Vivian's blog

"Friendship is a voluntary interpersonal relationship characterized by intimacy and liking" (McCornack and Morrison 355). Friendship has several distinguishing characteristics. Friendship is: voluntary, driven by shared interests, characterized by self-disclosure, rooted in liking, and volatile (McCornack and Morrison 355). There are two different types of friendships, communal and agentic. Communal friendships fulfill the need for companionship; they focus primarily on sharing time and activities together (McCornack and Morrison 357). Agentic friendships focus primarily on achieving practical goals together such as work and school projects (McCornack and Morrison 357). Within friendships there are several rules: show support, seek support, respect privacy, keep confidence, defend your friends, avoid public criticism, make your friend happy, manage jealousy, share humor, and maintain equity (McCornack and Morrison 334). Understanding and practicing these rules will help creat...

 A family is a network of people who share their lives over long periods of time, are bound by blood, marriage, or commitment, consider themselves family, and share a significant history and anticipated future  (McCornack and Morrison 327) . Families often possess a strong sense of family identity and share intense complex emotional bonds. There are several different types of families and family dynamics. How families communicate is dependent upon the family communication pattern. The family communication pattern is influenced by two dimensions: conversation orientation and conformity orientation. Conversation orientation is the "degree to which family members are encouraged to discuss a variety of topics" (McCornack and Morrison 334). Conformity orientation is the "degree to which families believe communication should emphasize similarity or diversity" (McCornack and Morrison 334). Dependent on where your family stands on these two dimensions will decide your famil...

A romantic relationship is "a chosen interpersonal involvement in which the participants perceive the bond as romantic"  (McCornack and Morrison 291). There are different types of love associated with romantic relationships: storge, agape, mania, pragma, ludus, and eros (McCornack and Morrison 291). Understanding the love type specific to your romantic relationship is useful. It is also important to understand that all romantic relationships undergo stages. A relationship consists of stages of coming together and stages of coming apart. It's perfectly healthy to go back and forth at any time. H owever, if the relationship stays in the coming apart stage for too long sometimes the relationship is terminated if not managed in a timely manner. Lastly, understanding how to maintain romantic relationships is vital to creating a healthy and long-term relationship. Relational maintenance strategies use communication and supportive behaviors to sustain a healthy relationship. Str...

A workplace relationship is any affiliation you have with a professional peer, supervisor, subordinate, or mentor (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.384). The way in which you conduct those involvements is influenced by three dimensions: status, intimacy, and choice (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.384). Power dynamics influence workplace relationships. The culture of the workplace also influences workplace relationships. Workplace culture is influenced by workplace values, workplace norms, and workplace artifacts. The workplace culture is dependent upon the organization you work for. Each job is different and it is important to keep that in mind when working and forming workplace relationships.  I am yet to have my first job however once I finish this semester I plan on working. I will keep this in mind when looking for jobs though. However, to relate, I would like to think that relationships at school are similar to this. In reference to college, the culture is vastly differen...

According to the textbook, "conflict is the process that occurs when people perceive that they have incompatible goals or that someone is interfering in their ability to achieve their objectives" (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.260). Most conflicts can be characterized by four features: begin with perception, involve clashes in goals or behaviors, is a process, and it is dynamic (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.260). Conflict is inevitable however, understanding these four features can help to recognize conflict thus allowing you to handle conflict more appropriately. It is also important to understand you deal with conflict. Understanding your conflict style allows you to analyze how you deal with conflict.  For example, after taking the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument assessment my highest scores were in compromising (sharing) and avoiding withdrawal. This means, I either compromise with others in a conflict or I avoid conflict altogether. After learning this I fee...

Verbal communication is the foundation of interpersonal communication. Verbal communication is "the exchange of spoken or written language with others during interactions" (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.204). Understanding verbal communication is vital to improving interpersonal communication competence. In order to improve, it is important to understand the six functions of verbal communication that influence interpersonal communication: sharing meaning, shaping thought, naming, performing actions, crafting conversations, and managing relationships. I think that sharing meaning is an interesting concept. Sharing meaning verbally through the use of language conveys two types of meanings: denotative and connotative meaning. Denotative meaning refers to the literal meaning found in the dictionary and connotative meaning refers to the implied meaning. Denotative and connotative meanings also influence how language evolves.  For example, a word that has become trendy in the yea...

  Nonverbal communication is just as important as verbal communication if not more. Nonverbal communication is the "intentional or unintentional transmission of meaning through non-spoken physical and behavioral cues"  (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.233). Understanding that nonverbal forms of communication can be influenced by culture, gender, and technology can improve interpersonal communication competence. Verbal communication accompanied by nonverbal communication can clarify the message one is trying to get across or do the opposite. When verbal communication does not coincide with nonverbal communication it can cause mixed signals inhibiting efficient communication. An example of when someone's verbal communication does not match their nonverbal communication is when you are talking to someone and they say yes to something but actually shake their head side to side (no).  It is also important to understand the seven codes of nonverbal communication: kinesics, voca...

