The Nature and Function of Intrapersonal Communication

Intrapersonal communication occurs within the self. This means that the sender of the message is also the receiver of the message and the one who provides feedback. Intrapersonal communication serves to clarify ideas, provide self-reflection and analyze situations. In clarifying ideas, an individual may engage in self-talk to develop a clearer meaning of a piece of information. Also, people can use intrapersonal communication to develop self-reflection of the past and develop a direction for the future. Individuals can also use intrapersonal communication to analyze situations after an event has happened. Some of the methods of intrapersonal communication include writing diaries or journals, self-talk such as talking silently to oneself, reading or thinking aloud, thinking, concentrating, or daydreaming. During intrapersonal communication, an individual reflects on and gives feedback on the elements that facilitate one's self-concept, such as physical and psychological status, ideal view of oneself, feelings and moods, social roles and traits, talents, intellectual capacity, and beliefs. Aristotle defines rhetoric as the ability to see something persuasive in any case. As such, a rhetorician is someone who views persuasive elements in any case. This does not mean that a rhetorician is able to convince characters in all circumstances. Rather, the rhetorician is viewed as being in a state similar to a physician. The physician has extensive knowledge of his art and uses these skills to heal his patients ( Newman, 2001). However, a physician is not able to heal every patient. Similarly, a rhetorician has extensive knowledge of his art if he understands the available means of persuasion. However, a rhetorician cannot convince everybody. Aristotelian rhetoric is a neutral tool that can be used by virtuous people to cause great benefits or bad people to cause harm. For example, orators can use rhetoric to outwit their audience and conceal their real aims since anyone who wants to communicate the truth can use a straightforward method that would not require the use of rhetorical tools. Nonverbal communication involves the use of functions such as facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact to convey the message. Nonverbal communication can be used to influence other people into portraying behaviors consistent with what the massager wants. For example, individuals can use nonverbal cues to communicate a critical or unpleasant message to influence another person's reaction. The ability of nonverbal cues to influence can be likened to the influence of synapses on the information being passed through the neurons. Nonverbal communication can also be used to regulate the flow of communication. As such, individuals do not need to constantly interrupt others or wait in awkward silences waiting for another speaker to talk. This is similar to how the synapse junctions regulate the flow of electrical impulses across the neurons. Nonverbal communication also affects relationships. To successfully relate with other people, individuals should be able to encode and decode nonverbal communication. The nonverbal messages that individuals send and receive influence their relationships positively or negatively. This function can be likened to the role of the synapses in passing electrical information from one neuron to the other. The passage of an electrical impulse indicates that the synapses have created a good relationship between the neurons. Persuasion is a powerful force that changes the attitudes and behaviors of other people. In this case, the other people adopt the attitudes and perceptions of the persuader after the completion of the persuasion process. Thus, persuasion majorly lies in the ability to influence others. The act of persuasion is divided into four parts: the source, goal, medium, and audience. The source is the persuader who wants to win something from the audience through communicating persuasively. The goal involves causing the audience to adopt the communicator’s beliefs through persuasion. The medium is the specific message that the persuader directs towards the audience during communication. The audience are the users who help the persuader achieve his goals. Action and inaction have different meanings based on the setting. For example, as a noun, action refers to doing something to accomplish a purpose. On the other hand, inaction means doing nothing or failing to engage in any activity to achieve an objective. As an interjection, action refers to the beginning of a scene or a theatric performance. As a verb, action refers to acting on the request. Portraying that an action is taking place is essential since it indicates that people should wait for the outcome. On the other hand, inaction means that the public does not need to expect any results. The difficulty in interpretation occurs since the words action and in-action would mean that an individual is actively involved doing in an activity. However, the word inaction (without the hyphen) would indicate that an individual is idle and not engaged in any activity. When law enforcement agencies receive a child molestation case, their role usually involves determining whether the violation of criminal law has occurred, identifying and apprehending the offender, and filing the appropriate criminal charges. The response