Interpersonal Communication

Family Communication Patterns Families have various ways of communicating, whether that be with high conversation or low conversation, and high conformity or low conformity. Depending on your families form of communicating determines its family communication pattern. According to Reflect & Relate, "conversation and conformity dimensions give rise to four possible family communication patterns: consensual, pluralistic, protective, and laissez-faire."  My family's communication pattern is more protective. We experience low conversation with high conformity. I am often very busy with school and work, which makes it difficult to have a high conversation pattern. I try to call my mother on my way to work from school every day because I know it is important to her, but I sometimes forget, especially when I'm stressed. My mother sets a high conformity standard when it comes to religion. She feels as if we have to believe, or her babies are going to hell. She doesn't

 Relational Maintenance I have currently been in a romantic relationship with my significant other for over three years. To maintain a happy and healthy relationship, you must practice relational maintenances. According to Reflect & Relate, relational maintenance refers to using communication and supportive behaviors to sustain a desired relationship status and level of satisfaction. This can be seen through seven maintenance strategies such as, positivity, assurances, sharing tasks, acceptance, self-disclosure, relationship talks, and social networks. When practiced, these maintenance strategies can help prevent relationships from going downhill. A few maintenance strategies my partner and I need work on are self-disclosure, social networks, sharing tasks, and assurances. I feel as if I self-disclose very often but my partner has a hard time expressing his feelings or telling me certain things. I don't particularly understand it myself because I have no problem telling him eve

Dynamic Power Theory Whether we recognize it or not, power is present in all relationships. It could be symmetrical and equal in a friendship or unbalanced and complementary in a parent and child relationship. According to Reflect and Relate , the dynamic power theory is when "people with only moderate power are most likely to use controlling communication and people with high power feel little need to display it." This is because people with little power feel more threatened and more of the need to use it, whereas people with high power d feel less of a need to use it because they know they will get their way if needed.  At my workplace, the security department used to have a supervisor who had little power. His job was only to help with the schedule and make sure everyone was doing their job. He very often used controlling language and it made everyone uncomfortable and irritated. He even tried controlling my departments employees and that ended with backlash from coworkers

 Workplace Relationships Every job involves workplace relationships, whether that be between an employee and a supervisor or employee and employee, ect. We all have different relationships with the people we work with, and each are expressed in many ways. According to Reflect and Relate , workplace relationships are defined as,"any affiliation you have with a professional peer, supervisor, subordinate, or mentor." These relationships have different dimensions that include status, intimacy, and choice. All jobs are ranked with positions of power and each relationship within the workplace has different levels of intimacy, which we choose to be a part of.  At my workplace, we have our captain or boss, then the lieutenant and Seargent, who are the security departments supervisors, and then the officers, who are the employees.  My relationship with my supervisor or boss may differ from my coworkers. With my boss, I act more professional and serious, whereas I might joke around mor

 Communication Apprehension I experience high levels of communication apprehension on an everyday basis but could never put a name to it. According to Reflect and Relate , communication apprehension is the fear or anxiety associated with interaction, which keeps someone from being able to communicate cooperatively. In most interactions I feel discomfort while communicating with people, this can make it difficult for me to communicate effectively or how I would prefer. I tend to avoid social interactions because of this and makes it difficult for me to form relationships. I do not have many friendships; they only contain friends from work, and I never hang out with them outside of work.  According to Reflect and Relate , I can overcome this barrier by developing communication plans, defined as, "mental maps that describe exactly how communication encounters will unfold — prior to interacting in the situations or with the people or types of people that cause your apprehension."

 Nonverbal Communication We communicate nonverbally every day and might not even realize it. According to Reflect and Relate , nonverbal communication is the intentional or unintentional transmission of meaning through an individual’s nonspoken physical and behavioral cues. Clothing, physical appearance, body language, eye contact, and facial expressions are all different ways we can communicate nonverbally. The unintentional transmission of meaning can be what others perceive from your nonverbal gesture that you did not mean anything by. The intentional transmission of meaning is when we communicate information to another people using nonverbal behaviors, such as sign language or emojis. Learning how to effectively understand nonverbal communication can help us in becoming a better communicator and to better understand the needs of the people we are communicating with, as well as help to determine the ways in which we should respond.   At work, I communicate nonverbally all the time t