Communication

You don't have to have all the answers. It's OK to say, "I don't know.“

• Remember that what someone says and what we hear can be amazingly different! Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we hear.

• Allow for the person you’re disagreeing with to retreat with dignity. How an argument ends is important. Recognize when a compromise or peace symbol is being extended, and give the person you’re talking to a face-saving way out of the disagreement.

• There is a time limit. Often a complicated issue cannot be resolved in one setting. At the very least, take a break to calm down and reorganize your thoughts.

• Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (published in May 1992) is a book by John Gray offering many suggestions for improving husband-wife relationships by understanding the communication style and emotional needs of the opposite sex.
• The book, as suggested by the title, asserts the theory that men and women are as different as beings from other planets. In contrast to some psychologists (and feminists) who emphasize similarities between the sexes, Gray writes almost exclusively about differences. An example of the theories it offers is that women complain about problems because they want their problems to be acknowledged, while men complain about problems because they are asking for solutions.

• There is no evidence to support the belief that women speak far more words than men, as Gray suggests. Although no one disputes his extensive experience in dealing with many couples, the quality of Gray’s PhD status is in question. The educational organization his PhD is purported to be from was, at the time, reportedly a "paper mill for doctorates".

• Some psychologists quote studies that contradict Gray’s theories. Still others agree. Some feminists criticize the book for being patronizing.

• NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION includes facial expressions, tones of voice, gestures, eye contact, spatial arrangements (where the participants are in relation to each other), patterns of touch, expressive movement, cultural differences, and other "nonverbal" acts. Being non-verbal is a channel of communication.

• Research suggests that nonverbal communication is more important in understanding human behavior than words alone. One study by UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian found that 55% of meaning in an interaction comes from facial and body language and 38% comes from vocal inflection. Only 7% of an interaction's meaning is derived from the words themselves.

• NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION...

•