Ch. 9 Maintaining Relationships

There are five main behaviors we use to maintain our relationships. Woody and Buzz are a great example on how we should maintain our friendship. They are always making each other laugh and they would go to the ends of the earth to help each other out. The first behavior we could use to maintain our our friendship is positivity. Positivity is a characteristic that makes others feel comfortable to be around us and makes them enjoy our company. This includes being friendly, polite, cracking jokes and refraining from being negative or rude. Positivity is a characteristic that makes people popular with everyone. One of my good friends was just like this. She was always so much fun to be around because she was always smiling, laughing and being very genuine. The second behavior for relationships to be stable is openess. This is when your friend is willing to share their thoughts and feelings to the other person. Another behavior is assurances. This is a characteristic used when you are showing your commitment to the relationship with your friend. When your friends asks you to help them with something such as moving you say "of course I'll help!" This shows that you are willing to help your friend our whenever and you are commited to being their friend. Another behavior we portray is the social networks. This is when we introduce our friends to our other friends as well as our family members. I think this is one of the most important characteristics we need to maintain our friendships. When I first became friends with my best friend I met all of her family. Now I am just as close with her family as I am with her. The final behavior we use to maintain our friendships is sharing tasks. This is when we put forth just as much work into the friendship as our friends do. Whenever your friend helps you out it is known that you will do the same for them whenever they need it.

Ch. 6 Channels of Nonverbal Communication

One of the ten channels of nonverbal communication is movement and gestures. From this picture you can see that just from the way these celebrities are standing and their gestures they are feeling confident. Everyone uses body movements to communicate messages, even people who are born blind. When you feel happy and confident, you walk with perfect posture and your head held high. When you feel scared and nervous, you are kinda slouched over and stare down at the ground. On my first day of school I was very nervous in my new surroundings and was walking timidly, but now I feel a lot more confident and walk with consistent strides. We also use harm and hand gestures when we communicate to get our message across. My mom does this a lot! Almost everything she says she has to use her hands to illustrate her words. I actually don't mind it though because it makes me pay attention to what she's saying and understand it better. Our gestures are divided into five different types. The first type of gesture is an emblem. Emblems are gestures that translate what you are actually trying to say. By lifting your hand to signal a stop or waving your hand to say hello or goodbye, you are showing an example of an emblem. A second type of gesture is an illustrator. An illustator is a gesture used to clarify the message. When you use your hands to describe your words you help clarify the message you are trying to send to your reciever. Another type of gesture is an affect display. These gestures communicate emotion such as covering your mouth to show you are surprised. Regulators are another type of gesture that allow for a conversation to flow. When raising your hand to speak you are displaying an example of a regulator. The final type of gesture is an adaptor that is used to satisfy a need. When we do behaviors such as picking a hair off of someones shirt or scratching an itch we are fulfilling needs. Movements and gestures are very important in our communication because they help send the message to our reciever and help them better understand what we are trying to say. If we didn't use gestures or movements the message could be misleading and it may be difficult for them to comprehend what we are saying.

Ch. 6 Five Characteristics of Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communiation is a crucial part to our everyday communication. Body language is a type of nonverbal communication that can help get out message across to whom ever we are trying to communicate with. There are five characteristics to nonverbal communication. The first characteristic is the use of nonverbal communication in almost all of our personal conversations. Whether you are talking to your best friend or your boss, you can easily tell how they are feeling just by the tone of their voice, how fast they are speaking and even by their facial expressions. We can even get a sense of the person's nonverbal use when we are talking to them on the phone, texting and emailing. When talking to my mom on the phone I can always tell when she is mad at me just by the pitch and tone she uses when she talks. Likewise, I can always tell when she is trying to be sarcastic because she will use a ; ) wink when she texts me. The second characteristic is the fact that nonverbal communication usually releases more information than the actual words themselves. Our appearance, facial expressions,  gestures, tone and pitch of our voice are all ways that we communicate nonverbally. The third characteristic is that we usually believe someone's nonverbal before we believe the words they are saying. My best friend was very good at sending conflicting messages because I could ask her how she was doing and she would sigh, roll her eyes and she was just fantastic. The fourth characteristic of nonverbal communication is the use of communicating emotion. We can usually tell how someone is feeling just by looking at their facial expressions. When watching an interview on tv or a reality show such as American Idol, the cameraman always shows close ups to get the reactions of the contestants. For instance, when they are down to the bottom three on American Idol and deciding who is going home and at those critical moments they show the person's reaction to capture their emotions. The final characteristic of nonverbal communication is that it metacommunicates the original message. When someone pulls closer to you and whispers information, this sends the message that it is meant to be kept confidential and not to tell anyone else the secret.

Ch. 5 Gossip

It doesn't matter if we want to admit to it or not, deep down we all love gossip. Whether or not we are the ones who are spilling the beans or hearing it through the grapevine, gossip helps bring drama and excitement to our lives. Gossip is the sharing of personal information without the consent of the individual. Gossip is everywhere! We even have shows on television now that only play the latest celebrity gossip. One of my favorite gossip shows to watch is E news. I don't know what it is about the show but it's very intriguing and I can't get enough of it! I guess it's probably partially because I have a pretty boring life and I need to know the latest celebrity break-ups, pregnancies, drug and alcohol relapses and a lot more. Besides television shows, gossip is all over the media including magazines, radio stations and even the Internet. This type of gossip isn't very harmful to the average person but when we start to gossip about someone we know or when someone gossips about us it starts to get a little complicated. Something that could start out as a harmful prank could get blown out of proportion and turn into a big mess. Thankfully something like this hasn't happened to me but some of my friends from high school weren't so lucky. A girl from my high school spread a rumor about her friend that she was pregnant. Within a couple of days it seemed like everyone had found out and the story was so exaggerated and far from the truth. Gossip may provide us with a little excitement knowing that we are one of the only people who knows a secret. It can keep us up to date on the latest celebrity news and provide us with some excitement to our own lives. Gossip also has its downfall but we all can't get enough of it one way or another.