Communication | Interpersonal & Intrapersonal communication | Communication | | Chris Galvin (17958730) | 7/22/2015 |

The idea of this paper is to look at the differences and advantages/dis-advantages with interpersonal and intrapersonal communication not so much in a work setting but more in a everyday life setting encompassing work life; home life and school life and the ways they all seem to tie into each other. |

In the not too long but somewhat varied experiences that I have found myself in through say the last 30 years one thing that I have learned about the way people communicate is that not one person does it the same way as the next. Everyone has their own styles or preferences that they use when they are communicating whether it be interpersonal or intrapersonal, some people will not always realize that someone else is around and those that do may not think about it too much.

Communication can be either a private matter or a consensual matter; Interpersonal communication does have ties with self-awareness. I have found in certain circumstances that I do in fact become self-aware when I am using intrapersonal communication. Meichenbaum for example, states that "In psychology, the term inner speech usually signifies soundless, mental speech, arising at the instant we think about something, plan or solve problems in our mind, recall books read or conversations heard, read and write silently. In all such instances we think and remember with the aid of words which we articulate to ourselves. Inner speech is nothing but speech to oneself, or concealed verbalization, which is instrumental to the logical processing of sensory data, in their realization and comprehension within a definite system of concepts and judgments”. (Meichenbaum, 1977)

Communication is one of those human activities that everyone recognizes but few can define satisfactorily. Communication is discourse in rhetorical field; it emphasizes rhetoric especially in political communication and oral communication. It is defined as interaction, mutual activity, and statement in social psychology. So what then is the difference between Interpersonal and intrapersonal communication?

The difference is that "interpersonal" refers to relationships or actions that take place between two or more people while "intrapersonal" refers to things that go on exclusively within one person. Intrapersonal communication takes place within a single person, often for the purpose of clarifying ideas or analyzing a situation. Other times, intrapersonal communication is undertaken in order to reflect upon or appreciate something. Three aspects of intrapersonal communication are self-concept, perception and expectation.

* Self-concept is the basis for intrapersonal communication, because it determines how a persona sees him/herself and is oriented toward others. Self-concept (also called self-awareness) involves three factors: beliefs, values and attitudes. * Perception of the outside world is so closely intertwined with self-concept that one feeds off the other, creating a harmonious understanding of both oneself and one’s world. * Expectations are future-oriented messages dealing with long-term roles, sometimes called life scripts.

Interpersonal communication must occur between two or more people to be effective in any sense. It can come in many different forms, and much like intrapersonal communication it can have either a negative or a positive impact on some ones day, week, or even month. Caution is advisable if you are in a foul mood and about to engage in interpersonal communication. One thing about interpersonal communication is that you want to achieve some sort of commonality in the process.

Where having some common ground with the target listener be they an individual of a group of people. Reaching that point of commonality in some cases can be a key point and can help diffuse a potentially volatile situation between people. According to a current definition (Echterhoff, Higgins et al., 2009; also see Echterhoff, 2010), shared reality is the product of the motivated process of experiencing a commonality of inner states (e.g. attitudes, impressions, or judgments) about the world.

Judgments about the world in my experiences can and will most times lead to a “biasing” in the interpersonal communication process. Shared reality is not always something people openly delve in to but it is a version of commonality that is sometimes achieved without knowing. Interpersonal communication occurs a lot in the years that one would be in Junior high school due to the fact that adolescents are more self-concerned with their image in the eyes of their peers. This is one common mistake (in my eyes) that is made by the junior high and high school students make is caring too much about what other people think about them.

References 1. Meichenbaum, D (1977) Cognitive Behavior Modification: An Integrative Approach. New York NY: Plenum. 2. (Echterhoff, Higgins et al., 2009; also see Echterhoff, 2010) 3.