The very concept of communication has several definitions, which is associated with different views of scientists and specialists on this problem. Each of the specialists in this field offers their own vision and interpretation. We will simply try to reduce everything to a common denominator.
According to the brief psychological dictionary, the concept of communication is a complex multifaceted process aimed at establishing and developing contacts and connections, including the exchange of information, interaction, perception and understanding of the interlocutor.
The meaning of the word "communication" can change. As mentioned above, this is due to different points of view characteristic of different scientists and different times. However, in general, the essence of communication remains unchanged - it is the exchange of information using various means of communication.
Characteristic properties and features of communication
The concept of interpersonal communication has three characteristics: content, functions and means. The content includes the transfer of information, understanding and perception, interaction between interlocutors, influence on each other, mutual assessment and mutual management of activities. The main functions of communication follow from the content, which are divided into communicative, informational, cognitive, emotive, conversational and creative. If at least one function of communication is absent or impaired, it suffers.
Communication structure
The communication structure includes:
- the content itself, that is, the information that people convey (knowledge, abilities, experience, skills);
- goal, that is, the needs that determined the beginning of contact (cognitive, social, cultural, creative, aesthetic, moral and others);
- means of information transmission (coding, processing, decoding, transmission on a medium, speech).
We send information not only through oral and written speech (including drawings, drawings), but also through tactile contacts (handshake, kiss, hug), sensations (observing a person’s movements or speech from a distance, including sounds, for example, breaths), technical means of communication.
The nature of communication and the need for it
A sociable person boldly steps towards new things - new knowledge, new information, new people. Open and inquisitive individuals, without noticing it themselves, provide themselves with a lot of interesting meetings, events, acquaintances, new goals, but the essence of communication, like communication itself, lies not only in this. For every person, the opportunity to communicate with others like themselves is the key to constant replenishment of life’s baggage, intellectual and psychological development. This also reveals the main goals of communication. A feature bestowed by nature helped man survive and establish himself among other, stronger species.
Do you think you would have discovered a passion for the exact sciences or music if you had not gone to school and attended these subjects, no matter how boring they may seem to you initially? No, because communication plays an extremely important role, and a teacher, teaching us a subject during school years, talking with us, students, not only reveals certain abilities, but also helps to develop them, while simultaneously instilling the basic rules of communication.
Rowling's "Bad Blood" became the most popular New Year's book
Published: January 20, 2021
At the same time, during the holidays, Russians more actively read and listened to books on self-development, psychology, personal growth and effectiveness.
The new exciting detective story “Bad Blood” by the British writer JK Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, became the most popular e-book of the past New Year holidays among Russians. The rating of the most read books was compiled by the liters service.
The leaders are also Mike Ohmer's bestseller "Inside the Killer", Daniel Kahneman's motivational book "Think Slowly... Decide Fast", a universal guide to overcoming existential crises "Expand Your Consciousness Legally" by Vladislav Gaidukevich and Fredrik Backman's new hit "Anxious People".
Personality formation
At the stage of a person’s development as an individual, that is, from school years, communication with parents plays a particularly important role. Ideally, you should try to talk with them as much and as often as possible, share news and current events. It is extremely important when talking with parents not to deceive them, to be frank, sincere and honest. These are the goals of communication and their basic rules at this stage.
What seems incomprehensible to schoolchildren, for example, a parental ban, in most cases turns out to be the right decision. Just imagine if in our teenage years we were allowed absolutely everything. Probably, troubles would have followed us at every step, and we, being still children, would have had no idea how to get out of them.
The period of adolescence is especially important in the development of a person and his communication skills, in parallel with which the psyche develops. A person learns the essence of communication while he is growing up, studying at school, university. During this time, life’s baggage is replenished not only with scientific knowledge, but also with ordinary life skills, experience, both other people’s and one’s own. At this stage, for the most part, you have to be in contact with peers, but this incredibly helps the formation of personality. True, if only you adhere to the basic rules of human communication.
Why communication is important for humans
Special psychology - what is it?
Communication is the key to the success and survival of humanity as a species. At the dawn of civilization, people survived only by joining forces. Joint work activity, an element of which is communication, contributed to the deepening and expansion of higher nervous activity.
Without communication, humanity would stop developing
If physiological features are inherited on the basis of genetic information, then the transmission of intellectual and cultural achievements occurs only through communication between the adult generation and children.
Important! In the process of communication, the development and formation of personality occurs, social norms and spiritual values are laid.
