Levels of Communication

Levels of Communication

There are five levels of communication:

1. Intrapersonal Communication

2. Interpersonal Communication

3. Mediated Communication

4. Person-to-Group Communication

5. Mass Communication

Intrapersonal Communication

When you think, you use intrapersonal communication. You initiate, receive, and process messages

within yourself. You are playing both the roles of: sending & receiving. Human growth depends on this

internal communication. Through it you know yourself and develop your self-concept, selfdetermination,

and self-motivation.

For example, each morning you decide how to dress, what to eat, where to go, etc. This kind of internal

communication forms the foundation for the other four levels of communication.

The word - "Intrapersonal" - means within the person. Intrapersonal communication processes happen

inside of you. Some people equate these processes with thinking. Although thinking is part of the process,

intrapersonal communication includes more than what we think. More importantly intrapersonal

processes include the way we think and the way we communicate with ourselves. Intrapersonal

communication affects the way we receive messages from others and affects the way we send messages to

others. complex levels of the self,

of self is central to how you communicate with others. The term for that sense of self is self-concept.

Self-concept is your image of who you are. Put another way, self-concept is the total picture of who you

are. Or how you see your whole self. It is your psychological self, your physical self, your spiritual self,

your social self, and your intellectual self. Self-concept is how you perceive the different parts of yourself

that combine to form a total picture.

At the same time self-concept also means knowing how others see you, how your colleagues see you,

how your parents see you. When you interact with different groups and individuals and they see you and

react to

nonverbal indicators through involvement with friends and family, you acquire a sense of how others feel

about you, how they perceive you, and what they like and what they don’t like about you. And as a result

of this feedback, you develop a sense of self over the course of your life, this big picture of who you are,

always interacting with other people, and because we are always communicating with others, we are

therefore always learning more about ourselves Self-concept is made up of two components, self-image, and self-esteem.

Self-image is literally a picture, or image, of who you are. Self-image describes you. If you take out a

piece of paper and list the various roles that you play in life, you could come up at least six, eight, maybe

ten different roles that you assume in your daily life. For example, the different roles that you play in life

.

Most of our roles can be categorized in one of two categories – either achieved roles, or ascribed roles.

How do you rate your performance in the various roles you play in life? On a scale of one to ten,

are you good to bad, great to terrible, positive to negative, effective to ineffective? No matter what

evaluative scale you want to use, self-image is measured by how you evaluate yourself in those roles.

Self-esteem is the process of self-evaluation; it is how you feel about yourself in each of those roles.

Self-esteem is certainly affected by how others evaluate your performance in a particular role. To be

found lacking in the performance of a particular role results in hurt feelings and diminished self-esteem.

Intrapersonal communication processes depend upon communicators':

1. Frame of reference

2. Creativity

3. Self-talk

4. Risk-taking behavior 1. Frame of Reference

Your frame of reference refers to the way you view your world. Your frame of reference is your structure

for encoding and decoding messages. Your frame of reference consists of all that you bring internally to

the communication situation: your beliefs, attitudes, and values; your memory of experiences; your

cultural background; your stereotypes and expectations; your self-concept; your feelings and level of

stress; your thinking patterns; and other psychological factors. As a speaker, understanding the frames of

reference of your listeners will allow you to adapt your message for high levels of clarity and/or

persuasive impact. As a listener, attempting to understand the way the speaker's frame of reference may

differ from your own can help you to better understand the speaker and your reaction to the speaker.

2. Creativity

One of the most important skills you can shape is that of creativity. Basically, creative thinking involves

visualizing something in an innovative, new, or unique way. Humans have long valued artists because

their creativity provides new ways of imagining or conceptualizing our world. In our personal and work

lives, creativity can be important to each of us, particularly when solving problems. You can increase

your creativity by learning to think in less traditional ways. Habitual and routine thinking patterns and

structures prevent free, open problem solving. The extent to which you have developed your creative

thinking affects the way you send and receive messages, the way you interact with others, and your

potential for success in new situations.

3. Self-talk

Another key aspect of intrapersonal communication is sometimes called self-talk or imagined

communication. In imagined communication, individuals talk to someone else or to themselves as if they

were another person. However, the communication takes place in their minds (internally instead of

externally). Practical example of imagined conversations could be of students imagining communicating before it

takes place. For example, while they plan their classroom presentations, they see themselves in front of

the audience, imagine how fantastic they look, see some classmates listening attentively, and picture their

for future communication, deal with your feelings, and learn from past communication. Imagined

communication is an important aspect of your intrapersonal communication processes.

4. Risk-taking Behaviors

Your willingness to take risks is largely dependent on your interpretation of past experience. If you have

found risk-taking to be fun, adventure-some, or thrilling, then you are more inclined to make risky moves.

At least a minimum amount of risk is necessary for growth and development.

Some people consider as risk-taking behaviors only ones that are life-threatening, such as driving fast

cars, or doing dangerous stunts. For our purposes, we are focusing on risk-taking in communication.