of law enforcement agencies towards such cases needs to be consistent. For example, law enforcement agencies need to determine the context within which child molestation took place, who perpetrated the crime, and the witnesses to the crime. The law enforcement agencies also need to provide physical and psychological support to the witnesses and victims to ensure they maintain their engagement throughout the criminal justice process. Officers should discuss issues regarding the victim and witness's attendance to court for the trial. This helps police officers to manage any fears of cross-examination or facing the defendants during court proceedings. Law enforcement agencies also need to keep the victims and witnesses well informed during the court proceedings. This involves providing timely and accurate information about the case at all stages of the criminal justice process. Frozen evaluation refers to an assessment of a concept that changes over time. Frozen evaluation can manifest itself when business organizations create messages meant to reach different audiences. When doing business, organizations encounter people with different characteristics. Every person is different from the other hence the need to tailor the message towards the specific needs of the consumers. The frozen evaluation also occurs due to time difference. For instance, a product may fail to meet the consumer needs at one time but achieve this goal the next time. This happens due to the difference in time. Prior commitment defines the commitment that an individual had before an agreement. Usually, prior commitment is used regarding lenders, such as the lender's commitment which is defined in the existing credit agreement. When making a new agreement, the borrower and lender agree that the prior agreement will be null and void and is not enforceable. A prior commitment is applicable when there is an immediate public need for resources. Interpersonal communication involves sending and receiving information between and among various people. Interpersonal communication usually occurs through dyadic and triadic means. Interpersonal communication events include community meetings to enhance policing and meetings with local community leaders to address issues of rising insecurity in the area. It is necessary to ensure that specific order of events is followed during these events. For example, it is necessary to determine the speakers during the event, the order of events, the order of how leaders will address the public, and how the meeting will be adjourned. Without maintaining order during such events, people are likely to engage in conflicts or become uncontrollable. However, maintaining order ensures that each guest understands what they are required to do or say at specific times during the event. This would help in preventing confrontations that would ruin the day. Proxemics is the social distance that people manage to have from one another. Proxemics helps in regulating the amount of sensation and stimulation they receive from other people. There are four categories of social distances: public distance, social distance, personal distance, and intimate distance. Public distance refers to the least intimate distance reserved for public speakers to indicate power and help them feel safe and secure. Social distance is mostly used when people are having formal conversations while still maintaining a safe distance. This distance enables people to see and hear each other while avoiding being touchy. Personal distance is the one reserved for friends and significant others. This enables people to speak quietly without being heard and also observe each other’s nonverbal cues. Besides, individuals can reach out and touch each other. The intimate distance is usually reserved for romantic partners, close friends, and family members. This space facilitates more intimate touching that may be friendly or romantic. This distance also enables people to smell each other. Perceptual effects such as perceptual bias and perceptual set can be used to enhance proxemics. For example, perceptual bias enables people to perceive particular features of a stimulus while avoiding others. On the other hand, a perceptual set is the tendency to notice specific aspects of the available sensory data while ignoring others. Perceptual bias and perceptual set can be used to either increase or decrease the social distance between one person and the other. Isomorphism is related to Gestalt psychology and means that perception and physiological representation are similar due to the gestalt qualities related. Isomorphism involves the similarity in patterning objects using the gestalt principles and the corresponding activities in the brain while perceiving this stimulus. Individuals must maintain isomorphism in their verbal and nonverbal cues to achieve interpersonal persuasion. During the persuasion process, the audience is usually critical and skeptical of the message delivered by the speaker. Therefore, when the speaker manages to align the verbal and nonverbal cues, the audience will likely believe in what he is saying. Subsequently, this leads to a successful persuasion process. However, when the speaker cannot enhance isomorphism in the verbal and nonverbal cues, he will not manage to persuade the audience successfully. Indirect communication seeks to hide the speaker’s true intentions. An indirect