THE INTERACTIONAL VIEW THE PALO ALTO GROUP Griffin, 7th ed., chapter 13

CLICKER QUESTION Complementary communication is based on differences in power. A. TRUE B. FALSE

Watzlawick developed his theory of social interaction by looking at dysfunctional patterns in families; Watlawick (and co-authors, Janet Beavin and Don Jackson) stated much of this theory in their book, Pragmatics of Human Communication;

THE FAMILY AS A SYSTEM Imagine the family as a mobile suspended from the ceiling; Pressure placed on any one thread affects the others; Instead of seeing communication within the family as cause and effect, a -> b -> c -> d, relationships are seen as complex functions: X= b2 + 2c/a – 5d In other words, X is potentially influenced by many different things.

AXIOMS OR GRAMMAR OR RULES The axioms make up the grammar of conversation or the rules of the game; The game is a sequence of behavior governs by rules; But each family makes up its own rules and the rules govern behavior in the game; Each family creates its own reality;

AXIOMS OF COMMUNICATION One cannot not communicate: No matter how you respond in a situation, you communicate some message, even if you are silent;

COMMUNICATION = CONTENT + RELATIONSHIP “Every communication has a content and relationship aspect such that the latter classifies the former and is therefore metacommunication” (Griffin, 7h ed., p. 172). REPORT or content is what is said– “You are late.” COMMAND OR RELATIONSHIP is a social action that implies some relationship between the people involved—e.g., a criticism and the social realities that go along with criticising;

PUNCTUATION OF THE COMMUNICATION SEQUENCE Punctuation refers to what each person in the relationship perceives as the cause of their behavior—where they place the starting point; his guilt his guilt his guilt her depression her depression Does his guilt cause her depression or does her depression cause his guilt?

ALL COMMUNICATION IS EITHER SYMMETRICAL OR COMPLEMENTARY The interactional view pays particular attention to questions of control, status and power; Symmetrical interchange is based on equal power; Complementary interchange is based on differences in power; Both types of communication occur in healthy relationships;

CHANGE Family systems are highly resistant to change. Often a person is trapped between competing expectations, e.g., act spontaneously but do what I say!

CHANGE According to Watzlawick, change for the family will come when family members step outside of the system, when they see the rules they have been following; Watzlawick calls this process of seeing the rules and changing them REFRAMING; With reframing a new conceptual system fits the same concrete situation equally well or better and changes its meaning;

MORE ON REFRAMING Reframing is like waking up from a bad dream—relief comes when you step outside the system; Reframing is the sudden “aha” of looking at things in a new light; Reframing is a new way to interpret old facts; 

Critique Janet Beavin Bavelas calls for some changes in the axioms of the theory; She says that not all nonverbal behavior is communication—observers may draw inferences, but in the absence of a sender-receiver relationship and the intentional use of a shared code, she describes nonverbal behavior as informative rather than communicative;

Critique -- continued Verbal and nonverbal messages are treated together, integrated; She now wants to limit the term metacommunication for ‘explicit communication about th process of communicating’, e.g., “Don’t talk to me like I am a kid.” Equifinality, a given behavior outcome could be caused by any or many factors that are interconnected—thus, it is hard to know when the system is out of whack.