| This is a formal research paper which includes the use of at least FOUR pieces of research, and that adheres to MLA or APA research writing standards (Links to an external site.) . Finished papers will be 5-7 pages, plus a bibliography page. MLA and APA research standards will tell you how to cite properly in-text (also called parenthetical citation rather than footnotes or endnotes); how to create a proper bibliography page as Works Cited or References; and page formatting like margins, title pages, font sizes and styles; and so on. | |
| Late work | Remember, I don’t accept any late work and I don’t accept papers that are emailed to me – you must upload your paper in Canvas so it timestamps and submits to TurnItIn appropriately. NO PAGES FILES/No Google docs links! |
| Assignment purpose | To provide you with an opportunity to investigate a specific kind of interpersonal communication question and determine a reasonable answer. This opportunity should help you to understand the uniqueness of each interpersonal relationship and the complexities of communication within these contexts. Assessment for this paper include interpersonal content knowledge and application, writing skill, and research formatting. |
| Assignment overview | This paper seeks to answer an interpersonal communication question that you have about specific interpersonal relationships and their dynamics—including friendships, romantic relationships, or family relationships. You will answer your question in three ways: (1) Summarizing and explaining research from research/scholarly journals, books, and/or articles. (2) Summarizing and analyzing a movie/TV series of your choosing. (3) Comparing and contrasting the research and movie/TV series results with your own experiences. You will provide your final answer at the end of the paper based on the information you gathered and reviewed in these three sections. Paper length: 5-7 pages. |
| Requirements | Your paper will use at least four sources to write this 5-7 page paper (not including title page and citation page(s)). Two of your sources must be “scholarly” (also called research-based sources). “Scholarly” sources include research-based books and research journals on interpersonal communication that are rooted in research rather than in personal experience or anecdotes. Websites, Psychology Today, Blogs, Podcasts, Scientific American magazine, etc. do not count as scholarly sources. (*see note below on scholarly sources) The third source of information you use can be any other “informative” piece of non-scholarly writing. So, here’s where Psychology Today, a reputable Blog or Podcast, magazine articles, popular books, our textbook, other relevant class textbooks, another scholarly, an academic website (websites cannot be personal postings, poems, or other “fluff,” instead they must be academic or “article-ish” in nature; ask me if you want to be sure a website is okay), or other source not listed here is where you’ll get this required source. (The easiest third source is our textbook!) The fourth required source is your movie or TV show. All research papers require that you prepare and include a traditional bibliography page in APA or MLA style (Links to an external site.) (which corresponds to the citation style you’ve chosen to write your paper in). In addition, your papers will include in-text citations giving credit for paraphrased and quoted material from your sources. This is a serious and formal research paper and thus demands proper attribution of expert thought and word. As a result, all four of your sources must be cited in the text of your paper and must appear on your bibliography. If you fail to cite sources in your paper and/or fail to turn in a bibliography with your paper, the paper will automatically fail. Without research and documentation, this is not a research paper and thus will receive a zero. Keep in mind that large sections of quotes from sources are not appropriate for this paper. Finally, your paper should include a substantive introduction and conclusion as well as high quality writing, and professional and consistent APA or MLA formatting and documentation. |
In short though, as a reminder, this paper seeks to answer an interpersonal communication question that you have about specific interpersonal relationships and their dynamics—including friendships, romantic relationships, or family relationships. You will answer your question in three ways:
(1) Summarizing and explaining research from research/scholarly journals, books, and/or articles – more specifics on what type of sources you need and how to get them is in the assignment document and sources are in the last module in our class (YES- I have the sources linked up that you can use- no library / google searches needed!).
(2) Summarizing and analyzing a movie/several episodes of a TV show of your choosing.
(3) Comparing and contrasting the research and movie/TV results with your own experiences. You will provide your final answer at the end of the paper based on the information you gathered and reviewed in these three sections.
Paper length: 5-7 pages.
