Jourard’s Concept of Privacy

Joseph Walter
Professor Albone
Interpersonal Communication M 6:30-9
22 March 2012
Interpersonal Concept Report 2: Jourard’s Concept of Privacy

1. Jourard suggests that there is a need for privacy and that privacy could help eliminate the hindrances of truly being able to fully self-disclose. Privacy is when all societal pressures and roles required to be oneself in society are absent; escaping society and fining a solitary environment. Not having any privacy might limit the experiences a person has which in term could prevent someone from change and growth in experiences. By escaping the expectations of society and having privacy you can just be yourself and have the opportunity to experience new things without worrying about judgments from others. When returning to society from privacy now one has developed in their experiences and will be able to fully self-disclose. 2. Privacy is a key component in interpersonal communication and in personal relationships. Privacy allows a break in communication between people and also allows individual thoughts to be made without anyone interfering. When an individual returns to a communication setting after having privacy they now can fully disclose new information and experiences; the receiver can now gain new knowledge from the other because they have been absent as well. Without privacy in an interpersonal communication, experiences would limit the dialogue between the two people and they wouldn’t have much information to disclose that the other does not know. Privacy is a component in interpersonal relationships because it helps an individual gain new experiences and allows them to a break from the pressures of communicating with others, thus allowing them to fully self-disclose in their relationship. 3. A. One time privacy played a role in my life was when I was in my senior year of high school I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. I saw my recruiter on a weekly basis and we talked quite frequently about my occupation choice that I needed to make by the time I left for boot camp. My recruiter tended to try and persuade me into what he thought would be a good occupation for me in the Marines while I was in his office surrounded by other recruiters encouraging his ideas and this put pressure on me to where I would not know what to say on the spot. This is where privacy played a role and helped me with the communication between my recruiter and me. I was able to think about my decision alone without the intimidation of the recruiters pressuring me to say something that they wanted to hear from me. I was able to think things over while I was alone of what I really wanted in my life and not them; after returning to the recruiter’s office from having my privacy allowed me to disclose what I really wanted to say to my recruiter and he then actually agreed with me and this strengthened our communication thus forth. B. Another time privacy played a role in communication was when I was shopping for a new car to buy. I was at one car lot for almost a whole entire day talking to this salesman about this one car he strongly wanted to see me purchase and I was entertaining the idea for the most part. After talking to the salesman all day about this car all my head was filled with was the information the salesman was telling me about how great it would be to buy the car that day. I needed some privacy to take my mind off the pressure of his sales pitch and to digest the information he was telling me. So I spent the night in my room just playing video games and relaxing. The next day I went back to the car lot and had new ideas to talk about with the sales man and we were able to put some new deals on the table that wasn’t there the night before. I believe having privacy in the communication between me and the salesman provide me with an opportunity to fully self-disclose what I wanted in the car and he was able to accommodate my needs. C. A final example where privacy plays a role in my life is whenever I’m working with a classmate who is my partner for an ongoing project. Sometimes I feel like when we work on a project all day we disclose so much information about a certain topic that I’ve I have now said everything there is to say about that topic. When I go home I have privacy and get to spend time not thinking about the project. The next time I meet with my partner, we are able to not only able to start where we left off but we both usually have more ideas. Having privacy takes my mind off of the project and thus allows me to fully disclose new information. 4. * Privacy can allow a person to “reevaluate” their personal relationship with another. Often time’s people think about their loved ones when they have privacy; whether it is the good times they have shared together or how their other has influenced them. Reevaluating your relationship while one has privacy may help a person reflect on their memories of the other and provide ways they can improve their relationship. * Privacy may also enhance one’s “creativity”. Having privacy allows one to escape from tension they are faced with in others company and may improve a person’s creativity. Having privacy may help create new ideas and solutions to better their commutation in their relationship and disclose new information to their partner. * Lastly, privacy may help “balance” the amount of communication in a relationship. Often time couples smother each other and this may lead to conflict. Privacy in a relationship may help balance communication; by not smothering each other this may possibly enhance the intimacy level when the couple is together.