Discussion: Interpersonal Communication (Sample)
Conflict is defined as a form of disagreement that arises between individuals with a difference in thoughts, perceptions, attitudes, requirements, and interests.
Conflicts cause a change in relationships between individuals due to increased arguments and at times physical abuse that denies both parties their peace of mind.
When analyzing any conflict, perception is always at the core as per this chapter (Hocker & Wilmot, 2018).
Perception leads each party into believing that the other party is on its way to achieving a certain goal and as a result, they never get to agree.
Conflict analysis, however, requires that the issue that has resulted in the conflict be well addressed as well as the point of view of the parties involved based on the gathered facts.
Interpersonal communication elements help in the view of how the parties involved perceive the issue at hand which observes their behavior and actions they take in trying to resolve the same.
In the process, the words uttered are put into consideration as they serve as elements that indicate how likely the conflict is to be resolved.
The study of interpersonal communication helps in the management of conflicts in the sense that the parties involved get a chance to communicate and, in the process, their views are outlined to help resolve the conflict.
After the conflict is managed through interpersonal communication, the parties have a better chance of working peacefully in the future.
And in case of a rise in another conflict, their communication can aid in coming up with a solution without outside intervention.
In connection to this chapter, I have experienced a lack of interpersonal communication with my best friend who after being on a family vacation, came home and was no longer interested in talking to me regularly like before.
I found it to be odd but never tried talking about it with her as I felt bad that she ignored me mostly. Instead, I decided to ignore her completely for some time.
After I decided to talk about it with her, she told me how her boyfriend had broken up with her when she was on vacation.
At that point, she felt the need to break all close friendships to avoid any more pain and had thus decided to limit talking to me as she feared losing me also.
The lack of communication at first could have cost me my best friend but after communicating, I realized that making assumptions about a situation only increases conflicts.
Reference
Hocker, J. L., & Wilmot, W. W. (2018). Interpersonal conflict. (Tenth Edition). McGraw-Hill Education.
