Com101 Interpersonal Communication Research Paper

Caitlin McCarthy Com101-Interpersonal Communications 3/14/16
The purpose of this paper is to show how I have been using the responding technique that we have talked about in class in my daily life. Some of the response skills that I have been consistently using are paraphrasing, framing and advice. While practicing these skills I have realized that they truly do work.
One instance where I utilized a responding technique was during a situation while babysitting. The situation involved the little boy I was babysitting and his older sister. The little boy had gotten into a fight with his older sister because she had ruined his puzzle. He ran up the stairs hysterical crying. I saw this has a great opportunity to practice my responding skills. At first I said to him, “I know that you are upset because Bridget ruined your puzzle.” He then said he was upset, but not because of that. After I talked to him in a soft voice he told me that he was actually upset because he has missed his parents. If I didn’t acknowledge that he was upset, I would have never …show more content…
While she was yelling at me for being irresponsible, instead of screaming back at her like I would usually do, I had told her, “I understand that you are angry at me for coming home late, but us fighting isn’t going to get us anywhere.” My mom then said in a softer tone, “I am mad because you wake up the entire house every time you come home.” We then agreed that I would come home earlier and that fighting and yelling at each other each time I do something irresponsible does not get us anywhere. This was another time that I saw that acknowledging that I know how my mom feels can actually lead to working out our problems. I also learned that my tone of voice really does matter. I could have given her a horrible attitude, but instead I was calm which I feel helped the situation a lot