Interpersonal chapter 10 improving communication climate

• Communication Climate and Confirming Messages• Defensiveness: Causes and Remedies • Saving Face... Communication Climate and Confirming Messages • Communication Climate • Refers to the

• Communication Climate and Confirming Messages

• Defensiveness: Causes and Remedies

• Saving Face

Communication Climate and

Confirming Messages

• Communication Climate

• Refers to the emotional tone of a relationship

• Levels of Message Confirmation

Communication Climate and

Communication Climate and

• Contains two messages that deny or

contradict each other

Communication Climate and

Communication Climate and

Communication Climate and

Confirming Messages

• How Communication Climates Develop

• When two people start to communicate, a

relational climate begins to develop

• Verbal and nonverbal communication can be climate-shaping

• After a climate is formed, it can take on a life

of its own and become a self-perpetuating

spiral

Communication Climate and

Confirming Messages

• Spirals

• A reciprocating communication pattern in

which each person’s message reinforces the others

• Escalatory conflict spirals

• De-escalatory conflict spirals

• Rarely go on indefinitely

• Most relationships pass through cycles of progression and regression

Defensiveness: Causes and

Remedies

• Face-Threatening Acts

• Messages that seem to challenge the image

we want to project

• Defensiveness becomes the process of

protecting our presenting self, our face

• Preventing Defensiveness in Others

• Jack Gibb isolated six types of

defense-arousing communication and six contrasting behaviors

Defensiveness: Causes and

Defensiveness: Causes and

Remedies

• Gibb Categories

• Evaluation versus Description

• Control versus Problem Orientation

• Strategy versus Spontaneity

• Neutrality versus Empathy

• Superiority versus Equality

• Certainty versus Provisionalism

Saving Face

• The Assertive Message Format

• The five parts of the assertive message

Saving Face

• The Assertive Message Format

• Behavior

• Describes the raw material to which you react

• Description should be objective

Saving Face

• The Assertive Message Format

• Feeling

• Adds a new dimension to a message

• Some statements seem as if they’re expressing feeling but are actually expressing interpretations

or statements of intention

• What happens to you, the speaker

• What happens to the person you’re addressing

• What happens to others

• Valuable

• Help you understand more clearly

• Can be sure you or your message leaves nothing

to listener’s imagination

Saving Face

• The Assertive Message Format

• Intention

• Can communicate three kinds of messages

• Where you stand on an issue

• Requests of others

• Descriptions of how you plan to act in the future

Saving Face

• Using the Assertive Message Format

• The elements may be delivered in mixed

order

• Word the message to suit your personal style

• When appropriate, combine two elements in a single phrase

• Take your time delivering the message

Saving Face

• Responding Nondefensively to Criticism

• Seek more information

• Ask for specifics

• Guess about specifics

• Paraphrase the speaker’s ideas

• Ask what the critic wants

• Ask about the consequences of your behavior

• Ask what else is wrong

Saving Face

• Responding Nondefensively to Criticism

• Agree with the critic

• Agree with the facts

• Agree with the critic's perception