1008PSY Interpersonal Skills
Reflection on an Interpersonal Interaction
Overview:
- You are required to write an essay analysing an interaction in which you have taken part and which demonstrates your understanding of both ineffective & effective communication skills.
The Interaction
- The interaction must be with a person with whom you have an ongoing work or personal relationship (i.e. it cannot be with a stranger or someone with whom there was neither a pre-existing relationship nor a reasonable assumption of a continuing relationship. Please note that this includes shop assistant/customer interactions)
- The interaction must be face-to-face. No aspect of the interaction can occur via phone, text message, skype or any other digital form. There are no exceptions.
- There is no minimum length for the interaction, but it must be no longer than 150 words. An example of how to structure the interaction is included at the end of this document.
- The interaction must be between you and one other person only. When more than two people are involved, the principles of group dynamics become relevant. Group dynamics are not taught within this course, and are beyond the scope of this assignment.
- The interaction must be of a nature that is appropriate for the university context. If you are unsure about this, please discuss with your tutor.
- The interaction does not necessarily have to be a conflict or argument. It can be any situation in which you believed you used both effective and ineffective skills. (For instance, you may have misinterpreted something a friend said because you were using listening blocks which prevented you from correctly decoding their message)
- The interaction must be written at the start of the assignment. Include a few sentences giving some brief background information about the relationship between yourself and the other person (e.g., employer/employee, brother/sister, best friends, etc). This will allow us to understand the context for this interaction. Any information contained in this section will not be marked, so include all analysis in the essay itself.
The Essay
The aim of the essay is to identify and analyse which of your interpersonal behaviours were effective & ineffective in the interaction. You must identify at least two effective and ineffective interpersonal behaviours. After identifying these, you must discuss how and why they were effective/ineffective, referring to the relevant literature and concepts taught within this course. This must be a critique of your behaviours, not the other person’s.
Students must also address the following:
- While you must only analyse your skills during the interaction, you are required to indicate how you know these skills were effective/ineffective, based on how the other person responded to you
- Specify ways that you could have improved the interaction, specifying where in the interaction this could have occurred & explain how this/these behaviours could have led to an improvement, referring to the relevant literature
- Discuss how contextual factors (e.g., the history of the relationship, the nature of the relationship, internal/external noise etc) provided opportunities to improve the interaction, or where there were constraints that detracted from the interaction, referring to literature on contextual factors
- You are required to refer to yourself in the first person throughout the essay.
Length:
- 1500 words (excluding title page) + maximum 150 words for transcript.
- The nonverbal information included in brackets in the transcript is not included in the word count.
- The Reference list is not included in the word count.
Formatting requirements for this assignment – use the template provided on L@G
- Title page, which includes your name, student number, course code, tutors name and the word count
- Page numbers in top right-hand corner
- Correct margins, 12 point, Times New Roman font
- Double-spacing
- In-text referencing throughout using APA 6th style
- Separate reference list with correct heading (References), followed by references in APA 6th
Transcript of your Interaction
- At the beginning of the essay, include some very brief background information and a transcript of the interaction.
- You do not need to identify the other person, but please indicate who you are in the interaction
- Each sentence must be numbered and must start on a new line (see below). Particular aspects of the conversation may then be referred to within the essay, without re-writing the dialogue.
Example of how to present your interaction:
The following is an interaction between two friends one morning before class where I am Nita.
- Nita 1: Hey, what happened last night? (smiling, making eye contact)
- Jamie 1: Nothing happened (looking at ground, avoiding eye contact)
- N2: Jade already told me you quit the team. How can you let us down like that! (direct eye contact, raised voice)
- J2: You have no idea what you’re talking about! (averting her gaze, agitated tone of voice)
In the essay, refer to each line without repeating the dialogue (e.g., N1, J2 etc)
You must state at the beginning of the transcript which letter represents you.