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Interpersonal Communication
Artifact Assignment
Description: The purpose of the artifact assignment is to apply concepts from the text and class
discussions to your daily life. More specifically, the concepts can be applied to conversations
between you and a relational partner (e.g., parent, romantic partner, friend, sibling, etc.),
television shows, magazine ads, films, songs, or anything else that may come to mind.
Due Date: 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 17th in ICON.
Format: Your paper should address the following items and should be written in full sentences
and paragraphs (i.e., do not simply provide a list of answers to the items below). However, to
make sure you include all parts of the assignment, you may want to use subheadings to structure
your content.
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Introduction: An introduction using standard introduction devices.
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Define: Explain the theory(ies) and/or concept(s) you are going to use in your paper,
complete with definition, elaboration of the key terms, and consequences the
theory/construct is associated with (e.g., decreased satisfaction, increased topic
avoidance, etc) without discussing the event/ad/etc. You can only discuss concepts we
have discussed. You cannot write a paper on a concept we have yet to cover in class.
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Describe: Discuss the event/television show/etc in specific detail so that I can be fully
aware of the situation at hand without discussing the concept.
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Apply: Apply the concept to the event/ad/etc to show connections between the text and
your daily life.
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Conclusion: A conclusion using usual conclusive devices.
Format Guidelines
• Double-spaced, numbered pages; 1-inch margins on all four sides
• 12-point Times New Roman font
• 3 pages in length
• APA 6th edition format
In addition, your paper should be well-written. Use appropriate introductions, conclusions, and
transitions. Use proper grammar and punctuation. Proofread for typos and other errors. Artifacts
should be free of grammatical and spelling error.
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EXAMPLE ARTIFACT ASSIGNMENT
A New Family Unit: Stepfamily Issues in the show Parenthood
The television show Parenthood follows the lives of the Braverman family, a family that
deals with the various obstacles and joys that life has to offer. During the current season, one of
the characters, Sarah, moves in with her fiancée, Mark. However, it is not just herself that she
makes this decision for, she also makes her high school son to move in, forcing the three to
become something of a family unit. The three face several issues that are similar to the issues a
stepfamily faces when they are newly formed.
Stepfamily Challenges
The development of a stepfamily is a delicate process (Afifi & Schrodt, 2003). In lecture,
Mikucki-Enyart (2012) outlined four challenges that stepfamilies often encounter: uncertainty,
boundaries, fostering a sense of family, and feeling caught. This paper will focus on in-depth on
two of these issues—uncertainty and boundaries. Uncertainty refers to the concept that it is
difficult for stepfamilies to define this new family form (Afifi & Schrodt, 2003). This includes
things such as what individuals will call each other, who has authority and how much, and where
to live (Braithwaite & Baxter, 2006). Uncertainty also refers to the ambiguous loss children feel
(Boss, 2002). This loss can be physical and/or emotional; the child may feel a loss of family
identity, of the non-residential parent, or even the bond of having a single parent (Boss, 2002).
The second issue concerning stepfamilies is defining boundaries. They must renegotiate
these with the addition of new roles in the family. A key part of boundaries is understanding who
has the right to private information (Petronio, 2002). A child may share a piece of information
with either the parent or step-parent with the understanding they are not to tell their spouse, but
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the parent my feel they now have ownership of the information to share with their spouse. This
makes it hard for the child or parent/step-parent to trust one another (Baxter, Braithwaite, Bryant,
& Wagner, 2004). The inability to manage these issues leads to anxiety, depression, and reduced
relationship satisfaction (Afifi & Schrodt, 2003; Amato & Afifi, 2006), something that is evident
in an episode of the television show Parenthood.