You will write in your own voice – not third person as this isn’t a true scientific paper – just a paper that uses various types of research to ask and answer a question, and you cite your sources in either MLA or APA format. (Example, “My experience with trust in romantic relationships comes from my own experiences and watching my parents struggle with dishonesty and avoidance…” or “I think that the best friendships are those where you can let your guard down, be yourself, and be supported for all your crazy quirks.” While these aren’t “scholarly sentences” in the traditional sense, that’s okay for this paper! Write from your perspective! Just support your ideas with research from the various sources! Think of this paper as a more expanded discussion with source citations. YOU GOT THIS!
Evaluation of this paper is based on three main categories: Your interpersonal communication knowledge/understanding/applicability. Your writing skills overall. Your MLA or APA formatting skills.
Second, read the information below and feel free to check out the student papers that earned a 4.0 in week 7’s module (I have three files posted there).
Finally, check out the LAST MODULE in the class where I have all kinds of sources linked up by topic. If you don’t know where to look for your idea or need to talk through an idea because of a movie/show you like or whatever, just email me! I LOVE research and am happy to point you to the right place. The sources I have in that section of the class are seriously YOURS to use – you don’t have to do library searches and Googling for sources can be frustrating and result in the wrong types of sources. I got these after helping students for several years do the research AND most of these are the sources our textbook cites in their References. So, good stuff for sure!
If the MLA/APA formatting is what is troubling you, check out this module in the class. The librarians on campus are the MOST helpful ever – for any paper, for any citations, for community resources, etc. I can’t say enough about how awesome they are! The Writing Center can also meet with you via Zoom or in person to go through your paper with you – they’ll help you with flow, grammar, sentence structure, formatting, etc. Info on them is in the Library Module I have linked in this paragraph.
So, let’s get right into how you might explore a question on long-distance relationships.
While most of the scholarly literature focuses on long-distance relationships and romantic relationships, the elements of LDRs relate to family relationships, too.
So what might be your question for this paper?
What is the impact of long-distance relationships on relational satisfaction in romantic relationships and family relationships? How does a relationship that is long-distance impact relational satisfaction? What happens when a relationship becomes long-distance? What is an LDR and how can it continue to be worthwhile for those invested in it? How does communication change when a relationship becomes long-distance and what impact does that have on the relational members? (This one may be harder to answer than one of the others.) The answers to these questions is touched on in our book in two places, but the research on this area of study is much deeper. Search “long-distance relationships” in our book – the index or search function for the ebook. It’s in the last paragraph of the section 2.1.1, pg. 33 in the printed book.
Any one of those questions above, or your own combination, would work. You would include this question in your paper’s introduction. How do you do this? Look at those 4.0 student papers to see!
I’m going to share a link to two e-books (you’ll have to log in to KVCC’s libraries to access it) that you can read if you’d like, but I’ve also downloaded the most relevant chapters of them for you. The chapters are attached as PDFs. The info to cite the books should be included on the bottom of the pages of the chapters I downloaded, but if not, you have the links below to also make sure your citation is correct. I’ve also attached three additional articles you can use to explore LDRs. All of these are romantically-focused, however, I skimmed most of them and I think one could make an argument that the general concerns (fears, sadness, uncertainty) we have about a romantic partner being far away mirrors the feelings when a family member or friend is also far away. For example, I deeply miss my sister who lives in Arizona and my feelings of attachment and separation from her are similar to those that are described in the LDR articles about romantic relationships.
Here’s another question you could ask… How can we maintain a close relationship with someone while experiencing relational dialectics?(I just heard you say, “huh?” Relational Dialectics is a theory we’ll discuss in ch. 10– see below.) That highlighted question isn’t the cleanest/best question- but what I’m going for here is this notion of feeling both “together” and “apart” at the same time. How do you remain close to someone emotionally when you feel like you’re not able to spend time together in person? (that’s a question lots of people faced during the pandemic lock-downs, for be sure!) To answer this question, you would explore Relational Dialectics Theory also called Dialectical Tensions (same thing). This is discussed in our book in ch. 10 – section 10.2.2-on and then, this same theory is discussed in the family communication section of our book in ch. 11, section 11.2.3. You’d have to explain the theory and all the components of it – the different dialectics, and then the management strategies and their effectiveness as it relates to people being able to remain “close” emotionally.
I teach the COM 200 Theory class and we cover this theory. It’s great! I’ve attached a great article, you can use our book, and then here’s another ebook to use: https://library1.kvcc.edu:2062/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=467099&site=ehost-live
Chapter 9 of this book seems most relevant as it relates to the family part of relational dialectics.
