Interpersonal Relationship Model

In today’s world nothing can be done all alone. We need people around who can help and guide us at the times of crisis. Remember conflicts and misunderstandings lead you nowhere. They are just a sheer waste of time and energy. Individuals ought to be cordial with each other for peace at the workplace as well as in personal lives. Working together also reduces stress and frustration among employees. Human beings are not machines and we need trustworthy people with whom we can share our emotions and feelings.

A strong connection between two individuals with similar interests is often called as interpersonal relationship. Individuals compatible with each other often enter into a relationship.

Interpersonal Relationship Model

Interpersonal Relationship model explains an individual’s outlook towards relationship and how one’s perception changes in due course.

Two people come together, like each other and enter into a relationship.

According to interpersonal relationship model, two directional components go a long way in creating an individual’s perception about relationships.

They are as follows:

• Other to Self: The component “other to self” represents an individual’s awareness of his partner’s attitude, thoughts and beliefs towards himself. The other to self component is more to do with the awareness of an individual as to how his/her partner treats him/her.

• Self to Other: The “self to other” component signifies an individual’s awareness of his own behaviour, attitude towards his/her partner. How an individual treats the other person in relationship is denoted by self to other component.

Interpersonal Relationship Model describes above two directional components as per following criteria:

Assistive Polarity

Assistive Polarity further consists of the following:

1. Assistive Attitude: Assistive attitude consists of actions and behaviour which are in favour of the other person.

2. Resistive Attitude: Resistive attitude consists of actions and behaviour of an individual which are against the recipient and tend to make the other person weak.

3. Level of Intentionality: Level of intentionality further consists of following three levels:

   1. Hypo telic Level of intention: Sometimes an individual is unaware of the other person’s aspirations and intentions and unknowingly comes in his/her way without realizing its harm. Hypotelic level signifies resistance to other person’s aspirations unknowingly.

   2. Telic or Meta telic Level of Intention: There are several cases where individuals deliberately stop the other person from doing something clearly knowing how much it would affect the other person. An individual intentionally obstructing aspirations of an individual comes under telic or meta telic level of intention.

   3. Degree of Autonomy: Degrees of autonomy are further classified into the following:

      According to interpersonal relationship model, the degree of assistance and obstruction arise out of following:

      • Autonomous Agency: Autonomous agency comes into picture when both resistance as well as acceptances arises out of either of the two partner’s personal wishes, choices and interests. None of the partners is influenced by a third party.

      • Proxy Agency: Proxy agency comes into play when resistances and acceptances are due to an external party often called the third party. Here the third party influences the decisions of the two individuals in relationship often called as Targets.

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