Friends and Conflict
...sary because she is too busy to see him. He does not listen and therefore goes to see her. This causes some tension between them, which later causes their breakup. When Rachel announces that she wants a break from their relationship, Ross leaves without trying to discuss it. He later calls her to talk, only to find out that her co-worker Mark is there. Once again, instead of trying to understand, Ross assumes that they are having a relationship already, and hangs up. This obviously shows a communication problem because Ross refuses to hear the truth. Second of all, Rachel is overcome by emotions whenever they both try to reason out their problems. For example, she uses a newspaper to hit Ross after everything he says to defend himself. This is not helping their communication problems. Also, there is a lot of jealousy involved in their relationship. Ross is jealous of Rachel’s work in the sense that she spends more time there than with him. He is also jealous that her coworker Mark gets to see her more often than he does. Finally, both characters use distributive tactics very often during the show. For example, Ross says “You’re the one that bailed out; you’re the one that wanted the break”. He blames Rachel for their argument, not realizing that he is the one who had slept with another woman. It is his fault that things got worse, not Rachel’s. Also, Rachel uses defensive communication (strategic behaviors) when she says “Do you want me to quit my job?” By saying this, she wants Ross to feel guilty for what he did. Sex is also involved in their relationship conflict. Ross slept with Chloe while Rachel and Ross were on their “break”. Everything was back to normal until Rachel f...