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A prolegomena to a study of the

antecedents of inter personal
communication
Charles N. Wise

Texas Tech University

Published online: 21 May 2009.

To cite this article: Charles N. Wise (1972) A prolegomena to a study of the antecedents of inter
personal communication, Today's Speech, 20:4, 59-64, DOI: 10.1080/01463377209369070
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01463377209369070

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FALL 1972

59

SPECIAL REPORT

A PROLEGOMENA TO A STUDY OF THE

ANTECEDENTS OF INTER PERSONAL
COMMUNICATION

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Abstract
After describing the widespread popularity enjoyed by recently established courses in Interpersonal Communication, this article traces the
genesis of such courses to "humanistic" trends in education, contemporary
theories in psychotherapy developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow,
and the concern for "feelings" expressed by students in the sixties.
A new area of concentration appears
to be forming in Speech Communication,
apparently to be labeled "Interpersonal
Communication." J This developing area
in high schools and colleges appears related to a relatively new direction in education which has acquired various labels,
including
"psychological
education,"
"affective," and "humanistic." 2 The new
direction purports to "balance" historical
classroom emphasis on skills and cognitive information with "explicit attention
to the important areas of feelings, values,
and interpersonal behavior."3 [emphasis
mine] In practice, this movement in education, now appearing in Speech Communication, seems to require closer cooperation between teachers and psychologists than has been traditional in the
classroom.
Strong professional opinion and some
impressive evidence of student demand
are available to a speech communication
teacher contemplating the new area in
terms of curriculum change. John Stewart, in a recent Speech Teacher article,
says that:
The recent, unusually successful introduction of at least three basic speech texts that
approach the first course ffom an "intersonal communication" might become as,
common to college freshmen and sopho-

mores of the seventies as "public speaking"

has been to undergraduate students of the
fifties and sixties.4
In the same issue, Joseph Ilardo considers the question of possible longevity
of the interpersonal communication
area and associated courses. He asserts
unequivocally that " . . . I must state first
that I don't think interpersonal communication is a fad. Indeed, if it turns out
to be a 'flash-in-the-pan,' the speech
field will have failed to meet a challenge
more significant than any it has faced
in the past.";
At least one large institution, Kansas
University, has extensively investigated
comparative demand between a new
course in interpersonal communication
and traditional fundamentals courses.
That institution's experience has a provocative message for us.
In the fall of 1967 an innovation was made
in the fundamentals of speech program at
the Univenuty of Kansas. Students were
given a choice between the traditional public speaking courses and a new course
entitled "Interpersonal Communication,"
either of which would satisfy the university
speech requirement. That fall we had 11
sections of the new course and 40 sections
of the public speaking course. Each subsequent semester the trend has been toward
more interpersonal communication classes.

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60

TODAY'S SPEECH

In the fall of 1970 we had 56 such sections

compared with six classes in public speaing. A 1969 survey of University of Kansas
students conducted by the School of Education showed speech to be the most popular of the required courses on our campus.
The survey reflected a marked change in
student attitudes from 1966 when 50% of the
seniors surveyed wanted to abolish the
speech requirement.6

detail than have previous studies. The

word "antecedent" is carefully chosen to
reflect the high level of abstraction occurring occasionally, and the slipperiness
of causality in such circumstances. The
purpose might simply be stated as a
question: From what background has the
area of interpersonal communication
emerged?

Other unpublished evidence of demand

is available. For example, Don Beck,
North Texas State University, has for
several years offered an interpersonal
communication course so intense that
Beck refers to it as "systematic training
in interpersonal relationships." According to Beck, the course has an extensive
list of students waiting to enroll. In the
past year the author has encountered a
number of teachers, particularly at the
secondary level, who are experimenting
with
interpersonal
communication.
Typical reports outline "heavy enrollment," "much talked-about in the
schools," and "teacher excitement."
Development of the interpersonal communication area is likely to create problems for some speech communication
teachers, just as the "humanistic" approach to education in general has created problems for teachers. For example,
the humanistic classroom downgrades
traditional structure to the point that
even the word "classroom" seems inappropriatea position approved by all
interpersonal communication teachers
known to the author.
Developmental
problems
notwithstanding, the area of interpersonal communication surely warrants the continuation of investigations already begun in
data-gathering, theory, and pedagogy.
Courses in interpersonal communication
appear to be a logical continuation of the
trend that added the word "communication" to the traditional "speech." Moreover, any course of study with the apparent student demand and teacher excitement of the interpersonal communication area surely deserves attention.
The purpose of this paper is to examine
the antecedents of interpersonal communication more deeply and in more

