Cyber-Relationships...Week 13 Post 1

When I was younger and AOL and chat rooms and things like that were really popular I would go on and meet people in there. I must’ve been around fourteen or fifteen and I had friends online that I had never met in person. Now on the other hand I don’t go on any of those sites or chat rooms so I don’t have any friendships exclusively in cyberspace. These cyberspace relationships are much different from face to face relationships because you could tell the person whatever you wanted without worrying that they were going to find out you were lying. I have never been a fan of meeting people off of the internet so I felt as though I could act however I wanted and pretend to be whoever I wanted to be because I thought that the people on the other side were probably doing the same exact thing.

What I found Interesting...Week 12 Post 3

I really enjoyed reading aout upward, downward and horizontal communication. I found that downward communication in a workplace is what I would think is typically used because of the hierarchy. I do understand why the employees feel dissatisfied with this process and the lack of face to face conversation. The upward communication I think is good in that the employees give feedback to the bosses and I think it helps keep everyone at the same place and feel as if they are being listened to if they progress reports are taken into consideration. Horizontal communication kind of reminds me of think tanks or right now with this budget crisis where everyone is getting together from different departments of the government to develop a plan. I see pros and cons of each of the communication styles.

Etiquette...Week 12 Post 2

The etiquette rules are important in that many people are affected by cell phones, answering machines, conference calls, faxes, timing your communications, and screen names and ring tones. I feel the rule about cell phones is a bit ridiculous. I agree that no one should use their cell phone during a movie and what not but sometimes at a restaurant you do need to pick up the phone and talk or I will talk on the phone if I am waiting for someone to arrive. I do feel there should be more of a voice etiquette when talking about cell phones. Many times I think that the loud obnoxious people on their phone drives me crazy but if someone is just chatting it doesn’t bother me. I do agree about the answering machines because I get really annoyed when someone plays music forever or they talk way too long on their machines. Conference calls are beneficial in many situations especially in business situations where I feel as though the rule is very appropriate. The faxes rule is true because typically faxes should be very impersonal and usually are not private. I think call waiting is rude but necessary. I hate being put on hold but I think if there is a time limit than it is okay.

Organization and the Environment...Week 12 Post 1

As the book says, “organizations depend on their surroundings for resources and energy” (pg 215). Thus organizations need to work closely with the environment and one another in the surrounding areas in order to not damage or completely deplete a resource used by the community. San Jose State is very interesting to me in that it is situated in the Downtown area of San Jose surrounded by businesses and housing. Most other college campuses that I have seen or been to typically aren’t placed in the heart of downtown. On the other hand I feel as though the relationship between the school and the city in which it is situated in is very good because it does provide a lot more jobs and because of all the students it helps local businesses such as restaurants, local bookstores, coffee shops and more. The ethical obligation I feel the school has is being capable of handling the amount of students that come to the school with parking and safety so the local community is not entirely burdened by students disrupting their own parking spaces or causing havoc with the communities safety needs.

What I found Interesting...Week 11 Post 3

The part of the chapter that I found particularly interesting was Duck’s relational dissolution model. I feel as though this model is very true and that many couples do go through these stages especially towards the end of the relationship. The intrapsychic phase is true in that typically when one person in a relationship is dissatisfied in a relationship they go over all the bad things that have happened in the relationship and reevaluate the benefits and costs of it. The next phase being the dyadic phase I feel is a branch off of the intrapsychic phase in that they are still looking at the costs and seeing if these things are able to be fixed. The social phase I feel is the most popular one in that after every breakup most people go and tell their friends and let them know what happened. The grave-dressing phase is where the people who were in the relationship decide what happened to the relationship. All these phases I feel do relate to real life and how couples go through breakups or problems in their relationship.

Duck's Cues... Week 11 Post 2

There are many characteristics and behaviors that usually determine what I deem to be unattractive. I typically look at how they are with their family, whether or not they do drugs, if they are in school, and their job stability. Duck’s theory does make sense to me. I use most of his filtering cues when considering someone to date. I have definitely eliminated people on their preinteraction cues; based on how they look and their non-verbal body language. These people that I at once put off because of their pre-interaction cue, once I got to the cognitive cues I decided to give them a chance because I really like their personality and completely misjudged their character.

Which is most damaging?...Week 11 Post 1

The three patterns are all interesting in that I feel as though all of them would be difficult in their own way to change. If I were to pick the most difficult to change I think it would be the competitive symmetry. I was going back and forth between this and rigid complementarity but I decided competitive symmetry because I feel if two people are that rigid and both like control and want to be in the leadership role, it would be very difficult to change that behavior. I feel that if both people cannot relinquish control then how would they be able to change? The one that I feel would be most damaging to a relationship would probably still be competitive symmetry because of both people always trying to top the other so if you look at a romantic relationship and the people in the relationship are competitive with one another I think they ultimately would get fed up and it wouldn’t work because neither would want to compromise. Apart from that, the pattern that would be most damaging to self-esteem I believe would be rigid complementarity. Because of the resentful feelings that both parties end up having towards one another can be very damaging to the self-esteem of both people involved.