Analysis of The Friends with Benefits movie (Interpersonal Communications) - Essay Example

?  Friends with Benefits               Friends with Benefits Introduction Friends with Benefits is a movie about a New York based head-hunter, Jamie, attempting to sign Dylan, an individual based in Los Angeles, for her client. When Dylan accepts the job and makes the move, he rapidly becomes friends with Jamie. The friendship turns into a relationship with benefits. Nonetheless, Jamie has an emotionally dented past and Dylan has a past of not being emotionally available. This makes both Dylan and Jamie not to attempt to fall for one another. In addition, both Dylan and Jamie terminate their relationships with their loved ones, both of them promising to remain out of emotional engagements. When Jamie employs Dylan to manage the art department of GQ in New York City, and she is the only individual Dylan knows in this area, they make a decision of becoming friends with sexual gains. The friends with benefits relationship between the two works properly until Jamie has an encounter with a pediatric cardiologist who might just be her match and Dylan asks her to accompany him to Los Angeles to celebrate thanksgiving. This illustrates a number of signals because Dylan may be perceived as being jealous of the doctor or Jamie may be sending new signals in the path of Dylan (Bradshaw, 2011). This paper will analyze the movie, Friends with Benefits, and analyze five concepts learned in class in relation to the movie, providing clear descriptive examples from the movie of those concepts. The essay will discuss the concepts of self-disclosure, identity management, perception, emotions and interpersonal conflicts, and how they relate to the movie. Self-disclosure refers to both the subconscious and conscious act of providing extra information regarding oneself to other people. This may entail, but is not restricted to, dreams, thoughts, fears, feelings, successes, aspirations, failures, goals, favorites, dislikes, and likes. Characteristically, a self-disclosure takes place when an individual at the outset meets another person and continues as the individual develops and builds their relationship with another person. As people get to know others, they reveal information about their selves. In addition, if an individual is not eager to self-disclose, the other person may also not reveal information about themselves too. For example, in Friends with Benefits, on a night when they are at Jamie’s apartment watching a romantic film, both share information regarding the issue of relationships and sex. After self-disclosure, they both conclude that sex should not be accompanied with extreme emotional attachment (Bradshaw, 2011). Identity management is a continuous process which contains three associated phases. They include the trial stage, the enmeshment stage, and the renegotiation stage. The trial stage takes place at the start of a relationship when individuals are starting to explore their differences and willing to attain a balance for the sake of the relationship. For example, when Dylan is timid to move to New York, Jamie spends the evening taking Dylan around New York so as to expose him to the city and its opportunities. The enmeshment stage sees the emergence of similar features. For example, both Dylan and Jamie agree that sex should not have emotional attachments. Finally, the renegotiation stage sees individuals tackle identity concerns and using their past in attaining this. For example, Dylan’s father tells him to go after Jamie if there is an opportunity to save their relationship and not let a similar thing happen to him as it did to his father (Bradshaw, 2011). Perception is the method by which a person becomes conscious of events and objects in the external world. It may be affected by primacy-recency. A person’s tendency to give extra significance to what appears first may lead a person to see what corresponds to this judgment and to misperceive or distort any contradiction. For example, Jamie finds out that Dylan may be leaving his job for another one before the end of his contract, which would affect her commission. She has a confrontation with Dylan about it and it causes a conflict between the two (Bradshaw, 2011). Emotions refer to communicative, behavioral, or psychological responses to things that may be cognitively experienced or processed as emotional. Nevertheless, emotional intelligence entails the capability to view and act upon an individual’s and other people’s emotions and feelings. In addition, emotional intelligence entails having the capacity to ascertain an individual’s feelings and those of other people, motivating self, and dealing with emotions. Also, emotional intelligence involves how an individual is conscious of the self and distinguishes his goals. For example, Jamie meets a pediatric cardiologist, Parker, who they have a short relationship with and they break it off when Parker feels he does not suit Jamie. This infuriates Jamie and she leaves him. Dylan takes this chance to invite Jamie for thanksgiving (Bradshaw, 2011). Interpersonal conflicts are witnessed when individuals who must cooperate have dissimilar goals or interests and fail to share similar ideas. Nonetheless, interpersonal conflict may be described by the source and focus of the conflict. Therefore, people-focused conflicts are based on feelings and emotions, and are largely personal attacks. For instance, when Jamie finds out that Dylan may be leaving his job for another one before the end of his contract, which would affect her commission, she attacks Dylan because of his decision to leave and this leads to an argument. Also, interpersonal conflict is present when Jamie breaks off her relationship with Parker (Bradshaw, 2011). Conclusion The essay has used the movie, Friends with Benefits, to discuss concepts learned in class. The essay has begun by giving a synopsis of the movie, Friends with Benefits. The body of the essay has highlighted five concepts and gave a number of examples which are associated to the concepts so as to give a clear explanation of the five concepts. The first paragraph has addressed self-disclosure and provided a single example relating to it. The second paragraph has addressed identity management and given three examples which relate to the concept of identity management. The third paragraph has discussed perception and provided one example. The fourth has discussed emotion and given one example, and, finally, the fifth has discussed interpersonal conflict with two related examples. Reference Bradshaw, P. (2011). Friends with benefits – review. The Guardian. Read More