I
Different inquiries into the broadest
antecedents for the movement would
probably produce both agreements and
disagreements. The author, in a graduate
seminar, has suggested these important
influences: the gradual infusion of Eastern religions and philosophies into
American culture, philosophies which
stress the importance of self-knowledge
and self-tranquility;7 twentieth century
changes in American education, often
referred to as "permissive education";8
the growing "Existential-Humanistic"
school of thought in psychology, as typified by the writings of Abraham Maslow,
Carl Rogers, and contributors to the
magazine Psychology Today;"9 the explicit philosophy of the early "true"
Hippies, which denied materialism and
other values that seemed to suppress
self;10 spreading acceptance and utilization of the principles and practices of the
sensitivity
training-encounter
group
phenomenon;11 and finally, for speech
communication, the expansion of the
field beyond the traditional public address orientation.
II
In my introduction I connected the development of interpersonal communication to a movement in education referred
to as "humanistic" education. Humanistic education resists formal definition,
but one educator's language seems to
capture a meaning for teachers:
This book describes my attempts to reach
students at basic personality levels, touch
them in an organized fashion. I believe that
what a student learns in school, and what
he eventually becomes are significantly
influenced by how he feels about himself
and the world outside. I think that school

61

FALL 1972

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should legitimize these feelings, and should

teach students a variety of ways to recognise and express them. An education without
this understanding of self is simply training
in an irrelevant accumulation of facts and
theoriesirrelevant because it is not related
to what students feel is important. The goal
of the teacher should be to help each student
constantly increase his understanding of
his feelings, and expand that self-awareness
by utilizing the vast intellectual resources
available to man.12

Certain key terms in this citation, including "reach," "touch," "feelings,"

and "self-awareness," will be identified
by readers as the language of sensitivity
training and encounter groups. Those
activities should be considered as a major
immediate antecedent of humanistic
education and interpersonal communication. Kim Giffin and Bobby Patton, introducing the manual for their text in interpersonal communication, make an explicit statement about ancestry when
they write that, "although some of the
exercises have been incorporated from
sensitivity groups, our classes are not
T-groups. All exercises and activities are
pre-structured and goals are met with
each assignment."13 This disclaimer,
however, does not isolate Giffin and
Patton's material and course from sensitivity training and milder forms of
encounter. Presence or absence of
"structure" does not necessarily change
the basic nature of the elusive experience found in sensitivity training. Gerard
Egan, a leading figure in encounter
philosophy, suggests that goals sought
in T-groups and encounter groups may,
in fact, be promoted by stricter group
clarification of goals and procedures
than has been traditional. Interestingly,
Egan's current book of readings in encounter philosophy contains two selections from Keltner's recent book in interpersonal communication.14
The influence of sensitivity-encounter
thought and student pressures are quite
literally reflected in Giffin and Patton's
general objectives for their course in
interpersonal communication:

A. Functional intelligence: competency in

converting personal knowledge and experience into social currency; learning
to translate what one knows into value
and utility for others.
B. Social decision-making: participation
in the dynamic exchange of ideas; data
processing through confrontation and
discussion.
C. Self-expression: development of an
effective sense of self in human encounter; strengthening personal identity and
social involvement through personal
communiccition.15
Ill-

Antecedents; for humanistic education

and interpersonal communication may
be viewed through another sequence.
In this sequence, the movement is rooted,
strangely enough, in psychotherapy,16
beginning with the classical Freudian
psychoanalysis so graphically stereotyped in movies, cartoons, and sophisticated humor. Classical analysis was
highly structured, proceeding on a therapist-client basis. Although "normal"
people underwent analysis, the typical
analysis situation involved the analyst
and a client-patient "disturbed" along a
continuum form "neurotic" to "psychotic." The analyst listened to answers
evoked by specific questions, utilized
various projective techniques including
the interpretation of dreams, and then
diagnosed the patient's problem according to classical diagnostic categories.
Classical analysis has been called "therapist-centered," meaning that the analyst
questioned, told the patient what the
patient's responses and behaviors meant,
and then spelled out what the patient
must do to improve or recover.17
In the 1950's, three more or less simultaneous developments occurred in psychology that altered conceptions of psychological treatment. First, growing problems of mental health spotlighted the
high cost of classical treatment by psychiatrists and psychologists on a oneto-one, therapist-patient basis. As a result
experiments began with group psychotherapy, in which disturbed patients
shared a trained therapist, utilizing

