Theory and Research CTAC 227 PDF

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CTAC 227-10360 Scenario: 1

In the scenario presented, a character named Ally is struggling through a period of transition that a high percentage of individuals go through; the transition from high school education to higher education. She is moving out of her home and out to a new environment in which she will undertake new responsibilities as well as a college education. Ally identifies herself as an introvert. With introverts, their source of energy comes from within their own minds and not from social interactions with other individuals (Wu, Zhu, & Zhou 1998). With that, Ally’s friends are nonexistent and her family members are the closest thing to her. Although Ally has taken a big step in responsibility and maturity by pursuing higher education, she has communicated that she will avoid one of the biggest determinates of academic success (McGrath & J.J., 1978); avoiding communication with other colleagues to guarantee the avoidance of awkward and uncomfortable situations. In spite of the fact that Ally is proactively avoiding encounters with other colleagues, she is consequently lacking the communication skills needed to efficiently interact with others and ultimately lowering the chance of an awkward interaction. To increase her chances of avoiding any kind of interaction, Ally has even been granted a solo dorm room in which will give her the space she claims is beneficial to her. With the above being stated, Ally is at the end of the introverted spectrum in which socialization with her peers is thought to be detrimental to her self-esteem, image, and perception. Social media is the only type of communication feedback Ally is exposed to resulting in an unhealthy perception modeled by herself. With social media being her only view on society norms, Ally is successfully demonstrating the fallacy of perfection with the only perspective of self-worth, image, and perception coming from altered images, biased media, and a fantasy world in which individuals with a solid foundation of self-concept coming from daily interactions from their

peers would be the only ones that could differentiate fantasy from reality. With communication being absent, we find ourselves searching for a way in which we can demonstrate to Ally that communication is a main part of life and to conform to her interest, communication has a direct relationship with academic success (McGrath & J.J., 1978). Our goal is to enlighten Ally on the possibilities of communication and how an introvert can be an effective communicator. The first thing that needs to be analyzed is her ignorance when it comes to the benefits of communication. Although Ally is introverted, this doesn’t necessarily deny her access to the plethora of benefits that communication has. According to Ally, the piece of information that is absent is her understanding of the benefits gained from relationships. What this tells us is that Ally has lacked beneficial interactions in the past in which has led up to her misconstrued idea of communication, in which for the sake of the example, has proven unnecessary for Ally to partake in. For Ally, relationships, romantic or platonic, should be emphasized, especially when transitioning to a different environment. In a study conducted by Sias, P. M., & Bartoo (2007), the relationship between friendships, social support, and overall health was examined over a period of time. They claimed that having a steady friendship and/or social support group during any period of time will decrease your chances of producing health problems and will even increase immunity to sicknesses. With her focus being on academics to avoid social anxiety, Ally’s best interest would be to seek out different social support groups or friendships that are going through the same transition. A study determined that academic success and performance had a definite relationship connected to the overall health of the participant (Pyle et al., 2009). These studies inform us that if Ally’s main focus is her academic success, then her overall health should be a focus as well as her relationships she develops throughout her academic career.

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The next thing we will evaluate is her lack of ability or knowledge to be an effective communicator. We must keep in mind the fact that Ally being an introvert, may play a key role in the amount of positive interactions she has been involved with. As humans, we need to intake information in order to process and learn it. With communication being an ongoing process in our daily lives, we construct mechanisms of different varieties of communication in which will give us a variety of tools to use in our everyday encounters. When we lack the tools needed to interact with society, our interactions consequently suffer and give us negative feedback. In this example with Ally, assuming that her lack of positive interactions has constructed little variety in her communication tool box, we need to ultimately teach Ally the other sets of tools in order to become an effective communicator. As with any process, we as humans communicate every day while learning different but valuable techniques to add to our tool box in order to become a better, more efficient communicator. With that being said, there’s always something new to be learned in the world of communication and the only way to create new tools is to learn and practice them. Communication is an ongoing learning process that everyone needs to learn and practice. Will we have to emphasize the importance of communication to Ally and give her the opportunity to further her knowledge about communication while presenting her the opportunity to hone her skills as an effective communicator. Ally needs to start finding groups, individuals, or societies that share a common interest with her. With a common ground of interest to start with, the level of intimacy will increase resulting in a closer friendship with that particular group, individual, or society. When choosing her dormitory selection, Ally may have wanted to choose to room with a fellow dorm mate instead of living by herself. Not only would she be able to practice her

