Interpersonal Communication Theories Essay

Identify Three Concepts from Any of the Interpersonal Communication Theories Interpersonal communication is as important as life itself for most of the people on this planet. Humans are social creatures, mostly, and the ways of communication are very important for building a healthy society through the construction of relationships between individuals. There are numerous theories of interpersonal communication that explain the process of building and supporting relationships with people around. The theory of Symbolic Interaction is one of such (Nelson). It has the following idea as base: people form some meaning and structure of everything around in a society using interactions. Then, people act according to the meanings they give to other people, events, things, etc. Moreover, the theory presupposes that the entire world is made of such social objects, named and determined by a society beforehand (Nelson). The theory has the following main concepts: society, self, and mind. Society. The basic social acts (the ones that create meaning only) must involve some kind of initial gesture from a person. Then, this act must receive some kind of response to this gesture from another person. Finally, some kind of result appears (Nelson). Life of any person is full of such moments, especially in childhood and youth. It is so because when a person learns new concepts and models of behavior, learning the life, this individual does something and then has to see the response to this action and only then this person will know what kind of act it is. The simplest example is smoking. Being a child, I was not aware that smoking is bad because I did not know about it. Then, at school, kids have been told that smoking is bad. However, children are maximalists, usually. We all have tried smoking and then it was considered as cool thing s because other kids gave the response that it was cool. Then, parents explained why it was bad and the problem was solved. Self. Understanding oneself is conditioned and shaped by interactions with others and the way they percept this person (Nelson). Most of people are worried about what others would say about them. Thus, self is usually defined based on the opinions of others regarding the personality of each individual. The best example is as follows: I came to study in a new school. The way I looked and acted from the beginning made the kids around me consider me as a normal, cool person. Therefore, my self image was shaped and supported by their attitude. Mind. People see how objects can be defined according to their understanding of how it is possible to react to them. Thus, people are able to think using significant symbols in order to respond to oneself (Nelson). In other words, people give objects meaning through symbolic thinking. As the example, the following case can be provided: when I was little, it was necessary to learn how to write. While I was not good at it, the pen and paper were my enemies and I did not like to do this exercise. However, after a series of attempts something started to come out. Thus, I gave these objects other meaning. It all happened because I reacted differently to these objects within some period giving them symbolic meaning. Symbolic thinking is the base of our perception of the world. Works Cited Nelson, L. D. Herbert Blumer’s Symbolic Interactionism. 1998. Web. 26 January 2012 .