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Lecture Notes
Chapter 1: Conceptualizing Relational Communication: Definitions and
Principles
Chapter Outline
I. The Field of Personal Relationships: A Brief History
A. Contributions of Interpersonal Communication Research
1. The earliest research in this area dates to the 1950s but interpersonal
communication research began in earnest in the 1960s and 1970s.
a. In the 1960s scholars realized that most communication takes place in small
groups and dyads consisting of close friends, family members, and romantic
partners.
b. In the early 1970s, the first books on interpersonal communication emerged.
2. Miller and Steinberg (1975) proposed that the defining characteristics of an
interpersonal relationship are that it is unique, irreplaceable, and requires
understanding of the partner’s psychological makeup.
3. The evolution of interpersonal communication as a primary emphasis in the
communication discipline was an outcome of the recognition that relationships are
the primary locus for communication.
a. It was realized that relationships are an inherently communicative
phenomenon.
b. By the 1980s, interpersonal and relational communication research had
become increasingly sophisticated and theoretically driven.
B. Contributions of Social Psychology
1. Early research in social psychology laid the groundwork for the scientific
investigation of interpersonal relationships, with much of this work focused on
social development and personality.
2. From the late 1950s through the mid-1970s, however, social psychologists
increasingly began studying interaction patterns related to group and dyadic
processes.
3. International Conference on Personal Relationships laid the groundwork for
scholars from different disciplines to come together to promote and collaborate on
relationship research.
4. International Association for Relationship Research: Two scholarly associations
on relationships were also formed, with these organizations later merging into the
IARR.
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C. Roots in Other Disciplines
1. Sociologists focus on issues such as cultural values, class, religion, secularization,
divorce, marriage, gender equality, political attitudes, and generational differences
to determine how relationships are embedded within larger society.
2. Family studies scholars examine relationships looking more at the internal
dynamics of relationships between family members, either as a family system or
as an interpersonal dyad within the broader family structure.
3. Personal relationship research draws from these different disciplines, so a level of
richness and diversity that is often absent in other fields characterizes the field of
personal relationships.
II. Relationships
A. General Types of Relationships
1. Role Relationships
a. Behavioral interdependence: According to many relationship scholars, the
basic ingredient for having a relationship is that two individuals share some
degree of behavioral interdependence.
2. Interpersonal Relationships
a. Interpersonal relationships require that two individuals influence each other in
meaningful ways.
i. This type of mutual influence goes beyond basic tasks such as
exchanging money for coffee at Starbucks or thanking your hygienist
after she cleans your teeth.
ii. In interpersonal relationships, influence extends to activities that create
connection at a social or emotional level rather than a task level.
b. Interpersonal relationships also have repeated interaction over time.
Interactions that are limited in length or frequency rarely develop into
interpersonal relationships.
3. Close Relationships
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b. In a close relationship, we feel emotionally connected; the relationship is the
basis of why we feel happy or sad, proud or disappointed.
c. Close relational partners fulfill critical interpersonal needs, such as the need
to belong to a social group, to feel loved and appreciated, or to care for and
nurture someone.
B. Relationship Categories
1. Categorizations although simple help people understand and define the
relationships we share.
2. Some relationships fit into neat categories such as boyfriend, coworker, wife, or
student, but others fit into overlapping categories.
C. Recognizing Diversity
1. No one set of categories could capture the wide range of close relationships.
2. The balance of attention given by relationship scientists remains very uneven.
3. The Heterosexual Bias
a. Despite advances, research on the romantic relationships of the LGBTQIA+
community lags far behind research on heterosexual romantic relationships.
b. Chevrette (2013) argues that this bias in research has blinded scientists to
ways of communicating in relationships other than those found in
relationships between heterosexuals.
D. Characteristics Distinguishing Different Relationship Types
1. Voluntary Versus Involuntary
a. People make a conscious choice to be involved in some relationships, but
they enter other relationships without volition.
2. Genetically Related Versus Nonrelated
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a. The degree to which two people are genetically related also defines the type
of relationship they share.
b. To some extent, the degree of genetic relatedness is also associated with how
voluntary or involuntary a relationship is.
3. Sexual Versus Platonic
a. Friendships and relationships with nonspousal family members are platonic,
which means they do not include sexual involvement.
b. Dating and marital relationships by contrast are usually marked by sexual
activity.
4. Romantic Versus Nonromantic
a. Both romantic relationships and friendships can contain sexual activity and
high levels of emotional involvement.
b. The distinction between emotional closeness and sexual intimacy is reflected
in how various relationships develop.
c. Guerrero and Mongeau (2008) suggested that there are three general
trajectories or pathways toward developing a romantic relationship.
i. “Traditional” trajectory is acquaintanceship to romantic relationship.
ii. Other times, people follow a trajectory that moves from platonic
relationship to romantic relationship.
iii. The third trajectory moves from being friends with benefits to having a
romantic relationship.
d. These aspects of the relationship are not what changes when the relationship
turns romantic. Instead, it is the definition of the relationship that changes.
5. Male Versus Female or Masculine Versus Feminine
a. Some scholars label sex or gender as a component that defines types of
relationships.
b. Sex is biologically determined, whereas gender is socially and culturally
constructed.
c. Stryker defines transgender as “people who move away from the gender
they were assigned at birth, people who cross over (trans-) the boundaries
constructed by their culture to define and contain gender”.
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d. In the 1990s, the term cisgender was developed to identify individuals whose
gender-identity matches with the biological sex they were given at birth,
officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015.