Some people feel a low need for communication and consider themselves individualists, loners, and not in need of any social contacts. However, this is nothing more than an illusion. Without communication with others, their individuality would not appear, personality and even intellect would not be formed.
How did it all begin?
Have you ever thought about why a person needs communication? Try to imagine that during evolution the speech apparatus would not have begun to develop, and people themselves would not have shown any desire to somehow contact each other. What do you think, if a person had no desire to communicate and obtain new information, and therefore all the functions of communication would have been absent, there would have been evolution in the form in which we see it now and have seen it since humanity became interested in development all living things? Would we even have the slightest idea of what evolution is? The answer is clear: none of this would have happened. Communication played a role; in fact, it is the basis for the survival of all complex species, which is developed in many living organisms. And even if they present it not in the form to which we are accustomed, nevertheless...
Communication is the key to the development of civilization, the indestructible foundation of society. However, it is worth understanding that this does not only mean the sounds that we are able to reproduce with our speech apparatus. Deaf and mute people also “talk” to each other, although they use gestures rather than words to do this.
Communication in any of its forms is the exchange of information, the only possible option for transferring new knowledge, skills, experience to other people, because this is the only way to help each other, to help the human species survive and develop further, but this is not the only function of communication.
The role and importance of communication in human life
One of the main factors in the formation and existence of culture is communication. All human life is somehow connected with communication, which basically underlies everything that people do.
Communication in animals
In fact, communication is common to all living things. Thus, animals have different ways of transmitting information to each other about biologically significant events and conditions. This is a special language of gestures, postures and facial expressions, including the tail as an expression of emotions, a “language” of smells associated with the fact that some species of animals mark the territory in which they live with their feces. All types of animals have sound signals. For example, frogs make 6, chickens 13-15, horses up to 100 and rooks up to 120 different sounds. Fish makes many different sounds. And there is an active “conversation” between the dolphins, even if they are separated by a distance of 8 thousand. km.
The consistency in animal behavior that results from interaction and response to innate signals gives the impression that, like humans, they talk and understand each other.
It is no coincidence that even among scientists there are those who believe that different species of animals have their own “language,” that is, a means of communication with which they convey detailed information about everything that happens to them. So, already in the 17th century, the “Book of Goose Speech” was published in France, later in Europe dictionaries of the “languages” of dogs, cats, chickens (1800) and crows (1809), and in America - books. about the language of apes, which states that they seem to speak their own native language, differing from humans only in the degree of complexity and development. The famous Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov made an attempt to create a dictionary of the language of birds. In Japan, work has already begun in earnest on automatic dog “language” translators, and a device containing about 200 “words” and “phrases” has already gone on sale in stores in Tokyo.
However, the statement that animals have language in the full sense of the word is not true. The innate, constant signaling of animals is fundamentally different from human language, which is inseparable from human consciousness and thinking.
History of speech
Human language in its modern form did not arise immediately, but has come a long way in history. It arose from the need of ancient peoples to talk to each other at the dawn of human society. More or less diverse sounds related to specific situations, objects and actions were first pronounced by Neanderthals, who lived 200–35 thousand years ago. Gradually, this began to affect their physiological structure: the undeveloped larynx, which was in a horizontal position, slowly and systematically began to move into a vertical position. Thanks to this, human ancestors were able to pronounce articulate sounds. Presumably, the first vowel of the modern Cro-Magnon man, who lived 50-40 thousand years ago, was the sound “a”. Polylinguists believe that there were no more than 9 such sounds, which made it possible to identify no more than 9 situations.
Gradually, step by step, people established a strong connection between spoken sounds and images of objects and actions. Sounds from the expression of feelings and emotions turned into names of objects and actions with these objects. Words and sentences were extracted from initially weakly demodulated sound complexes. This is how articulated speech appeared, which became one of the first differences between humans and animals.
The emergence of language radically changed the nature and role of interpersonal communication. Under the influence of speech, the process of formation of the human brain as an organ of consciousness and thinking took place. Language and thinking gradually turned into a single complex of human speech and thinking. The word has become an instrument of thought, allowing one to mentally “break away” from concrete reality, to create words that reflect not only objects and processes, but also abstractions denoting their properties and features. Thanks to language and thinking, the content of interpersonal communication turned out to be incomparably broader than that of animals.
The great importance of speech lay in the fact that it made it possible to convey accumulated experience. What one generation learned could be passed on to the next.
