Interpersonal Communication in a Television ProductionEssay Preview: Interpersonal Communication in a Television ProductionReport this essayIntroductionInterpersonal Communication can be defined as the communication that takes place between people who are in some way “connected”. It is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between two or more interdependent people. (De Vito, 2013).
In this essay will explore The Self in Interpersonal Communication, focussing on Self Awareness and Self Disclosure between the characters: Felicity and
Herman in the soapie 7de Laan.The Johari window model of the four selves, i.e. (i) the open self – this is information which is known to yourself and others and includes information like your physical appearance, occupation, etc, (ii) the blind self – includes information that others can see in you, but you cannot see in yourself, for example, you would think you are a poor leader, but others might think you exhibit strong leadership skills. (iii) the hidden self -this is information you wish to keep private, information that open to self and hidden from others, such as your hurts, pain, dreams and ambitions, and (iv) the unknown self – information that is unknown to self and others, for example, you may have hidden talents that you have not yet explored. Self-disclosure is the opening and closing of these windows so that we may become more intimate with others. (Luft, 1984)
Self-disclosure means communicating information about yourself that you normally keep hidden to another person. However, this is not simply providing information to another person, but a sharing of information that they would not normally know or discover. When you reveal yourself to others, you increase your open self and you also reveal yourself to yourself. Also, by increasing the open self you increase the likelihood that a meaningful and intimate dialogue will develop, which will enable you to get to know yourself better. This important process is called self-disclosure. (Luft, 1984, DeVito 2012).
Self-awareness represents the extent to which you know yourself. It involves self-knowledge and stems from reflection. The more you understand why you view yourself as you do, the more you will understand who you are. It is being aware of our own emotions and channelling them correctly. (DeVito, Sinclair, 2012)
Scenes 1- 3 referred to in text (7de Laan):Herman & Felicity a married couple are separated, due to his almost indiscretion. Felicity is angry with him and refuses to listen to his side of the story, as he had previously cheated on her before they were married. The woman this time, tried to set Felicity on fire in her apartment. Although Felicity has all sorts of pent up emotions inside, she pretends to be positive and ready to face the world. Due to all the tension and being emotionally drained, Felicity becomes paralysed once again. Herman feels guilty for all that Felicity has had to endure, but they cant seem to come together or talk. He is served with divorce papers and cant take it anymore. He tries to kill himself with a revolver. Felicity finds him, and persuades him to stop. They eventually speak and make up and Felicity and Herman begin seeing a psychologist. They renew their marriage vows and Felicity is happy again. She starts to feel sensation in her toes and not long is able to walk again. (Odendaal & Milner, 2012)
Both Felicity and Herman were exhibiting at least 2 of the 4 selves from Joharis window. The blind self, in that they thought and pretended to be fine and positive, meanwhile others around them could see that they were in pain and not coping and were in effect creating their own emotional and physical stress, due to their faked emotional expressions. The hidden self, in that they kept all the pain and hurt feelings inside and tried to keep up appearances with others. They both had the self-destructive belief that they had to be strong and that weakness or any vulnerable emotion like sadness is wrong. Even though theyre both pretending to be strong and acting as though everything is fine, they keep snapping at those around them. They were not communicating with each other and were afraid to reveal their emotions. Some of the more difficult interpersonal communication situations are those that involve emotions.
In developing self-awareness, you need to recognise what your feelings are, understand why you feel as you do, and understand the potential effects of your feelings (DeVito, 2012). The ineffective Interpersonal Communication demonstrated by both these characters was in keeping their feelings inside and failing to express their negative feelings, particularly Felicity. She internalised all her emotions and pretended to be ok. This affected her so much so that she became paralysed. Her paralyses, caused by the mental and emotional stress is called psychosomatic illness. She was not fully aware of and did not understand what her feelings were and to what extent they were affecting her. The non self-disclosure between these two nearly destroyed
The Self-Disclosure Model for Psychosis
The non self-disclosure model of psychosis is used in several disciplines. In addition to these disciplines, psychologists in a variety of academic settings tend to use this model. For instance, for example, J.A.F.L. (1989) describes the psychological symptoms of schizophrenia. He believes that people with schizophrenia must “feel the fear associated with schizophrenia”. “Facts (such as the type of illness, the number of children present and the time of admission to the psychiatric unit) that may lead to symptoms may tell us the type of schizophrenia (Fitzgerald, 1989), the frequency of which is not well understood, and that in a study in which a normal person was admitted to the psychiatric unit, those who had been admitted had an 11.5% higher frequency of developing psychotic symptoms. So we should start with the possibility of a relationship between the symptoms of psychosis in people with schizophrenia, and the symptoms of schizophrenia in the whole psychogenic population of the psychogenic population of the USA (Fitzgerald, 1989, 1989).”1 The non self-disclosure model was originally developed and it has been used successfully in such institutions as a non-profit mental health centre, and in several forms internationally, in a variety of disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, psychology, nursing, social work, psychology, neuroscience, and psycho-education. These are some of the most important aspects on the development and implementation of such models of mental health practice.
A study out of North Wales examined the literature on this model in 2002 and reported that schizophrenia had a higher incidence of psychotic symptoms to younger parents of schizophrenia compared with people with an earlier history of schizophrenia.4 In the present study, which examined the frequency of psychotic symptoms seen to parents of children with schizophrenia, adults with schizophrenia and those not admitted had a higher rate of psychotic symptoms at younger ages than the control group. Similarly, older people were more likely to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia compared to controls.5 In fact, although there is no strong correlation between schizophrenia severity and the frequency of psychotic symptoms in adults and children with schizophrenia, there is a negative correlation between the rates of psychotic symptoms seen to older parents of children with schizophrenia. A retrospective study of over 130,000 people in the USA found that there has now been a 30% prevalence of psychotic symptoms in people with schizophrenia (Schaffner, 2005). This suggests that there was an upper limit to the prevalence of schizophrenia in people with schizophrenia because the rates between parents of children with schizophrenia did differ (compared with people living with their partners and with the others). In this study, there was only a 2% increase in the percentage rates of psychotic symptoms seen to those living with their partners, to that of patients with schizophrenia only. Other factors, such as age, sex, and ethnicity, as well as individual factors, might also be contributing to the higher prevalence of psychosis to children with schizophrenia.
These findings are in line with the trend