In day to day life, human beings interact with one another through communication as they share ideas. Personal connection, therefore, becomes an essential aspect of people and applies to various setups such during negotiation, education, and even in entertainment. To elaborate and instill understanding regarding different forms of personal dialoguing, multiple theories have been discussed by communication gurus, and they help in simplifying the behavior of people when they are engaged in communication. Understanding theories of personal contact is essential not only to the learners but also to the society in general so that they can enhance the outcome of the interaction; therefore, this essay aims at discussing some of the theories of personal communication.
The first theory of communication is constructivism which is mostly aligned with face-to-face interaction. According to Cushman and Florence (12), some people can be perceived as highly successful in personal communication since they possess the ability to make the audience listen to them, and more so, they have unique ability to deliver their message to the listeners. However, to achieve this ability to provide information an interestingly, the speaker must have a high cognitive ability to decipher the idea and using the logic of rhetorical design to ensure the audience is glued to the message being delivered. Therefore, since people have different levels of cognitive abilities, the ability to offer ideas to an audience will vary.
Secondly, personal communication is guided by the expectancy violation theory which postulated that during an interaction involving two or more people, the truth about the subject matter in only one. The individual participating in then interacting will oppose any contrary opinion which may inhibit effective interaction. The violation of the expectation by the people taking part in the communication leads typically to the communicator being perceived as incompetent. However, a misunderstanding that may arise during such interaction may not necessarily be termed as violation of expectation since human bias may play a part during the dialogue. According to Erik (16), any misunderstanding occurring at this stage will lead to ineffective delivery of the intended message
In conclusion, personal communication is guided by several theories that help in informing the interacting parties about the expectation to enhance the outcomes. More often than not, communication has been affected due to lack of mutual understanding between the sender and the receiver of the information. Fundamental theories such as constructivism theory and the expectancy violation theory are vital in creating an understanding of the how human beings use personal communication.
Works Cited
Cushman, Donald P., and B. Thomas Florence. “The Development of Interpersonal Communication Theory.” Today’s Speech, vol. 22, no. 4, Sept. 1974, pp. 11–15, doi:10.1080/01463377409369156.
Eisel, Erik. “On the Theory of Communication.” Writings, edited by Andreas Ströhl, NED - New edition ed., vol. 6, University of Minnesota Press, 2002, pp. 8–20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.cttttwnk.6.
