Part One: Journal entry
1. How do you feel about self-disclosure? How much are you willing to self-disclose to others?
Personally, self-disclosure is a very delicate matter since it does have mixed results depending on whether you get it right or not. When it becomes successful, relationships will be strengthened, trust instilled, and one’s ability to inspire and lead is boosted. However, unwise and untimely disclosures will have the opposite effect on the relationships. The extent to which I am willing to self-disclose depends on the risks and benefits I will accrue from the process. To this effect, I will be considering the party I am disclosing to my personal information. If it is a person that I am close to who has also shared their personal information, self-disclosure is something I would not be afraid to engage in. Still, also I will be acting with care to avoid making the other person embarrassed or pressured to communicate more. In case it is at the workplace, I would identify how self-disclosure works within the team and choose my team. I would start with superficial details of what I am about to share so that connections are created, and personal information will be revealed as relationships grow.
2. Has someone else’s self-disclosure become a burden to you or made you feel uncomfortable? How and why?
Generally, I understand that achieving self-disclosure objectives is not always attached to sharing the in-depth information to become useful and meaningful. However, there is a time when an acquaintance shared very personal information on an ailment that they are individually battling. Yet, they had not shared it with any close family or friends. On receiving this news, it instantly placed a responsibility on me to look for help for him, yet I was not in the rightful position. At the time, I politely acknowledged what the person did but did not engage in what they said. While we did not talk more on the information shred, I focussed on listening to what the other person was sharing. I tried understanding this individual and especially whether he could identify a close person. While our meetings became more frequent from that point and I was able to convince him to speak to a trusted family member for medical intervention, it was period that I felt a huge burden since if I failed to do something, it would mean I was putting another person’s life in jeopardy as at the time I was the only one who knew what was happening.
Part Two: Topic Question
1. Summarize the development of American courts, including the concept of the dual court system, and discuss its functionality today.
In 1787, the country had no federal court system, and Congress created the laws. The Constitutional Convention had the executive branch of government that also included the president (The American judicial system, n.d.). However, there was a need for how the constitution would be interpreted and resolving disputes between states. HENCE, Article III of the American constitution created the federal court with the possibility of creating lower federal district courts when required. The country would have federal courts and lower-level district courts, and state courts. This would be considered the dual court system of the United States as they are two court systems: state and federal courts operating at the same time and playing distinct roles (Lumen, n.d.).
The federal courts’ functionality is that their jurisdiction will handle cases dealing with the federal laws imposed by Congress and having the U.S constitution interpreted and applied (Longley, 2020). They also deal with cases whose results will affect several states, such as state crimes. The jurisdiction of state courts in dealing with significant claims, not under the federal courts’ jurisdiction such as family law, contract law, probate disputes, lawsuits of parties in the same state, and any violation of state and local laws. The state court’s jurisdiction is expected to overlap that of federal courts, with other cases being considered by both courts (Longley, 2020).
References
Longley, R. (2020). What is a dual court system? ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/dual-court-system-definition-4114784
Lumen. (n.d.). The dual court system | American government. Lumen Learning – Simple Book Production. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-baycollege-americangovernment/chapter/the-dual-court-system/
The American judicial system. (n.d.). University of Baltimore web services. https://home.ubalt.edu/shapiro/rights_course/Chapter2text.htm
