Communication is the act of transmitting a message to another person, who must decipher it and capture the content of the message. This process can be verbal or non-verbal. The message that is transmitted through the communication process can be of various kinds, that is, we can transmit information, feelings, emotions, etc.
In this Psychology-Online article, we will focus on the emotional communication: what it is, characteristics, its importance and how to improve it.
What is emotional communication
Emotional communication is based on transmission of emotions to another or other people. That is, it is about including emotions in the transmission of our message so that communication is more effective. Emotional communication can be carried out through a verbal message, physical contact, a gesture or a non-verbal expression. The use of emotions in communication allows you to convince, excite, persuade or be understood for others.
In order to put emotional communication into practice, it is necessary to be able to recognize, name and take into account the emotions of others.
Thanks to the use of emotional communication, we can transmit our own emotions to others, adapting the message to how its recipients feel. To communicate emotionally, whether verbally or non-verbally, and/or in person or remotely, you must modify the physical contact, the tone and the intentionality of the message.
Characteristics of emotional communication
Among the main characteristics of emotional communication, we find:
- Transmission of a verbal or non-verbal message through a spoken message or through physical contact, from a subjective perspective, since it is used to express how we feel and be able to understand also how others feel.
- Use of emotional verbs such as enchant, surprise, anger, bore, disappoint, etc.
- The state of mind is included and our self-esteem, insecurities, and emotions are very present.
- Emotional communication focuses on describing how we feel, defining behaviors rather than people, and focusing on reaching mutual understanding.
Importance of emotional communication
Emotional communication is important not only for each person individually, but also for society as a whole:
- The fact that we communicate emotionally helps enhance empathy, respect and mutual understanding.
- This type of communication is really relevant so that we can understand the other, avoiding unnecessary arguments, conflicts and altercations that usually arise from a lack of knowledge about the emotional state of the other. For example, in the field of couple relationships it could make us feel loved, in the family unit it would allow us to convey gratitude to our parents, and/or in the school sector to show teachers when we feel overwhelmed.
- Our interlocutor will open up and be more sincere with us due to what is called “emotional contagion”, that is, when we expose our feelings, the other person will feel comfortable and unconsciously do the same and show us their feelings.
- Our actions are much more justifiedsince others will understand that emotions are what have led us to act in a certain way.
How to improve emotional communication
There are several keys that can help us improve emotional communicationamong them the following stand out:
- Think before you start speaking: It is necessary that we identify how we feel before transmitting the message in order to focus on what emotion we want to accompany our message.
- Use eye contact: The fact of looking into each other’s eyes when we communicate with someone is a key factor in transmitting not only the content of the message, but also how we feel, as well as being able to perceive how the other is feeling.
- Take charge of your own emotions: It is essential that we also allow ourselves to experience negative emotions and avoid the tendency to constantly blame others for how we feel.
- Respect: Respect is the basis of any type of communication, since it allows both interlocutors to feel comfortable and safe to continue communicating even though the content and emotion linked to the message are negative.
- Integra: that the people who participate in the communicative act feel part of it and have the right to intervene. It is essential for communication to be fluid and reciprocal.
- Avoid judging: We do not always have to understand how the other person feels, but we do have to accept that they are their feelings and that we do not have the right to criticize how something, someone or some situation makes them feel.
- Use emotional verbs: Using verbs that convey emotion alone is a very useful tool to improve our way of communicating emotionally. Some examples of emotional verbs are: anger, happy, feel, anger, like, make nervous, surprise, delight, sadden, etc.
Advantages and disadvantages of emotional communication
Emotional communication has numerous advantages, but also some disadvantages.
Between the advantages stand out:
- The development of social, emotional, coping, empathy, respect and understanding skills.
- It helps avoid conflicts and arguments, thus reducing all types of violence.
- It allows us to improve our self-esteem, reduce the number of insecurities, gain self-confidence and improve our mental health.
- It helps us improve the quality of our interpersonal relationships, achieve certain goals and share more in depth with our loved ones.
However, emotional communication also has certain disadvantages as they can be:
- The fact of being rejected.
- That the other person is not able to put themselves in our place.
- That they judge us for how we feel and/or that generates insecurities in us.
Examples of emotional communication
There are endless examples of emotional communication. Some of these examples are: smiles, knowing looks, a hug, a kiss, caresses or the expression of a wish.
In the case of kisses, they can be used to show affection to a family member or passion to your partner.
Hugs can show understanding when the other person is experiencing a painful situation. A very specific example is the skin-to-skin contact that mothers make with their babies when they are born, it is a form of emotional communication in which mothers transmit all their love and happiness to their babies with just physical contact, without the need for share a common language.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Gutiérrez Tapias, M., & García Cué, JL (2015). Emotional communication, a necessity for a society in crisis. In I International Congress of Emotional Expression and Communication (CIECE)(2015), p 397-408. Sevilla University. Available at: https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/48255/CIECE_36.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
- Bucci, W. (2001). Paths of emotional communication. Psychoanalytic Aperturas, 10. Available at: https://aperturas.org/articulo.php?articulo=0000189