Phil Dumpy is married to Clarie Dunphy in the ABC series Modern Family. So that makes Phil the son-in-law of Jays Pritchett, Claire’s father. In the show Phil is always trying to get Jay to approve of him. Using the concept of Confirming and Disconfirming messages I will explain Phil and Jays relationship. Phil and Jay are trying to create a communication climate, which refers to the tone of the relationship between Jay and Phil. “Communication climates develop by the degree to which people see themselves as valued”(Bryant, ch 10). This tone is based on how Jay and Phil feel about each other. During the relationship moments occur when Phil feels that Jay really values their relationship and times when Phil feels like Jay could care less about…show more content… In the episode Come Fly With me Jay and Phil go out flying planes and Phil starts to make conversation with Jay. Jay feels like Phil is getting to personal with the conversation and changes the subject of the conversation (Levitan 2009). Phil is bothered but continues on with what Jay is telling him to do. Jay changed the subject instead of responding to what Phil way saying. This type of response is called Tangential Response. “Tangential responses acknowledge the other person's communication, but the acknowledgement is used to steer the conversation in a new direction.”(Bryant ch.10) In the episode Snip, Jay confides in Phil about his fear of his pregnant wife having a girl. Jay is fearful because he does not feel he is sensitive enough to have a girl. Phil is trying to talk to Jay about what to do but as he giving Jay advice Jay cuts him off. Phil clearly knows that Jay was not paying attention because Jay’s response is unrelated to what Phil was talking about. This type of response is called a Irrelevant response, because the person response to the speaker in an unrelated way that ignores the main point (Gayle and Preiss,
