Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

Image by johnhain from Pixabay
Chapter 3
Intrapersonal
Communication
Who are you? Have you ever sat around thinking about how you fit into the larger universe. Manford
Kuhn created a simple exercise to get at the heart of this question. 1 Take out a piece of paper and
number 1 to 20 (or use the worksheet in the workbook). For each number, answer the question “Who
Am I?” using a complete sentence. Results from this activity generally demonstrate five distinct categories
about an individual: social group an individual belongs to, ideological beliefs, personal interests, personal
ambitions, and self-evaluations. If you did the Twenty Item Test, take a second and identify your list
using this scheme. All of these five categories are happening at what is called the intrapersonal-level.
refers to something that exists or occurs within an individual’s self or mind. This chapter
focuses on understanding intrapersonal processes and how they relate to communication.
Larry Barker and Gordon Wiseman created one of the oldest definitions of the term “intrapersonal
communication” in the field of communication. Barker and Wiseman defined intrapersonal
communication as “the creating, functioning, and evaluating of symbolic processes which operate
73
Interpersonal Communication