WK 4 Assingmnt
Audrey Swartz Communications January 26, 2015
For this assignment I chose to watch “The Big Bang Theory”. In the beginning of the episode, the two girls wanted to do an activity that the two boy characters hated. This was intended to get back at them for always making the girls do activities that the boys wanted to do.
This is considered and interpersonal conflict. According to conflict researchers William Wilmot and Joyce Hocker (2013), there are items that must be present for a conflict to exist. These include; 1.) An expressed struggle, meaning that one or both parties must communicate about the conflict in some verbal or nonverbal manner. 2.) There are at least two interdependent parties; the individuals involved need one another in some way, and their choices affect one another. 3.) The perception of these parties is that (a) they have incompatible goals, where they both want different things. All of these elements are present in the interpersonal conflict between the male and female characters. According to our required text there are five conflict styles. Our text states that these five styles can be understood by looking at the various combinations of two related dimensions: (1) how concerned you are about yourself and what you seek to get out of the conflict, and (2) how concerned you are about the other person and assisting the other in getting what he or she wants. I believe that the interpersonal conflict that took place in the TV show is a combination of competition and compromising. The elements of the conflict style competition are a high concern for yourself and a low concern for the other party in the conflict. A competitive style is evident when an individual engages in aggressive or competitive behavior by being critical, having a win–lose orientation, and engaging in direct confrontation. The elements of the conflict style compromising are a moderate concern both for yourself
For this assignment I chose to watch “The Big Bang Theory”. In the beginning of the episode, the two girls wanted to do an activity that the two boy characters hated. This was intended to get back at them for always making the girls do activities that the boys wanted to do.
This is considered and interpersonal conflict. According to conflict researchers William Wilmot and Joyce Hocker (2013), there are items that must be present for a conflict to exist. These include; 1.) An expressed struggle, meaning that one or both parties must communicate about the conflict in some verbal or nonverbal manner. 2.) There are at least two interdependent parties; the individuals involved need one another in some way, and their choices affect one another. 3.) The perception of these parties is that (a) they have incompatible goals, where they both want different things. All of these elements are present in the interpersonal conflict between the male and female characters. According to our required text there are five conflict styles. Our text states that these five styles can be understood by looking at the various combinations of two related dimensions: (1) how concerned you are about yourself and what you seek to get out of the conflict, and (2) how concerned you are about the other person and assisting the other in getting what he or she wants. I believe that the interpersonal conflict that took place in the TV show is a combination of competition and compromising. The elements of the conflict style competition are a high concern for yourself and a low concern for the other party in the conflict. A competitive style is evident when an individual engages in aggressive or competitive behavior by being critical, having a win–lose orientation, and engaging in direct confrontation. The elements of the conflict style compromising are a moderate concern both for yourself
References: Bevan, J. L., & Sole, K. (2014). Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Kaplan, E., Holland, S., Molaro, S., Lorre, C., & Cohen, R. (Executive producers). (2007-2014). The big bang theory [Television series]. United States: Columbia Broadcasting System