Interactional view student (5)
- 1. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. COMMTheory The Interactional View: Palo Alto Group Slide 1
- 2. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 2 • Assumes that relationships are embedded within a ________ • Reject idea that communication is about ______________ motives and personality traits • Instead • How individual behavior affects system • How system affects individual behavior The Family as a System
- 3. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 3 • Relationships are complex functions in the same sense that mathematical functions link multiple variables. • Each family plays a one-of-a-kind game with homemade rules. • Family ________________: status quo The Family as a System
- 4. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 4 • One Cannot Not Communicate • Communication is not always _____________ • Is perception reality? • Symptom strategy Axioms of Interpersonal Communications
- 5. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 5 • Communication = Content + ________________ • The latter classifies the former • metacommunication • Each message attempts to express content, but it also says something about the relationship • Nonverbal elements are particularly important Axioms of Interpersonal Communications
- 6. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 6 • The Nature of a Relationship Depends on How both Parties ____________ the Communication Sequence • See p. 175 Axioms of Interpersonal Communications
- 7. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 7 • All Communication is Either Symmetrical or Complementary • Concerns questions of status, control, and power --One-up communication is movement to gain control of the exchange. --One-down communication is movement to yield control of the exchange. --One-cross communication is transitory communication that moves toward neutralizing control. Axioms of Interpersonal Communications
- 8. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 8 Axioms of Interpersonal Communications Figure 12.2: Matrix of Transactional Types
- 9. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 9 • Family systems are highly resistant to change. • We learn to play roles that maintain status quo • Family members are often caught in the double bind of mutually exclusive expectations. • “You ought to love me!” • “Be spontaneous!” Trapped in a System with No Place to Go
- 10. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 10 • The paradox of the double bind is that the high-status party in a complementary relationship insists that the low-status person act as if the relationship were symmetrical, which it isn’t. • “I want you to stop drinking for your own sake.” Trapped in a System with No Place to Go
- 11. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11 • Effective change for the whole family will only come about when members are helped to step outside the system and see the self-defeating nature of the rules under which they’re playing. This is called reframing. (Watzlawick). • Reframing is similar to waking up from a bad dream; relief comes only when you step outside the system by waking up. Reframing: Changing the Game by Changing the Rules
- 12. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 12 • Reframing your (status quo) attitudes • Shifting your perspective • Example: quit blaming Reframing: Changing the Game by Changing the Rules
- 13. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 13 Critique: Adjustments Needed Within the System • Watzlawick’s co-author Bavelas has recommended some modifications to their original axioms. • Although the first axiom states that we cannot not communicate, she concedes that some nonverbal behavior is not communication. • In some cases, no _____-________ relationship • Systems theories involving people are difficult to evaluate because of their equi-finality—a characteristic that means a given behavioral outcome could be caused by any or many factors that are interconnected.
Editor's Notes
- #5: Symptom strategy: something stronger than I, for which I cannot be blamed, is responsible for this communication