Episode Recap
In the television show Parenthood, Sarah Braverman is a divorced mother of two. In
season four of the show she becomes engaged to Mark Cyr and makes the decision to move in
with him. However, she is not just making the decision for herself she also makes the decision
for her son Drew. Drew is greatly opposed to this idea, he does not want to move into Mark’s
apartment and out of the comfortable life he has living at his grandparents. Another element to
this situation is that Mark is a teacher at the high school Drew attends, making Drew view him
more as a teacher his mother is dating. During the episode entitled “One more weekend with
you,” Mark walks in on Drew having sexually relations with his girlfriend in the apartment. Both
Mark and Drew feel awkward about this situation and don’t really know how to handle it. Drew
asks Mark not to tell his mom, which Mark says he won’t. However, he is unable to keep this
information a secret from his fiancée and ends up telling Sarah. Drew feels betrayed by Mark
and is not enjoying the current living situation.
The Challenges the Braverman’s Faced
Although Sarah and Mark are not married yet making them an “official” stepfamily,
Sarah’s choice to move herself and her son into a home with Mark has forced them to become
something of a family unit. Becoming a new family leaves them susceptible to the issues
stepfamilies face. One of the big issues these three face is uncertainty, especially for Drew and
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Mark. Drew is having a hard time understanding the role Mark plays in his life and what to call
him (Mikucki-Enyart, 2012). He first knew Mark as a teacher from school, then he became his
mom’s boyfriend and eventual fiancée, and now the hardest part is to figure out what role Mark
plays when Drew is living under his roof. This uncertainty between these three individuals
makes it difficult to identify roles (Braithwaite, Olson, Golish, Soukup, & Turman, 2001).
Another issue that affects the fictional stepfamily is boundary management (Petronio,
2002). Up until this point Drew, though he doesn’t share much, was able to tell his mom personal
information and know it would stay between them. But now, there is a third person in the picture.
On the flip side, Drew and Mark need to figure out what boundaries are in place between them.
When Mark walks in on Drew and his girlfriend in “One more weekend with you,” Drew asks
Mark to keep it a secret between the two of them. Mark makes the judgment call to take
ownership of this information and shares it with Sarah. The dialogue between the three illustrate
these stepfamily issues very well:
Mark: I told your mom
Drew: You promised you weren’t going to tell her.
Sarah: I’m sorry we can’t have secrets like that in this house, I’m your mom and…
Drew: He’s not my parent, like it’s different
Sarah: I know, but I am your parent. We’re figuring this out together. (Parenthood)
This dialogue shows that Drew and Mark had different understandings of their boundaries
(Petronio, 2002). And Sarah points out a valuable aspect of their relationships, that it takes time
to develop a new family and they have to work at it together (Braithwaite et al., 2001). If the
family can tackle these issues effectively, they may be able to avoid the common, negative
consequences that many stepfamilies endure.
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According to Mikucki-Enyart (2012), there are several issues that a stepfamily must work
through in order to develop a sense of family. This process is very delicate since there are several
individuals impacted by this change who all have different ideas of what the normal should be.
Much like the relationships between Mark, Sarah, and Drew are hard to adjust to, stepfamilies
find it difficult to create a new sense of family between themselves. However, managing their
uncertainty and boundaries effectively may help them become a family unit sooner rather than
later.
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References
Afifi, T. D., & Schrodt, P. (2003). Uncertainty and the avoidance of the state of one’s
family in stepfamilies, post-divorce single families, and first marriage families. Human
Communication Research, 29, 516-532. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2003.tb00854.x
Amato, P. R., & Afifi, T. D. (2006). Feeling caught between parents: Adult children’s relations
with parents and subjective well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 222-235.
doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00243.x
Baxter, L.A., & Braithwaite, D.O., Bryant, L.E., & Wagner, A.E. (2004). Stepchildren’s
perceptions of the contradictions in communication with stepparents. Journal of Social
and Personal Relationships, 21, 447-467.
Braithwaite, D.O., & Baxter, L.A. (2006). You’re my parent but you’re not: Dialectical
tensions in stepchildren’s perceptions about communication with the
nonresidential parent. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34, 30-48.
Braithwaite, D. O., Olson, L., Golish, T., Soukup, C., & Turman, P. (2001).
Developmental communication patterns of blended families: Exploring the different
trajectory of blended families. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 29, 221-247.
Mikucki-Enyart, S. (2012, November). Stepfamily Relationships. Lecture conducted from
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.
Petronio, S. (2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. Albany, N.Y.: State
University of New York Press.