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Interpersonal communication is the reciprocal, situated process through which two or more individuals create, interpret, negotiate, and respond to messages within an actual or developing social relationship. It encompasses verbal, nonverbal, and paralinguistic forms of symbolic behavior, as well as the contextual inferences through which participants attribute meaning to one another’s messages ^[1]. Its defining feature is not simply the exchange of information between people, but the mutual orientation of communicators as socially identifiable persons whose perceptions, expectations, emotions, roles, and relationship history shape the interaction.

The concept therefore includes message production and reception, feedback, interpretation, and the ongoing coordination of relational meanings. Interpersonal communication may occur face-to-face or through mediated channels, provided that interaction remains directed among identifiable participants and retains relational significance. It is distinguished from intrapersonal communication, which concerns processes within an individual, and from mass communication, which is generally directed toward large, dispersed, and less personally differentiated audiences. The field also treats communication as dynamic and interdependent: each participant’s conduct both influences and is interpreted in relation to the other’s conduct ^[2].