A person learned a language by communicating with other people. People disappeared, but the language they created was passed on from generation to generation. There are currently more than 3,500 different languages in the world. And every language is someone's native language.
The language of every people is its historical memory contained in the word. Language is the main means of transmitting national culture. Therefore, language in the broadest sense of the word refers to the entire cultural system. Language in a narrower sense is called speech. Speech is logically related words used in a specific order to denote concepts, objects, or actions.
Speech is not transmitted genetically, only a biopsychic predisposition to it is inherited. The first three years of life are critical for language development. From the very first days, they absorb the sounds of speech, collect and accumulate words. Gradually, the child begins to understand the simplest statements of adults and produce his first active words. By the age of seven, a child masters speech and uses it more and more fully and in a variety of ways to communicate with other people. The development of communication through speech occurs throughout a person’s life.
Language refers to verbal or verbal (lat. Verbalis - verbal) means of communication. But apart from this, communication can also take place using non-verbal means, that is, non-verbal means that include facial expressions, gestures and body movements.
A person must communicate from birth. It has been established that from 1.5–2 months of age, a child’s development begins in communication with adults. The absence of such communication can lead to serious defects in the formation of a person in the future. Therefore, children deprived of communication from birth grew up as idiots and died early. Famous historical example: King Frederick II of Prussia at the beginning
He decided to conduct an experiment, making sure that if a child grew up without speaking to him, he himself would speak this ancient language. The result of the experiment was catastrophic - all the children subjected to the experiment died. It is no coincidence that sailors found on deserted islands, as a rule, went crazy, forgot their speech and went crazy.
Why does a person communicate? In animals, communication chains usually do not go beyond biological needs. For people, these goals are very diverse and have many needs. Thus, through communication, a person acquires knowledge about the world around him, and through communication, social, cultural and moral values are acquired. Without communication in society, the processes of upbringing, education, management and service are unthinkable.
What role does communication play in human life?
The question of why a person needs communication is answered by the history of primitive society. Human speech is the “first child” of communication, which among primitive people occurred through gestures. It was then that the first rules of communication were formed, general concepts and the designation of objects were born, and then writing was formed. This is how society and society as a whole were born, and rules of interpersonal communication were established that are still in effect today.
The normal, full formation of the psyche, as well as its further development, cannot be imagined without communication. Consequently, the role of communication in human life is extremely high. This is the only way to exchange information, perceive and understand the world around us. Communication is what distinguishes the human species from other species living on Earth.
It is impossible to underestimate the role of communication in a person’s professional activity. This is a specific type of interpersonal interaction, since professional activities have their own rules of communication, limited by generally accepted rules of behavior and interpersonal relationships within one organization (company). This is also called corporate ethics.
What types of communication are there?
Social environment - what is it in psychology
In psychology, there are many classifications of communication. The following is a brief summary of its main types.
Verbal and non-verbal
Some people believe that human communication is just the transfer of information through speech (language). This is a much broader concept.
There is a side of communication in which the exchange of information between participants occurs without the help of the speech apparatus and linguistic means - this is non-verbal communication. The human body becomes the instrument here: facial expressions, postures, gestures.
It would be a misconception to think that only deaf and dumb people deal with the nonverbal side of communication. The average person obtains most of the information about the participants in a conversation by reading their body signals. For example, everyone easily “feels” when the interlocutor is losing interest in the subject of conversation: the poverty of facial expressions and gestures, the dull look give him away. The ability to understand such wordless language helps to provide feedback: to learn where you need to change your behavior in order to achieve the desired result.
Direct, mediated, indirect
Problems arise when the participants in a conversation are separated from each other by distance or time. For example, when people talk on the phone or correspond. With such communication, full psychological contact does not occur. This type of communication is called mediated.
Sometimes mediated communication leads to misunderstandings
There is also such an interesting type of communication as indirect. It is characterized by the inclusion of an additional participant in the process as an intermediary through whom information is transferred. Why is communication in an indirect form necessary? For example, to conduct negotiations between conflicting parties.
Interpersonal and mass
Mass communication refers to multiple contacts of strangers. Direct mass communication can be observed at rallies, meetings, and demonstrations. Mediated mass communication is one-way in nature and is associated with mass culture and the media. Thanks to mass communication, individuals maintain relationships with the wider social environment.
Interpersonal communication is associated with direct contacts of people in groups or pairs. It implies the psychological closeness of partners generated by the experience of joint activity: knowledge of each other’s individual characteristics, the presence of mutual understanding and empathy.
