4.5 How Others Communicate

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4. Interpersonal Relationships and Interactions with Others

4.5 How Others Communicate

In others' posts, we can also experience different people and personalities. This means we can try to develop a sense for their value system and personality through the way they communicate. This can help us gain an understanding of others' needs and communication styles, making interaction with them easier and preventing misunderstandings. Because we are all very different, and even if you have the best intentions, your counterpart may perceive things differently than you intend. For example, there are people who do not directly address their current stressful situation with their counterpart. This is done with good intentions because perhaps the person doesn't want to talk about it right now, as it is still too painful. Perhaps the person prefers distraction at the moment and doesn't want to be asked by every person how they are doing and feel compelled to think about and respond to it. Person 1 wants to be considerate but empathizes and thinks Person 2 knows she can talk to her about anything at any time. So if she wants to tell her something or talk about it, she will do it; they always have a very open and understanding relationship. However, Person 2 with the difficult situation feels abandoned by not addressing it. Why isn't Person 1 interested in how she is dealing with the situation? It doesn't give her the feeling that she can talk about it because if the other person cared, she would bring it up. Asking once would be a sign of compassion and concern. Conversely, if the other person, Person 1, were in the stressful situation, and Person 2 asked about it every time, Person 1 would also not feel understood and would feel pressured, constantly having to think about and talk about it, even though she just wanted to enjoy time with her friend and have a distraction. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. Two people with good intentions but different needs and communication styles. If we learn more about how others communicate and why they do so, with what intentions, it can improve our interactions with them and make it easier to engage in relationships and friendships.

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