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62

group discussion of individual problems

under the guidance of the counselor.18
Secondly, Carl Rogers and others began
to enunciate and practise a new therapy
conceptthat of "Non-Directive Counseling," in which the patient was allowed
and encouraged to self-discover the
nature and meaning of his problems.19
In this approach to therapy the therapist
functions as an empathie "reflector"
for the client, seldom asking direct questions except as helpful paraphrasings for
the patient, and providing heavy support
for the patient's insights into himself or
herself. Rogers' approach is often called
"client-centered." a familiar term to
many readers in speech pathology and
audiology. The third development was
Abraham Maslow's announcement of his
new conception of mental health. Prior
to Maslow, mental health was evaluated
in only two waysa person was either
"normal" or "mentally ill," with gradations, of course. To Maslow, however,
there was another stage, the "supernormal" or "self-actualized" person who
is mentally healthy beyond the normal.

Normality, to Maslow, was only an intermediate stage, a precarious balance,

teetering often toward disturbed mental
health.20
These developments in psychology,
particularly Maslow's theory, may be
viewed as causal agents in the development of sensitivity training and encounter groups. Both activities, but especially
encounter groups, are properly labeled
as "psychotherapy for the normal person"
in which, centered on the Maslow theses,
groups of normal people seek personal
growth in self-awareness, awareness of
others, and self-actualizing.21 Since
properly-conducted encounter screens
out participants who are mentally disturbed or latently so, the "leader" of the
group need not necessarily be a trained
psychologist, although he or she is likely
to be so trained.22 The leader may simply
be a highly empathie person specifically
trained in sensitivity training or encounter groups.
These developments in self theory
seem intimately connected to the human-

TODAY'S SPEECH
istic classroom and interpersonal communication. Although the intensity of
pursuit will vary among the four cases
sensitivity training, encounter groups,
humanistic
education,
interpersonal
communicationthe central concern of
each is the self, self nurture, self-actualizing. If groups of normal people may
grow in self awareness and self strength
under trained guidance, just as groups of
mentally disturbed patients restructure
selves with leadership from experienced
psychotherapiststhen students in classrooms, given empathie and trained teachers concerned with each student's self
development, may utilize the group
experience and exercises in self-awareness to promote self growth, self strength.
IV
Causality and chronology are difficult
to trace among the antecedents of humanistic education and interpersonal communication. Without specifying either
causality or chronology, it can nonetheless be observed that students have had
a strong part in the movement. Students
in the Sixties, articulate and inarticulate
alike, were much concerned with "feelings, values, and interpersonal behavior."
The lyrics of many songs popular among
youth in the period both revealed and
reinforced that concern; the "Age of
Aquarius" is a staunchly optimistic poem
of concern for the individual, for self,
for feeling; and "Yesterday" is not nostalgia, but a plea for tenderness and
humanity. Several slogans of the period
reveal the type of concern with self,
awareness, and "growth" that has led
toward humanistic education: "Don't
tell me what you think, tell me what
you feel"; "If you haven't experienced it,
you can't really know what its like";
and, of course, the outcries for "relevance!" in 'social, political, and educational institutions. The students also
patented a procedure for humanistic
classrooms in developing the popularly
labeled "Rap" session which, in. the
author's judgment, can often approach
the efficacy of an expensive, expertly-run
sensitivity group.23

FALL 1972

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This brief investigation of the antecedents of interpersonal communication

might be summarized by saying that
interpersonal communication has developed from two broad sources: (1}
changing views of desirable interpersonal relationships; and (2) things that
have been happening, in counseling and
classrooms, to operationalize changing
feelings about interpersonal relationships. Changing views of interpersonal
relationships may be connected with
such phenomena as the infusion of philosophies stressing the self and individ-

