Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Taking responsibility for others

Of the Figure 7.7 on Common Fallacies about Emotions, I found that the fallacy that shows up in my intrapersonal communication is taking responsibility for others which according to the text is "thinking you are responsible for others' feelings, guilt for how others feel, and deprives others of taking responsibility for selves" (Wood, 2010, pg.189). I feel this fallacy shows up in my intrapersonal communication because in any relationship I have even with acquaintances or even in a professional setting I feel whenever something goes wrong or something negative occurs in something I am a part of, I feel it is my fault when really it was the other individuals fault and I just feel the need to take the blame. I also may feel guilty for how others feel without realizing I cannot control how someone else feels, only how I feel and think about something. An example of this fallacy was when I interning last semester for this organization and one time a fan made me feel it was my fault for something that occurred when really it was their fault. However, I took the approach on the inside that the customer is always right no matter what the case and we just have to suck it up and take the blame and try to make things right so the other person does not have to worry about taking responsibility for their actions and for selves. I believe I can monitor and revise my intrapersonal communication by knowing I am not always the one to blame such as having a guilt complex. I need to know we are all human which means people do make mistakes and that I need to not feel the need to take the blame for something that was not my fault and that people need to learn to start taking responsibility for selves.

1 comment:

  1. I completely understand where you’re coming from in this post. This fallacy is one that is really easy to end up doing in intrapersonal communication. It’s really easy to want to make everyone happy, and as a result you end up taking the blame so others don’t have to. However, it’s really not healthy or helpful. Revising this and letting others take the blame for what is really their fault is not only better for you, but it’s also better for them. I know what you went through with that fan. I worked in customer service for one and a half years, and we were told to satisfy the customer no matter what. Although in many cases in customer service it is necessary to take the blame for something that wasn’t your fault to make the customer happy, other times it is more important to prove that you’re right.

    Thanks for sharing.

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