Week 10, Post #3

     According to the text, a set of interrelated components act together as a unit it’s called a system. Furthermore, when the system maintains itself in the pursuit of a goal Homeostasis occurs. (224) In the example of marriage both people must be committed in order make the relationship work. From my experience with my parents and the way that I was raised it leads me to believe that when two people work together it allows the unit to function as whole. Obviously, conflict is a normal part of interaction, though we must learn how to deal with the demands form the people that we’re interacting with on a daily basis such as our husband/wife. The idea of homeostasis occurs best in a relationship with a close person and seeing exactly how you react in certain situation in which conflict is involved.  When a holistic perspective is used on the couple the idea of unity among the couple is key, which just further justifies homeostasis.

Week 10, Post #2

     The attribution theory states that, “ people act as they do in conflict situations because of the inferences they make about others based on their behavior.” (216) Often times when false attributions are made about someone a conflict situation is intensified.  By blaming someone you are exhibiting negative conflict behavior, which would most likely lead to intensified conflict. When making an accurate attribution about someone it can greatly reduce false conflicts as discussed in the uncertainty theory. Furthermore, when false conflicts are exhibited it can cause negativity in situations regarding conflict, which is why accuracy is key. Therefore, accurate attributions are made it can actually help you in conflict situations. There was a time when I handled a conflict situation they way I did based on their previous behavior, it turns out the best decisions was made based on the accurate attribution. Whether someone has an internal or external attribution, the accuracy plays a major role in the outcome.

Week 10, Post #1

        The first term I searched was revenge, in which a lot of episodes from a show entitled “revenge” on ABC came up.  I have never heard of the show, yet the fact that they have a show which is centered around revenge leads me to believe that notion  of “ an eye for an eye” (177) is considered to be socially acceptable. When I searched forgiveness I found sites pertaining to psychology and the bible. Based on the sites represented from the internet search forgiveness the process of “ letting go of feelings of revenge and desires to retaliate”( 176) are held in a high regard and is highly encouraged.  When I searched reconciliation  the majority of the sites talked about peace and justice and restoring a mutual respect between individuals. Also, this term had more of a global outlook, as a result it had the greatest variety of sites.

Week 9, Post #3

I found the section on self-fulfilling prophecies to be quite interesting. In this case, “  people act toward us in the way that we expect.” (185) For example, if you begin to act like you don’t trust an individual they may begin to  act in untrustworthy ways. I see this as almost convincing the other person that they are doing something wrong, when really their not. A perfect example is when you’re in a relationship and you partner doesn’t trust you without good reason. In this case one may begin to question if your partner thinks your untrustworthy because of the dirt that their doing behind your back. As a result, one might begin to do things pushing the limits of trust that they might not have done if they were trusted in the first place. Often times if you act like there are issues in the relationship that aren’t there, they might begin to eventually arise.

Week 9, Post #2

There was an event in High School in which one of my really good friends began to date my ex-girlfriend just weeks after we broke up. What made it difficult to forgive him was that he “ had not admitted wrongdoing, apologized, or asked for forgiveness.” (179) Given that my good friend offered me no real apology or explanation made it very hard to forgive him for what he did. Given that he was aware of how I felt about the situation if he had initially shown some type of remorse it might not have been as difficult to forgive him. I think it was interesting how the text pointed out that age plays a role in determining forgiveness. In fact, “ one study found that college-aged students, who were hurt in previous dating relationships, found it more difficult to forgive than any other age group who had similar experiences.” (179) When it come to finally forgiving him it  greatly impacted my mental health as suggested in the text because I no longer had negative feelings which decreased my stress and anxiety levels. 

Week 9, Post #1

I have had a facebook for a couple years now, yet I only go on about once a week out of sheer boredom. I see facebook as an invasion of privacy. I think it’s a weird concept that people who barely even know me know exactly what I’m doing, where I’ve been, and what’s new in my life. The way I view this issue is, if I want to keep in contact with you I’ll call you or see you. I don’t care about how I present myself on facebook because I don’t update it, ever. To be honest I have wanted to delete my facebook many times and think the whole concept is a little strange. I do respect where social networking sites have gone, yet I just view them as a complete invasion of privacy. I know there are millions of people that would disagree with me and swear by facebook, yet I’m a simpler person who believes relationships should be maintained through actual interaction, not passive forms of communication such as texts and social networking sites.