Communication, Culture, Relationships: Key Concepts

Posted on Jan 20, 2025 in Communication

Chapter 7: Communication Climate

Achieving your goals depends on your ability to create an effective communication climate, which is the emotional tone of the relationship between people.

• Ethnocentrism: A perspective based on the assumption that our cultural norms are the only right ones.
• Provisionalism: Listening with an open mind; openness to new possibilities.
• Covert Conflict: Exists when people express disagreement or difference only indirectly.

Conflict Resolution Approaches

• Lose-Lose: Assumes that conflict results in losses for everyone.
• Win-Lose: Orientation to conflict assumes that one person wins at the expense of the other.
• Win-Win: Assumes that there are usually ways to resolve differences so that everyone gains.

Relationship Dynamics

• Loyalty: Staying committed to a relationship despite differences, involves hoping that things will get better on their own.
• Grace: An important principle to keep in mind during conflict is that grace is sometimes appropriate; it is an important spiritual and philosophical concept.

Guidelines for Healthy Communication Climates

• Communicate in ways that confirm others.
• Communicate in ways to confirm yourself.
• Respect diversity among people.
• Time conflict effectively.
• Show grace when appropriate.

Cultural Backgrounds and Conflict: Conflict exists when interdependent people have different views, interests, values, responsibilities, or objectives.

Chapter 8: Culture

Culture is part of everyday vocabulary. It is difficult to define. It is a part of everything we think, do, feel, and believe, yet we can’t point to a thing that is culture. It is a way of life—a system of ideas, values, beliefs, customs, and language.

• Individualistic Cultures: Characterized by individualism, not collectivism.
• Collectivism Culture: Such as those of China, Korea, and Japan, emphasize family and work group goals above individual needs or desires. Collectivism and individualism deeply pervade cultures. People simply take their culture’s stance for granted.
• Low Context: Very direct, explicit, and detailed. Because people are regarded as distinct individuals, communication does not assume that others will share their meaning or values.
• High Context: Indirect and undetailed, and conveys meanings more implicitly than explicitly.
• Standpoint Theory: Claims that social groups within a culture distinctively shape members’ perspectives—their perceptions, identities, expectations, and so forth.
• Ethnocentrism: The tendency to regard ourselves and our way of life as normal and superior to other people and other ways of life.
• Resistance: Occurs when we reject the beliefs of particular cultures and social communication.
• Tolerance: A second response, which is an acceptance of differences whether or not one approves of or even understands them.

Chapter 9: Self and Communication

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: One particularly powerful way in which reflected appraisals and direct definitions affect the self is through expectations or judgments of ourselves that we bring about our own actions.
• Reflected Appraisal: The process of seeing ourselves through the eyes of others is called reflected appraisal, or the looking-glass self.
• Generalized Other: The first perspective is that of society as a whole. The second perspective is that of particular individuals who are significant in our lives.

Johari Window

Four panes:

• Open: Contains information that is known both to you and me.
• Blind: Perception and knowledge that others have but you don’t.
• Hidden: Information and perception that we have but don’t want to share.
• Unknown: Information that we have to find; nobody knows, neither do you.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory: Very high during initial encounters. We find uncertainty uncomfortable.

Life Scripts: Rules for living and identity.

Attachment Styles

• Secure: Develops when a child’s primary caregiver responds in a consistently attentive and loving way to a child.
• Dismissive: Promoted by caregivers who are uninterested in, rejecting of, or abusive towards children.
• Anxious/Ambivalent: The most complex of the four, is fostered by inconsistent treatment from the caregiver.
• Fearful: Cultivated when the primary caregiver communicates in negative, rejecting, or even abusive ways to a child.

Chapter 10: Interpersonal Relationships

• Social Relationships: Participants interact according to general social roles rather than unique individual identities.
• Commitment: The decision to remain with a relationship.

Relationship Dialectics

These are opposing and continuous tensions that are normal in all close relationships:

• Autonomy/Connection: Involves the desire to be separate, on the one hand, and to be connected, on the other.
• Novelty/Predictability: The opposition of the desire for familiar routines and the desire for novelty.
• Openness/Closedness: Involves the desire for openness in tension with the desire for privacy.

Managing Relationship Dialectics

• Neutralization: Negotiates a balance between the opposing dialectical forces.
• Separation: Addresses one need in a dialectic and ignores the other.
• Segmentation: Partners assign each pole to certain spheres, issues, activities, or times.
• Reframing: Redefines apparently contradictory needs as not really in opposition.

Equity Theory: People are happier and more satisfied with equitable relationships than with inequitable ones.

