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The Interactional View
Paul Watzlawick

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION: RELATIONSHIP MAINTENANCE

Chapter 13
 Communicaton Privacy...
Influence 
Chapter 13
 Communicaton Privacy...
Influence 

Chapter Outline 9th Edition

  1. The family as a system.
    1. Paul Watzlawick believes that individuals must be understood within the context of the family system.
    2. He was a member of the Palo Alto Group, which draws inspiration from Gregory Bateson.
      1. This systems approach suggests that interpersonal relationships are complicated and they defy simplistic explanations of why family members do what they do.
      2. They reject the idea that individual motives and personality traits determine the nature of communication within a family.
      3. In fact, these therapists care little about why a person acts in a certain way, but they have a great interest in how that behavior affects everyone in the group.
    3. Relationships are complex functions resembling equations linking multiple variables.
    4. Along with his colleagues Janet Beavin Bavelas and Don Jackson, Watzlawick presents key axioms describing the tentative calculus of human communication.
      1. The axioms comprise the rules of the game.
      2. Games are sequences of behavior governed by rules.
      3. Each family plays a one-of-a-kind game with homemade rules and creates its own reality.
  2. Axioms of interpersonal communication.
    1.  As therapists who met with a wide variety of clients, the Polo Alta Group spottled regularly occurring features of communication among family members. Watzlawick stated these interactional trends in the form of axioms
    2. One cannot not communicate.
      1. Communication is inevitable.
      2. Corollary:  one cannot not influence.
    3. Communication = content + relationship.
      1. Every communication has a content and a relationship aspect such that the latter classifies the former.
      2. Content is what is said.

      3. Relationship is how it is said.
      4. Metacommunication is communication about communication.
      5. Relationship messages are always the most important element in any communication, but when a family is in trouble, metacommunication dominates.
      6. Sick family relationships only get better when members are willing to engage in metacommunication.
    4. The nature of a relationship depends on how both parties punctuate the communication sequence.
      1. Watzlawick uses the term punctuate to refer to the mental process of interpreting an ongoing sequence of events, labeling one event as the cause and the following event as the response. 
      2. Punctuation becomes a problem when each person sees himself or herself as only reacting to, rather than provoking, a cyclical conflict.
    5. All communication is either symmetrical or complementary.
      1. The interactional view emphasizes issues of control, status, and power.
      2. Symmetrical interchange is based on equal power, whereas complementary communication is based on differences of power.
      3. Healthy relationships include both kinds of communication.
      4. Relationships can only be assessed through an exchange of at least two messages.
      5. Edna Rogers and Richard Farace’s coding system categorizes control in ongoing marital interaction.

        1. One-up communication seeks to control the exchange.
        2. One-down communication yields control.
        3. One-across communication neutralizes control.
        4. Bids for dominance do not necessarily result in control of the interaction.
  3. Trapped in a system with no place to go.
    1. Family systems are highly resistant to change.
    2. Double binds are contradictory demands on members of the system.
    3. The paradox of the double bind is that the high-status party in a complementary relationship insists that the low-status person acts as if the relationship were symmetrical.
  4. Reframing: changing the game by changing the rules.

    1. Destructive rules can be changed only when members analyze them from outside the system.
    2. Reframing is the process of altering punctuation and looking at things in a new light.
    3. Accepting a new frame means rejecting the old one.
    4. Adapting a new interpretive frame usually requires outside help.
  5. Critique: adjustments needed within the system.
    1. Janet Beavin Bavelas recommended modifying some axioms of the theory.
      1. Not all nonverbal behavior is communication.  In the absence of a sender-receiver relationship and the intentional use of a shared code, nonverbal behavior is informative rather than communicative.
      2. A “whole message model” integrates verbal and nonverbal communication.
      3. The term metacommunication should be reserved for explicit communication about the process of communicating, not all communication about a relationship.
    2. Despite these problems, the interactional view has had a terrific impact on the field of interpersonal communication.

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Archived chapters (PDF)
from previous editions
are available in
Resources by Type.
See list

New to Theory
Resources?
Find out more in this short
video overview (3:01).


