Conflict Resolution: Challenges of Social Support

I managed to watch the Big Bang Theory episode I for this assignment, and I noticed several interpersonal conflicts. After going through the assignment rubric, the issues displayed in the episode were quite easy to catch on to. There are high chances of failing in trying to improve the social support for someone if the individual receiving the support perceives it as a form of over support or does not see it as being helpful.

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In most cases, we do watch the television without recognizing that the events occurring in most of the shows are forms of interpersonal conflicts that take place in our day to day lives. Usually, these disputes shown in the episodes end up unresolved, are abusive, and also could also have better ways of solving them.

In the first episode of The Big Bang Theory, the interpersonal conflict that stood out the most is "The Sales Call Sublimation." According to Bevan and Sole (2014), interpersonal conflict is the dark side of interpersonal communication which is usually distressing, challenging, and problematic. There is entertainment to the public as they watch an actor showing a character brought up by an abusive mother and is speaking of the suffering and pain he went through in the hands of his parent. The actor continues to show how he has continued getting abused after marrying a woman with the same traits as that of his mother. As a result of this interpersonal conflict, the actor has become so submissive to his wife by showing an accommodative personality in his marriage, and the wife seems not to see how she has taken on the role of the exploiter throughout the relationship. The psychiatric, instead of finding the tools he could use in addressing the matters that are harmful to this marriage, he gave a prescription of medication that could help the "wife" cope up with anxiety issues emerging from the friends and the spouse interpersonal conflicts.

The doctor, however, identified the problems that were suppressing the marriage like the manipulative roommate joking around with the empathy of others, but he went ahead to offer only medication, and this was not sufficient to have the relationship issues solved. The exciting part that I found out in this is that as the doctor was supposed to have a meeting with the wife to discuss medication, the man got manipulated by the wife to get in and see the doctor. In turn, the doctor managed to turn the pharmaceutical rep into a patient. One promising this was that the actress again agreed to meet the doctor and also came to an agreement with the husband on the importance of speaking to the doctor.

The better method that could have been used in solving the conflict is to first identify the problem in the communication method between the actors and then and then developing an action plan that could be used in addressing the matter. The script never employed the effective use of verbal and non-verbal communication. There was also no effective use of listening and problem-solving skills.

When watching the television programs, it should dawn on us that some of these things are a reflection of our own lives. To change our negative relationship behaviors, we must first be able to identify such actions as being wrong. In this episode, the wife lacked empathy for his friends and the spouse, and this was lacking support. Despite being able to identify what they believed to be the problem, the approach given to it was not the best fir to solve it as it was harmful and detrimental. As it is in the case of The Big Bang Theory, conflicts can be identified, but when poorly handles, the solutions may not be of help.

References

Bevan, J. L., & Sole, K. (2014). Making Connections: Understanding interpersonal communication (2nd Ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

Kaplan, E., Holland, S., Molaro, S., Lorre, C., & Cohen, R. (Executive producers). (2007-2014). The Big Bang Theory [Television series]. United States: Columbia Broadcasting Systems.