Читать книгу The Interpersonal Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 45

Though we often feel as if we can label the beginning and the end of an interaction, in actuality, communication has no definitive starting or finishing line. It is difficult to determine exactly what is stimulus and what is response. Consider this example:

A woman is usually late getting home from work. When she does get home, she often finds her partner asleep. Both are angry. The woman might observe that she works so much because all her partner does is sleep. The partner might say that all he does is sleep because she’s never home.

Neither of them interprets the other’s behavior as a response to their own. For the woman, her partner’s behavior is the stimulus, and hers is the response; he causes her behavior. For the partner, it’s just the opposite. Whereas he sees the sequence as going from working to sleeping, she sees it as going from sleeping to working. Which is it, really?

We all segment experience somewhat differently because we each see it differently. We call the dividing of communication into segments punctuation. The way a communication is punctuated usually benefits the person doing the punctuating. Punctuation also reveals how an individual interprets a situation and offers insight into the nature of an interpersonal conflict in particular and the interpersonal relationship in general.