Interpersonal relationship
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Interpersonal relationships are social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people who may interact overtly, covertly, face to face or may remain effectively unknown to each other such as those in a virtual community who maintain anonymity and do not socialize outside of a chat room.
The interactions that define an interpersonal relationship can be observable and explicit such as body language or dialogue. Or they can be implicit such as standing in a shopping line or in an emergency room. They are usually a mixture of both. An interpersonal interaction can constitute a social transaction such as the form, 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours'. Some transactions facilitate further interaction between the participants and some are show stoppers. Interpersonal violence is action, interaction and transaction, which doesn't always terminate the relationship.
Context is everything when it comes to meaningfully describing a particular interaction between people. Meaning itself results from interpersonal interactions, most significantly in the developmental stage of life with peers, parents and teachers. Culture is transmitted by socialization. Culture forms how we construct our world and the relationships in it.
An interpersonal relationship may be viewed as focussed such as a sales assistant and customer or as un-focussed such as passengers on a bus. People traveling to a football match share a relationship whether they support the same team or opposing teams. The significance of the relationship may not be apparent until they cheer or boo. In each case culture will tend to define the forms of both accepted and unacceptable interactions.
Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of self-disclosure, feedback, power and respect to name a few. They vary in the extent to which they are defined or constructed by culture and language. They vary in whether the relationship is open to question, challenge or change, which itself can demonstrate power differentials in a variety of interpersonal relationships and settings.
They vary in the degree to which intimacy and sharing occur - implying the discovery or establishment of common ground, are present. They may or may not be centered around something(s) shared in common.
