What are Interpersonal Relationships?

What is an Interpersonal relationship? It is commonly mistaken to be the relationship that a husband and a wife share, a son and a mother share, a father and a daughter share or that is shared between siblings. However, interpersonal relationships are far more than these few relationships. It is a relationship between any 2 or more people; you don't need to be from the same family always. This relationship is based on the feelings like love, trust, camaraderie, friendship, attraction or any other type of a commitment. This relationship can take place at work between colleagues or between the boss and his team, or a supervisor and his team members, or between any set of people working together. It can also be developed at clubs, church, and marriages when there is an interaction between people. In short, the society is full of interpersonal relationships.

Any relationship that is interdependent on each other is an interpersonal relationship such as between a doctor and his patient where the relationship is based on trust. The patient trusts the doctor and believes that he will be cured by the doctor. Studies indicate that the interpersonal relationships that we form in our lives are based on what we have seen around us as kids. We tend to judge all the people around us on the same terms, that's why it is important to have a healthy childhood in order to have a successful life.

Interpersonal relationships are broadly categorized into 2 types:

Family ties - These are relationship that are with us since we are born like our mother, father, brother and sister or the ones that we get into over the period of time like marriage, live in relationships, girlfriend, boyfriend etc. These relationships are recognized and formalized by the law.

Other relationships -These are relationships that we make over the period of time in our lives like friends, acquaintances at work, pen pals or people whom we meet at like minded clubs, churches etc.

Not all relationships are healthy ones, there are some that are very disturbing and can take a ugly turn. Physical abuse in a marriage or in a relationship is one such example. Abuse at work is another common example of a negative interpersonal relationship. Interpersonal relationships depend a lot on communication. Communication can be in terms of email, chat, meeting each other, phone or any other verbal mode of communication. Another very important form of communication is the non verbal way, such as body language, facial expressions etc. Each of these communication forms is very important in making a healthy interpersonal relationship.

No relationship should be taken for granted; every relationship that we humans make is based on the need and mutual respect for each other. We make different relationships based on different situations. We make friends because they also think like us and we feel comfortable being with them, we can be ourselves around them. We make interpersonal relationships in our lives knowingly or unknowingly and are dependent on them all our lives, we cannot do without them.