Interpersonal Communication Analysis

Seung Lee

3/18/2015

MG-240

Professor Lombardi I have a close friend that I meet on a weekly basis just to have a couple of drinks at my house. I thought the conversation we had last week would be helpful in portraying the different conversational styles both of us had and how we communicated with one another. The topic of the conversation was about his relationship with his girlfriend, which didn’t seem to be good at the time. To start the conversation, he used non-verbal communication by giving off a sigh. This was obviously an opener to a conversation as I would ask him if he had a problem that he wanted tell me about. The different body languages he showed me seemed to be quite interesting. He was shaking one of his legs and biting his

The purpose for attending is to pay attention, but there was a lack of attending since we were talking in a room with music set at a fairly high volume. I was able to listen and understand to what my friend was saying, but the environment was clearly not suitable for a serious talk. Even though the room was loud, my posture was that of a listener. My back was straight and I made an effort to make eye contact as mentioned earlier. I was able to place myself in his shoe and wonder what it would be like to be in his situation, showing a sense of empathy. Feeling bad for my friend, I would ask infrequent questions about the situation and try comforting him by encouraging him that he can work things out. I think that giving frequent nods helped him ease up a bit since I was showing him that I was paying attention to his story. Even if I hadn’t provided any suggestions, the fact that I was just listening to his issue seemed to provide comfort. The purpose for reflecting skills is to affirm contact, and I was able to paraphrase his story to show him that I understood what he is going through. I let him know that the situation was similar to the last fight he had with his girlfriend, and he realized that the situation wasn’t as bad as he thought it was. Since he was the one who clearly started to fight, all he had to do was sincerely apologize to his girlfriend. I guess that giving hard facts was one type of reflection I was able to give to my friend as he seemed to forget that he was able to fix his problems in the past by easily admitting his wrongs. As mentioned in the interpersonal relations course, sometimes a person does not have all the information they need, and even though he did experience a similar situation, I had to make him realize that the solution was