Conflict Message Styles and Dimensions of Communication Competence

Journal Critique Summary
Name
Institution
Journal Critique Summary
The article titled The Relationship between Conflict Message Styles and Dimensions of Communication Competence contains the findings of a study on conflict. The study looks into the relationship between conflict styles and the various communication adaptability dimensions. A conflict style can be described as the strategy an individual uses when trying to resolve a conflict. Notable styles include avoiding, accommodating, compromising, collaborating, and competing. Communicative adaptability can be defined as the ability by an individual to identify the nature of a certain socio-interpersonal interaction and adapt his or her communication behavior to match it.
The study’s findings indicate that a self-oriented style of resolving conflict is negatively related to social experience, articulation and composure. To help readers understand these findings, the authors do a good job of explaining the two variables. Social experience is a measure of how much interactions a person has with others at a certain setting. Composure is all about how calm and composed the individual is in social settings. Confirmation involves figuring out the social images given out by other people. Appropriate disclosure has to do with knowing which information to disclose during a specific social encounter. Articulation is all about a person being able to clearly express his or her opinions.
The article lists three styles that a person can use to deal with interpersonal conflicts. A self-oriented style is one in which the individual is more concerned with his or her own interests. According to McKinney, Kelly & Duran (1997), an other-oriented style is when a person tends to ignore the issue at hand in order to make...