The Interactional View
Paul Watzlawick

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION: RELATIONSHIP MAINTENANCE

Chapter 13
 Communicaton Privacy...
Influence 
Chapter 13
 Communicaton Privacy...
Influence 

Chapter Outline 9th Edition

  1. The family as a system.
    1. Paul Watzlawick believes that individuals must be understood within the context of the family system.
    2. He was a member of the Palo Alto Group, which draws inspiration from Gregory Bateson.
      1. This systems approach suggests that interpersonal relationships are complicated and they defy simplistic explanations of why family members do what they do.
      2. They reject the idea that individual motives and personality traits determine the nature of communication within a family.
      3. In fact, these therapists care little about why a person acts in a certain way, but they have a great interest in how that behavior affects everyone in the group.
    3. Relationships are complex functions resembling equations linking multiple variables.
    4. Along with his colleagues Janet Beavin Bavelas and Don Jackson, Watzlawick presents key axioms describing the tentative calculus of human communication.
      1. The axioms comprise the rules of the game.
      2. Games are sequences of behavior governed by rules.
      3. Each family plays a one-of-a-kind game with homemade rules and creates its own reality.
  2. Axioms of interpersonal communication.
    1.  As therapists who met with a wide variety of clients, the Polo Alta Group spottled regularly occurring features of communication among family members. Watzlawick stated these interactional trends in the form of axioms
    2. One cannot not communicate.
      1. Communication is inevitable.
      2. Corollary:  one cannot not influence.
    3. Communication = content + relationship.
      1. Every communication has a content and a relationship aspect such that the latter classifies the former.
      2. Content is what is said.

      3. Relationship is how it is said.
      4. Metacommunication is communication about communication.
      5. Relationship messages are always the most important element in any communication, but when a family is in trouble, metacommunication dominates.
      6. Sick family relationships only get better when members are willing to engage in metacommunication.
    4. The nature of a relationship depends on how both parties punctuate the communication sequence.
      1. Watzlawick uses the term punctuate to refer to the mental process of interpreting an ongoing sequence of events, labeling one event as the cause and the following event as the response. 
      2. Punctuation becomes a problem when each person sees himself or herself as only reacting to, rather than provoking, a cyclical conflict.
    5. All communication is either symmetrical or complementary.
      1. The interactional view emphasizes issues of control, status, and power.
      2. Symmetrical interchange is based on equal power, whereas complementary communication is based on differences of power.
      3. Healthy relationships include both kinds of communication.
      4. Relationships can only be assessed through an exchange of at least two messages.
      5. Edna Rogers and Richard Farace’s coding system categorizes control in ongoing marital interaction.

        1. One-up communication seeks to control the exchange.
        2. One-down communication yields control.
        3. One-across communication neutralizes control.
        4. Bids for dominance do not necessarily result in control of the interaction.
  3. Trapped in a system with no place to go.
    1. Family systems are highly resistant to change.
    2. Double binds are contradictory demands on members of the system.
    3. The paradox of the double bind is that the high-status party in a complementary relationship insists that the low-status person acts as if the relationship were symmetrical.
  4. Reframing: changing the game by changing the rules.

    1. Destructive rules can be changed only when members analyze them from outside the system.
    2. Reframing is the process of altering punctuation and looking at things in a new light.
    3. Accepting a new frame means rejecting the old one.
    4. Adapting a new interpretive frame usually requires outside help.
  5. Critique: adjustments needed within the system.
    1. Janet Beavin Bavelas recommended modifying some axioms of the theory.
      1. Not all nonverbal behavior is communication.  In the absence of a sender-receiver relationship and the intentional use of a shared code, nonverbal behavior is informative rather than communicative.
      2. A “whole message model” integrates verbal and nonverbal communication.
      3. The term metacommunication should be reserved for explicit communication about the process of communicating, not all communication about a relationship.
    2. Despite these problems, the interactional view has had a terrific impact on the field of interpersonal communication.

 
 
 
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