III. Principles of Interpersonal Communication
A. Verbal and Nonverbal Messages
1. The first principle is that interpersonal communication consists of a variety of
nonverbal and verbal messages that can be exchanged through different channels,
including face-to-face and computer-mediated channels.
2. Nonverbal communication includes a wide variety of behaviors. It is particularly
powerful because people can send messages using numerous nonverbal behaviors
all at once.
3. Nonverbal behaviors such as these have been studied with the context of
relationships and have been classified into the following categories:
a. Kinesics: Facial expressions, body and eye movements, including posture,
gestures, walking style, smiling, and pupil dilation, among other kinesic cues.
b. Vocalics: Silence and the way words are pronounced, including vocal pitch,
loudness, accent, tone, and speed, as well as vocalizations such as crying and
sighing.
c. Proxemics: The use of space, including conversational distances and
territory.
d. Haptics: The use of touch, ranging from affectionate to violent touch.
4. Nonverbal communication is not limited to face-to-face interactions. Nonverbal
elements can change the meaning of a message.
5. Interpersonal communication also consists of many forms of verbal behavior,
including verbal content and self-disclosure.
a. Self-disclosure, a vital form of interpersonal communication, is used to reveal
personal information to others.
6. Various channels are used to exchange interpersonal communication.
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a. Traditionally, research on interpersonal communication focused on face-to–
face interaction.
b. One implication of this revolution is that people are more accessible to one
another.
B. Communication as Inevitable
1. For communication to occur, a person has to send a message intentionally or a
receiver has to perceive and assign meaning to a behavior.
2. Not all body movements are communication since many go unnoticed. But some
movements you make and most words you say will be received and interpreted by
others, making it impossible not to communicate at some level.
C. Interpersonal Communication Goals
1. The third principle is that people use interpersonal communication to fulfill goals.
This does not mean that all communication is strategic.
a. People often send spontaneous messages that are interpreted by others as
meaningful.
2. Interpersonal communication likely developed as a way to help people meet their
everyday goals. Communication helps people make good impressions, connect
with others on a social level, and get things done.
3. Although communication fulfills numerous specific goals, many of those goals
fall under one of three overarching categories—self-presentational, relational, or
instrumental goals.
a. Self-presentational goals relate to the image we convey.
D. Effectiveness and Shared Meaning
1. The fourth principle is that interpersonal communication varies in effectiveness,
with the most effective messages leading to shared meaning between a sender and
a receiver.
2. Guerrero and Floyd (2006) provided a way to think about how different types of
messages are more or less effective. In their model, communication necessitates
that a sender encodes a message or a receiver decodes a message.
a. Therefore, behaviors falling in the box labeled unattended behavior do not
qualify as communication.
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SAGE Publishing, 2021
3. Other exchanges are less effective. Miscommunication occurs when someone
sends an intentional message that is misinterpreted by the receiver.
4. Attempted communication occurs when someone sends an intentional message
that the receiver fails to receive.
E. Content Versus Relational Information
1. A factor influencing whether communication is effective is the extent to which
partners have the same relational interpretations of messages. This leads into a
fifth principle of interpersonal communication, namely, that every message
contains both content and relational information.
2. The content level of a message conveys information at a literal level whereas the
relational level provides a context for interpreting the message of a relationship.
a. The content or literal level of the message is the same for most people within
a given situation.
3. The context or situation can affect how the relational information in a message is
interpreted. Thus, a message can have multiple meanings at the relational level as
well as various interpretations.
F. Symmetry in Communication
1. Interpersonal communication can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.
Communication unfolds through a series of messages and countermessages that
contribute to the meaning people attach to a given interaction.
2. Symmetrical communication occurs when people exchange similar relational
information or similar messages.
IV. Principles of Relational Communication
A. Relationships Emerge Across Ongoing Interactions
1. Relationships represent collections of all the communication episodes in which
two partners have engaged over time, and each episode adds new information
about the relationship.
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2. Even in well-developed relationships, critical turning points such as a declaration
of love, a heated argument, or an anniversary can alter the course of the
relationship. Without communication, there is no relationship.
B. Relationships Contextualize Messages
1. In various relationships, messages have different meanings. The context and
relationship are critical to understanding the message.
C. Communication Sends a Variety of Relational Messages
1. Burgoon and Hale outlined seven types of relational messages that people
communicate to one another.
a. Dominance/submission, level of intimacy, degree of similarity, task–social
orientation, formality/informality, degree of social composure, and level of
emotional arousal and activation.
2. Of these seven dimensions, dominance/submission and level of intimacy are the
two main themes that characterize relationships.
3. In role relationships, relational messages stay fairly constant; people generally
follow prescribed rules and scripts. By contrast, in close relationships, the range
and impact of relational messages typically are much greater.
D. Relational Communication is Dynamic
1. Successful relational partners—whether they are family members, friends, or
lovers—learn how to adjust their communication to meet the challenges and
changes that they face.
2. It highlights the dynamic nature of relational communication by emphasizing
contradictions in messages.
E. Relational Communication Follows Both Linear and Nonlinear Patterns
1. Early research on interpersonal communication focused much more on how
people begin and end relationships than on how they maintain relationships once
they have developed.
2. Linear and nonlinear trajectory
a. Some researchers believe that communication follows a linear trajectory.
b. This means that communication is characterized by increasing self-disclosure
and nonverbal affection as a relationship gets closer.
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