On Love. Our book deals with love in ch. 11, but the focus is on romantic relationships – see 11.3.1. What role does Love play in a successful relationship?
On Relational Maintenance. “How do we maintain close, supportive relationships?” starting with our book, ch. 10 – section 10.3.2. Then using this as a jumping off point, examine the article by Ogolsky and Bowers on Relational Maintenance – linked below, along with a bunch of other great information.
- Maintaining_Relationships_Through_Communication_Re…_—-_(Part_II_Contextual_Variations_in_Maintaining_Relationships).pdf
- Survival-LDRs.pdf
- LDR-attachment theory.pdf
- LDRs-satisfaction.pdf
- Maintaining_Long-Distance_and_Cross-Residential_Re…_—-_(4_Long-Distance_Dating_Relationships).pdf
- RelationalDialecticsTheory_Applied.pdf
- OgolskyandBowers_2013-Relational Maintenance.pdf
Family Communication
Family Communication, I’d recommend looking in our book starting in section 11.2 to see what strikes you and/or is of interest. Even reviewing the questions I posted (below) in our ch. 11 discussion forum (along with several clips from animated family movies) might help stimulate some ideas… For example, question 3-4 below, with some revision, may be a good question for you to consider.
- Using the sources I have in Canvas (last module, under “ebooks” link) – you may want to check out this source below for further ideas to explore. (Click the link where you’ll be taken to a login – use your KVCC credentials – and then you’ll be able to look at/read the book). I’ve also attached three family articles. I like the family com patterns the most as it links with the question #3 below, but they all are super interesting. For example, if you like the one (instead) on Mom’s favorite… Deborah Tannen has a number of great books and articles (some magazine-type, some scholarly) on mother-daughter relationships. Here’s her website–http://www.deborahtannen.com/
- Scroll to the bottom of the site and she’s got her books listed. You can usually find these in any library. If you need help locating e-books via KVCC, use the links below and then do another search using her name and/or the titles of her books – like “You’re Wearing That?!” or “I Only Say This Because I Love You”. I can help you more with Tannen or other articles once you’ve got a more focused question.
- As a reminder – you need 2 of any of these sources (they are all scholarly) + our textbook (or a magazine or any other type of reliable source) + a movie and you’d have all your sources. 🙂
As far as questions – you could ask any number of questions about family communication — something like, “In what way do a family’s narratives impact the feeling of connectedness (or you could say closeness) of its members?” (So this would be about stories and the elements of those stories and how they give a family a sense of closeness or distance.)
- Or, you could replace narratives with topics of conversation that are off limits or not (see the end of section 11.2.1 or conflict or interaction rituals in this same section. For example, my family of origin talks about almost everything – like almost nothing is off limits, which is weird to most people. My husband’s family is quite the opposite- they don’t talk about sensitive stuff or much personal stuff at all, it’s usually about other people’s lives. They definitely don’t talk about conflict. Their rituals around conflict are very high context – lots of sighing and posturing (stiff posture and did I mention the sighing? Like his mom sighs so loudly!). My family of origin is all verbal and nonverbal – all very out in the open, transparent, low context, and probably too much so sometimes! We also are very passionate about everything when we’re in a conflict (everything can be like the end of the world – very dramatic). Steve’s family is very low-key, calm, quiet. These are kind of interesting patterns to note. You wouldn’t have to have two different families to compare and contrast, I was just using that as an example to help you understand the idea behind the question. Imagine if you answered the question “How does a family’s conflict rituals impact their feeling of closeness or confirmation in a family?”(This would bring in family, conflict, and climate from ch. 11-12-13). If you looked at Finding Nemo and/or Finding Dory, as your movie to analyze for the paper, imagine exploring Marlin’s (the dad fish) way of dealing with any conflict that comes up – and how that impacts Nemo and Dory – and all of their feelings of “closeness”.
