Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflicts are inevitable as they are one of the few encounters where everyone will face in their life. These conflicts usually occurs when there is a misunderstanding between two parties or more. From my perspective, one should find the root of the conflict in order to resolve it before it gets out of hands.

For this post, the conflict that I will be describing is between my brother and sister. Being the youngest in the family, my sister always get the luxury of being pampered at home. My brother, on the other hand is 7 years older than her and is considered as the responsible one among us three siblings. My mom is the housewife in the family and does not work while my dad has just retired from his workplace and is no longer employed. My dad intends to use his savings earned for my mom’s and dad’s retirement. As both my sister and I are still schooling, my older brother is now supporting us both by working two jobs.

An incident occurred last Friday when my sister asked my dad for some pocket money when she wanted to go out. Upon hearing the conversation, my older brother who just reached home from his work, started to scold my sister for asking money from my dad. My sister started to argue back at my brother as she claims that the money she asked for is for her school project.  Despite the explanation from my sister, my brother was still persistent and demanded by shouting to my sister that she should not ask for money from my dad as she was so used to getting it from my dad instead. Upon hearing my brother shouting, my sister started to cry and locked herself up in her room.

Until today, both my brother and sister are no longer talking to each other. It is true that my sister is pampered at times but perhaps my brother should not have responded that way towards her. My brother on the other hand, who is often tired from his two jobs to support us, finds it difficult to understand the needs of my sister.  If you were in my situation, what would have been done to make the situation better?

Edited: 18/03/2016

Commented on:
Mei Ying
Kok Zheng
Steven

Responses to Mr Han

Hi Mr Han,

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We hope for your continuous support for JYSS Creative Products.

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Customer Support Services

Team Members: Js, Hyirah

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Team Members: Meiying and Daphne.

On the webpage “What is Emotional Intelligence?” published by the University of New Hampshire, John D Mayer defined emotion as a feeling state whereas intelligence is the capacity to reason information. Mayer mentioned that the general definition of emotional intelligence is the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions to enhance thinking. However, the author defined emotional intelligence as an ability to recognize the meanings of emotion and their relationships, and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of the individual. The author believed that emotional intelligence involves the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them accordingly.

Evaluating Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior

Different people may react differently to different situations. Verbal or nonverbal interactions amongst people can be attributed to culture, gender or age difference. Thus, every single person would definitely have different ways of interaction if you were to observe them closely. If we were to compare the males and females, we can observe differences between them in terms of verbal and nonverbal communication.

During lunch last Friday, i overhead one of the conversations that took place between two teenage Caucasian girls. Just a few tables away from them, I noticed two other teenage Malay guys who were wearing collared shirts, having their own conversation as well. As I was seated quite close to the two groups, I could actually listen to both of the conversations that were going on between the two groups.

When the girls talked, they seemed to be using a lot of eye contacts when talking to each other. They were focused on the conversation as they were constantly looking at each other while waving their arms around explaining details of what was being shared. The guys however, seemed to be in a relaxed manner and uses less eye contact as they were constantly checking their phones throughout while conversing. Based on these two groups, their interactions can be based on gender and culture differences.

Culture plays a role in communication. As what was seen, the guys were constantly using their phones while conversing. This may seem rude to other cultures but not in Singapore. In Singapore, this is a normal trend where people may be using their phones while conversing. The girls however were not using their phones while conversing. Based on the two groups, culture differences plays a role in how we communicate.

Gender differences also plays a role in communication. As what was mentioned, the girls seemed to be well connected to each other based on their verbal and nonverbal interactions. The girls seemed to be chatty while the guys are not as they were constantly checking their phones and this illustrates their nonverbal interaction that both may not be interested in the conversation. Based on these two groups, I feel that gender affects how people interact with each other.

To sum it up, I believe that gender and culture differences plays a role in how we communicate with each other. What are your thoughts on this?

Edited 25/02/2016

Commented on:
Jia Sheng - 7 Cs in Communication
Marcus
Hanny

Strengths and Challenges in communicating

What is communication? Communication is an act of exchanging information or news and plays a very important role in our everyday lives. Developing a good communication habit is an essential skill that will benefit us. Many people have different ways in communicating, be it their culture language, hand signs and so on.  

I believe everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses when it come to communicating. For me, one of the strengths that I possess in communicating is that I am an active listener. I would pay very close attention to what the other party has to say. My guess is this is probably because of the sincerity that I provide when listening to them. I would simply listen, maintain eye contact and only comment or speak when the other party is done talking. From there, I am able to view things from the other party's perspective and understand what he/she really meant. 

I do too possess weaknesses in communication. It may sound coincidental due to the pronunciation of my name(Syai has the same pronunciation as shy), as I am actually quite shy when speaking to others. This is probably because I may not have much to say or sometimes I might lack confidence here and there to just speak up. Perhaps I should pluck up my courage and speak up a bit more than how I usually do. I should work on these issues to be efficient in communicating. I do hope I can improve on my communication skills throughout this course. 

Editted 31/01/16

Commented on:
Yar Zar
Marcus
Mei Ying