Saturday, February 18, 2012
Chapter 11 Question One
Communication majors make excellent mediators because we come in with a variety of different techniques. Not only do we come in with different techniques but, we are trained not to take sides. Through our training, we are able to encourage others to cooperate and stray away from competition. The average person is more prone to let their own opinion affect the conflict or conversaion. They are not skilled like communication majors are to make the conversation flow a lot smoother. Because they are not skilled, they are not aware of which boundaries to cross. When it comes to lawyers, the are likely to take a side, that is their job. They are trained to take a side and deffend it with facts and strong opinions. A psychotherapist might find it hard to mediate because they might take in to account the emotional affects each person has. Therefore coming to a conclusion would be very difficult for both lawyer and psychotherapist as apposed to a trained communication major.
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That’s so true! I love how you say that communication majors would make excellent mediators because we come in with a variety of different techniques because its true! We are also definitely trained to not take sides but to listen carefully to each person. Lawyers are trained to take a side and get that side and hype it up! So they would do anything in their power to get their side to “win” and that’s not what we want here. We want them both to win. A psychotherapist would totally take into account emotions and probably side with the one that they feel is the most emotionally unstable.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie325, great post! Not until I read your post did I actually consider what purpose a lawyer, a psychotherapist, and a communication major has. You are completely right. A lawyer’s job entails that they fight for a side of a case. They are always trying to involve their opinions and find something wrong in the other side of the story. They would have a hard time being neutral as a mediator. As for psychotherapists, their job is to be sympathetic to people’s feelings. They might get distracted by all of the emotion within mediation, and rather than focusing on solving the problem, they may focus on both parties expressing themselves.
ReplyDeleteI really like your take on this! The one line that stood out to me the most, was “ we are trained to not take sides.” I agree with you one hundred percent. In other words we are not supposed to be bias and in order to be a mediator you cannot take sides. Through all of the courses we take to earn a degree in communications, we have to 'train' in so many different ways. We have to think way outside the box in order to even realize what it is we are studying. As a mediator we have to think outside the box because we are not just told one story to 'solve the crime.' We are told a million different version of one thing. We have to be a unbiased judge to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteBy nature we want to take our own opinions into situations. I am sure it is a special skill that allows a mediator to be neutral in their dealings. I sometimes see myself as someone who is capable of looking outside of the box, but some of the box is still engrained inside of me.
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