Masking Poor Communication
The article titled ‘Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication’ in the Health Day News of January 24th 2011, the concept of closeness-communication bias got brought to light. This is the phenomenon whereby, an individual assumes that the friend or other close person understands something they are saying without giving them all the details. They assume that they already know what they mean in their communication, and hence there is an understanding of unsophisticated gestures appropriately. It is simply the overestimation of the quality of communication between two people who are used to being together.
They tend to assume that their perspective in ...view middle of the document...
Hence, communication gets easy with a friend. Nevertheless, since individuals think that they know their friends through and through, communication might be hindered where one does not want to tell them something because they do not like the topic. There is some false confidant in one’s judgment of their loved ones.
This fact could make a relationship fail because communication is ineffective. One partner may think they are communicating wonderfully while the other feels totally different. I have been in a situation where my best friend who thought I was his girlfriend. The word love had popped up in several conversations many times before, but I always assumed it was the friendship love. I am partly to blame for the misunderstanding because when he implied that we were apparently going out, I simply kept silent about it instead of correcting him. The relationship did not end well. The whole situation became acutely awkward, and we finally fell apart and could not talk anymore. I believe that the misunderstanding in our relationship could have been resolved if we had made it clear about what was happening. Communicating clearly your thoughts about what is being said and asking question when we do not understand is a very “important ingredient in a health relationship” (Johnson, 2011, Keep the lines...