According to the textbook , emotions, feelings, and moods are all different. Firstly, e motion is the most personal and interpersonal human experience (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.92 ). "Emotion is an intense reaction to an event that involves interpreting event meaning, becoming physiologically aroused, labeling the experience as emotional, managing reactions, and communicating through emotional displays and disclosures" (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.93 ) . Emotion to me is something that lasts about a day. If I am sad I will feel that sadness for most of the day if not the whole day. It is not an intense sensation but it does affect my day. It lingers. In contrast, feelings are very short-lived, cause limited arousal, and can occur multiple times a day. For example, a classmate compliments your outfit. Lastly, moods are "low-intensity states" and do not create significant arousal (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.95 ) . In my opinion, they are like the...

Listening is vital to interpersonal communication, without listening there would be no such thing. In the textbook, there are four listening styles: action-oriented, time-oriented, people-oriented, and content-oriented. Understanding what type of listener you are can help improve your listening skills thus improving interpersonal communication competence. There are factors that naturally influence your listening styles such as gender and culture. Not only is it important to take into consideration you're own influences but others as well.  For example, time-oriented listeners "prefer brief and concise encounters" and frequently acknowledge the time  (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.187-188 ) . This can be interpreted as rude for those communicating however context matters and this listening style could have been learned or is preferred by the listener. My mother is very much a time-oriented listener and frequently asks me when I will get to the point (which annoys me). ...

Perception plays an important role in interpersonal communication. The way we perceive someone will directly influence communication with said individual. According to the textbook, several processes occur when perceiving someone: selection, organization, response, and interpretation  (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.64 ) . These processes occur naturally but it improves interpersonal communication competence when you understand the processes and how they influence your communication with others. Personally, I think it is valuable to understand how you interpret information. The process of interpretation is how you make sense of the communication event. This can be broken down into internal attribution and external attribution.  For example, if you are someone like me who typically uses external attributions in explanation for others' comments or behaviors then you are likely to presume that the reason why a friend is late for your lunch date is because of traffic. Whereas s...

The concept of sex and gender have become quite controversial over the last few years. Terms associated with sex and gender used to be interchangeable but now as the world becomes more progressive that isn't the case. Sex refers strictly to biology and gender is a learned social construct (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.152 ) . Gender has heavily influenced language and interpersonal communication. Certain words are associated with men/women. In today's world, it is important to use gender-neutral words in order to improve interpersonal communication competence.  The concept of gender definitely influenced me as a child. I was born female at birth and I identify as a woman. Growing up, I liked playing with dolls, playing dress up, and I liked the color pink. All things that were associated with being a young girl. However, I had a friend, chase, who was a boy and he lived across the street from me. Whenever I would go to his house I loved playing outside, playing video games...

Culture plays an important role in interpersonal communication. "Culture is an established, coherent set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices shared by a large group of people"  (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.123 ) . "Scholars suggest that seven dimensions underline cultural differences in our interpersonal communication: individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, high and low context, emotion displays, masculinity versus femininity, and views of the time"  (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.131 ) . Considering the ever-increasing cultural diversity in America it is imperative to understand the seven dimensions in order to achieve interpersonal communication competence.       I feel like experiencing my boyfriend's culture has improved my ability to communicate with others who do not share the same culture as myself. My boyfriend's family is from El Salvador and his parents frequent their home country regularly. Pr...

The concept of self-understanding is a valuable component of interpersonal communication. Understanding the interactions one has with others starts with understanding oneself. "The self is an evolving composite of self-awareness, self-concept, and self-esteem" (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.31). The  way that someone perceives themselves will have a direct impact on the way they communicate with others and the way in which others will perceive them. If someone has a negative self-concept accompanied by low self-esteem then others will pick up on that through the way they communicate or the lack thereof which can be damaging to the individual and those around them. "Low self-esteem individuals experience negative emotions and depressions more frequently, [than those with high self-esteem], resulting in destructive feedback loops"  (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.34) .  For example, I have experienced low self-esteem as I'm sure others can relate to. During...

A communications class may seem pointless to many. A majority of the time the only reason why students take a communications class is that it is required of them to graduate. Most people make the claim that interpersonal communication is self-explanatory, innate, and does not require a college-level course in order to do so effectively. However, interpersonal communication is not as simple as exchanging words with one another. The communication process can be broken down into meaningful concepts that are useful once understood. Interpersonal communication is a valuable skill essential for maintaining healthy relationships and achieving overall life happiness (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.8 ) . For example, I will be purposefully annoying around my mother because it is funny and that is how our relationship dynamic is. Although, when she is dealing with something I am unaware of and I go too far she snaps at me and I don't understand why which can be upsetting for both parties...