Unit 9

Part 1

This week was about conflict management. On monday we wrote the word conflict in the center of a paper. Then we wrote words that we associate with the word conflict around. After everyone was done we took different colored markers and circle the ones that are positve in one color and the ones that are negitive in another color. Mine were all negitive.  We then talked about how conflict can be both negitive and positive. We also took a conflict management quiz to see what our personal conflict resolution styles were. Then we had to guess what we thought other people were. I scored high in the avoiding category, but 3 people saw me as compromising and collaborating, one person saw me as avoiding and harmonizing and one person saw me as competing and avoiding.  We wrote Dear Abby letters and switched the letters with others in the class. On Wednesday we read the letters to the class and gave advise using these: abandoning, getting help, humor, postponing, compromising, integrating, collaborate/problem-solving. Some of the Dear Abby letters needed to use a combination. We broke up into teams and played a game Win as Much as You Can. It was an interesting game. Some people were frustrated.

Part 2
The way I respond to conflict is to avoid it as much as possible. When conflict does asrise I use shut down. I have never delt with conflict well. This was learned as a kid. Trying to break old patterns as adults that we learned as kids is hard. I use the neglect reponse. "It is passive because it avoids discussions."(Woods, 2010) This is what I due is avoid discussions that I think will lead to conflict.

Wood, J. T.Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

Unit 8

Part 1

On Monday we did a listening activity. One person read as the other listened and reflected back to the person to show that they were really listening. We were given feedback on how well we listen by everyone in the class. On Wednesday we were talking about emotions. We did an activity on how many words we could come up with for the different emotions. A couple of people came up with quite a few. Jackie gave us papers on the different words that are feeling words. My favorite words are bamboozled and frazzled. Then we did a test on our emotional intelligence. Most of my scores we in the Needs Some Development. I think this is because I have a tendency to hide my emotions. We didn't have class on the following Monday but resumed class on Wednesday. On Wednesday we had to pick 5 emotion cards that told a story about what emotions we had since last class. Its was interesting the wide range of emotions that you can feel in a short period of time.

Part 2
The question "Are women more emotionally intelligent than men? " is a tough one. "Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize feelings, to judge which feeling are appropriate in which situations and to communicate those feelings effectively."(Wood, 2010)Women tend to express their feeling easier than men do. Men are trained from a really young age that emotions are for the weak. I think the emotions of women make them better  nurtures because they are able to express emotions. Men get angry and want to fight. I see this with my sons all the time, but their sisters start crying when they are angry and have a tendency to yell. I also think it depends on how you are raised. I was raised that you keep your emotions hide at all times. That it does no good to show others how you feel. This can be good and bad at times. Emotions are tricky and can take many forms.




Wood, J. T. Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

Week 6

This week we are learning about listening. We listened to Jackie read us a very good article. Half the class wrote down how many times they heard the word and and the other half listened to the whole article. At the end we had to write down what we remembered about the article. It was interesting that the people that had to count "and" didn't remeber what the article was about. A few people that did listen didn't remember a couple of things because they got stuck on particular parts of the article. We also did an actity where we paired up and one person talked about school and the other was listen. The group that was listening at first pretended that they weren't listening. For me this made it hard to communicate. I found myself getting lost in what I was trying to say and trying to add more information because I thought that what I was saying was not important. We also praticed on our interviewing skills. This is one area that I am still working on.

Part 2: Barriers to Listening

I think one of my barriers is message overload. With all the information that I am getting at school and home I find that I start not listening to half of what is being said. "To deal with the overload, we often screen the talk around us..."(Wood, 2010, p.151) I think this is how I deal with overload. Another barrier I have is noise. If it is really noise in a room or even my phone I don't pay attention as much as I should. The third barrier that I have is preoccupation. I do this alot. With all the multi tasking that needs to be done, I find that I am thinking about something totally different rather that listening to what I need to. I have to ask what was said because I didn't hear the message.

Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

Week 5

This week was about nonverbal communication. On Monday we started with a warm up activity where we had to come up with a total of 11 fingers in the middle of the circle without talking. It took us a couple of times but finally manage to communicate using foot stomps. It was funny trying to communicate without verbal words. We also did a back to back drawing where one person had to explain a drawing while the other person had to draw the picture we sat back to back and also did it facing each other. The drawing that we did back to back I think was harder because you could read any facial expressions to see if  what you were trying to communicate to the other person was being received clearly. It was a lot of fun to see the drawings.  On Wednesday we did a warm up activity where without communicating we lined up in alphabetical order by last name. Misty was a great help since she knew every ones names. Then we had to line up according to our birthday months. That was a little trickier but we finally got it. We watched several movie clips on nonverbal communication. The one I thought was interesting was how touch is the first sensory experience that we feel as humans. The artifacts that people place in their homes or offices was interesting. I didn't realize how it tells everyone about who you are. "We use artifacts to announce our identities and and to project a particular image to others." (Woods, 2010, p. 133)

Part 2
I chose to read the article, Nonverbal Communication: The Poser of Nonverbal communication and body Language. The ten things that I really liked were:
- It take more than words to create relationships with people
-Nonverbal communication is a vital form of communication
- Many people send confusing or wrong nonverbal signals
-That our faces are able to express a lot of different emotions without saying a word
-The way that we move can tell a person a lot about us
-In different cultures and regions gestures can mean different things
-The way we say things is more important than what we say
-To maintain the flow of a conversation you need good eye contact
-Nonverbal communication needs your full concentration or you miss important clues
-We communicated a great deal through touch



Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

week 4

Part 1
This week we talk about words. We created a wordle with words we associate with language. Creating the wordle was a lot of fun. Then we broke up into two groups and created a bridge. The bridge that each group created needs to be an exact copy. We got to send out one person to communicate with someone from the other group to try and explain how the bridge was going to be constucted. I can see how easy it is for miscommunication to happen causing hurt and angry feelings. We all communicate and interpret differently. There were a few frustrastions and people gave up on the task.  The brigde however did look alike. We discussed the activite on Wednesday and how we think it went and how we felt.


 Part 2
We use two kinds of rules to govern communication, Regulative and Constitutive. These rules are usually shaped by our cultures.(Woods, 2010)

Rules that regulate how I:

Talk with elders: With respect. They are older and usually wiser
Interact at dinner time:No fighting or arguing. Talk about how the day went
Have first exchanges in the morning: Tell husband I love him. Tell children to have a good day at school and that I love them.
Respond to criticism form your supervisor:Don't really say anything. Don't like conflict
Greet casual friends:Say hello and ask how they are doing
Talk with professors:Same rescpect as you give authority figures.


Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

Week 3

Part 1

This week in Interpersonal Communication we learned about perception. We watch several slides that showed illusions. I was interesting how we perceive the different illusions. We also asked a question to everyone in class. My question was: Describe a situation where you absolutely believed your perceptions were right and later found out they were wrong? Almost everyone answered it the same to a certain degree. It was usually about someone the knew and thought they were a good person and later found out the person was not who they thought they were. Most of the time I go with my first impression of someone. The times that I don't I usually find myself getting burned by them. We also watched several videos on how to improve our interpersonal perceptions. The one I like the best is how we should be more aware of our mood and our biases.

Part 2

"Individuals differ in how they perveive situations and people" (Woods, 2010, p.77) I believe this is true. We all come from different lives growing up as well as our lives now. Physiology  everyone percieves things differently. I am usually a morning person. I function better and my mind seem clearer in the morning than in the evening. Age for me is different. I had to grow up pretty fast when I was a kid. I view even people that are the same age as younger because I am at a different stage in my life. Culture is where our beliefs fit in and place a big role in our lives. My beliefs are what grounds me most days. They are what keeps me from getting to overwhelmed with everything in my life. Social location I don't think affects me as much. I grew up in a small community but have lived here in the Boise area for 16 years.


Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

My slideshow

http://www.slide.com/r/5OVZx1nF0z9l6p5mrYALsnlJGxuiGYWW?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original