- Another question might be more specifically about the patterns of family communication: “How does a family’s conversation orientation impact the family member’s feeling of satisfaction (or confirmation or happiness or closeness) in the family?” See pg. 305 and those questions below… I like animated movies for these questions, but you could even examine a movie like “Crazy, Rich Asians” for family conversation orientation. Or if you watch a TV show like Sweet Magnolias on Netflix or Never Have I Ever, or Schitt’s Creek, two other Netflix TV shows (I LOVE both of these series!), or another one that you like and know well.
Brody, Leslie. Gender, Emotion, and the Family. Harvard University Press, 1999.
Brody, L. (1999). Gender, emotion, and the family. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Here are some questions we talk about in the family communication part of our textbook – maybe something here strikes you?
1. What is your family’s narrative — what are your mutual goals, moral values, and family concerns that are highlighted in the story your family tells about itself and how does that impact how you communicate with your family?
2. Provide an example of any rituals (everyday or celebratory) and/or rules (explicit/implicit) from your family?
3. Discuss your family’s pattern of communication — this is discussed on p. 304 in the book and there is a test you can take on pg. 307 or here Assessing Your Communication: Your Family’s Communication Pattern (this is also a GREAT question for your research paper!)
4. Can identify your family conversation and conformity orientation pattern?
5. How effective is your family communication based on the textbook’s discussion of managing dialectics, privacy, and confirming versus disconfirming messages.
Communication Accommodation.
Communication Accommodation Theory as it relates to intergenerational communication (or any interpersonal relationships). That theory is noted briefly in the language chapter regarding “Affiliation”, convergence and divergence, p. 142-143, however the theory is more than just about language. In short, Com Accommodation Theory suggests that when we desire to make a good impression on others, we have the tendency to “converge” with their com style – language and nonverbally. This happens mostly unconsciously. To use the intergenerational relationship as an example, let’s say I’m talking to my grandma and I find myself using HER language without really realizing it – she says “oh, fiddledeedee!” as a way to say, “that’s garbage!” and I use the terminology back to her or in reference to something she’s discussing. She moves slowly, I mimic her slowness and gestures. That’s all convergence. If I want to diverge from someone though because I want to demonstrate our differences in communication – if my grandma uses the fiddledeedee word, and I use the “f-word” as a response, obviously, that’s a huge divergence. If she moves slowly and I move quickly, we’re diverging in our nonverbal communication, too.
- I’ve attached an excellent scholarly article that you can use about CAT, if you’d like. I attached a second one about conflict management & CAT, too…
- What question might you ask then, if you switched from Uncertainty Avoidance to CAT? How might using CAT as a framework help to make sense of conflicts or disagreements between personal intergenerational relationships? Or more simply, When intergenerational family members discuss controversial topics, how does the way they communicate with each other impact their relationship? (The controversial topic isn’t the focus of this paper, but the communication while discussing the topic. Does that difference make sense to you?)
Marriage.
“What are the qualities that make for a satisfactory (successful?) marriage?” And, if you go with something like that, you will have to look at articles that research what doesn’t work as well as what does (that’s why I’ve attached a lot of articles!)
- The one article I’d like you to absolutely check on the most is one that our textbook references by Weger, H. (2005). Disconfirming communication and self-verification in marriage: Associations among the demand/withdraw interaction pattern, feeling understood, and martial satisfaction.
- The other articles are mostly from John Gottman. Look at section 13.2 in our textbook under the heading “How Communication Climates Develop” – you’ll see John Gottman is noted (as is Weger) about successful (and unsuccessful) marriages.
- So, (how many times am I going to say that word? ha!) – start with the articles and our book, see what strikes you – If you have an e-book, you can easily do a search for marriage and see what sections come up to glance at (you can do the same in a printed book, but not as many references come up). See if looking at the articles helps you to craft a more clear question – and I can help too if you get stuck.
For a movie, if you’re looking for something more uplifting than divorce when it comes to marriage, just start Googling successful or happy marriage movies. Here’s one site that offers some ideas- https://yourfamilyexpert.com/20-movies-thatll-strengthen-your-marriage/
I like the idea of animated movies – like The Incredibles! or “Up”. So awesome. Or, think of a TV show that has a good marriage in it – like even an old show – “Modern Family”, here’s a site on that – https://www.ranker.com/list/best-shows-about-marriage-v1/molly-gander
Interpersonal Movies/Concepts Website–if you need some inspiration!
