Although the origination of Interaction Analysis (Flanders/ Amidon)

 

About This Course: 

Although the origination of Interaction Analysis (Flanders/ Amidon) was to help teachers not discourage their students from learning. Revised/  taught by Dr. Brunner, the purpose of Interaction Analysis is to make you a more effective communicator no matter what your need to communicate is, whether as a team leader or team member, interviewer or interviewee, family member, parent, partner, friend or significant other.

 

The Flanders/ Amidon Interaction Analysis System employs 10 categories to reflect how the speaker (YOU) are heard by others.  The Brunner system uses Flanders’s 10 categories enriched with psychological interpretations and adds 4 Principles for Effective Communications.

 

While this is a class in effective communications, it is also a course in psychology, sociology and can be considered a course in assertiveness-training, and for some, a course in leadership. People seem to get from it what they need to proceed more successfully with their lives.

 

This course is about YOU and how you are seen by others. It is often difficult to realize how someone else views you because it is unlikely others will tell you the truth. However, by applying Flanders’ numbering system in a reliable manner to the things you say and using Brunner’s Table of Psychological Application, you can usually figure it out by yourself.

 

The Ten Categories

PBS: Person Being Studied (You)

OP: Other person(s) in the interaction

 

Categories are based on the hearer’s point-of-view and NOT the speaker’s. The PBS has to think about how the OP hears the PBS; conversely, the OP has to consider how the PBS hears what was said by the OP.

 

Category                    Definition

1-  PBS Accepts* and/or Clarifies the OP’s FEELINGS.

(*Accepting does not necessarily mean agreeing with those feelings.)

 

2-  PBS Praises OR Encourages OP. (Praise is a value judgment, encouraging is not.)

 

3 – PBS Accepts* and/or Clarifies and/or Builds on the

OP’s IDEA. (*Accepting does not necessarily mean agreeing.)

 

4 – PBS asks a question, open or closed.

 

5 – PBS gives information or an opinion.

 

6 – PBS gives a command (direction) with a time limit.

 

7 – PBS criticizes, uses extreme self-reference or justifies his/her authority.

 

8 – The OP responds to the PBS (only).

 

9 – The OP initiates a new thought OR responds to another OP.

 

10 – Silence (on the part of either OP or PBS) or noise.

 

 

 

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