essay

Interpersonal conflict In Modern Family Comment by Collyn Drake: Capitalize

Tara Thompson Comment by Collyn Drake: Hello Tara! Thank you for sharing your paper with me . It was interesting to learn a little about Conflict while reviewing your paper. You seem to have a solid grasp of the course content! I have a Revision Plan for you below that provides the next steps for you to improve your paper. Additionally, you’ll find Comments throughout your paper where I pointed out things that I loved and things I thought we could improve. Revision Plan 1 Add detail to your example. It appears that you’ve done a great job relating the course content to your Modern Family example. But it can be hard to tell exactly how correct your connections are without clearly laying out your example. Consider adding a brief explanation of the characters and a summery of the episode your using so that as your making connections later in your paper I can fully see and agree on the connections you make. 2 Add more course material I really like how explicit you are when discussing course content. I think your paper would be improved if we say more of it. I saw you discussing the first and second criteria for conflict, but I didn’t see the third come up. I also think depth into the course concepts would improve the paper. For example, you mentioned how Javier was using “ineffective handling” and I was asking myself “How so?”-- “What exactly is ineffective handling?”—“How harmful can ineffective handling be for their conflict?” Tara, you’re doing a lot of great things in this paper, and moving forward, I think we just need to see more content and more detail about your example and course content. Thanks, Collyn

Ashford University

Course Code: COM 200: Interpersonal Communication

Carol Grinage

February 1, 2021

Interpersonal conflict In Modern Family

Any serious argument or disagreement is said to be called Conflict. Whenever there is a certain disagreement between two individuals, the situation is termed as an interpersonal conflict. Interpersonal conflict is stimulated due to the distinction or contrast present among all people, old and young, poor and rich, belonging to any class, religion, or gender (Bevan, 2020). There are three main features of interpersonal conflicts, that are, cognitive, behavioral, and effective. (Bevan, 2020) says that there can be three types of criteria for a conflict. First, a conflict cannot occur in the presence of one person only, either non-verbally or verbally; a constant struggle goes on. If there is no one to say anything about the condition, the said situation cannot be called conflict. Secondly, there is a conversation or involvement of two people to start a conflict. If both go away from the condition, then there cannot be any conflict. And lastly, when a person believes that he cannot achieve his goals due to external interference, lack of resources, or incompatible goals. They feel insecure from others as if they are keeping their goals away from them. Comment by Collyn Drake: You’re doing a great job citing! When introducing an author their name doesn’t need to be in quotes. “Bevan (2020) says that there can be…”

Interpersonal conflicts usually occur among people who are acquainted or relatively closer to each other, such as conflicts between two friends or among family members and relatives (Grimsley,2014). In this short essay, I have chosen a sitcom, namely, “Modern Family," which started airing in 2009 on the ABC channel. This sitcom is a story of three families living in the suburb of Los Angeles and is interrelated. There is a character Jay who is responsible for the reason these families relate to each other. (ABC,2010). Comment by Collyn Drake: It’s great that you are making a connection between the fact that conflict usually happens between friends and family members and that you chose a show about family. However, I worry the reader might read past this connection and this paragraph might seem unneeded. Consider talking a little more about why conflict happens between family to strengthen this paragraph and make that connection to the show you picked more explicit. Comment by Collyn Drake: We need spaces between your comma and the year.

This essay specifically focuses on the first episode of the first season of the show, which contains interpersonal conflicts that have taken place among different characters. Comment by Collyn Drake: This is great! Sometimes it’s best just to come right out and tell the reader what’s going on. You were so specific about the episode. I think to strengthen this paragraph we can briefly mention what type of conflict you will be analyzing and who the conflict is between. I know your talk about these things later but by just simply telling us the essential details here you are setting the stage for the rest of your paper.

In the episode, it is being shown that Jay does not respect Javier due to his carefree and irresponsible personality traits. According to Jay, Javier is good for nothing and only lives to make his wishes fulfilled. Jay is shown sitting alone and thinking about the relationship that she had with Javier, and in the end, she says, "Nothing is useful about thinking Javier." Here the first criteria of Bevan's definition of conflict have been met as Jay is constantly in a struggle to make her relationship with Javier (Bevan, 2020). Comment by Collyn Drake: Unless your professor has said otherwise, I would consider adding a concise summery of the show and/or characters before this paragraph. It would help me understand the characters and their conflict. It’s hard for me to see the tensions without knowing a little about the characters Comment by Collyn Drake: Great! Explicitly relating course content to your example.

The second criteria meet when the two of them unable to resolve their problems. The most vivid interpersonal conflict to be seen throughout the episode is the disagreement and clash between Javier and Jay, who cannot resolve the conflict between them. The reason behind this conflict is the parenting maneuvers; that goes till the end of the show. Javier is shown as a careless or rather carefree parent who is sporty and loves to do fun while ignoring the parenting because of the lack of quality time. In comparison, Jay is the opposite of him, who firmly believes in fulfilling promises and following the typical parenthood way. For Instance, Javier would take Manny on vacations and trips to keep the promises and trains him to be a civilized person. And the last criteria meet when Javier doesn’t let Jay’s plan of vacations to accomplish. There is no value for the commitments and time for Javier. When Javier visits Manny, he gets some time to spend with Jay and finds out that they have a common interest like baseball. They both end their conflict for the time being to plan the trip, but unfortunately, Javier does not show up. Jay gets angry and calls Javier a dad who never shows up, and the conflict gets ignored (a technique used by Jay throughout the season) (Walsh et al.2014). According to Bevan, this kind of attitude is considered antisocial, and the person seems to have a controlling nature (Bevan, 2020). Hence, this can be stated that Javier should not have broken his promise. This is called ineffective handling. Jay is using the two strategies in this episode, which is competition and compromise. Jay and Javier seem to be in constant competition as they are found to remain in a conflict and disagreement to show another person's inferiority. Jay keeps pointing out mistakes in Javier, but on the other hand, it is also observed that Jay also compromises at some points by ignoring Javier's deeds so that conflict could not get severe. Comment by Collyn Drake: Spelling/ Grammar Comment by Collyn Drake: Is this their child? How old are they? Comment by Collyn Drake: Again, this explicit inclusion of course material is great.

The essay concludes with the remarks that Jay and Javier have been in a long relationship, and they have a child from this marriage as well. Bevan says it is not always appropriate to share one’s feelings. Jay and Javier could have talked to each other to settle their dispute, as it is important for their child to see a healthy relationship with their parents (Bevan, 2020). Therefore, it is recommended that the best way to resolve the conflict is to apply amicable integration, where two people do agree on the same point rather than avoiding the conflict unwillingly.

References

Walsh, R., Levitan, S., Richman, J., Chupack, C., & O’Shannon, D. (Producers) (2009-2014). Modern family [Television series]. United States: American Broadcasting Company. Comment by Collyn Drake: Your references look good. They just need to be alphabetized.