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Ashford 2: - Week 1 - Assignment

The Closeness Communication Bias

Read the article Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication. Then, write a two-page paper (excluding title and reference pages) in which you do the following:

Summarize the article.
Describe a miscommunication you have had with someone close to you simply because you assumed that they understood you? What happened?
Using course materials, explain how you can make sure that this kind of miscommunication does not happen in the future. Or when it does happen, what could you do to make your communication more clear?

Please use COM200: How to Summarize an Article to assist with the completion of this assignment. Be sure to reference the article and at least one of the other course readings from this week in your paper. This can be your textbook or one of the recommended articles. The paper must be formatted according to APA style. Cite your resources in text and on the reference page. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center.

Please view the video Using the APA Template for guidance on using the template for your assignment.

Need more help?
For guidance on how to approach all of the written assignments in this class, read Writing a Good Paper. You can also review the Sample Week One Paper. Please refer it for ideas. Do not copy any of it.

article

Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication

People may think loved ones understand them better than they actually do, research shows

Jan. 24, 2011, at 5:00 p.m.

Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication

MONDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) -- For many people, their communication skills with loved ones are not as strong as they think.

In fact, spouses sometimes communicate with each other no better than strangers do, a new study suggests.

"People commonly believe that they communicate better with close friends than with strangers. That closeness can lead people to overestimate how well they communicate, a phenomenon we term the 'closeness-communication bias,'" study co-author Boaz Keysar, a professor in psychology at the University of Chicago, said in a university news release.

In the study, researchers asked 24 married couples to take part in an experiment in which two sets of couples sat in chairs -- with their backs to each other -- and tried to figure out the meaning of phrases whose meaning isn't entirely clear.

The spouses thought they communicated better than they actually did, the study authors noted.

"A wife who says to her husband, 'it's getting hot in here,' as a hint for her husband to turn up the air conditioning a notch, may be surprised when he interprets her statement as a coy, amorous advance instead," said study author Kenneth Savitsky, professor of psychology at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., in the news release. "Although speakers expected their spouse to understand them better than strangers, accuracy rates for spouses and strangers were statistically identical. This result is striking because speakers were more confident that they were understood by their spouse."

According to Savitsky, "Some couples may indeed be on the same wavelength, but maybe not as much as they think. You get rushed and preoccupied, and you stop taking the perspective of the other person, precisely because the two of you are so close."

Study co-author Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, explained the differences this way: "Our problem in communicating with friends and spouses is that we have an illusion of insight. Getting close to someone appears to create the illusion of understanding more than actual understanding."

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on family issues.

Tags: behavior, relationships, marriage, psychology