Questions 16 – 19 are based on the following passage. …
Questions 16 – 19 are based on the following passage. Let’s say that someone you know asks you to do something you don’t want to, for example, lend your term paper so this person can copy it and turn it in to another teacher. Research with college students shows that there are four principal ways of responding. In identity management, you resist by trying to manipulate the image of the person making the request. You might do this negatively or positively. In negative identity management, you might portray the person as unreasonable or unfair and say, for example, “That’s really unfair.” Or you might tell the person that it hurts that he or she would even think you would do such a thing. You might also use positive identity management. Here you resist complying by making the other person feel good about himself or herself. For example, you might say, “You know this material much better than I do; you can easily do a much better job.” Another way to resist compliance is to use non-negotiation, a direct refusal to do as asked. You simply say no. In negotiation, you resist compliance by offering a compromise (I’ll let you read my paper but not copy it) or by offering to help the person in some other way (I’ll edit your paper). If the request is a romantic one – for example, to go away together for the weekend – you might resist by discussing your feelings and offering an alternative (Let’s go with another couple first). Another way to resist compliance is through justification. Here you justify your refusal by saying possible consequence of compliance or noncompliance. (I’m afraid you’ll get caught using my paper and I’ll get in trouble. Or by saying you’ll really love writing this paper; it was fun.) Remember that compliance gaining and resisting – like all interpersonal communication – are transactional processes in which all elements are interdependent: each element influences each other. The topic of this passage is
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