Role and personal
Role-based communication is the interaction of people as bearers of certain social roles (father and son, teacher and student, boss and subordinate, lovers). Why does a person need to communicate using “masks”?
Role communication is regulated by the rules accepted in society and the specifics of treatment. These norms help simplify the process of interaction between people in standard situations and facilitate the fulfillment of the tasks of each participant in joint activities.
The better the role is understood, the higher the effect of his role interaction. Mastery of a social role allows you to make maximum use of the qualities of your individuality in communication, thereby bringing communication closer to informal. Thus, often official business conversations between competitors take place in the form of a friendly conversation.
Personal communication is the interaction of individuals not determined by social roles. Sometimes a person tries to justify his reluctance to communicate with the negative emotions that the interlocutor allegedly evokes in him. Such people simply do not understand why communication on a personal level is necessary.
The other is a mirror
This type of intimacy makes it possible to identify and resolve, first of all, one’s moral and psychological problems. When a person stops blaming his communication partners for his emotional reactions and begins to see in them a reflection of his own fears and desires, the nature of his own soul becomes clear to him.
Why does a person need communication?
It doesn’t matter whether you are a sociable person or a withdrawn introvert who is used to being alone, everyone needs communication. The social need to talk with others like oneself is a natural need, and without its satisfaction it is impossible to feel complete.
Communication plays a vital role in human life. The difference may lie only in its quantity and frequency. So, for someone it will be enough to go somewhere with friends once or twice a week and talk with them in order to cheer up and improve their well-being, and for the rest of the days such a person may well be alone. But for some, communication plays a more important role - such a person cannot spend even 20 minutes alone with himself, begins to suffer from boredom and experiences an irresistible desire to contact someone. By the way, such a desire is more aimed at the process itself, and not at its final result.
Why is communication necessary?
A little-known fact: if a person is isolated from society for a long time, he will begin to degrade. Changes in the psyche will appear. Man is a herd creature, and we cannot live and develop normally without communication and interaction.
Read also: What is direct communication on WhatsApp?
Psychologists understand communication as interaction through words, gestures, body position, facial expressions, and facial expressions. It is very important for a person to have people like him around him.
Why is communication so important?
- A person receives confirmation of his “I” from others. Personal identification occurs. This does not seem significant to the conscious mind, but it is very important to the subconscious mind. We look into others like mirrors, and they show us who we are.
- Communication allows you to compare yourself with others. We receive an assessment of our qualities, actions and deeds. This is how a person sets boundaries for himself—moral barriers.
- We receive approval, sympathy and support as confirmation that our feelings are correct and justified. When people like us tell us that they felt the same way in such a situation, it becomes easier to survive the stressful situation.
- A person experiences pleasure when he shares his feelings with others. Joy will not be complete if there is no one nearby who can be happy for you. And going through grief alone is even more difficult. This is also a property of the psyche: to consult, to share.
This is why communication is important for humans. Thanks to him, he does not lose himself. He focuses on other people, compares himself with them. This is how societies of people are created in which it is not customary to kill or humiliate. People build a peaceful life that is convenient for the majority. Asocial personalities exist and have always existed, but they are rather the exception that only confirms the rule. For them in our society there are special correctional institutions: offices of psychologists, psychiatrists, prisons.
What creates the desire to communicate?
People are eager to communicate, you can call it a banal desire, but a more correct term is a need.
So, with a high probability we can say that in children communication is an innate need. It is formed under the influence of the activity exhibited by adults present nearby, and often occurs around two months.
But teenagers are convinced that they experience an irresistible desire to communicate. They are also convinced that they can do this as much as they see fit. This is why most teenagers protest against adults' attempts to control their need to spend time with friends, and therefore to have friendly conversations. At this stage, we should not forget about the basic functions of communication, which play a role in the formulation of communication skills.
In adults, the need for communication is also quite strong. Many men and women, having less contact with someone than they themselves want, begin to plunge into negativity.
Tolkien's previously unpublished books are being published in Russian for the first time
Published: January 20, 2021
J. R. R. Tolkien’s works “The Lost Road” and “The Death of Gondolin”, previously unpublished in Russian, are being published in Russia for the first time, the press service of the AST publishing house told RIA Novosti.
The Lost Way is part of the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series. The author began working on the book in the second half of the 20s. The novel tells the story of two time travelers who are trying to get to the ancient elven land of Numenor. The book is scheduled for release in February.
