Case Integration

Case Integration

All cases reviewed in this course were meant to show us how important communication is, while using real life stories and scenarios that targeted communication in relationships as a whole.  Throughout the term I have learned a number of things about communication in relationships and how important they are in order to have successful relationships throughout life. Interpersonal Communication is the exchange of nonverbal and verbal messages between two people, regardless of the relationship they share. Some of the cases reviewed were;

 Mirror, Mirror on the wall discussed weight, identity, self-talk, body image, self-esteem, false identities, and identity management. Reece has a weight problem and doesn’t like to eat because she doesn’t feel like she looks as pretty or nice as her other two friends do. She communicates verbally and nonverbally with her friends all the time just how she feels about herself.

 We’ll Never Be That Kind of Couple touched on the variability of intimate violence, power, dominance, and influence; this is a case study that taught me another way of managing conflict. A married couple had issues with power, violence, and abuse, which lead to problems managing tension. The male and female in this case study were both searching for a way to manage their conflict. When reflecting on the analysis of this case it portrays the importance of forgiveness when managing conflict.

 “The Queen and Her Bee” gave an insight to forms of aggressive communication and how to manage such destructive manners. Two best friends who are very different from one another find themselves in conflict and are handled through aggressive communication, which is an apparent negative form on conflict management. It showed me how friendships can be hurt and abused through improper conflict management.

 Friends of the Heart discussed idiomatic behaviors, closeness, immediacy, and social support. As two friends take a rode trip we journey along three theories the rules theory: where the two have certain rules in the relationship which can be re-negotiated at any time, the equity theory where Jay and Sophie connect in a balance of give and take within their communications, and the dialectical theory: which gives tension between their two voices, which they have effectively managed. This case study has a good blend of all three theories, which gives depth, meaning, and closeness in their friendship, while communicating through some hard emotions with meta-communications.

    “Yard Sales and Yellow Roses: Rituals in Enduring Relationships”
The case Jack and Martha dealt heavily in relational culture. Our book states that "relational culture weaves partners together not through the activities or interactions themselves, but in the meanings partners assign to these activities and interactions." Which the meaning that comes from their activities and action is an appreciation for the time the two get to spend together.




All of the stories were different, but they all had one thing in common….

Communication is the fundamental thing that brings us all together and yet also the thing that pulls us apart. We all communicate in different ways to express our feelings, emotions, wants, needs, and everything in-between, but because of this, we often find ourselves in situations where we can’t communicate effectively with one another.

Everyone has their own personal identity and we all have to manage that identity.  Now we have to communicate with people that are different than us.  You would think it would be easy, but nothing worthwhile is easy. Who knew that culture, age, gender, experience, closeness, or even our non-verbal cues could effect how we communicate with each other. The funny thing is, that it affects us so much that we form false identities in our self-presentations.  


No matter how hard we try to get along and understand each other, communication is always there to help us understand each other or to hinder us with uncertainty, to strengthen us with closeness or to weaken us with hard emotions. Sometimes we strengthen our relationships and other times we end them.

People communicate their identities and their social self.  However, some people have issues with identity management. There are six principals to identity management that affect the way we perceive people’s actions and behaviors. These principles include: identity and the hierarchical structure, identity and the looking glass self, identity and the interpretation of feedback, expectations and behavior, self-evaluation, goal achievement and lastly identity and relationships. This means that ones identity, is based on a complex theory of self that incorporates expectations, self-fulfilling prophecies, and feedback from others. That the psychological process of self esteem and self concept are based on how we manage our identities and that the importance of awareness can go a long way toward helping people understand the development and deterioration of relationships.  

You decide that you want to get closer and initiate or intensify the relationship.  So, now comes this scary part, self-disclosure and we panic over feelings like - fear of rejection, loss of control, loss of individuality….but within no time a relationship has developed and the journey begins.

People communicate closeness in various ways and depending on the relationship, we communicate differently.  Sometimes you spend a lot of time together, talking, engage in long eye contact or romantic touch as manifestations of emotional and relational closeness.   Immediacy behaviors such as smiling, using idioms, and speaking in confidence are ways to engage in closeness, and as cognitive valence theory suggests, when two people experience a series of moves and countermoves closeness is created. A simple way of saying it – it takes two to tango!



 When someone is in your life, you feel close to them, you open up to them. So we maintain relationships through positivity, routine talk and openness, humor, assurances, task sharing, supportiveness, joint activities, social networking, and constructive conflict management.  The dialectical perspective suggests, relationships cycle through periods of highs and lows.  When things are not going well, it is a signal that a change needs to be made. Routine maintenance is critical because positive behavior helps to sustain relationships.