Personal relationships are central to being human. We have relationships of so many kinds and maintain so many roles throughout our daily lives. We are expected to be a successful communicator as coworkers, parents, children, friends, siblings, and intimate partners. Interpersonal communications investigates both nonverbal and verbal message exchange between two people regardless of their relationship. Interpersonal communications is a fairly new profession and field of study but it is one that applies to all. Humans cannot, not communicate; perhaps that is why the amount of research available in this field is increasing to rapidly. Scholars such as Timothy Levine, Rene Dailey, and Megan Dillow are doing countless experiments on hot topics in the communication discipline such as topic avoidance, similarity breeding liking, taboo topics, and uncertainty in intimate realtionships.
In the field of Interpersonal Communication, intimate relationships are something to being closely examined to understand what breeds liking, closeness, intimacy, topic avoidance, and initiation of romance. Timothy R. Levine, a Professor of Communication at Michigan State University has published more than 100 journal articles in his field. Throughout his career he has focused mainly on interpersonal communication, cross-culture communication, and research methods. He was published in Communication Quarterly, a notable journal for his field, in 2006 for his article “Love Styles and Csjdommunication in Relationships: Partner Preferences, Initiation, and Intensification”. Communication Quarterly is an academic journal that was first published in 1953 featuring quality, peer reviewed research of the communication discipline edited by nineteen scholars fro...
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...uals decisions to avoid topics are negatively related to perception of closeness (Dillow, 2009, p. 205).
Dillow’s study portrayed the importance of finding underlying factors that cause people to avoid certain topics and the impact that has on romantic relationships. Each of the key researchers published that I examined contributed to discovering the ways in which couples do and don’t communicated for various reasons.
The communication field is so large that there are far more journals available than the ones that I included. Some of the largest and most notable include Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, and Communication Theory. All of which are peer-reviewed and come together from the findings of esteemed scholars from around the world.
It is not all about communication” . It says that not surprisingly those couples who reported communicating more effectively showed the highest satisfaction with their relationships. But the next two reasons which were also the only other ones with strong links to couple happiness, were knowledge of partner which included everything from knowing their pizza-topping preferences to their hopes and dreams and life skills like being able to hold a job, manage money, etc . But in order to have a healthy relationship I do believe that the communication is key but they also do need to know how to communicate in a healthy way that will not cause
For this paper, we will be talking about relational communications and Goffman’s terms. The definition of relational communication is “communication processes in personal relationships such as romantic, family, and friendships. We assess the role of communication in developing, maintaining, and dissolving relationships, how communication impacts partners and their relationships, and how to improve relational quality or individual well-being through communication. Recent topics examined include conflict mediation, relational standards, relational uncertainty in dating relationships, and communication environments in families” (n.d.). As it has said, it is about the relationships in our life. Goffman also stated that there was a front and
Communications generally occur in body languages: how the individuals interpret each other. Her essay is an event that is reoccurring more and more lately. The event results in a failure in marriage. In today’s society more and more people are splitting up or having divorces due to miscommunications. The essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation,” that Deborah Tannen wrote is much use of today because it explains where miscommunications happen and she has her own studies and research to back it up. The essay goes into depth about her ideologies that cause miscommunications. Look at a miscommunication twice and do not be quick to judge because it will save plenty of
Loveless, M., Powers, W., & Jordan, W. (2008). Dating partner communication apprehension, self disclosure, and the first big fight. Human Communication, 11(1), 231-240.
Most studies in marital conflict pertain to three particular dimensions of communication. The first dimension is affect which refers to messages that express positive or negative feelings about another person, such as supportiveness, hostility, confirmation, coercion, sarcasm, or global positiveness or negativeness (e.g., Gottman, 1979 and Sillars and Wilmot, 1994). The second dimension to characterize conflict behaviors is whether they are constructive or destructive for the parties’ relationship. Research in the United States indicates that exiting from the relationship and neglecting the partner are destructive problem-solving responses and are more powerfully predictive of couple distress than giving voice to problems and being passive loyal (e.g., Rusbult, Johnson, & Morrow, 1986). The third dimension to characterize conflict management is engagement versus avoidance (e.g., Hocker and Wilmot, 1991 and Sillars and Wilmot, 1994). Engagement is reflected in direct, overt verbal confrontation of conflict issues, while conflict avoidance is reflected in withdrawal and aversion to dealing directly with conflict issues (Canary, Cupach, & Messman, 1995) and includes circumscribed, irrelevant, or ambiguous communication. Since the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of culture on marital conflict strategies and marital satisfaction, the discussion will be limited to the third dimension of marital conflict, engagement–avoidance, along with Rahim's styles of conflict.