The Fall of Gondolin is Tolkien's first work about Middle-earth, written in 1917 in the hospital where he was recovering from an illness. The book was inspired by the bloody Battle of the Somme. The author tells of the fall of the Elven fortress of Gondolin, taken by the forces of Morgoth in the First Age, many thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The book comes out in May.
Lack of interpersonal contacts and its consequences
The degree to which a person needs to contact and interact with his own kind determines his life as a whole and his location (place) in society. This could be family, work team, friends, school, university group. A person deprived of the opportunity to talk and contact with other people, and therefore unable to perform all the functions of communication, will never be able to become a social person, join society and develop culturally. It will only resemble a person in appearance.
“Mowgli children”, deprived of the opportunity to contact and interact with representatives of their species immediately after birth or in early childhood, prove this fact, and therefore how important the role of communication is in human life. Being isolated from human speech, they naturally have no idea what it’s like to talk to someone. The body of such individuals develops naturally, but the development of the psyche is delayed, or even does not occur at all. The main reason for this lies in the lack of communicative experience with other people, and therefore in the absence of all communication functions. Actually, such cases, like nothing else, prove how important it is for a person to contact and talk with other people.
Communication functions
The interaction of individuals has a number of functions.
- Transfer of information.
- Self-knowledge in intrapersonal communication.
- Receiving benefits, benefits.
- Secular communication that does not provide informational benefit: people talk about generally accepted topics.
- Possibility of self-confirmation.
- Influence on an opponent, manipulation.
The versatility of communication for purposes
For what and why a person, like any other living being, exhibits this kind of activity such as communication and the need for it - these are the main goals of communication. Thus, animals communicate to encourage their own kind to take certain actions or to warn them to refrain from any action. This process is subject exclusively to animal instincts, which, in fact, are guided by representatives of the fauna.
But the goals of human communication are much greater - in addition to satisfying the natural biological needs characteristic of animals, the satisfaction of cultural, social, creative, cognitive, aesthetic, intellectual, moral and other needs is also added to human interaction. Why does a person need communication? To satisfy all these needs. Speech interaction between people can safely be called multi-purpose, and the goals to which it is aimed provide more than an extensive answer to the question, why does a person need communication and what is it?
The benefits of communication
Not every person has friends. This happens: there are people who have a hard time getting used to others, who are very different from those around them. There are also those who simply don't crave connection or don't take the time to bond with others. For such people in situations of stress, psychotherapists' offices are recommended. This is what a person needs communication for: it heals.
Even if you don’t have a friend to whom you could confide, talk about your problems and get support, communication is necessary for the psyche. When a person does not trust others and keeps everything to himself, problems accumulate. This is how muscle tension occurs in the body, which can provoke any disease, except, perhaps, syphilis. As one satirist wrote: “All diseases are from nerves, only syphilis is from pleasure.”
If you talk about the problem, it can be resolved completely or partially. In any case, discharge occurs. The benefits of communication for people are invaluable. As such a release, psychologists advise keeping a personal diary. But it is much more effective to find support from your interlocutor.
Knowledge and experience
Why does a person need communication? The short answer is to share information. This gives knowledge and experience. In addition to our own experience, we adopt the experience of other people. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, you can learn from children, not only from the older generation. Through contacts with other people we gain new knowledge about everything. This promotes personal development. Our environment greatly influences us and shapes us as a person. Therefore, parents are often worried about their children, who choose their friends from the category of hooligans. What can they teach their child?
But this opinion is controversial. Every person has a certain set of qualities. And even psychos have something to learn. It all depends on the person: we ourselves decide what to “take” from others. After all, even educated people with a good reputation can learn bad things. For example, arrogance. And bullies can teach you how to stand up for yourself. They can explain that you should not leave a friend in trouble, they will show you what courage is. All people, without exception, are equal in this regard. And everyone has a virtue and a negative side. This is why a person needs communication: by contacting different people, we ourselves choose which traits to adopt. But in any case, we gain knowledge and life experience.
Looking at Things
Why is communication necessary? People do not always know exactly what to do in a given situation. We often engage in wishful thinking and act for the wrong reasons. Communication helps to look at the problem from a different angle. A person begins to understand a situation better when he talks about it with someone. The experience of other people allows us to adjust our actions and not make mistakes. This is what communication gives to a person. If, of course, a person is smart enough to listen to others.
