Interpersonal interaction is the communication of two or more people, due to an accidental meeting or intentional, as a result of which both have new thoughts and ideas.
Group communication is studied by social psychology. This science explores the individual psychological characteristics of the behavior of each member of the group and allows you to improve the social atmosphere by finding a common denominator for the participants.
What does social psychology study?
The problems of interpersonal social interaction are evaluated by specialists in the context of the following issues:
- The study of the cognitive (cognitive) processes of each participant in the interaction.
- The study of the constituent characteristics of the environment: spatial, social, physical characteristics. And also takes into account the aspect of the social group - the student environment, the meeting of the city council or other association of individuals.
- Studying as a system of an individual personality and the influence of the environment on it.
Many scientists participated in the development of this social science - L.V. Smolin, Yasvin, Panov, etc.
Interpersonal Interaction and Learning
In the process of interaction between people, there is a constant expansion of the sphere of consciousness and training in new social roles. The most effective learning takes place in adolescence, until the age of 21, when the brain is most active.
The development of social activity requires that in school years he receive education based on freedom of expression and support for active behavior, and not passive.
For the development of student social activity, there is a model of the educational environment developed by V.I. Panov. The model is based on the scientist’s conviction that training should come from the already existing makings and interests of the student.
Social interaction processes
Communication is based on reflection. Understanding the thoughts and intentions of another is impossible without mirror neurons. It is impossible to prepare for a speech without realizing how others will perceive you.
Interpersonal interaction is a process of mutual desire for cooperation. And if one side does not want to compromise in communication or has reprehensible thoughts regarding the other, then communication will not take place.
What processes of interpersonal interaction can be distinguished? If you go deep into the study of communication, then all communication is reduced to a simple transfer of symbols - words or signs. In each transaction, the initiator of communication and the recipient are involved. The initiator passes the signs - this is the first process. The second process is the acceptance of this information.
However, in order to decipher the meaning of the message correctly, there should be no barriers to communication. In addition, both sides of communication should have common cultural “points of contact” and belong to a single social level. Because transactions between different cultural layers are very difficult.
Communication levels
There are 6 basic levels of communication that A. B. Dobrovich outlined and described.
- Conventional level - it comes down to the simple implementation of unwritten rules of conduct in society.
- Primitive. Participants do not seek to establish long-term communication, but only wish to use the opportunities that can provide each other.
- Manipulative. When one partner in communication tries to use another, less experienced in social and everyday matters, and then reject his society.
- And when communicating, the subjects of communication have a mutual interest in knowing the roles of another. This is a communication of friends who sometimes spend time together and “work out” their social roles in order to improve them.
- Business. In this interaction, people do not think about the best role performance or appearance, they communicate in order to better perform joint work.
- Spiritual level. Having reached the highest level of communication, people can recognize each other’s mood by glance, without words. The goal is to know the deep essence of the other and his own, reflected in the actions of that, the other.
The level of communication that a person chooses depends on the general level of his personal development and his views on the value of other people.
Forms of interpersonal interaction
As a social being, man cannot help communicating. Even when a writer creates a book in solitude, in this case, communication between him and the reader is assumed.
Forms of communication distinguish such:
- Friendly interaction - communication at close psychological distance, which brings mutual pleasure and joy.
- Love is an intimate interaction between two people, leading to the development of both partners as individuals.
- Interaction in a student group or hobby group.
- Relationships within the work team.
- Communication in a group of psychological support.
Relations in psychology are divided into official and informal, personal and business. Establishing relationships and developing them is a delicate process that depends on many factors; and primarily on the ability to build social contacts.
Interpersonal interaction in a group is difficult to organize. There is a great possibility of the breakup of the group; without a good leader who is able to smooth over the contradictions and give the team the mood for high-quality collaboration, there will be no interaction.
Some people can maintain good friendly relations with everyone in a business environment. These are people with high emotional intelligence and experience in the field of communications. They are social leaders by nature and, with the development of certain qualities, can become good managers.
Why do others influence us?
Every day we learn new information and share it with other people. All communication is built on a mutually beneficial exchange of information. A person is afraid to be an outcast, therefore, even unconsciously, seeks to meet the requirements of his social group.
Traveling, meeting new people in a train or plane gives us new sensations, a new communication experience. A person can radically change his eating habits if he makes friends with a representative of another culture and spends a lot of time with him. And making friends with a company of smokers, a person can start smoking, because it is psychologically uncomfortable in the team to be a black sheep. And there is a completely rational biological explanation for this - in order to build new contacts, we have mirror neurons in our brains that help us imitate the actions of others, thereby understand their “language”, and seem “our” in the team.
Ways of human interaction with society
Psychologists describe 4 possible ways of interaction between a person and a team:
- Initiative type of behavior. The acting person himself influences the environment. He is able to change the conditions of interaction in his team as he needs.
- Reactive type. A person is able to adapt to environmental conditions. But he himself does not affect her.
- Interpreter
- Assessing - the social environment affects him, he himself remains passive, only reflexively evaluates what exactly happens to him.
Naturally, those who are more successful in society are those who choose an active position, rather than a passive one.
Features
Each concept in science has characteristic features that need to be studied in order to analyze the object of study in more detail.
What features of interpersonal interaction are described by specialists in the field of social psychology?
- Multichannel. Interaction occurs at both the verbal and non-verbal levels.
- Stages of establishing relationships.
- Performance.
- Irreversibility. The emotional impact on a person is actually irreversible.
Another important feature for establishing relationships is the availability of sufficient communicative experience. Communication experience is a set of ideas about successful tactics for establishing and maintaining the necessary distance in communication. Such experience should be possessed by those who work in the "man-man" system.
Communicative goals
The goal is the strategic result that every participant in the interaction seeks. In fact, interpersonal relationships are the desire of both parties to a pre-thought out result. Goals can be completely different.
- Getting help.
- Self-expression.
- Search for a partner for entertainment.
- The desire to receive emotional support.
- Training or education.
- Introduction to cultural principles.
- The desire to dominate a weaker partner.
The most popular communication goal for young girls is to simply share their experiences. For young students, this is an exchange of thoughts and a community of interests.
Interpersonal relations and interactions are built only when both find this communication mutually beneficial and meet their moral values and goals.
The physiological basis of social interaction
In the 90s of the XX century, a group of neuroscientists under the auspices of the Italian Giacomo Rizzolatti discovered a group of mirror neurons in monkeys. A group of special nerve cells is activated in the brain when a monkey sees someone else picking up food, such as a nut, in his hand.
As it turned out later, a person also has them, and they respond not only to body movements in space, but also to emotions. Interpersonal interaction is largely the work of these neurons. This is the biological justification of our social nature; justification of empathy, which is inherent in us initially.
Thanks to these neurons, a person learns to speak and act through imitation. And also learns to perceive emotions and build long-term interpersonal interactions; another's behavior needs to be explained to himself somehow, especially if this person is of a different culture. It turns out that in order to build a relationship with another, you need to see yourself in another, and let him know that we understand him.
conclusions
So, interpersonal interaction is communication in a group that has some purpose. Communication is built either on an emotional basis, or on a rational, business.
Success in the interaction depends on the initial impression. If business partners subconsciously feel antipathy towards each other, they cannot agree. In communication, conflicts and friction will arise. To coordinate group communication, you need a bold and experienced leader who has decent experience in resolving conflicts.