skilled listeners.

Critical Thinking About Claims

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• A claim is a statement that identifies your belief or position on a particular issue or topic.• Critical thinkers know how to separate claims of fact ( a statement that can be proved true or false) from claims of inference•An inference is a conclusion based on claims of fact•When you accept an inference as a fact, you are jumping to conclusions that may not be accurate

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Critical Thinking About Fallacies

• A fallacy is an error in thinking that has the potential to mislead or deceive others; can be intentional or unintentional. Fallacies:• Attacking the person – attacking the person rather than the content of the message• Appeal to authority – when a supposed expert has no relevant experience on the issues being discussed• Appeal to popularity – claims an action is acceptable or excusable because many people are doing it• Appeal to tradition – a certain action should be followed because that is the way it was done in the past• Faulty cause – when you claim a particular event or situation is the cause of another event before considering other possible causes•Hasty generalization – you jump to a conclusion based on too little evidence or too few experiences

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The Nature of Reflective Practice

• Reflection refers to critically thinking about an experience as it occurs or after it occurs; it is part of the learning process and takes time and practice

• To reflect meaningfully, use effective listening, critical thinking skills, and objective observations

• The intention of reflective practice is to gain clearer and deeper understanding of our experiences; it involves taking the time to review and ask questions to understand yourself and others

Your TurnThink critically about interpersonal communication, keeping the following ideas in mind.

• The study of interpersonal communication involves theory, research, and practical skills for increasing interpersonal effectiveness. A knowledge of theory will help you better understand the skills, and a knowledge of skills will help you understand theory.

• The principles discussed throughout this course relate directly to your everyday interactions. To help make this material easier to assimilate, try to recall examples from your own communications to illustrate the ideas considered in the course.

• Be willing to change your ways of communicating and even your ways of thinking about interpersonal communication. Carefully assess what you should strengthen or revise and what you should leave as is.

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• Complete the question – Can you give an example of a situation in which you experimented with ways of communicating different from your usual?

• Regarding this course, answer the eight questions from the “Questions Implied by the Universal Structures of Thought”

• These are in your EZ Guide. Please complete them there.

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Communication Theories, Strategies and Skills

• Theories: statements that explain how the world works; describe, explain, and predict events and behaviour• Communication theories come from observation, empirical research, scholarship – they help you understand what is happening when you communicate and why it is sometimes effective and sometimes ineffective• Learning about theories will not make you a more effective communicator

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• Strategies are the specific plans of action you select to help you communicate• Strategies are based on theories; if you don’t understand theory, you won’t know why strategies work in one situation and fail in another• Strategies based on theory help you understand when, where, why, and how to use a particular strategy most effectively• Learning about strategies is not enough

Communication Theories, Strategies and Skills (cont)

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• Skills are the tools or techniques you use to communicate. They are:• How to be more assertive• How to think critically• How to resolve conflicts• How to speak clearly• How to organize a message• How to explain complex concepts or persuade

others

• Skills are most effective when based on theory

Communication Theories, Strategies and Skills (cont)

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Communication Theories, Strategies and Skills (cont)

• Knowledge plays a role similar to theories and strategies: it describes what to do and why to do it. Skills represent how to do it

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Communicating Ethically

• Communication has consequences• Is it fair?• Is it right?• Is it deceptive?

•Ethics requires an understanding of whether communication behaviours meet agreed-on standards of right and wrong

Is It Ethical to

• Exaggerate your virtues to get a job?• Tell the truth if it causes hurt feelings?•Hold threats or promises over someone?• Ignore someone else’s cheating?•Conceal your emotions from your partner?•Swear you’ll keep a secret—and then tell it?

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Your turn again! • Complete “Check Your Ability” in EZ Guide

• Please bring laptops to next class. If you don’t have access to one, get one from the library. You will need your student ID card.

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Wait a minute… we are not quite done…

• Please go to your EZ Guide in www.thebusinesscore.com to complete your assignments.