Framing

In my own life there are many example of framing. Just the other day I realized I was framing a problem when I was explaining something to my father. I had just got into a car accident, and it not being my first ( or second ), I knew he was not going to be very happy with me. When I called him up instead of my usual hysterical crying I stayed calm and collected stating that I might have done something he might not like but it wasn't that bad. Knowing my track record with cars and accidents my father knew right away that I was in some sort of accident, I explained that it was not a bad accident just a fender bender. I proceeded to tell him I had everything under control with the accident report and taking pictures of both cars. Instead of his usual fury he was much more calm and relaxed about the situation. By framing the problem as something that I could handle and by staying cool and collected he was not angry with me at all. Because framing is how you set the stage for what comes next in a communication, it is, in essence what you say before you say what you want to say. If I had done what I usually do by crying and making the situation sound much worse than it really was my father would have been much more upset with me and the whole situation could have been worse than it already was.