Interpersonal communication is everywhere in society, both in the past, present, and the future. “Marty,” a love story, and a movie made in the fifties, shows many examples of interpersonal communication. In this movie, the main character, Marty, is a decent, socially awkward man who is pressured by his peers and family to find love and get married. He then gets fed up and goes to a club in town and meets a woman named Claire, who is in similar circumstances to him. Marty and Claire then interact and spend time together and Marty experiences companionship for the first time.
Researchers organized two separate surveys, accounting for a total of 453 adults in the U.S., to learn the relational effects of “Pphubbing” – or “partner phone snubbing.” Pphubbing is characterized in the study as the amount of time to which people use or are distracted by their cell phones while in the companionship of other people. Researchers have found that when someone recognized that their partner phubbed them, this caused conflict and led to lower levels of relationship enjoyment. To put it into perspective, the following is a list of statements that adults that identified snubbing behaviors:
The film, The Breakfast Club, is an impressive work of art, addressing almost every aspect of interpersonal communication. This is easily seen here, as I’ve gone through and shown how all these principles of interpersonal communication apply to real-life, using only two short interpersonal interactions from the movie. I’ve explained aspects of interpersonal communication, nonverbal communication, verbal misunderstandings, communication styles, gender issues, and self-disclosures. With that said, I believe I have demonstrated my ability to apply principles of interpersonal communication with simulated real-life examples.
I chose to do my research paper on Intimacy and Distance in Relational Communication because I wanted to learn how communication is used when you are in an intimate relationship. The question I ask is “How does communication affect being in an intimate relationship?”. In the book it states that “People who report having satisfying intimate relationships have higher self-esteem, a stronger sense of identity, and greater feelings of control over their lives than those without close relationships.” (Looking Out, Looking In, Pg. 304) In that statement alone it kind of gives us an overview on what being in an intimate relationship can do. Webster defines Intimacy “close union, contact, association, or acquaintance.” We as people want to feel like
Dr. Horan is a professor at Texas State University who studies communication in dating relationships. Dr. Horan has conducted experiments that proves that affection can benefit the psychological aspect of a relationship. Another source by Michelle Miller –Day relates communication closeness to families and its function. In a typical family you get a sense of interdependence and wholeness, just like something you would find in affectionate communication. This system helps to maintain stability in the family. In this family perspective families often maintain communication closeness by the use of family rules and rituals. This source says, “It is within this system that families communicatively navigate cohesion and adaptability; create family images, themes, stories, rituals, rules, and roles; manage power, intimacy, and boundaries; and participate in an interactive process of meaning-making, producing mental models of family life that endure over time and across generations” (“Communication” Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Petersen, J. C. (2007). Why don’t we listen better? Communicating & connecting in relationships (1st ed.). Portland, OR: Petersen.
While using communication as a means to reduce uncertainty in interpersonal relationships is extremely important, there have been studies done which show that having some uncertainty about relationships actually increases pleasure because then you have to work to find answers to questions you want to know (Gilbert,
Although Summer consistently showed signs of her stance on love and relationships, Tom interpreted her feelings as those of romance. Communication can be ambiguous to the point that the existence of conflicts will be guaranteed. Tom and Summer’s relationship inevitably fell to its demise due this ambiguity and incompatibility, an occurrence that I have experienced myself. Since I come from a high-context culture, it is preferred by society to keep to myself and avoid directness. From this, I had often hoped that my partner would be able to pick up on my nonverbal behaviors much more effectively than they did. This assumption that others are like us is a debilitative tendency. For this reason, I believe that Tom should have established his feelings more directly towards Summer instead of letting his actions speak. Since people have different perceptions of life values, it is important to gauge the understanding of the other person and have a mutual boundary set within a relationship. However vague communication can be, communication serves as a significant function within our relationships and our
In LDRs, relational dialectics contribute to the future or demise of an existing or developing relationship. To some, the benefit of living apart from their partner allows the individual to establish autonomy within the relationship while allowing a connection to their partner through communication. However, additional effort may be required to guarantee assurances to the partner who desires more security and closeness. Moreover, couples in LDRs have the freedom to attain privacy while also providing open communication when required by the situation. Therefore, it is pertinent to identify these trends in relational dialectics through four studies examining LDRs.
Interpersonal communication is one of the significant skills while communicating with other individuals. It normally covers an extensive area and includes both verbal and non-verbal communication. Body language and facial expression may affect the accurateness of the message transmission directly. Interpersonal communication skills normally ensure that the message is sent and received correctly without any alteration thus improving the communication efficiency. Learning diverse aspects of interpersonal communication has greatly aided me in better understanding of what it consists. I am capable of applying the knowledge gained from this course to my personal experiences. This paper reflects on my personal experience in learning interpersonal communication.