Attribution Theory And Interpersonal Communication Analysis

The goal of a liberal arts college is to educate the whole person. They achieve this by giving students a well-rounded educational experience, including teaching them how to successfully interact with their world. Understanding the perspective of others is necessary to achieve this goal, given the diversity of today’s modern society. In the following paragraphs I will demonstrate how the skills I’ve learned in my Interpersonal Communications course have taught me how to successfully understand my partner’s perspective. First, I will address how attribution theory affects one’s understanding of another’s actions in my analysis of a conversation I had with my mother when I was 14. I will highlight how my mother and I’s attributions of one another

According to the University of Twente, attribution theory “is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behavior” ("Attribution Theory", 2014). To my mom, she interpreted the large amount of time I was spending with my friend, and my attempt to initiate a conversation between my friend’s grandma and her as typical teenage behavior. She believed that I was playing perfectly into the role by “push[ing] my family away” (Conversation One) to become more independent, and also by being plain rude. However, through appropriate turn-taking, I was able to explain that my actions were motivated by my desire to be a part of the community I was involved in, and to involve my parents as well, hence my attempt to spark a conversation between my mother and my friend’s grandmother. I was also attributing to my parents’ behavior when I assumed that they weren’t making an effort to be a part of my community because they didn’t want to, when in reality they had tried and they didn’t feel welcomed. While this was a difficult and emotional conversation to have, our use of turn taking and perception-checking allowed us to reveal each of our own perspectives on my behavior, and remove some tension from our relationship through our communication. Turn taking involves “alternating between speaking and listening in an interaction” (Verderber, 2013, p. 227) and perception checking

In some free time, we began to talk to each other about books. I mentioned that I had just read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Maggie had responded with emphatic shock, saying she couldn’t believe that I had read it. When asked her why, she said that it was banned by the Catholic Church—a religion I still adhered to when I was a ninth grader. I myself was shocked over her excited response, and while I did find it difficult to not call her out on her narrow-minded behavior, I accepted that growing up in a strict Catholic household would nurture such a reaction within a person. I ended the conversation after gently suggesting that if she was going to pass judgment on the book, she should read it first. I think that Maggie’s behavior was a perfect example of Standpoint Theory, defined as “an individual's own perspectives [being] shaped by his or her experiences in social locations and social groups” ("Standpoint theory", 2014). Maggie and I had been friends since second grade at that point and I knew she was a strict catholic. When she cited the Catholic Church’s beliefs as her reason for condemning The Golden Compass I understood that what she was saying was a result of how she was raised. I suggested reading the novel before passing judgment in an attempt to show her another perspective on the book, but given her refusal I understood that further argument would be