Styles of Loving

• Eros: A style of loving that is passionate, intense, and fast-moving. Not confined to sexual passion, eros may be expressed in spiritual, intellectual, or emotional ways.
• Storge: A comfortable, “best friends” kind of love that grows gradually to create a stable, even-keeled companionship.
• Ludus: A playful, sometimes manipulative style of loving. For ludic lovers, love is a challenge, a puzzle, and a game to be relished but not to lead to commitment.
• Mania: An unsettling style of loving marked by emotional extremes. Manic lovers often are insecure about their value and their partner’s commitment.
• Agape: A selfless kind of love in which a beloved’s happiness is more important than one’s own. Agapic lovers are generous, unselfish, and devoted.
• Pragma: A pragmatic and goal-oriented style of loving. Pragmas rely on reason and practical considerations when initially selecting people to love.

Turning Point: Moves a relationship toward or away from intimacy.

ARGO: Case Study

Analyze the communication climate of the relationship between Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) and the houseguests. Discuss the tactics used to gain trust by Mendez and ultimately an escape for all of them.

Mendez was trying to convince them to follow his plan, but all of them were afraid because they could not make it to the airport since they were Americans. Everyone was afraid of being identified as spies, but they did not have any alternative. He gave them new identities, new names, and even new citizenship so they could pass immigration.

Everyone was saying it was not safe; it was suicide, dangerous. But Mendez was asking for trust. He mentioned he does that all the time and never leaves anyone behind him. He just said, “Play along with me, and I promise I will get you out tomorrow.”

Utilizing the uncertainty reduction theory as a framework, describe how the houseguests worked through the tension.

They were completely stressed out. Mendez explained all the points and what was going to happen to be prepared, but something happened, and they started to be suspicious. They made Tony go to another place, and all of them were taken to another place. They started to make negotiations. One of them spoke Farsi, and he was showing all the drawings, but Iranians didn’t let them go until they verified, and they verified, and they let them go. But something happened in the house they stayed in. They found out they were Americans, and they wanted them back, but it was too late.

THE DOCTOR: Case Study

Please analyze the role reversal of the physician in the movie The Doctor.

Patient: He is desperate. He just wants to get everything over with. He does not want to sit in a wheelchair. He does not want to share the room. He finally is in his room at the hospital, and he starts talking to his roommate. He was kind of uncomfortable. Everyone is talking and treating him like they don’t even know him. He was not even awake when they told him the tumor was malignant. He wants to cut out the tumor, and the doctor is suggesting radiation. He does not want to talk about it. He is in denial. He keeps telling them, “I’m the doctor.” The doctor gives him an appointment. The tumor got bigger, and he is panicked now. He is trying to get anything to help him, and it finally happened; his cancer goes away.

Analyze a specific scene dealing with the communication with his wife, as well as any perception checks that may occur.

With his wife: He was coughing blood and got blood on his shirt, his wife’s hair, and dresses. He does not want to tell his wife what he has. He is kind of avoiding it. He finally tells her he has cancer, but he wants a second opinion. She was trying to show support. He was cooking dinner. He was happy there was no more tumor, but the wife did not want to show any happiness. Then she was saying she was cold, but one minute she was fine; suddenly, she was cold. She is seeing the relationship going away. She sends him to go with June.

He is telling his wife about June’s death. She is showing compassion. She is now telling him, “Now you do not need me.” He is asking her for a fresh start. She cried, and they are happy again.

Analysis: He is having a hard time accepting that he has cancer. He has to take orders from a doctor, which he does not like. It is hard for him, and even worse to face his child. He feels weird going to his treatment. He is a doctor, not a patient. He does not like the procedure, and he is struggling with procedures and things he does not like, and he is worried about his own patients. He is pissed all the time, yelling at the nurses and physicians. One of his doctor friends is facing a lawsuit because of a misdiagnosis, and he wants to help the patient, and he does it. The experience changed Jack for good. He is now telling his colleagues to show more compassion and caring.

The doctor is trying to check him. He does not really like it. Then she wants to do a procedure, and he is kind of nervous. The doctor gives him his diagnosis, and he is not happy. He is in shock.

Empathy: He now knows what it feels like to be waiting, stressed, not knowing if he will get better or what is going to happen. He made friends with a girl named June who was suffering from a brain tumor, and she was getting worse. June is showing her pain to him. He is being more human. Finally, he knows now what pain is. June is telling him to fight it. He decided to take her to see the Indian festival, but they ended up dancing in the desert, and they were just sharing the moment. He wants to help the patient who is about to sue his friend. He is just worried now. He does not want to testify in court. He does not want to lie. June passed away, and he is finally caring about his patients.