 As you may recall from one of my previous videos, or may just know already, there are different forms of communication, right? There's public communication, like public speaking. There's mass communication. There's communication in groups. But in this video, I want to focus in on communication that takes place between two people, and more specifically, two people that are in a relationship of some sort. So we're going to focus on what's called interpersonal communication. So we want to define in this video what we mean by interpersonal communication and what separates it from other kinds of communication, and even what separates it from just what we call dyadic communication, any communication between two people. So we're going to try and separate some of these things for you. So interpersonal communication in a broader sense is just communication between two people in the context of a relationship. And when we say relationship, we're talking about could be a romantic relationship, could be friendship. It could be a family relationship, but it could even just be a relationship that you have in the workplace, a non-romantic relationship, a connection that you have with coworkers that exist in the workplace. So any kind of relationship, though, communication that is between two people in the context of a relationship is defined as interpersonal communication. And that separates it from some different other types of communication, like mass communication and public communication, because it's between two people specifically, and involves a relationship, but it's also separated from what we call dyadic communication, d-y-a-d-i-c dyadic, meaning two. Not all communication that takes place between two people is necessarily interpersonal. It could be what we call impersonal. So we're going to separate a little bit here what we define as an interpersonal experience from some of those other things, including impersonal. So let's take a look at the characteristics of interpersonal communication. What's involved, if we say something is interpersonal, it needs to have these factors involved in it. So first, there's uniqueness. Interpersonal relationships are unique. They're different. They're all distinct from one another. There's a sense of uniqueness. There's not an interchangeability in an interpersonal relationship, an interpersonal context or experience. You can't just take one person out, throw somebody else in, and have it be the same. There's a uniqueness to that relationship. Now, when we go to Walmart, for example, if you're checking out at Walmart, does it matter which line you go to? I mean, probably anymore. You go to the self checkout line, but if you were to check out with a person, is there a massive difference? Is there a relationship that exists between you and the cashier, assuming you don't know them beforehand? No. You go to one checkout lane, it's going to be basically the same experience. Some are a little faster or a little friendlier or whatever, but it's going to be, here's your total and here's what you owe, and thanks for shopping at Walmart. Those are what we call impersonal experiences because they're not unique. There's nothing distinct or really separate about that relationship. You could have basically the same experience going through any one of those lines. So interpersonal communication involves relationships that are unique and distinct from other relationships. They also involve interdependence. Interdependence is just this sort of connectedness that you are linked to this other person, that what happens to one person affects what happens to the other. It's sort of like when you throw a stone in a calm pond and you see those ripples. In fact, that affects every part of the pond then eventually, right? Or if you make one change to an ecosystem, then it affects everything involved in that ecosystem. In the same way, these relationships involve interdependence. When your friend comes over and they're in a really bad mood, they broke up with their girlfriend or they're at a loss for a job or whatever, and they're sad. That affects you too. You're sad for them and it impacts your emotions and what you're doing that day. Friend comes over and they broke up with their girlfriend. You might as well cancel your plans because you've got to spend some time consoling and talking to this person and things in the same way in a family relationship. If somebody in that nuclear family loses their job, it impacts everybody else in the family. There's a system there and there's an interdependence between those people. This connectedness, this interlocking system in interpersonal relationships that's not there. If something happens to a complete stranger, you might feel bad for them for a second, but it doesn't really impact your life, right? So there's not that interdependence. Interpersonal relationships involve a sense of interdependence. They also involve a degree of self-disclosure, right? When we are in a relationship with somebody, again, romantic friendship, family, whatever, there's a sense of we disclose about ourselves. We tell them about ourselves. We share things and they share things with us. When you check out at Walmart, you're probably not divulging your deepest darkest secrets, right? That would be considered inappropriate there. In interpersonal relationships, again, whether it's romantic, whether it's friendship, whether it's family, whether it's a coworker, when we're sharing things, sharing about ourselves and having those moments of self-disclosure, that's a characteristic that has to be there for it to be considered an interpersonal relationship. And finally, interpersonal relationships involve intrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards. Now, intrinsic rewards are if we do something because it feels good to us on the inside. There's no explicit reward, for example. If we're running this race and there's a cash prize at the end, that's an extrinsic reward. If we win, we get this money, that's an extrinsic reward. But a lot of people compete in marathons and they have no intention of winning. They don't expect to win this marathon. But man, they do it because there's some sort of intrinsic reward that's driving them, right? This is the sense of completion that they've done it, the sense of accomplishment. That's an intrinsic reward. And in the same way relationships carry, interpersonal relationships involve intrinsic rewards. We get things not extrinsic. You could have extrinsic rewards in these relationships, too. If your friend is a pool and you get to go use it every once in a while, that's an extrinsic reward. But intrinsic rewards are things like joy and loyalty and a sense of comfort with the other person, a level of comfort, the ability to self-disclose things about yourself. Those are all intrinsic rewards. They don't carry any tangible or monetary value or anything like that, but they are still critically important. We don't have those kinds of rewards outside of interpersonal relationships with just people we don't know, we don't really get those intrinsic rewards in the same way. So interpersonal relationships don't need to involve these four things. If it's not unique, if it doesn't involve interdependence and self-disclosure and intrinsic rewards, then it's not an interpersonal relationship and the guidelines and rules of interpersonal communication wouldn't necessarily apply in the same way. So when we consider interpersonal relationships, we need to remember that it involves these distinct characteristics and then involves communication between two people within a relationship. Other types of communication are a little different, so we need to understand what's involved in interpersonal communication so that we can be more effective and competent in our communication in those situations. If you have questions about anything related to interpersonal communication, including what establishes an interpersonal relationship or the characteristics of interpersonal relationships, please feel free to email me. I'd be happy to chat with you about it via email. Otherwise, I hope that you will begin to examine these relationships and how they might be demonstrating those different characteristics and how that might influence your communication so that you can become a more effective communicator.