epc individual essay

FNBE JULY 2013 – FCOM 0102 Effective Public Communication

Name: Vicky Lee Wei Kee

Individual Essay

Effective Public Communication (FCOM 0102)

Individual Assignment: Essay

Vicky Lee Wei Kee (0313317)



4. Explain the needs for inclusion, affection, and control and how they are related to

interpersonal communication.

Ian Newby-Clark argues that we human beings are social creatures. Whenever people are

together, they communicate. In other words, communications is everywhere and happens in

our everyday life. People join groups in everyday life to satisfy interpersonal needs. According

to William Schutz, we have three basic interpersonal needs that are satisfied through interaction

with others, they are needs for inclusion, affection and control which help drive how and why

we communicate. We either express or behave in ways or want other to behave towards us to

help fulfil our needs. Deficient people have few of their needs met; excessive people have an

overabundance of their needs met; whereas ideal people have most of their needs met.

The interpersonal need for inclusion is the need to become involved with others. We human

beings need to belong to, or being included in groups with others. As humans, we derive much

of our identity, our beliefs about who we are, form groups to which we belong. For instance,

we get to be involved in many groups in our everyday life, first of all starting with our

immediate families and also important groups such as religious group, interest groups, work

teams and social groups. All of these help us define who we are and derive us as a distinct

person, having a particular identity. According to Schutz’s theory, interpersonal needs for

inclusion manifests itself in people wanting to be attended to, wanting to attract attention,

wanting interaction with others so that one feels himself/herself significant and worthwhile. A

person seeking inclusion wants to be part of a group. However, not everyone wants or

experiences needs in the same way. Some may need great amount of needs for inclusion and

some might not think it is important and even try to avoid interpersonal contact. Schutz

described people in terms of their needs social, undersocial/countersocial and

oversocial/social-compliant. Undersocial beings do not need much inclusion and prefer to



avoid group activities. For example, Jane only talks or answers when she is spoken to or being

questioned and most of the time she keeps quiet whenever she is in a group of friends. She

prefers to eat alone and sees personal space and privacy very important. In opposite to

undersocial, oversocial are people who constantly seek inclusion and involvement in groups

and cannot to be left out in any group activities. For instance, Gabriel is very outgoing and

sociable. He always initiates conversations with his friends and needs to be at the center of

attention in order to ensure that he is acceptance by his peers. The undersocials may be

perceived as reserved and arrogant while the oversocials may be seen as dominating or

demanding of attention. Understanding inclusion as part of every person’s need is important to

fulfill the needs and allow relationships to develop. In the nut shell, we communicates to meet

inclusion needs, wanting others’ company, acceptance and affirmation, and we want to give

acceptance and affirmation to others. We meet belonging needs by talking with others, listening

and responding to what they say, sharing thoughts and feelings; all of these forms of

interpersonal communication introduce us to ideas that broaden our perspectives.

The second dimension of relationship is liking, or affection. The need for affection is

defined as holding fond or tender feelings toward another person, the emotion of caring for

others or being cared for and the need to feel the self is likable and lovable. We human beings

need to love and to be loved, to make sure ourselves are important to others who value us as a

unique human beings. A person who adequately fulfills this need is labeled “personal”. One

who fails to fulfill the affection need is called “underpersonal” or “overpersonal”. Personal

individuals want to be liked, but they do not consider being liked by everyone essential for

happiness. The underpersonal tries to avoid emotional commitments or involvement with

others, restricting from bonding close ties with other people. For instance, Sam tries to remain

emotionally distant from others, his main fear is that no one loves him. He has a marked

interpersonal need for affection, but he feels and thinks that others will not like him because he



does not deserve it although he is a friendly guy and respond to people who speaks to him. On

the other hand, overpersonal individuals will often go to the extremes to ensure acceptance by

others. For example, Jayden constantly shows affectionate behaviours toward female

colleagues and often thinks that he is very popular within his social groups and like by the

others. Besides, affection needs concerns the degree of positive or negative feeling that is

communicated. We may be responsive to people we do not like but to whom we like. We

communicate that we like or dislike others by tone of voice, facial expressions and so forth and

this is where interpersonal communication occurs.

The need for control, having the ability to influence others, our environment, and ourselves

is the third dimension of relationship meaning. It deals in areas of power, influence and

authority and manifest itself along a continuum from desire for control over others and over

one’s future and from desire to be controlled-to have responsibility lifted. There are different

degrees of the need for control. A person with little need to control is called the abdicrat.

Opposite to abdicrat, the autocrat is described as an individual who dominates the others and

have the strong need for control. Furthermore, a democrat can both take charge and allow others

to be in control. For instance in a lover relationship, Joseph, the autocrat of the relationship

suggested that they go for a particular movie and then to dinner at Sushi Zanmai. Stephenie,

the abdicrat, gives up the power decision-making and responsibilities to her partner, Joseph in

the relationship. If both Joseph and Stephenie are democrats in the relationship, they will ask

and discuss with each other about what to do and eat. Sometimes friends and romantic partners

so engage in convert power struggles on the relationship level and even negotiating power.

Thus in interpersonal relationships, the relationship level of meaning is often the most

important, for it sets the tone for interactions and for how people feel about each other.



To sum up, our needs to be included, for control and affection derives how and why we

communicate. The interpersonal needs by William Schutz and other needs theories concluded

that what happens internally is externalized in behaviour and communication. The interaction

a person wants in the areas of socializing, leadership and responsibilities, and more intimate

personal relations have to do with interpersonal communication which is essential in our

everyday life as it plays an important role in managing our needs for inclusion, affection and

control.



List of Referencing

Pearson, C. P. Nelson, E. N., Scott, T., Harter, H. (2013). Human Communication, (5th edition).

Boston: McGraw Hill

Wood, J. T. (2010). Interpersonal Communication Everyday Encounters, (6th edition). Boston:

Cengage Learning

DeVito, J. A. (2002). The Interpersonal Communication Reader, Boston: Allyn and Bacon

Benson, B. (2005, 04). Schutz's Theory. Retrieved 7 November 2013, from StudyMode.com.

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Schutz's-Theory-54269.html

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Schutz's-Theory-54269.html

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