Help and support
Communication allows us to provide not only moral assistance to loved ones. Tell your truly close people about your problem, they will help you resolve the issue. Thus, through communication, a person finds helpers. An old Russian proverb says: “Don’t have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends.” People help their friends and they expect the same help in return. This is called reciprocity. It is characteristic of friendly relations, because we do not choose relatives and they do not always turn out to be similar to us in their views on life. Of course, the unspoken law prescribes that relatives always help each other, but not everyone does this. And friends are people who do not owe each other anything. As a rule, they are the ones you can count on.
Styles and classification
Based on some features, communication in a person’s life can be divided into direct (immediate) and indirect (mediated). In the first case, communication between the interlocutors occurs directly; they communicate with each other using appropriate facial expressions, gestures, intonation and tone.
In the second case, information between interlocutors is not transmitted directly, but indirectly (letters, documentation, media, etc.). It is worth noting that direct communication has better effectiveness and impact on the interlocutor than indirect communication. However, the first type can be more subject to emotions, since such communication in the life of every person occurs in real time, and the second - to common sense, since there is time to comprehend the situation and analyze it.
There are also formal and informal types of communication, from which it follows that relationships between people are business and personal. Consequently, the rules of communication for each of the two types will be different. In the first case, sympathy or antipathy is expressed towards each other, respect or lack thereof, trust or distrust. But business communication is the relationship that develops between people who are members of certain social groups and organizations. It is based on the rights and obligations existing in a particular group (organization). Consequently, the role of communication in a person’s professional activity and its role in everyday life are significantly different. If in the first case a person is limited by certain frameworks and rules dictated by the organization (company), then in the second he is limited only by his own opinion, desires and character traits. What may be common here is perhaps the role of education, but not the role of communication in general.
Communication for the human psyche
Communication is of great importance in the formation of the human psyche, its development and the formation of reasonable cultural behavior. Through communication with mentally developed people, thanks to a wide range of learning opportunities, a person acquires all his higher abilities and cognitive qualities. By actively communicating with developed people, he himself becomes a person.
If a person were deprived from birth of the opportunity to communicate with people, he would never become a civilized, culturally and morally developed citizen, and for the rest of his life he would be doomed to remain a half-animal, looking only outwardly, anatomically and physiologically resembling a person. This is evidenced by numerous facts described in the literature, which show that a person deprived of communication with peers, even if fully preserved as an organism, remains a biological being in mental development.
An example is the condition of people who are found from time to time among animals who for a long time, especially in childhood, lived isolated from civilized people or who, as adults, as a result of some accident, found themselves for a long time alone, isolated from their own species ( for example, after a shipwreck).
Particularly important for a child’s mental development is his interaction with adults in the early stages of their development. During this time, all of his human, mental and behavioral qualities are acquired almost exclusively through communication, since he lacks the ability to educate himself and educate himself until he goes to school, and even more so until the start of adolescence.
A child's mental development begins with communication. This is the first type of social activity that occurs in ontogenesis and thanks to which the infant receives the information necessary for its individual development.
No man can do without communication with other people, which is provided by family, friends, and work colleagues. To make communication more effective, speech was created, without which there is no social activity, which helps in many existing professions, for example, lawyers, teachers, politicians, journalists and so on.
Every conversation is an interaction between two people: the listener and the speaker. However, the peculiarity of proper communication is that the roles in the conversation are constantly changing, and a successful conversation is based on the fact that two people need common topics and knowledge of the language.
A person’s personality develops in the process of communication, training and education. According to experts, communication is as necessary for humans as air.
Human personality is formed in the process of communication. Not all people are educated equally, so more educated and erudite people influence their interlocutors, help them become more advanced and civilized. Another thing is that the listener is not receptive to these arguments.
Personality is formed not only in the process of communicating with people. There are examples where children were raised by wolves or monkeys. Such people live in accordance with animal rights: survival of the fittest. Their perception of information from the outside is very distorted; everything that is not related to the problem of survival passes through their consciousness. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for them to adapt to human society.
Since communication is an integral part of human life, it undoubtedly has a huge impact on the perception of life. In addition, there are many ways to influence a person, for example, hypnosis, blackmail, suggestion. Communication with your own species is essential. Through communication people gain knowledge. Even just by reading any book, people communicate with its author through the printed word, they learn what the writer wanted to say. Moreover, in order to gain some knowledge, a person must share it. Again, this can only happen through communication, be it the written word or the spoken word.
