*One of the favorite concepts we covered*

In Chapter 6, Rigid Role Relations was introduced. "Each must decide whether he or she feels more comfortable playing a dominant part, or one-up role, or a more submissive part, or one-down role." (Trenholm. P. 148) The chapter goes on to talk about the Complementary Pattern, where one partner takes the one-up position and the other takes the one-down roll. Also the Rigid Complementarity, the submissive partner soon resents always giving in or when the dominant partner gets tired of being in charge. In Competitive Symmetry, both partners fight to be the one-up position. And the Submissive Symmetry, both as indecisive people. There was a week we briefly discussed this, though it stuck out to me and I've applied it into my life. I've began to think of the relationships I've been in and determine why they didn't work out. And also, what kind of pattern relationship I'd need to be in, for it to work and for me not to get frustrated with my partner. I'm a leader at heart, though in relationships, I don't need to always take the leader role. Also, it takes a toll on me, with limit time with school and work, to commit so much time into the relationship as a leader. Therefore, I'd be able to find more of a balance within the Competitive Symmetry role, I'd allow the other person to take charge with some planning and take less stress off me for always needing to be the leader. Overall, in my future relationships, I'll understand more of what kind of person I can be in a relationship with, and those that I'll get frustrated with.

*What I've learned throughout the class*

I've learned a lot of new concepts and some I've learned in the past. Though, this class refreshed a lot of new and old concepts, which is always good. For instance, I've learned about Aristotle and Ethos, Pathos & Logos. Though, I was able to read more of the history be hide the terms and how the concepts were put into use. Also, I remember learning about the signifier, signified and the sign, though the book was able to use different examples and illustrate them differently. Some new concepts were the Filtering Theory and the Shared behavioral standards, along with Duck's Relational Dissolution Model, these were a few that jumped out to me. Which makes it my most favorite thing about the class; learning new concepts and learning how to apply them into my own life. The least favorite would have to be, the online interaction. I know this is an online class, though the class seems like a wonderful group of people and with a great instructor. It would had made a wonderful on campus class. I wouldn't improve anything about the course, I really enjoyed the open communication and how easily we were able to communicate with our instructor.

*One of the most interesting concept in class*

In Chapter 5, Cultural Display Rules was touched on. "People in some cultures learn to be "stone-faced" and stoic, whereas those in other countries learn to be highly expressive." (Trenholm. P. 119) In America, both gender's are taught to show emotion differently. For men, they're taught not to show emotion and not to fear. Women, are more free to express themselves with emotions and display of smiles. Even though when smiling at a man, they may suddenly think the girl is interested, when that isn't the case, may just be friendly to all. "In Japan, the smile is not only a way to express happiness, but it also a way to reduce embarrassment and promote harmony." (Trenholm. P. 119) I found this interesting, because we live in a very diverse area, with all kinds of different cultures. And I think it's important to understand each culture's non-verbal, in this case the emotion and what it means to smile. It's also a good thing to keep in mind, while next time passing by someone in a different culture.

*Concept from Chapter 2*

Adam and Betty introduced the Elements of a Psychological Model and during the encoding/decoding they filter messages through Mental Set. "A Mental Set consist of a person's beliefs, values, attitudes, feelings and so on." (Trenholm. P. 26) It goes on to talk about how mental sets can lead to misunderstanding and miscommunication. Because, each person has his or her own meaning for a particular word. For instance, when I was apart of a social website, my profile stated, "Christian". When someone reads that, they have different meanings on how a Christian should act or that, I must act or look a certain way. Also, because I have two tasteful tattoo's, tattoo's hold a certain attitude or belief to someone else. Or even the word "love", the word can hold a deeper meaning to someone else, and for instance in dating, if someone says "I love you", the other person may feel obligated to say it back. Although, later they may say, "I love you, yet not IN love with you." People have different meanings and beliefs towards words, that's why I found this interesting to read. Because, I always thought this and as years go by, I feel that having understanding, clarity and meaning with someone is very important, with all sorts of forms of relationships within life. "Communication is most successful when individuals are "of the same mind"- when the meanings they assign to messages are similar or identical." (Trenholm. P. 27) Take time out to understand the other person, there will be less miscommunication or misunderstanding.

*Pragmatic Perspective*

I agree with the Pragmatic Perspective and that after time, communication is a patterned interaction. People form communication connections on a daily basis, whether it being a passing by a stranger and connecting with a smile, interacting with a co-worker/classmate, or connecting with a long time family member/friend. I do believe the amount of time spent with the person, determines the amount of communication of shared interests and or decision to move forward with the person. "When people decide to communicate, they become partners in a game that requires them to make individual moves or acts. Over time, these acts become patterned, the simplest pattern being a two-act sequence called an interact." (Trenholm. P.32) Another way I look at this view is, dating; people have their desires and needs, and after a first date, both people decide to move forward or not. It is very much playing a game, you need to play and lay out certain cards at a time, if not then you'll need to "roll the dice" and keep playing. "Players become interdependent because their payoffs depend on their partners actions." (Trenholm. P. 32) In dating, mostly the female is the one that mirrors off how the date is going to be, if she signals an interest and wants to kiss the guy right away, then why wouldn't the guy want to. But then he may not take the girl or the date too seriously at that point; each set of people and situation are different. Life overall is a game, you have to lay out the right cards in order to progress to the next step, in this case of being a student, I must pass my classes, in order to move onto the next level.

*Social Constructionist Perspective within our culture vs. another culture*

Well, Social Constructionist Perspective people exist within and perceive themselves and others around the communicative practices of their cultures. So how does our culture within the United States build world through communication, simply by our communication that surrounds us and therefore holds our world together. For instance, we live in the "land of the free", where people can live and dream the American Dream. Though some countries may hate us, others really love us and want to be "like us". Our culture talks a lot about achieving the dream and our country has the tools for it. We are blessed with education tools, more then enough living supplies and sources we can turn to with Internet, media outlets and freedom of expression with our religion views (if any) We're in a flashy culture, chasing the dollar bill, fancy material things and having the new latest and greatest. Our cultures may not have enough sources like us or outlets to turn to, to help them reach their "magical" dream. I say "magical" or "living the dream", because I dislike placing these categories on a higher pedestal. What makes us better then the next person or the next country? Overall, with the pressure from the media, what we should own and how we should live; and that we should reach our American dream, can be a negative thing as well. And our culture can just very well be one of the unhappiest cultures, because of the stress and work overload we must do to achieve the dreams. Other cultures may have half of what we have here, yet some may seem more happy then us. Maybe because it is less pressure and their not as competitive.

*Concept from Chapter 13*

I appreciated reading about the concept of, "Smile and the world smiles with you"- because with first hand experience, I find this concept to be very true. No matter what kind of day I've had, I always try to keep a smile on my face and smile at strangers passing by me. And because of it, people naturally gravitate to me and I have positive outcomes in life. "Studies show that smiling people are perceived by others as more positive on a variety of measures, including optimism, sincerity, intelligence and kindness." (Trenholm. P. 390) With the many challenges we all face in a day, there is no reason not to have respect for others and common curiosity. Whether it be holding the door open for someone, giving a seat to an elderly or simply smiling at someone that is frowning. Therefore I found this experimental study research to be interesting, because the researchers tested the effect smiling has on others. "By showing this nonverbal behavior of smiling, it wide-reaches the effects on helping behavior, the study gives hints on how to get people to like you and be more generous toward you; its by one way is simply to smile." (Trenholm. P. 391) =)