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interactions and communication skills daily, but also connect with someone who may have had shared external situations. Shared external experiences are those in which is a subject that is a common-ground experience shared by both individuals involved in the interaction (Gowin 2011). These shared external experiences have been linked to intimacy and speech comprehension (Stephens, Silbert & Hasson U. 2010). With intimacy alone, one could successfully produce fulfilling friendships (Bauminger et al., 2008). In a study examining the relationship of living alone and depression/anxiety, a researcher found that those who lived alone were more likely to develop depression and/or anxiety over time than those who lived with another person (Crockett et al., 2002). Because Ally has already selected her dormitory choice, we need to focus on ways we can alleviate any anxiety or decrease the chances of depression due to living alone. One way we can do this is by letting Ally have a pet live with her. One study demonstrated that while living alone, a pet animal can demonstrate the same effects of comfort and relaxation as a partner or roommate would have (Antonacopoulos et al., 2010). But if the university does not allow pets within the dorm room we must compromise to seek another effective way we can counter the negative effects of living alone. In a study observing individuals who lived solo compared to people who lived with another person, Dr. Eric Klinenberg Ph.D. interviewed over 300 individuals over several years asking questions related to social isolation and anxiety during the period of time the individual(s) lived alone or with another person. In fact, most people who lived alone did not experience social isolation and those who did were mostly male (Klinenberg, 2012). But in this case, we need more of a compromise than solely based on what sex you are. In the same study, Dr. Klinenberg found that if an individual were to keep up with friends, neighbors, or social groups, the risk for health

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problems and social isolation decreased significantly (Klinenberg, 2012). So in this situation, Ally will need to interact with her surroundings as well as develop bonds and relationships with people who share the same external experiences as stated earlier. With living alone, this can create an atmosphere beneficial to Ally as she creates her environment that is comfortable and beneficial to her without another external force (a roommate) disrupting that environment. By creating an atmosphere that Ally can thrive in, we can ultimately create a comfortable mindset for Ally that may have the potential to explore her social surroundings allowing her to benefit from the new environment and new encounters she will hopefully develop. With social communication being emphasized as the leading determinate in Ally’s success in college we cannot forget the importance of self-concept. With poor self-concept, Ally will be at risk for several health risks including depression, heart disease, and social isolation (Trzesniewski el al., 2006). Now with Ally giving us the information that she uses social media as a way to compare and contrast her life with the lives of celebrities, we can use this to our benefit when helping Ally change the way she views herself and her life. Assuming that Ally is an 18-year-old woman, we can confidently state that her self concept is heavily influenced on what she is viewing in today’s society (Greenwood, Dara, Dal Cin, 2012). Because a celebrity’s life is heavily misconstrued and falsified into unrealistic expectations, we can observe Ally practicing the fallacy of perfection in which she constructs her life in a way that represents the her views on another’s “perfect” life. As research allows us to conclude a statement of generalization, we can state that a celebrity’s life represents an unrealistic expectation that leads to lower self concept in our society today (Hampton 2011). With the fallacy of perfection, Ally attempts to compare her life with those who live unrealistic lives ultimately resulting in a misrepresentation

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of herself and a detrimental effect to her self-concept (Adler & Proctor 2014). We can help Ally by eliminating her social media usage and by replacing it with other activities that will help her develop useful skills and decrease her health risks. By eliminating her social media usage, we can also eliminate the fallacy of perfection as well by disabling her viewing of celebrity’s lives and have her focus on her own. We can also substitute her social media activity with other activities that Ally may find interesting or beneficial. For example, she could utilize the university’s recreation center and exercise. Not only does she get the benefits of exercise which include a plethora of health benefits, but her body will become healthy and fit. With this benefit, her self concept will rise and with confidence in herself, she will be more likely to socialize with her peers (Chambliss, Muller, Hulnick, & Wood (1978). With Ally’s understanding of communication being misconstrued and unintended, we find Ally at a difficult point in her life with the transitioning to a different environment as well as nonexistent social interactions. College is about obtaining a higher degree of education as well as honing your interpersonal communication skills with your peers. With our ability to focus on what needs to be done to help and encourage Ally to develop interpersonal communication skills, we have found various ways to get the job done. Ally will need to discontinue her activities on social media to eliminate her fallacy of perfection of herself as well as to help her find other activities the college has to offer to her. There are many ways in which Ally can benefit from resources and extracurricular activities at the college including the recreational center to develop a healthy exercise regimen to increase her already damaged self-concept. With the elimination of social media, she can now focus on practicing her communication skills with the people that she chooses to surround herself with. In her case, she will need to focus on

