INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS

In inter personal relations you are connected

to others by virtue of shared experiences,
interpretations, perceptions and goals.
Types of impersonal relations
These relations occur due to:
1. Blood or marriage
2. Overlapping or interdependent goals
3. Common experiences that help to create
‘we-ness’
 INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS
Interpersonal relations may be:
1. Complex and involved
2. Simple and casual
3. Brief and spontaneous
4. Last a life time
The participants in inter personal
relations my be:
INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS
1. Strangers
2. Acquaintance
3. Friends
4. Romantic partners
5. Family
INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS
1. Strangers: whom you don’t know and
who is therefore unfamiliar to you.

1. One who is neither a friend nor an

acquaintance.
2. A foreigner, newcomer, or outsider.
3. One who is unaccustomed to or
unacquainted with something specified; a
novice: a stranger to our language;
 INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS

Are these strangers?

1. You talk first time, second time and
third time?
2. You talk many time to waiter or an
accountant?
Answers depend on your culture
 INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS
United states: social walls b/w strangers
are not very thick.
European Americans: fiercely
individualistic as a cultural group, may
not have developed the strong ingroup
bonds that promote separation from
outsiders.
Greeks: the word ‘non-Greek’ is
stranger.
 INTER PERSONAL RELATIONS
Korea: family dominated collectivist culture, a
stranger is anyone whom you have not been
formally introduced. The rules of politeness and
social etiquettes simply don’t apply.
2. Acquaintance: someone you know but only
casually. So interactions on only superficial
level. So called politeness rituals like greeting
in the first meeting or in the second meeting
small talks about weather, hobbies, fashions
and sports. But no personal problems or private
concerns.
 2. Acquaintance:

Cultural differences on these issues

European Americans: you may ask a
male acquaintance about his wife
UAE: it would be a major breach
New Zealand: appropriate to talk about
national and international politics.
Pakistan: such topics should be avoided.
Austria: personal questions about income
and family background can be discussed.
 3. Friends:
Friend: someone you know well, someone
you like, and someone with whom you feel a
close relationship. Friendship includes high
level of intimacy, self-disclosure, involvement
and intensity than does acquaintance.
Types of relationships:
1. Good friends
2. Close friends
3. Just friends
 3. Friends:
European Americans: friendships tend to
be compartmentalized between they are
based on a shared activity event or
experience. They can study with one
friend, play with another, and go to the
movies with a third one. Actually they
classify people according to what they do
or have achieved rather than who they are.
Thailand: a friend is accepted completely
or not at all.
 Language to describe inter personal relations

European Americans: such terms to

describe friendship as friends, allies and
neighbors
African Americans and some Southern
Whites: closeness between friends is
expressed by such terms as brother,
sister or cousin.
FIVE types of changes in behaviors when
initial acquaintance moves to close
friendship
1. Friends interact more frequently,
more talk, longer periods
2. Friends will have more knowledge
about and shared interpretations
3. Increased knowledge of the other
person’s motives and behaviors
4. Sense of ‘we-ness’ increases
 FIVE types of changes in behaviors
when initial acquaintance moves to
close friendship
Interdependence increases
5. Heightened sense of caring,
commitment, trust, and emotional
attachment.
 4. Romantic partners
There is a large diversity in romantic
relations depending on cultural
expectations.
European Americans: dating usually occurs
for romance and companionship. Dating
relationship is not viewed as a serious
commitment that will necessarily, or eve
probably lead to an engagement. The
choice of marriage is made by the couples.
 4. Romantic partners
Argentina and Spain: dating is taken more
seriously. Because here dating for more than
once means the relation will develop into
engagement and marriage.
Indonesia: opportunities for men and women to
be together are much more restricted.
India: In India casual dating relationships and
similar opportunities for romantic expressions
among unmarried individuals are still quite rare;
marriages are usually arranged by parents
usually by the consent of the couple.
 5. Family
Types of family structure: There are four
known types of family structure: they are as
follows:
1. Nuclear: The nuclear family with a father,
mother and their biological or adoptive
descendants, is the most admired of the four
types of structures.
2. single parent: The latest design structure is
the single parent family due to the high number
of teenage pregnancies.
 Family types
3. Extended family: consisting of
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins
all living nearby or in the same
household. 
4. Childless family: A childless family is a
family that does not have children. This is
usually the result of a couple deciding it
does not want children or of fertility
problems.
 Family

European Americans and European cultures:

family life is primarily confined to interactions
among the mother, father and children
Extended family: includes grand parents,
aunts, uncles and cousins.
Latinos: the extended family system is very
important.
India: the extended family system dominates.
Grand parents, aunts, uncles and many other
relatives live together in one household.
 Expected role behaviors and
responsibilities in various cultures
Argentina: family roles are very clearly
defined by social custom; the wife is
expected to raise the children, manage
the household, and show deference to
the husband.
India: the oldest son has specific family
and religious obligations that are not
requirements for other sons in the family.