Journal Reflection Chapter 7

Journal Reflection Chapter 7 - Listening

Listening is vital to interpersonal communication, without listening there would be no such thing. In the textbook, there are four listening styles: action-oriented, time-oriented, people-oriented, and content-oriented. Understanding what type of listener you are can help improve your listening skills thus improving interpersonal communication competence. There are factors that naturally influence your listening styles such as gender and culture. Not only is it important to take into consideration you're own influences but others as well.

For example, time-oriented listeners "prefer brief and concise encounters" and frequently acknowledge the time (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.187-188). This can be interpreted as rude for those communicating however context matters and this listening style could have been learned or is preferred by the listener. My mother is very much a time-oriented listener and frequently asks me when I will get to the point (which annoys me). For me, it feels like she isn't focused on what I am saying. So I can understand why others may have a difficult time talking to someone who is time-oriented. Action listening is another listening style I find difficult to communicate with. Sometimes I would prefer someone to just listen whereas someone who is action-oriented wants to just find the solution. To reiterate, it is important to understand what type of listener you and others are in order to improve interpersonal communication.

Comments

Journal Reflection Chapter 10 - Managing Conflict and Power

According to the textbook, "conflict is the process that occurs when people perceive that they have incompatible goals or that someone is interfering in their ability to achieve their objectives" (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.260). Most conflicts can be characterized by four features: begin with perception, involve clashes in goals or behaviors, is a process, and it is dynamic (McCornack&Morrison, 2019, p.260). Conflict is inevitable however, understanding these four features can help to recognize conflict thus allowing you to handle conflict more appropriately. It is also important to understand you deal with conflict. Understanding your conflict style allows you to analyze how you deal with conflict. For example, after taking the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument assessment my highest scores were in compromising (sharing) and avoiding withdrawal. This means, I either compromise with others in a conflict or I avoid conflict altogether. After learning this I fee...

Journal Reflection Chapter 12 - Relationships with Family Members

A family is a network of people who share their lives over long periods of time, are bound by blood, marriage, or commitment, consider themselves family, and share a significant history and anticipated future (McCornack and Morrison 327) . Families often possess a strong sense of family identity and share intense complex emotional bonds. There are several different types of families and family dynamics. How families communicate is dependent upon the family communication pattern. The family communication pattern is influenced by two dimensions: conversation orientation and conformity orientation. Conversation orientation is the "degree to which family members are encouraged to discuss a variety of topics" (McCornack and Morrison 334). Conformity orientation is the "degree to which families believe communication should emphasize similarity or diversity" (McCornack and Morrison 334). Dependent on where your family stands on these two dimensions will decide your famil...

Journal Reflection Chapter 3 - Perception

Perception plays an important role in interpersonal communication. The way we perceive someone will directly influence communication with said individual. According to the textbook, several processes occur when perceiving someone: selection, organization, response, and interpretation (McCornack & Morrison, 2019, p.64 ) . These processes occur naturally but it improves interpersonal communication competence when you understand the processes and how they influence your communication with others. Personally, I think it is valuable to understand how you interpret information. The process of interpretation is how you make sense of the communication event. This can be broken down into internal attribution and external attribution. For example, if you are someone like me who typically uses external attributions in explanation for others' comments or behaviors then you are likely to presume that the reason why a friend is late for your lunch date is because of traffic. Whereas s...

Vivian's blog

Search This Blog