63

ual happiness, educational philosophies

based on the "permissive classroom"
concept, "humanism" in psychology
(which takes H. F. Skinner as its antagonist), and non-materialistic values developed by the early "Hippies" and other
youth. Operational definition of these
changing values has occurred through the
development of group psychotherapy,
sensitivity training and encounter groups,
and the humanistic classroom stressing
self-perception and "growth."
CHARLES N. WISE
Texas Tech University

Notes
1

The label is increasingly appearing in texts, convention programs, and the SCA
Placement Bulletin. For texts, see Kim Giffin and Bobby R. Patton, Fundamentals
of Interpersonal Communication (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), and John W.
Keltner, Interpersonal Speech-Communication (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1970). For a recent theoretical article in the area, see Carl
E. Larson and Robert D. Gratz, "Problem-Solving Discussion Training and T-Group
Training: An Experimental Comparision," The Speech Teacher, XIX (Jan., 1970),
no. 1, 54-57.
2
Terry Borton, Reach, Touch, and Teach: Student Concerns and Process Education (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1970), p. 125. The most exhaustive analysis behind the movement may be found in Charles E. Silberman's Crisis
in the Classroom: The Remaking of American Education (New York: Ballantine
Books, 1971). See especially Chs. 11 and 12, concerning teacher education and
reeducation.
3
Borton, p. vii.
4
"An Interpersonal Approach to the Basic Course," The Speech Teacher, XXI
(Jan., 1972), 7.
5
"Why Interpersonal Communication?"The Speech Teacher, XXI (Jan., 1972), 2.
6
Kim Giffin and Bobby R. Patton, Instructor's Manual for Fundamentals of Interpersonal Communication (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), p. vii.
7
One source is the book Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, a fictional account of the
life of Buddha, which is frequently assigned reading for students in Philosophy,
English, and Psychology. Readers will also recall the popularity on college campuses of "Yoga" and "Meditation" prophets, probably sparked by the Eastern
pilgrimages of the "Beatles" and other public entertainment figures.
8
William Boyd and Wyatt Rawson present an excellent summary in The Story
of the New Education (London: Heinemann, 1965).
9
The "Genesis" book would probably be agreed upon as Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1968).
10
See Leonard Wolfe, Voices from the Love Generation (Boston: Little & Brown,
1968).
11
Egan, Encounter, pp. 1-3, and reader's knowledge of many reinforcements
in counseling, religion, education, and industry.
12
Borton, p. vii.
13
Giffin and Patton, Manual, p. vii.

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TODAY'S SPEECH

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14

For Egan's concepts of structure, see Gerard Egan, Encounter: Group Processes
for Interpersonal Growth (Belmont, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Inc.,
1970). pp. 25-103. For Keltner's contributions, see Egan's Encounter Groups: Basic
Readings (Belmont, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Inc., 1971).
15
Giffin and Patton, Manual, p. ix.
16
Ilardo takes as his major point the idea that "ages of anxiety" have arisen in
many historical periods, promoting in our own age "widespread" desire for "therapy" of many kinds, formal and informal. In his mind, the development of interpersonal communication is primarily a response to demand for therapy in the
classroom. The generalization is obviously acceptable to this author. However,
this investigation and Stewart's article both stress the underlying theoretical basis
of the changing approach to the first course. Students (and teachers) may derive
helpful catharsis from the typical exercises in interpersonal communication classes
which, depending on your point of view, is proper and useful or not proper and
useful. However, to this author, Stewart has made the crucial point: "On the other
hand, interpersonal communication is also not simply a 'content' or theory approach, because it emphasizes the need for the student to experience the application of concepts. We operate on the assumption that Carl Rogers is at least partly
right when he says that any learning of consequence must be self-discovered, selfappropriated learning." (p. 8). This author has often generalized that "a concept
not experienced is a concept not acquired."
17
Franz G. Alexander, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: Developments in
Theory, Technique, and Training (New York: W. W. Norton, 1956).
18
George M. Gazda, Basic Approaches to Group Psychotherapy and Group Counseling (Springfield, Ill.: Thomas, 1968).
19
Carl R. Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1951).
Another pioneer was Jurgen Ruesch, Therapeutic Communication (New York:
Norton, 1961).
20
Maslow, Toward A Psychology of Being.
21
Egan, Encounter, pp. 11-17.
22
Ibid. pp. 22-23.
23
The author's experience in sensitivity training dates back to the early 1960's,
beginning with special projects at the Kellog Center for Continuing Education,
Norman, Oklahoma.