How Does Communication Affect Relationships? Essay

Self-disclosure is an important part of any close relationship. Without sharing our own fears and weaknesses, we can

RELATIONSHIP –  All relationship problems stem from poor communication skills, and the differences between partners will always be there as we are all individuals with different values, priorities and ways of dealing with issues.

When this assignment was given out, I instantly knew exactly what relationship I wanted to analyze: my ex-boyfriend’s and my relationship. It might sound like an odd relationship to choose, seeing as he is an ex, and it might not sound like a good starting point, but let me first say he is one of my best friends right now.

2.1 It is self-evident that communication and interpersonal skills are crucial in the workplace. Good two-way communication is important to enable the flow of information in an effective way whether it be verbal or non-verbal. Good communication has a positive impact on the performance of the team including; everyone is clear what is expected from them, they receive good feedback and recognition of achievements which makes staff feel valued and boosts employee morale. The manager needs to be approachable and have a non-threatening manner so

We as individuals’ decide what, when and to whom, and how much to disclose personal thoughts and feelings. Although level of self-disclosure and personal relationships are not synonymous concepts, self-disclosure plays an important role in constructing what kind of relationships individuals have with each another.1 Self-disclosure, depending on reactions of relationship partners, also plays an important role in validating self-worth and personal identity.2

Communication is an important part of any relationship. Communication is a form of expressing yourself through words and or body language. A lack of communication in any relationship can cause damage. For example, 50 percent of marriages end in divorce (Tannen 281). In “Sex, Lies and Conversation” by Deborah Tannen, Tannen mentions most wives want their husbands to be conversational. Women feel as though communication should be intimate and a part of everyday life. Communication is extremely important to women while not as important to men.

A third variable that can affect intimacy and self-disclosure is one’s personality. If some one is an extrovert they will likely share more willingly than say a reserved introverted personality type. Of the correlations the mostly is that the more that self-disclosure is implemented the more likely a greater level of intimacy will develop because the more that one shares about themselves a level of trust forms leading to greater levels of familiarity and

Being in a relationship, I noticed that communication is key. However, there are other numerous factors that play a substantial role in the relationship. I believe in three simple things.

Relationships involve effective communication to keep going. Otherwise, the relationship slowly dies or is forgotten. Although, not just any sort of communication keeps a relationship from fading. It must be effectively done. Different components go into effective communication. First, the conversations must be initiated somehow through a channel or method of communicating. Next, the conversations should be transactional or each person is communicating with one another through speaking and listening to one another. Lastly, each party should be aware of the three different contexts that go into the conversation; relational, situational, and cultural. Avoiding so could lead to conflicts. Both parties must want to and try to actively communicate and understand each other in order to have a lasting and healthy relationship with one another.

“Communication is the solvent of all problems, therefore communication skills are the foundation for personal development.” No relationship is able to flourish without communication. Communication is a vital component in strengthening the bond between two people by sharing interests, concerns and understanding one another. “People communicate in order to get information and reduce uncertainty during initial encounters with others” (Guerrero, Anderson, Afifi, 2014) Relationships not only require verbal communication but non-verbal as well.

Successful communication strategies involve both positive and negative behavior as well as directness which involves direct vs. indirect types of behavior (Overall, Fletcher, Simpson, and Sibley, 2009). Without these types of strategies intimate partners would not know how to communicate effectively and find resolve. This also makes a difference in having self-worth and standing up for ourselves and having the ability to be open-minded when confronted with conflict within the relationship.

Six years in a relationship you begin to reminisce on how the relationship developed, and how you got as far as you are. At only 21 years old I have been in a serious relationship now for the past 6 years. There have been ups, and downs, and everything else in between. It wasn’t until taking Interpersonal Communication that I got a better in depth understanding of how romantic relationships form and change over time based on Knapp’s stages of romantic development. Throughout this paper I will be going over why we form relationships, Knapp’s stages of romantic development, the research I have found on studies conducted based on romantic relationships, and personal experience.

Communication is the number one key to a good relationship. When there is no communication between both parties involved in the relationship, that is when the relationship fails whether it is a man and a woman, or a child trying to divorce his/her parents or friends cutting their ties forever.

Relationships are like onions, they take time to open up and you have to peel layer by layer to get to the center. Life happens, people come and go and the relationships that are made happen over time. A relationship is built over prolonged exposure to someone and they do not happen over night. When you first meet a person most judge, they look at a person’s appearance, their behavior, and their overall attitude. But as time goes on and you get to know someone on a more personal level you learn whom he or she really is. This idea is called the social penetration theory. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor established the social penetration theory in 1973. They created this theory to have a better understanding of intimate relationships between two people. The social penetration theory is important to the communication process because it looks at how relationships develop and how over time relationships evolve from where they stared by self-disclosure. With the social penetration theory as the main focus and with the support from communication studies, this paper is assessing the formation of new relationships.

“What, what did you say?” I often find myself saying this when talking with children. The likely culprit of why is poor listening habits. “Most people spend mere time listening than they spend on any other communication activity, yet a large percentage of people never learn to listen well.” (TLSC, 2008) The above example is what I like to call “pseudo listening.” People will be thinking about something else but appear to be listening and only get about half the intended message. Recently at my father’s (Ron) company because of a pseudo listening instance a $400,000 dollar piece of equipment did not get specked correctly. When it was delivered to the customer at Company B the blast doors did not fit properly on the dryer unit. As one