Week 3/11/13

This week we discussed some of the different aspects of communication and its importance within the family unit. In class, we described the way that communication is like a circuit – if there is any break in that circuit, the whole thing will be thrown off. So in other words, communication has to go both ways. Something that greatly influences the effectiveness of communication is self-disclosure. Self-disclosure enhances both satisfaction and the feeling of intimacy. The more a spouse engages in self-disclosure, the more that both partners are likely to be highly satisfied with the relationship and feel that their intimacy needs are being met. Sarcasm is a dangerous thing that interferes with language. Sarcasm is both deceiving and usually has negative undertones within, which is why it should be avoided while trying to communicate with one’s significant partner. It is a useful skill to learn power within communication. Power is the ability to get someone to think or feel or act in a way that he/she would not have done spontaneously. There are a few different types of power; they are: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, referent, and information.  Each power is used to manipulate the conversation to do something that benefits the conversationalist with power. Coercive power is a way to avoid punishment by spouse, reward power is a way to obtain rewards from spouse, legitimate power is a way to make one’s spouse feel that you have a right to ask something and they in response have a duty to comply, expert power is when a spouse has special knowledge or expertise, referent power is the identification with, and admiration of, spouse and desire to please him or her; and information power is manipulating the conversation by persuasion by spouse that what the spouse wants is in their own best interests.