I love writing about interpersonal communication theories. This week’s topic is the relational framing theory.
Communication scholars Jim Dillard, Denise Solomon and Jennifer Samp developed RFT to show that we make sense of “relational messages” (messages from anyone we know) by interpreting the message as an indicator of either dominance-submissiveness, or affiliation-disaffiliation. Moreover, to infer the intensity of the relational message, we evaluate the degree to which the person is engaged in the interaction.
An example of dominance-submissiveness is when a professor is assigning students to write an essay. For influence the professor is relying on her authority. An example of affiliation-disaffiliation is when someone tells a colleague, “I sure enjoy working with you. I only wish you knew how much I appreciate you.”
RTF’s component of involvement reveals the extent to which someone is involved in the message. If the professor casually speaks of the assigned essay, she’s expressing less dominance than if she was speaking with a loud voice and animated non-verbal cues. A colleague making the aforementioned comments with little or no eye contact suggests less sincerity (low involvement).
1. raison d’etre (ray-ZONE-DEH-truh)
A. a lasting relationship
B. a reasonable assumption
C. reason or justification for existence
D. None of the above
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2. disaffiliate (DIS-uh-fil-ee-ate)
A. a reason or justification for disassociating with someone or a group
B. to denounce
C. to resonate
D. to sever an affiliation with, to disassociate
No. 1 is C. RTF’s raison d’etre is to learn about a relationship between two people from their interpersonal interactions.
Thanks to the Free Dictionary by Farlex for D, the correct answer for No. 2.
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3. Which one pertains to dominance-submissiveness?
A. the degree of positive regard, liking or admiration between individuals
B. the degree of status, power or control between individuals
C. the concept of genetics
D. the degree of coordination, engagement and immediacy present in the interaction
The choices for A, B and D under No. 3 came from an article about relational framing theory by McLaren and Solomon. B is the correct answer.
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4. frame (FRAIM)
A. context
B. alternative
C. postulation
D. novelty
E. prediction
According to Dillard and Solomon, RFT views dominance-submissiveness and affiliation-disaffiliation as functional frames that help us to process messages, resolve ambiguities, make sense of involvement cues and draw relational inferences. Let’s go with A for No. 4.
Editor’s Note: Dr. Don Rodney Vaughan is the pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church near Eupora and is on the faculty of East Mississippi Community College, Golden Triangle Campus. Contact him at dvaughan@eastms.edu.
