Discuss how congruence and clarity can be achieved in the communication styles of family members

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Family members convey messages through both verbal and nonverbal channels and qualify those messages through other verbal and nonverbal messages. A task for social workers is to assess the congruency-that is, whether there is correspondence between the various verbal and nonverbal elements-of messages. According to Satir (1967 ) and other communication theorists, messages may be qualified at any one of three communication levels:
Verbal level: When people explain the intent of their messages verbally, they are speaking at a meta-communication level. Meta-communication happens when people discuss the content and topics of communication. Implied messages are also a form of meta-communication. Contradictory communications occur when two or more opposing messages are sent in sequence via the same verbal channel.

Nonverbal level: People reinforce or contradict their verbal messages nonverbally, through gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, posture, eye contact, and so on.

Contextual level: The situation in which communication occurs can reinforce or disqualify a speaker's verbal and nonverbal communications.

Functional communicators identify discrepancies between levels of communication and seek clarification when a person's words and expressions are incongruent. Vital to assessment, then, is the task of ascertaining the extent to which there is congruence between the verbal, nonverbal, and contextual levels of messages on the part of individuals in the family system.

In addition to considering the congruence of communications, it is important to assess the clarity of messages. The term mystification (Laing, 1965 ) describes how some families befuddle or mask communications and obscure the nature and source of disagreements and conflicts in their relationships.

Mystification of communications can be accomplished by myriad kinds of maneuvers, including disqualifying another person's experience, addressing responses to no one in particular even though the intent of the speaker is to convey a message to a certain person, using evasive responses that effectively obscure knowledge of the speaker, or utilizing sarcastic responses that have multiple meanings. Some couples also use their children or pets to convey messages to each other.