If a person does not receive the necessary dose of communication, this leads to a deterioration in his mental state, he is deprived of the necessary dose of information, and he becomes withdrawn. There are cases when lonely people suffered from split personality, as if 2, and sometimes more, human consciousnesses lived in one body. This is because every socially adjusted person needs someone to express their thoughts and feelings and there are different ways of communication. The most common is verbal communication. It is daily communication that is the most important thing in a person’s life.
But there is also Christmas communication, when people communicate with each other only a few times a year on different holidays. In addition, monologue is the essence of another way of communication. Each printed word can be associated with communication through monologue.
To adapt in society, you need to be able not only to talk about yourself, but also to listen to others. Your circle of friends will change over time depending on how emotionally mature you are.
What is communication? It is a joint effort of people, the result of human actions. Throughout our lives we meet new people and make new friends. Communication can also be considered as a goal, a result, that is, obtaining pleasure and information from communication. Although you can communicate only to “kill” time and not get any benefit.
We share our joys and sorrows with people close to us, they support us, console us, and can give us good advice. So, without communication, without society, a person would simply turn into an animal, because there would be no seed of spirituality and morality in him.
There are many interpretations of the term “communication”:
- type of activity
- information form
- special form of human activity
- process of forming interpersonal relationships
- exchange of joys, feelings, experiences
- all ordinary forms of human activity
- satisfying another person's needs
Almost all forms of human activity involve communication (school, work, games, entertainment). Even communication with oneself involves the participation of an imaginary partner; there is dialogue, scenarios and arguments of internal conversation. Spiritually developed people always have a deep inner life.
When meeting new people, we always evaluate their character and preferences, forming our attitude towards them. You can be friends or hate each other for the rest of your life.
Communication plays a huge role in human life; the development of our psyche and our abilities largely depends on society. However, there is a theory according to which a person is himself, and society is just an episode in his life and does not depend so much on society.
But in fact, society helps reveal our character traits. It gives us standards of morality and ethics, traditions, values, helps people realize themselves, find friends, love, allows people to be what they want to be.
The art of interpersonal communication
Communication is a natural process. Under ideal circumstances, all people should have free contact with each other. But in reality, in real life, some individuals experience a fear of communication, which is called social phobia. In this case, the need for contact with other people is practically or completely absent. Often, such fear arises in adolescence, which is the most difficult stage in the life of any person.
If the first experience of conscious entry into society, the first communication with someone is negative, then in the future such a person will experience problems with interpersonal connections. This minimizes the need for conversations and conversations with others like oneself, often leads to isolation or creates a desire to avoid such “irritants,” that is, society as a whole. The importance of communication in human life cannot be overestimated. It is an art and skill that is acquired over the years. It is quite natural that a person’s communication skills depend not only on his personal characteristics, but also on the environment in which he was (is) at different stages of his life.
However, by following the rules of interpersonal communication, you can avoid many troubles:
- speak to another person in the way that you yourself consider best and only true;
- show respect to the person you are talking to;
- Express trust and understanding in the person you are talking to.
What happens without communication?
Fear of pain - what is this phobia?
You can explain why communication is so important using the example of the so-called “Mowgli children” raised by animals. Babies who were completely isolated from the human community at an early age developed normally only on the physical level. The psyche was significantly delayed in development and was never properly formed, even when specialists were intensively involved in the rehabilitation of children. The “Mowgli children” were never able to fully master human speech, achieve normal mental and personal development, or master the laws of life in society.
Mowgli syndrome is a terrible consequence of the lack of human communication
That is why every person needs communication with others like themselves, at least in childhood. Some people, due to their temperamental characteristics, communicate more, others less. Being in a social environment throughout the entire period of growing up, an individual masters all leading types of activities and types of communication, which turns him into a Human in the full sense of the word.
Following simple rules
As a rule, conversations with family, friends and relatives do not cause us any difficulties. We experience the strongest desire to talk with such people, especially since we know very well about their reaction to certain statements, remarks, news. The desire to communicate with strangers is not so high, but often it is forced and necessary. You need to talk to strangers only in a positive way, showing only positive qualities and character traits, being friendly. It is better to do this with a smile on your face, following the existing rules of communication. It is even more important that the phrases you say are appropriate.
Finally, we bring to your attention several effective recommendations for competently building interpersonal relationships and interacting with others:
- be sensitive and attentive to the inner world of your interlocutor;
- remember, everyone deserves respect;
- show interest in the interlocutor, find positive qualities in him;
- do not pay attention to minor shortcomings, everyone has them; there are no ideal people;
- develop your own sense of humor and self-irony.
