Human Relationships

Communication Friendship is one of the most important relationship types in human interaction. Without friends, it would be impossible to obtain the support necessary throughout the ups and downs of life. Indeed, especially when going through hard times, friendship can be one of the most valuable assets a person can have. Friends can offer both emotional and material support. When a person needs a temporary place to stay, for example, a friend's house would be the most likely place.

When losing someone close to death, friends are the ones that offer the most support. For these reasons, it is important to create a climate in which friendship can thrive. In my friendship with Andrew McNamara, I will therefore use what I have learned from the reading to maintain the closeness we already enjoy and to cultivate and ensure our future closeness as friends. One of the things I use on a regular basis to ensure my close friendship with Andrew is communication.

According to the social penetration theory, communication lies at the heart of relationship development. Andrew and I communicate about everything, and particularly about our shared interests. We particularly enjoy action movies, for example. When we have both seen one of these on television or in the theater, we compare notes analyzing and thinking about the characters, the actors, the story line, and so on. We enjoy these discussions because our individual thoughts about whatever we are discussing complement each other.

This type of communication creates a positive climate for us to interact and be close to each other. I therefore always make an effort to find meaningful and interesting things for us to talk about. No friendship is perfect, and I tend to be flawed in a few areas that could create a negative communication climate for Andrew and I. I tend to be a private person, for example, especially when it comes to things or people I find upsetting.

Because he knows me so well, Andrew can detect any negativity in me right away. He is far more open communicating about himself than I am. From this premise, he would sometimes attempt to encourage me to talk about any negativity I am experiencing. I experience this as pressure, which would drive me further into my thoughts rather than the intended effect, which is to get me to talk about my issues and remove the negativity. This would sometimes cause friction and a negative communication climate in our relationship.

After the reading, I have decided to improve these cases of negativity by engaging in more self-disclosure. According to the social penetration theory, self-disclosure is an aspect of communication that especially contributes to relationship development. To ensure both our current and future communications, I will therefore make a conscious attempt to suspend some of my tendency towards privacy in the interest of a more trusting relationship with Andrew. This will form part of my strategies to ensure closeness for me and Andrew.

One of the current strategies I use to ensure closeness between me and Andrew is spending a large amount of time together. During these times, I make sure that I suggest activities I know we both enjoy, such as films or video games. After reading the chapter, one of the strategies I will use to.