Blog Entry16

From the lecture notes, I was familiar with the collectivistic and individualistic concepts. Because I am an International Business major, I came across the terms many times. Most International Businesses classes mentioned about the differences of communication behaviors in Asia and America. In Asia, they use a collectivistic behavior while in America, they use an individualistic behavior. As for myself, then I think I have both communication behaviors in me. Being collectivistic is important to me as well as using the individualistic behavior in the work force in America.

Blog Entry15

When I came across the different attachment styles in Chapter 15: Family and Life-span Issues and it asked which best describe your feeling, I could relate myself to the secure and avoidant styles. You don’t use a specific style in every situation and to everyone. I am a very secure person when in comes to my boyfriend. I trust him more than I trust myself. And through the years I have become dependent on him (not good). However, I am not this secure person to everyone. To my friends I am a more avoidant person. I trust my friends but there is a limit. I don’t tell them my feelings of insecurity. I know that in any relationship you need to trust your partner before they can trust you. But it is just a matter of how much trust we are willing to give out and receive. Everyone has his/her limit.

Blog Entry14

Chapter 13: Goals in Interpersonal Communication defines the different conflict styles. Sad but true, I find myself using the competing style when I am in conflict with my boyfriend. When you are in that situation, all you think about is to show the other partner that you are going to win the conflict. Even though you don’t want to, you tend to concern more about your self than your partner. In fact, you will become more selfish because you are caught in the moment. So, who is right and wrong does not matter. What matter is who will have the last word, until both of you calm down and common sense comes to your mind. This is when my boyfriend and I use the compromising style and come to an agreement, and everything is good till the cycle begins again.

Blog Entry13

The introduction in Chapter 12: Seeking Compliance in Interpersonal Relationships, was very interesting because I haven’t experienced any parent, who would do that to their children in public. Personally, I don’t know if I could humiliate my children in public like that but I definitely agree with this mom that something has to be done for the children in our society today to behave more accordingly.

The concept that I could resonate more with was reward power. Today, I see parents work hard and spend less time with their children. Therefore, they use a different strategy to make up the time with their children. My boyfriend’s cousin is 16 and her parents work constantly because they own a business, so they buy her laptop, iPods, clothes, game boys, etc. Basically, they feel bad that they can’t spend time with her. They are lucky that she has become a good girl. Some teenagers can go into the wrong direction because of the lack of attention from parents.