How Self-Concept, Perception, and Emotion Impact Interpersonal Communication

How Self-Concept, Perception, and Emotion Impact Interpersonal Communication
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How Self-Concept, Perception, and Emotion Impact Interpersonal Communication
Whether we are aware of it or not, we bring our personality when we communicate with other people. The words we use to relate our message to others are really just vehicles for us to communicate how we see ourselves in relation to our environment, how we perceive the world around us and how people and our environment make us feel. This article explores how our self concept, perceptions and emotions shapes the way we communicate with others, and predicts the outcomes of these interactions.
Interpersonal communication is "the on-going, ever-changing process that occurs when one person interacts with another person" ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "URL" : "/gambleic/study/flashcards/fc1.htm", "accessed" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015", "6", "27" ] ] }, "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Gamble", "given" : "Teri Kwal", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Gamble", "given" : "Michael W.", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "Interpersonal Communication: Building Connections Together", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015" ] ] }, "title" : "Interpersonal Communication", "type" : "webpage" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=6b464837-270c-4590-b24c-203f56135f5d" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Gamble & Gamble, 2015a)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Gamble & Gamble, 2015a)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Gamble & Gamble, 2015a)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Gamble & Gamble, 2015a), the sending and receiving of information between two people. Though interpersonal communication happens in a dyad, it various components: the sender, the message, the channel and the receiver ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "URL" : "http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-interpersonal-communication-in-the-workplace-definition-process-examples.html", "accessed" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015", "6", "27" ] ] }, "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Study.Com Staff", "given" : "", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "Study.Com", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015" ] ] }, "title" : "What Is Interpersonal Communication in the Workplace? - Definition, Process & Examples", "type" : "webpage" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=79669543-14b2-4fab-8566-9023a510f32c" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Study.Com Staff, 2015)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Study.Com Staff, 2015)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Study.Com Staff, 2015)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Study.Com Staff, 2015). The sender composes and encodes the message – from a mental thought, the sender has to form words to be able to communicate his thoughts to another person. Once encoding is completed, the sender now has to decide the channel of communication – will an email suffice for the message to be understood, or will he schedule a face-to-face conversation? What verbal and non-verbal cues can he use to better communicate his thoughts? Once the sender has communicated his message, it is now up to the receiver to decode the message. If the message was delivered through an email, the receiver now has to make sense of the punctuation marks used, the sentence structure, even the capitalization of the letters to better understand what the sender meant. If the message was delivered personally, the receiver can look at non-verbal cues to discern what else the sender is trying to say. Misunderstandings can happen when the sender uses the wrong words to communicate his message. For example, in a typical argument between a couple, the man may ask, "Is there something wrong?" and the woman answers "Nothing" with a hardened voice, the man may get the real message – is the woman really saying that nothing is wrong? Why is there a need for the hard voice? Is she perhaps angry? Why then say "nothing" when in fact something is wrong? Interpersonal communication in a personal relationship is important, but even more so at work, when plans and goals are at stake.
To a certain degree, interpersonal communication is named as such because we bring our personality to the interaction. And in order for interpersonal communication to be effective, both the sender and receiver must have a degree of self-awareness: "Self-awareness helps you identify the actions required to behave competently in different situations. The more self-aware you are, the more able you are to manage your own behaviour and your ability to adapt your behaviour to changing circumstances is greater" ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "URL" : "http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/workplaces-interpersonal.cfm", "accessed" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015", "6", "27" ] ] }, "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Community Foundations of Canada", "given" : "", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "HR Council", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015" ] ] }, "title" : "Workplaces that Work", "type" : "webpage" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=da9338e6-dc63-4efa-b305-3f85669db23a" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Community Foundations of Canada, 2015)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Community Foundations of Canada, 2015)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Community Foundations of Canada, 2015)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Community Foundations of Canada, 2015). Self-awareness is all about being aware of your self-concept, your "subjective description of who you are" ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Beebe", "given" : "Steven", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Beebe", "given" : "Susan J.", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "V.", "family" : "Redmond", "given" : "Mark", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Geerinck", "given" : "Terri M.", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "edition" : "Canada", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2009" ] ] }, "publisher" : "Peason Education Canada", "title" : "Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=7c73b911-d8e6-405b-94a0-c753c38669ff" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Beebe, Beebe, Redmond, & Geerinck, 2009)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Beebe, Beebe, Redmond, & Geerinck, 2009)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Beebe, Beebe, Redmond, & Geerinck, 2009)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Beebe, Beebe, Redmond, & Geerinck, 2009), your preconceptions of others, your perceptions, as well as your emotional responses to situations. "I am good", "I am a good friend", "I am trustworthy", "If people get to know me better, they will not like me", "I am a terrible person" are all statements showing a person’s self concept. It is first affected by our interaction with our family, and later on develops as we further interact with others.
Perception is defined as "the process used to make sense of experience" ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "URL" : "/gambleic/study/flashcards/fc3.htm", "accessed" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2015", "6", "27" ] ] }, "author"...