Finale: Chapter XI

Wow, I can't believe this is going to be my last post for class.  School is ending for this semester and so is our time together. Bitter sweet isn't it?

Managing Interpersonal Conflicts

Chapter 11

 

For my last blog we are going to talk about different conflict styles. I really enjoyed reading out this topic and also applied it to my everyday life, I'll be sure to explain how later. So what are conflict styles? Well, we all have different ways of handling difficult situations in our lives, the way we handle it is the definition of conflict style. There are five styles in total. They are competing, collaborating, avoiding, accommodating, and compromising. Competing is where you would fight for your own way, accommodating is the opposite. My life example for competing is fighting for the last slice of pizza because I didn’t get enough. Accommodating would be to let the other person take the slice when they wanted it. When we accommodate others, we are allowing things to go their way instead of our way. Avoiding is basically ignoring and/or staying away from the conflict. My personal experience with avoiding is a recent where two of my close friends had a falling out with each other. For weeks now, I have been avoiding each of them, afraid of the unknown since I’m now the middle man.

Compromising is more of a negative term, because to compromise is to not get the full satisfaction out of the situation only partial. Its opposite would be collaborating. Instead of only a partial satisfaction, the conflict can be resolved where everyone gets everything they want. A compromise in my life would be where my brother wanted to get his a certain smoothie and I wanted my own, but due to lack of money we had to share something completely different from what we truly wanted. As for collaboration, my partner prefers to stay up late while I go to sleep earlier. In the end, we both agreed that I would sleep in the room while he stayed in the living room till he was ready for bed. We both got what we truly wanted in the end, a win-win situation.

 

 

Wow this is it, the end. I have enjoyed the time on here and I hope you have too. In the end though, we will never know if I'll post again, but if that day comes it will be great!

Thanks for being awesome! Bye - Veronica



Looking Out, Looking In: Chapters IX & X

Hey! So many posts so little time… Let’s get to chapters 9 and 10!

 

Intimacy and Distance In Relational Communication

Chapter 9

 

What is self disclosure and what alternatives do I have? This is the question I asked when I read chapter 9. This is the answers I came up with. Self disclosure in short words, is telling someone how you truly feel about them or a situation. Of course we all don't just blurt out everything that comes to our mind. We have different alternatives to project our message which includes silence, lying equivocating, and hints. Silence is keeping your thoughts and feelings to yourself. As the say silence is golden. Lying is to gain an unfair advantage or save face, but everyone has their own personal reason for choosing this alternative. Equivocating is a form of giving two meanings. Example is calling something different, when you could mean that you don't like it or its something creative you've never seen before. Hints are more direct at the topic, but still subtle. These are different ways we communicate with others.

 



Improving Communication Climates

Chapter 10

 

Chapter 10 explains the emotional tone of a relationship is called communication climate. This is how some relationships could be easy going while others can be down right horrible. It is depicted on how the climate is when people would be together. Example best friends versus archenemies, the climate with best friends would be described as warm and inviting, while the archenemies would be cold and distant. What determines these types of tones are messages that are valued and negative. Formally called confirming and disconfirming communication respectively. An example of valued can be simply, I love your company, compared to negative you presence is wanted. Our climates vary with different people in different situations, that is what chapter 10 branches off of.

 

Well thats it for today, hope you'll had a interesting election day! Till next time!