Dark Side Communication and Conflict Challenge

Relational Development Challenges
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Relational Development Challenges
Part I
Communication might result in positive outcomes or conflict, relationship termination, hurt, and psychological damage. Specifically, the dark-side of communication leads to negative consequences. Some of the interpersonal communication theories related to dark-side communication and conflict include verbal aggression, hurtful messages, deception, betrayal, stalking, defensiveness, bullying, and psychological abuse. In most cases, people seek to understand the state or nature of their relationships. One of the effective ways to know the nature of a relationship is by talking about it. However, in some cases, the timing might not be right. That might lead to uncertainty regarding the nature of a relationship, meaning that it is headed to the termination. Individuals engage in interpersonal communication so that they can fully understand their partners, may it be in romantic, friendship, workplace, or family relationships (Wrench, Punyanunt-Carter, & Thweatt, 2019). In that light, it becomes easy to understand how other people feel about a relationship and if they are willing to continue in it. For example, some individuals prefer to get their friends’ opinions before they start dating, which means that they seek relevant information, particularly during the early stages. One of the interpersonal communication theories related to dark-side communication and conflict is hurtful messages. Notably, there is no perfect relationship. Individuals sometimes utter words that hurt others even in the most satisfying relationships. When this happens, people’s feelings are hurt. The various types of hurtful messages are accusations, directives, threats, and informative statements among others. For instance, accusations entail blaming each other. In addition, informative statements refer to hurtful messages that usually reveal sensitive information about a person.
Verbal aggression is another interpersonal communication theory related to dark-side communication and conflict. In particular, it entails communication that is meant to attack a person’s self-concept by intending to hurt someone psychologically (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2014). For instance, individuals engage in conversations or arguments and call each other’s names. Verbal aggression is a destructive form of communication. During interpersonal disputes, verbal aggression is usually used. For instance, based on the physical appearance of an individual, especially for obese people, an example of verbal aggression would be that one is fat like a pig. Another example of verbal aggression would be attacking someone based on their education level. For those who did not go to college, telling them that they do not even have a college degree when arguing is considered verbal aggression meant to make them feel bad so that they can probably not contribute to a specific conversation. Intergeneration communication and family violence are likely to lead to verbal aggression, particularly when taking care of the elderly in situations where they cannot help themselves, such as clothing...