Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication

Submitted By Antonia34t
Words: 666
Pages: 3

Masking Poor Communication
By: Antonia C. Tracy
Ashford University
COM200: Interpersonal Communication
Instructor: Shane Engle

Miscommunication is something that happens to us and probably more frequent then we think. In the article “Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication” the author in which decided to be anonymous speaks on the studies that co-author Boaz Keysar, “which he is a professor in psychology at the University of Chicago”, that the closer we are to someone the more difficult it is with the communication process. He says that this is known as 'closeness-communication bias,' in which is referred to communications process with close ones, like friends or spouses. A study that was conducted by study author Kenneth Savitsky, a professor of psychology at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., showed that when spouses were not facing each other and one said “it is hot in here” what they received from the message was not correct. The wives were trying to send a message to the husband that indicate to turn up down the AC and the husbands took it as flirting jester. So the communication process that these couples had was almost the same as people that are perfect strangers. I believe that we have such problems when it comes to close one communicating because we don’t take the time to listen as well to the message as we would with a perfect stranger. When speaking with a stranger a lot things kick in so we don’t make a fool of ourselves, so we listen better. For example as humans we worry what other people think of us and we know that first impression is always the most important, so with that said we tend to take more time to receive the proper message. Also if we don’t understand we ask more questions and ask for feedback to make sure that the message was received and send properly. According to Kathy Sole “One of the most obvious benefits of human communication is that it allows people to share thoughts, feelings, experiences, and views of the world. When you do so, you share the meaning they have for you, and you connect with others. A prominent early 20th century British psychologist named Frederic Bartlett (1932) believed that people are motivated by what he called "effort after meaning" (p. 20), a fundamental need to understand reality and the world around them. This meaning and shared view of reality is achieved through communication. I believe that when people meet for the first time, they really try to learn about this stranger and what better way to do it but to really understand the