A person’s interpersonal life is dependent on that person’s facility for making his or her
thoughts, feelings, and needs known to others and on that person’s receptiveness to the
attempts of others to share similar data with him or her. Communication, a multifaceted
phenomenon, is the result of efforts by individuals toward this end. Communication can
be considered in simplistic terms as the sending and receiving of messages, as both
elements must be present for communication to take place. However, the fundamental
transaction of message sent and received does not presuppose that communication has
occurred. Often, it has only partially occurred or has been aborted entirely as a result of
the circumstances surrounding the occasion when the communication attempt was made.
These circumstances may be environmental, emotional, verbal-skill oriented,
phenomenological, or resulting from a host of conditions present within the individuals
who are attempting to relate.
