Communication between friends

I thought the guidelines for communication between friends was pretty interesting.  I thought I should have known these aspects of communication in friendship before losing many of my friends.  I think each and every person in the class can associate with the examples and concepts mentioned under these guidelines.  I could relate to each and every feature of the parameters mentioned in the book and understood what exactly went wrong between my friends and me. The guidelines are as follows:

1.     Engage in dual perspective: We must consider our friend’s perspectives to be a good friend.

2.     Communicate honestly:  It is important to let our friend know the truth even if it hurts because telling lies to make him happy can actually be harmful.

3.     Grow from differences:  We should be open to diversity because diversity helps in enriching experience.

4.     Don’t sweat the small stuff:  The most important factor for long lasting friendship is to learn to ignore a dear friend’s annoying habit or nature.

I loved blogging

My favorite thing about the class was the blogging feature.  I loved the blogging platform that allowed putting forth your understanding about the topic of the week.  In fact writing about the topic with its connection to our own life reiterated the concept.  I also loved replying on blogs because that let us understand other’s perspective on the week’s topic, and connect with our classmates.  I had taken conflict and communication with Professor Perez in spring 2012, and I thoroughly liked it, so I took this class online with her again.  I appreciate the way she responds to our questions without any delay and is always there to help. I had on campus class this semester exactly during her office hours, so I could hardly interact with her on Yahoo chat.  However, her prompt replies helped me resolve issues fairly quick.  The only point that I can suggest to improve is that since I found the quizzes difficult, maybe a review of quiz can help.

What I learned

I learned different aspects of interpersonal communication in this class over the course of the semester.  This class taught me the intricacies of interpersonal communication, which I  have been using and will use in almost every stage of my life.  Interpersonal communication is a vital aspect of interaction within the family and with our subordinates or bosses at work place.  Interpersonal communication with different gender is what boggles me the most.  In the same reference I found communication dynamics with gender perspective most interesting.  For example men do not like to discuss their problems and issues with their friends.  They prefer to play, eat, or drive with their buddies to release stress, whereas women prefer to explicitly talk about their issues and concerns with their friends and share their feelings.  Women look for emotional support by crying, and talking their mind out.Thus knowing the difference in approach of handling stress by men and women can help avoiding conflict and understand where a guy or gal is coming from.I also studied the effective interpersonal communication skills such as engaging in dual perspective, selecting appropriate behaviors as per situation, and achieving competence through monitoring. 

Encouraging Independence

I am going to write about the 4^th stage of Family development, which is encouraging independence.  I like his topic because all of us go through the adolescence phase where we start feeling detached from our family and feel more connected to the outside world. As children enter adolescence, they tend to seek greater autonomy.  This is a natural part of their effort to establish identities distinct from those of their parents.  Most adolescents don’t want to develop interests independent of their families and want to pursue them with peers. Often this stage involves some tension between parents and children.  This is an important phase in personal development of the children because they are learning to be less dependent on their families, which is essential to becoming a healthy adult.  Also parents realize that their children need to try their wings and they need to encourage age progressive independence while keeping a watchful eye.

Marriage

Marriage is the physical, emotional, and spiritual amalgamation of two people in love.  Face of marriage is different in different cultures and has been changing over generations.  Marriage was seen with a conservative philosophy where the man works and woman takes care of the children and the house.  Predominantly men ruled the house and women followed instructions.  However these days youngsters become independent and move out of the house, aspiring for their own passion. In this fast world not many have the time and dedication to get into such a strict marriage forever.  So with demanding careers and lifestyles face of marriage has changed.  Today marriage demands to be more flexible and like a two-wheeler bicycle where the man and the woman get equal rights and opportunities to pursue their passion.  I wonder if the institution of marriage would still exist after 50 years.  I wish it did because healthy marriage is a solid platform for raising children with bright future.