In chapter 15 of your text the authors discuss the impact of childhood attachment styles and later interpersonal relationships in adulthood. Attachment theory has received much attention from interpersonal communication researchers in part because it's fairly to easy to measure by having participants complete a survey. Then the results of the survey--each participant's attachment style--is correlated to a whole host of variables, such as current conflict style and friendship types. Although the research is interesting, it can also lead to a deterministic view of interpersonal communication if attachment styles are viewed as static. Children who develop anxious/ambivalent or avoidant styles due to interactions with their caregivers are not destined to repeat those same patterns in adulthood. Experiences in later interpersonal relationships and with other family members and social networks impact an individual's attachment style. As I note in the web lecture, "Although the bonds you form with your caregivers when you were young do influence your later relationships, attachment styles may evolve and change over time as you form new bonds with other people."
Still, attachment styles underscore the importance of those early interactions in a child's development. You learn from your caregivers how to go about communicating interpersonal relationships. Alexb commented about the link between attachment styles and cheating or infidelity. jdmINT referred to an article in Psychology Today that discussed parental favoritism. The researchers interview mothers, the majority of whom admitted to having a favorite child. I'd be interesting in knowing if the child and other siblings recognized these feelings. Goofy blogged about the secure attachments that form a central part of her family interactions. In blogging about her relationship with her niece, Sarina noted that attachment bonds go beyond the immediate family to include others who are a key part of a child's life, such as an aunt. Similarly, Jamie reported on the bonding that occurs between children and nannies. Foodie observed that attachment styles can impact friendships as well as romantic relationships, and discussed the difficulty of maintaining a friendship with someone who primarily exhibits the fearful/avoidant style. Caligirl522 observed that babies react to their parents, so can learn to adopt a particular style. Gian reported that attachment styles within a family can vary.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
conflict
Students always find Chapter 13 on conflict directly applicable to their everyday experiences. The department offers two courses on conflict, Communication and Conflict, COMM 115, and Mediation, COMM 116.
Jamie blogged about a housemate conflict that most college students have experienced--the person who thinks what's yours is hers/his but what's hers/his definitely is not yours. Carmen talked about the different conflict patterns that can be detected in relationships. Nicciri wrote about intrapsychic or internal conflict, which I find interesting as well. Interpersonal and intrapsychic conflict are often heavily intertwined. Rock N Roll noted that when we face a conflict situation our first choice is avoid or confront. Squirrelhands observed that confronting the boss at work often isn't the best way to go. In the workplace, conflict strategies must be framed within the reality of the organizational hierarchy and your relationship with your boss.
Communicators encounter conflict across a wide variety of interpersonal communication contexts. In spite of all those encounters, conflicts still remain difficult to manage productively.
--Professor Cyborg
Jamie blogged about a housemate conflict that most college students have experienced--the person who thinks what's yours is hers/his but what's hers/his definitely is not yours. Carmen talked about the different conflict patterns that can be detected in relationships. Nicciri wrote about intrapsychic or internal conflict, which I find interesting as well. Interpersonal and intrapsychic conflict are often heavily intertwined. Rock N Roll noted that when we face a conflict situation our first choice is avoid or confront. Squirrelhands observed that confronting the boss at work often isn't the best way to go. In the workplace, conflict strategies must be framed within the reality of the organizational hierarchy and your relationship with your boss.
Communicators encounter conflict across a wide variety of interpersonal communication contexts. In spite of all those encounters, conflicts still remain difficult to manage productively.
--Professor Cyborg
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
culture, conflict, & interpersonal communication
Much of the research in interpersonal communication relies on student participants attending U.S. universities and colleges and often those participants are communication studies majors or students enrolled in communication studies classes. I'm not the first scholar to make this observation and some have even defended the use of student populations, arguing students are representative of the general population. I don't find this argument persuasive. Communication scholars must do a better job of studying a wide variety of groups so we can examine differences and similarities across populations.
That's why in the web lecture for this week I discussed research that examines conflict in multiple cultures. For example, the Ting-Toomey et al. study I discuss focused on self-construal and conflict style using a fairly diverse population. The researchers found conflict styles are influenced by how communicators view themselves. What I found even more interesting was the Oetzel et al. study which provides a more fine-grained analysis of collectivist vs. individualist cultures than is usually offered. Rather than assuming facework strategies to manage conflict are the same within each group, these researchers found that strategies within each type of culture can vary. Squirelhands found similar research discussed in Chapter 12 interesting as well in part because it meshes with concepts and research in other communication studies courses. Rubei found the research on Chinese teachers and conflicts something she could relate to because it identified cultural differences in compliance gaining.
These two studies and others discussed in the web lecture remind us that culture influences definitions of conflict, interpretations of communicative behaviors associated with conflict, the conflict styles communicators choose to use, and how those styles are enacted. Particularly as the U.S. population becomes more diverse, interpersonal communication scholars need to move away from surveying undergraduates at a large midwestern university and make a greater effort to find out how conflict plays out in a variety of relationships with a variety of people.
--Professor Cyborg
That's why in the web lecture for this week I discussed research that examines conflict in multiple cultures. For example, the Ting-Toomey et al. study I discuss focused on self-construal and conflict style using a fairly diverse population. The researchers found conflict styles are influenced by how communicators view themselves. What I found even more interesting was the Oetzel et al. study which provides a more fine-grained analysis of collectivist vs. individualist cultures than is usually offered. Rather than assuming facework strategies to manage conflict are the same within each group, these researchers found that strategies within each type of culture can vary. Squirelhands found similar research discussed in Chapter 12 interesting as well in part because it meshes with concepts and research in other communication studies courses. Rubei found the research on Chinese teachers and conflicts something she could relate to because it identified cultural differences in compliance gaining.
These two studies and others discussed in the web lecture remind us that culture influences definitions of conflict, interpretations of communicative behaviors associated with conflict, the conflict styles communicators choose to use, and how those styles are enacted. Particularly as the U.S. population becomes more diverse, interpersonal communication scholars need to move away from surveying undergraduates at a large midwestern university and make a greater effort to find out how conflict plays out in a variety of relationships with a variety of people.
--Professor Cyborg
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