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.