The Prototype Model of Interpersonal Communication

If I am asked what comes to my mind when one mentions interpersonal communication, I will think of several points, some of which I will try to explain here.

The first and perhaps the most important element of my prototype of interpersonal communication is ongoing development. What it means by ongoing development is that interpersonal communication requires interactants to build a relationship between them and this can only be done over a long period of time, through a relatively high frequency of interactions. Thus, without gradual developments, one cannot expect to have an interpersonal relationship with others, because to get to that level, efforts and time—which both are the foundations of ongoing development—are very necessary. Our personal experiences can be the example of this. Let us think for a while about the relationships we have in our life. Most, if not all, of us can only mention a few names of people that we think we are really close to. This does not mean that we are lonely or not popular. In fact, this is normal and very reasonable. As mentioned previously, it takes time and efforts to bring a relationship to an interpersonal level. This means that the more people we want to have interpersonal relationships with, the more time and efforts we need to devote to the relationships. Considering that we have only limited time (only 24 hours a day) and we usually intend to use most of this time for achieving our personal goals, then it becomes practically impossible to forge friendships or relationships with as many people as we want. Therefore, it is not surprising at all if we can only name a handful of people as our best friend, lover, etc.

Another important, distinctive dimension of interpersonal relationship is re...

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...rently from one to another (Nicholson, 2006).

A gradual development of a relationship between two parties that see each other as unique entities leads to the formation of shared meanings, meanings that can only be understood by those in the relationship and sometimes may not even be understandable by others. This kind of meaning is the nucleus of interpersonal relationship (Duck, 1994) and this is the third element of my prototype model of interpersonal relationship. For example, if I say that I am going to Kolam (a small body of water that is surrounded by land) to people that are not very close to me, they may think that I am going fishing. However, if I say this to Reza, my friend that I mentioned previously, he will instantly understand that I am going to a particular building where we usually mediate and feed some fish on a small pond next to it afterwards.