statement may be saying one thing but have a different meaning to avoid embarrassment and conflict. Indirect communication styles facilitate social harmony and agreement. Nonverbal communication is a major category of indirect communication that includes features such as gestures, facial expressions, tone, and pitch of voice. Gestures involve moving a part of the body, such as the hand or head, to express an idea during communication. Facial expressions are the facial features that individuals make to convey different emotions such as anger, happiness, or disgust. The tone and pitch of the voice can be used to indicate whether an individual is in agreement with a particular message or indicate the beginning or end of a conversation. The main benefit of using nonverbal cues is that they prevent people from using direct communication, which may cause conflicts. Through the use of nonverbal cues, individuals neutralize the effect that may be caused by communicating specific messages directly. Police officers usually carry handguns, batons, teargas, personal radio, reflective jackets, body armor, and short gun. Handguns are usually incapable of achieving full-auto fire. This ensures that police officers acting on impulse cannot injure innocent civilians when making patrols. Batons are used to perform non- weaponry activities such as breaking windows to free people. Batons are simple to use and can be easily concealed. Teargas is used to disperse mobs, disable rioters or flush out suspects hiding in buildings without using deadly force. Personal radio is used to facilitate communication among law enforcement agencies. Reflective jackets are used to enhance the safety of police officers. Body armor is used to absorb physical attacks hence protect officers from injury. A short gun is only used during criminal attacks to neutralize the criminals. Nonverbal cues play a significant role in determining the passage and interpretation of the information conveyed. When communicating using nonverbal cues, it is necessary to consider the appropriate gestures to use. Various gestures mean different things in specific cultures, genders, and geographical locations. Like the synapse junction, an individual should use gestures aligned with the receiver's values to enhance the ability to understand information. It is also necessary to use various signals to enhance the receiver’s understanding of the message. During an electrical impulse, the synapse plays a vital role in neutralizing the electrical message to pass through the synaptic junction successfully. It is also necessary to put things into context before communicating. This involves staying on the right topic and using the right time to communicate a specific message. This can be likened to a synapse that allows information to flow through the junction at the appropriate time to facilitate an electrical impulse. Additionally, it is essential to enhance congruence in the message that will be communicated. An incongruent message is passed when the verbal and nonverbal signals are not aligned. This is the same as the role played by a synapse which ensures that the information passed is congruent with other neurons. Moreover, it is important to convey truthful and authentic information to the audience. Deceiving the audience may cause a lack of trust and their failure to listen to the information. This works just like a synapse which ensures the passage of authentic electrical information across its space. Conflicts usually happen when family members hold differing views towards various factors. Conflicts can be caused by misunderstandings which can, in turn, cause arguments and resentment. It is necessary to stay calm when handling family disputes to understand both sides of the story. Also, it is necessary to manage one's emotions to avoid leaning on one side. When a family member is speaking, the listener should practice active listening and encourage the person to speak. This will enable the listener to develop a deep understanding of the issue at hand. When the speaker is done, the listener needs to ask questions to determine whether he understood the information well. Eventually, the listener can give his honest opinion of the matter. However, the listener should avoid judging the speaker since this would cause a lack of trust. The listener should not blame or shame the speaker when handling family disputes, as this would exacerbate the already bad situation. Also, the listener needs to portray the seriousness of the matter to the people. This includes separating the people from the problem and handling the issue professionally. Also, the listener should personalize the matter by using "I" statements. This enables the speakers to feel that the message they have passed was understood. The listener also has a role of keeping the conversation going to avoid boredom. This can be achieved by encouraging the speaker to talk as much as he/ she can about the matter. Besides, the listener should show the motivation to listen to the information being conveyed by the speaker. This would enhance the creation of a helping relationship between the speaker and the listener based on trust. 

Reference 

Newman, S. J. (2001). Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric: The metaphors and their message. Written communication. 18(1): 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088301018001001