As stated in the first paper written, I’m canalizing the relationship between my boyfriend and me. A little over three years ago I fell in love expectantly at the age of sixteen. I had no idea that we would end up having a future together. My life turned upside down in the best way possible and in the mean time I have learned many life lessons in between. We have had many obstacles but have managed to get through everything together. No relationship is perfect, everyone has moments where they truly struggle. Our biggest obstacle is communication. “Interpersonal communication is a dynamic form of communication between two (or more) people in which the messages exchanged significantly influence their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships”
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The way I handle conflict is avoidance. I can be in the biggest argument with someone and the next day I will pretend that it didn’t happen. I also will never talk about it again and will try my best to not even think about it. Typically it results in skirting “in which a person avoids a conflict by changing the topic or joking about it” (McCornack, 2013). I find that it helps to break the ice if I do that. Another thing I do when handling conflict is I tend to snip at the person or my boyfriend for instance “another form of avoidance is sniping- communicating in a negative fashion and then abandoning the encounter by physically leaving the scene or refusing to interact further” (McCornack, 2013). My biggest weakness is that I leave when things get hard. I usually get up and leave without saying a word which causes many problems for us. I find it easier to just drop the whole fight and walk away because then I tell myself that there isn’t an actual problem. But in fact it causes many more problems. One way I do not handle conflict is by reactity, “a fourth way people handle conflict is by not pursing any conflict related goals at all; instead, they communicate in an emotionally explosive and negative fashion” (McCornack, 2013). This causes many problems for couples, it can also result in verbal and physical …show more content…
Something my boyfriend and I struggle with is communication as I stated above. We are good at your typical small talk conversation. What we struggle with is taking the time to get to know each other again. We’ve been together for three in a half years now but we are not the same people we were back then. We both have grown so much and have evolved in some of the best ways. Our interests shift and our personalities change as time goes on, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. A stage in Knapp’s coming together stage that I think is very important to come back to is the intensifying stage. “During this intensifying stage, you and your partner begin to revalpreviously withheld information, such as secrets about your past or important life dreams and go” (McCornack, 2013). Something we can do to improve our relationship is to get past the small talk and work on spending time with each other more and dedicating time to getting to know each other
The way I handle conflict is avoidance. I can be in the biggest argument with someone and the next day I will pretend that it didn’t happen. I also will never talk about it again and will try my best to not even think about it. Typically it results in skirting “in which a person avoids a conflict by changing the topic or joking about it” (McCornack, 2013). I find that it helps to break the ice if I do that. Another thing I do when handling conflict is I tend to snip at the person or my boyfriend for instance “another form of avoidance is sniping- communicating in a negative fashion and then abandoning the encounter by physically leaving the scene or refusing to interact further” (McCornack, 2013). My biggest weakness is that I leave when things get hard. I usually get up and leave without saying a word which causes many problems for us. I find it easier to just drop the whole fight and walk away because then I tell myself that there isn’t an actual problem. But in fact it causes many more problems. One way I do not handle conflict is by reactity, “a fourth way people handle conflict is by not pursing any conflict related goals at all; instead, they communicate in an emotionally explosive and negative fashion” (McCornack, 2013). This causes many problems for couples, it can also result in verbal and physical …show more content…
Something my boyfriend and I struggle with is communication as I stated above. We are good at your typical small talk conversation. What we struggle with is taking the time to get to know each other again. We’ve been together for three in a half years now but we are not the same people we were back then. We both have grown so much and have evolved in some of the best ways. Our interests shift and our personalities change as time goes on, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. A stage in Knapp’s coming together stage that I think is very important to come back to is the intensifying stage. “During this intensifying stage, you and your partner begin to revalpreviously withheld information, such as secrets about your past or important life dreams and go” (McCornack, 2013). Something we can do to improve our relationship is to get past the small talk and work on spending time with each other more and dedicating time to getting to know each other