Intrapersonal Communication

A Definition:

Intrapersonal Communication is communication within your self. You engage in intrapersonal communication when you are; Thinking Listening Daydreaming Studying Creating Dreaming.

You are both source and destination of this type of communication. You use your brain waves as a channel; and the outcomes are thoughts or ideas, sometimes decisions, and sometimes actions or behaviors. Your language and other social considerations shape the environment. Involves messages that are sent and received within ourselves. Intrapersonal messages reflect your habits, self related roles, and your attitudes, values, and beliefs.

The Process Of Intrapersonal Communication

Intrapersonal communication appeares when interpersonal communication is at rest. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how you communicate with yourself before you communicate with others. The brain is made aware of the state of the body by nerve impulses, internal stimuli that can prompt you to respond by communicating.

External stimuli is originate in the environment outside of your body. There are two kinds of external stimuli.

1- Over stimuli are received on the conscious level. They are picked up by the sensory organs and then sent to the brain.
2 - Cover stimuli are external stimuli that are received on the subconscious level.

Reception The process by which the body receives stimuli is called reception. External receptors receive stimuli that are changed into nerve impulses and then sent to the brain. These external receptors are to provide you with information about the environment. Internal receptors such as nerve endings, sent information about your interior state: the fullness of your stomach, for example.

Processing Internal and external communication occurs at three levels: 1 - Cognitive 2 - Emotional 3 - Physiological Some stimuli are perceived with full awareness (traffic lights, sirens, TV programs), while others may not be consciously noticed (background noise during a lecture).

Cognitive Processing. Cognitive processes are associated with the intellectual self and include the storage, retrieval, sorting, and assimilation of information. There are three forms of memory: (1) sensory storage, in which the information is held for only an instant (2) short-term memory, in which the information is stored for several seconds; and (3) long-term memory, in which the information is stored indefinitely.

Emotional Processing. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, intrapersonal processing also involves emotional processing, or the nonlogical response of an organism to a stimulus. Later in this chapter we will take a closer look at the different variables that operate in emotional processing. However, it is important to mention here that variables, ranging from attitudes, beliefs, and opinions at the subconscious level to emotions at the conscious level, all interact to determine our response to any particular communication.

Physiological Processing. The third type of processing occurs at the physiological level and is associated with the physical self. Although physiological processing is of obvious importance in staying alive, its significance to intrapersonal communication is only beginning to be recognized. Some of the subconscious variables in this process are heart rate, brain activity, muscle tension, blood pressure, and body temperature.

Transmission The process by which messages are sent from a source to a receiver is called transmission. In intrapersonal communication the source and the receiver are the same person. Thus, transmission takes place through nerve impulses in their brain rather than through sound waves in the air or words written on a page. The intrapersonal communication cycle is completed when the brain reacts to these nerve impulses by transmitting a message to smooth muscles, which regulate the movements of the body. Putting a hand on a hot pan causes the individuals touch receptors to send a neural transmission to the brain, saying, Its hot, which causes the brain to transmit a message to the muscles in hand, ordering, Move away from the pan immediately.

Feedback We usually think of feedback as information from another person. In intrapersonal communication, however, there are two kinds of self-feedbackexternal and internal. External self-feedback is the part of your message that you hear yourself. This kind of feedback enables you to correct your own mistakes. For example, you would surely backtrack if you heard yourself say something like external self-feed back. Internal self-feedback is usually picked up through bone conduction, nerve endings, or muscular movement. For example, you might perceive an awkward facial gesture without actually seeing itsimply by feeling the muscle tension in your face. Again, perceiving this information enables you to correct yourself.