Introduction
People cannot live without communications. Interpersonal communication is very important in order to share personal experience, be aware of news, analyze and criticize novelties, and develop day by day. In science, interpersonal communication is introduced as a process of sending and receiving different kind of information between people (two or more). Today, people have lots of opportunities to share information of any kind any time: phones, e-mail, letters, face-to-face meetings, etc. Usually, intercommunication depends on numerous personal traits, such as shyness, uncertainty, fear, and many others.
“It seems likely that shyness and public self-consciousness could impact social interaction in a separate and additive manner or in an interactive manner.” (Bruch et al., 1995) Lots of researches have been already conducted in order to analyze the reasons of shyness and its influence on intercommunication. This paper presents the analysis of two articles of different writers from different continents: Interpersonal Communication and Personality: Self and Other Perspectives by the representatives from the Chinese University, and Shyness and Public Self-Consciousness: Additive or Interactive Relation with Social Interaction by the representatives from the American University. It evaluates their points of view and studies their ideas concerning interpersonal communication and possible obstacles.
Discussion
Lack of eye contact is one of the most noticeable signs of shyness. When a person tries to contact with another person or even a group of people and does not watch the reactions of listeners, the results of such kind of interpersonal communication may be rather frustrating. It is crucially important to observe changes, which happen to a listener after a speaker pronounces each word. To make conversation more effective and achieve the desirable results, it is obligatory to study the audience and analyze what may confuse or what can make an impression. People, who do not shy to communicate, present, and prove their points of view, are usually focused on the idea of how to impress the other people and improve personal skills.
In their turn, shy people are constantly thinking about their personal self-improvement without consulting other people, analyzing their criticism, and without true understanding of what should be changed and why. In order to help people communicate and develop their personal skills and knowledge, it is crucially important to find out the causes of shyness and analyze them. According to the research conducted by Bruch, Hamer, and Heimberg, shyness is related to such variables, which reflect a negative self-bias. “The purpose of this study was to test the degree to which dispositional shyness and public self-consciousness contributed in an additive and/or interactive fashion to cognitive and behavioral aspects of dysfunctional social interaction.” (Bruch et al. 1995)
Without any doubts, personality traits play an important role during interpersonal communication and the perception of information. Leung and Bond the writers, who make an attempt to analyze interpersonal communication and the role of personality in this process. It is necessary to study the links between a person, a group of people, the person speaks to, and possible styles of communication. The work of these people is grounded on previous researches conducted by Cheek and Weaver.
“Cheek studied the vicious circle of shyness and social skill deficits. Shy people are lonely and isolated with few friends.” (Leung and Bond, 2001) According to the investigation presented by Leung and Bond, it is necessary to point out two major perspectives: self-perception and the perception of other people. The peculiar feature of this research is that they have paid attention to gender roles. It is necessary to admit that women’s communication style and men’s communication style have a little in common.
Men and women choose different ways to interpret information, and such different interpretations may cause numerous misunderstandings. This is why, when a person start any interpersonal communicational process, it is better to pay attention to the group of people (the audience), their possible preferences, and forget about personal shyness and other drawbacks in order to start a valuable conversation. Several gender differences in conversation need to be also examined: “independence versus intimacy, report talk versus rapport talk, lecturing versus listening, and dominance versus cooperation.” (Leung and Bond, 2001).
Conclusion
The ideas of these two works presented by the representatives of two countries have lots in common as well as lots differences. All of them agree that shyness is one of the major obstacles while interpersonal communication. In order to develop communicative skills, it is necessary to identify the sources of shyness (whether it is generic or not) and participate in different kinds of programs to improve personal self-consciousness. Interpersonal communication is a key of today’s progress and further development of the society. People cannot stop communicate but improve it day by day. New technologies and unlimited opportunities to communicate any time being in any place – this is what makes modern communication more available. The only obstacle people may have is their personal traits such as shyness and uncertainty. To make this or that interpersonal communication more effective, it is important to check the content of each message, analyze body movements, facial expressions, and changes in tone of voice.
Reference List
Bruch, M. A., Hamer, R. J., and Heimberg, R. G. (1995, March). Shyness and Public Self-Consciousness: Additive or Interactive Relation with Social Interaction? Journal of Personality, 63 (1), 47 – 62.
Leung, S. K. and Bond, M. H. (2001). Interpersonal Communication and Personality: Self and Other Perspectives. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 4. 69 – 86.