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people with the same shred external experiences as herself to build and develop a deeper intimate bond between the person and herself. As we educate her on the benefits of communication, she will hopefully understand why people need to communicate with each other. Not only for relationship development, but for health reasons as well. With greater health and immunity, Ally’s performance in school will be greatly affected in a positive manner. Ally had many developing problems in which if left unnoticed, could have left Ally with numerous health problems as well as the potential to drop out of school. We hope these solutions will be helpful in the development of Ally’s interpersonal communication assets and hope to see improvements that will last a lifetime.

References

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Adler, R., & Proctor, R. (2014). Looking out, looking in (14th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Antonacopoulos, N. M. D., & Pychyl, T. A. (2010). An examination of the potential role of pet ownership, human social support and pet attachment in the psychological health of individuals living alone. Anthrozoös, 23(1), 37-54. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175303710X12627079939143 Bauminger, N., Finzi-Dottan, R., Chason, S., & Har-Even, D. (2008). Intimacy in adolescent friendship: The roles of attachment, coherence, and self-disclosure. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 25(3), 409-428. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265407508090866 Chambliss, J., Muller, D., Hulnick, R., & Wood, M. (1978). Relationships Between Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, Popularity, and Social Judgments of Junior High School Students. The Journal of Psychology, 91-98. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.emich.edu/10.1080/00223980.1978.9915951 Crockett, A. J., Cranston, J. M., Moss, J. R., & Alpers, J. H. (2002). The impact of anxiety, depression and living alone in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Quality of Life Research: An International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care & Rehabilitation, 11(4), 309-316. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1015517606893

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Greenwood, Dara N.; Dal Cin, Sonya. (2012) Ethnicity and body consciousness: Black and White American women's negotiation of media ideals and others' approval. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol 1(4), 220-235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029411 Gowin, J. (2011, June 6). Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together. Retrieved November 16, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201106/whysharing-stories-brings-people-together Hampton, K. (2011). Social networking sites and our lives. Washington, D.C: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Klinenberg, E. (2012). Going solo: The extraordinary rise and surprising appeal of living alone. New York, New York: Penguin Press. McGrath, J. J. (1978). Effects of communication skills on academic success and job performance Available from PsycINFO. (616304827; 1979-12153-001). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.emich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/616304827? accountid=10650 Pyle, S. A., Hyder, M. L., Haddock, C. K., & Poston, W. S. C. (2009). Nutrition: The foundation of health, happiness, and academic success. Handbook of positive psychology in schools. (pp. 423-432) Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, New York, NY. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.emich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/622064955? accountid=10650

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Sias, P. M., & Bartoo, H. (2007). Friendship, social support, and health. Low-cost approaches to promote physical and mental health: Theory, research, and practice. (pp. 455-472) Springer Science + Business Media, New York, NY. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/0-38736899-X_23 Stephens GJ, Silbert LJ, Hasson U. (2010). Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 10;107(32):14425-30. Trzesniewski, Kali H.; Donnellan, M. Brent; Moffitt, Terrie E.; Robins, Richard W.; Poulton, Richie; Caspi, Avshalom (2006). Low self-esteem during adolescence predicts poor health, criminal behavior, and limited economic prospects during adulthood. (pp. 381-390) Developmental Psychology, Vol 42(2). http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/00121649.42.2.381

Wu, Y., Zhu, X., & Zhou, S. (1998). Personality features revealed by rorschach test in college students with typical introvert or extravert character. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 12(3), 171-172. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.emich.edu/login? url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/619368367?accountid=10650

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