Types and levels of communication
· Secular communication - it is characterized by pointlessness (people say not what they think, but what is supposed to be said in such cases). This communication is closed, since people’s point of view on a particular issue has no meaning and does not determine the nature of communications
When entering into communication, a person enters into an infinite number of relationships, i.e. communication occurs at different levels.
There are several points of view on the existence of levels of communication.
Why should we communicate?
Communication acts, first of all, as the ability to contact other people. People who have a large number of friends and acquaintances are valued everywhere. Communication, as a way of interaction between people, allows you to share experiences, gain new knowledge, look for a partner and perform many other actions. Without words we are literally unarmed. Why does a person need communication? To share your thoughts with others, you say, and you will be right. But people on all continents created their own, unique language and original pronunciation, guided by broader goals. Constant dialogue between people is important
- Interact fully with other individuals.
- Develop as a person.
- Accumulate knowledge and experience.
- Expand your horizons.
- Feel warmth and support.
- Interpret your thoughts as fully as possible.
- Live in society.
- Find yourself a partner.
Living as a recluse and not making contact with anyone - all this will negatively affect a person’s psycho-emotional state. Thoughts and feelings must find a way out. Even a conversation with a person of the opposite point of view will give you emotional release. Ideally, for a full and happy life, people need like-minded people. Friends and loved ones can support, understand and help you understand the situation. Communication helps young lovers build harmonious relationships. Mutual discussion of difficulties reduces the risk of being misunderstood or not heard. This verbal therapy minimizes possible conflicts. We are so different: 4 communicative types of people↑
What does upbringing outside of society lead to?
If a person grew up without communication, he could never turn into a full-fledged personality, become civilized. He would only be human in appearance. This is proven by a large number of cases of raising so-called Mowgli children. The largest number of them was recorded in India. Between 1843 and 1933, 15 such cases were recorded. One of them was Dina Sanichar, who lived among wolves. He was returned to human society, taught to walk (before that he moved very quickly on all fours), use utensils, and dress. However, they could not force him to speak. There are many similar cases. Feral children are found among monkeys, wolves, leopards, and pandas. Their common symptoms are speech impairments or complete inability to speak, fear of people, and inability to use cutlery. This shows why a person needs communication, what its main functions are in relation to the formation of the psyche.
Psychologists often note that a person who has spent a lot of time with animals identifies himself with his “brethren.” For example, an 18-year-old girl who had previously been raised by dogs managed to learn to speak. However, she still claimed that she was a dog. Stories like this also make it clear why a person needs communication.
Is it worth talking about?
Restraint and the ability to solve problems independently, “not whine” and “not burden” others are perceived by many people as an exceptional virtue. I feel bad, but I smile, talk about the sun and flowers: aren’t I great? Don’t I protect my loved ones from negativity?
The answer is not entirely clear-cut. If we are talking about really close people, and not about tired colleagues during a deadline. The fact is that relatives and lovers often really feel us, our condition, mood, resentment or sadness. But not finding confirmation for them, they begin to worry. You about And the interlocutor feels anxiety: something is wrong. Maybe he doesn't deserve your trust? Or did he offend you without noticing it?
Some people simply do not need to share their experiences - due to internal characteristics. There may not be any childhood trauma or sad experience behind this. It’s just that one person needs a large support group, another needs a conversation with a friend, and a third just needs to be left alone, not touched, and allowed to figure it out on his own.
What helps people communicate?
Daily communication between people
Naturally, the main tool of communication is our language and the ability to express our thoughts. Native speech, jargon, abbreviations, new buzzwords allow us to fully convey information.
In addition to traditional speech, there are other ways to convey information:
- Emotions;
- Facial expressions;
- Gestures;
- Body movements.
With just one movement, we are able to understand what the interlocutor wants to tell us.
The main thing is to pay attention and not miss this fleeting gesture. They are used when words can be heard by others or when it is impossible to communicate using speech. These nonverbal cues are part of our communication.
If we talk about character traits, it would be appropriate to name:
- Friendliness.
- Activity.
- Social Engagement.
- Tendency to make new acquaintances.
- Communication skills.
All of the above points push us to start a conversation.
It can be difficult for shy people to say “hello”, which is why it is so important to develop communication skills, they will always come in handy. A self-confident guy will easily approach the girl he likes, while a young man who is unsure of his abilities will hope for a lucky break. We are so different: 4 communicative types of people