Interpersonal communication

a. What is the rational-emotive approach and why is this an important skill for a competent communicator?

b.  Give an example where you experienced uncomfortable feelings based on your thought or belief.  For example, let’s say I’m driving on 494 and I’m in the left lane and someone pulls ahead of me and drives slower than I am.

• The activating event – slow car in front of me.  Thought or belief – “that lousy driver shouldn’t be on the road.”
• Consequences – anger, frustration.

c.  Next, discuss how you could change your uncomfortable (debilitative feelings, perhaps) based on a different interpretation.  For the example above, if Ichanged the thought or belief to “oops – that driver might be slowing down because a state trooper is ahead of us”, then the consequence (the feeling) might change to relief or curiosity.

d.  Lastly, discuss which of the fallacies you might experience that could cause you to experience debilitative feelings. Give specific examples where you have demonstrated these patterns of irrational thinking.

                                                                                          Phyllis Young…………