Interpersonal Communication - Essay Example

Interpersonal Communication of the of the Interpersonal Communication Learning New Skills In terms of improvement ofinterpersonal skills, listening skills should be given preference as per my consideration. Listening is not easy as it appears and it is very important in communication skills. I feel that this area needs improvement because I am a fully active listener. Being a good listener, one needs to be attentive and focused. Miscommunication results because of failure in listening (Sole, 2011). Strong communication depends on strong listening skills. Listening among other ways of communication is mostly used. For listening effectively, there are six ways that can be adopted in everyday life, which are “motivating your­self to listen, clearly hearing the message, paying attention to the message, cor­rectly interpreting the message, evaluating the message, and remembering and responding appropriately”(Sole, 2011). I plan to use these skills in everyday life. By using these ways, my listening skills will be polished and I will be a better listener. The “Self” and Communication The psychological concepts concerning the “self” are “self-concept”, “self-image” and “self-esteem” and these concepts are related to interpersonal communication. A person is able to have “self-concept” or knowledge of self and his traits by communicating with self and others around him, therefore, an interaction is created leading to interpersonal communication. “Self-image” is a complete picture of one’s full persona and transforms because of interaction and communication with other people as information about strengths and weaknesses is internalized, therefore is related to interpersonal communication. “Self-esteem” is related to interpersonal communication as it is the worth of oneself, which sometimes needs reassurance from other people or from self through interpersonal communication (Sole, 2011). “Self-concept” has affected my interpersonal communication as my friends categorize me as social and friendly highlighting my traits so I have good interpersonal communication. The example of “self-image” is that being physically fit, I have confidence in communicating with others so my interpersonal communication is affected by my “self-image”. I respect myself having positive “self-esteem” that makes me to communicate with confidence with people around. Improving Verbal Communication Verbal communication is as significant as nonverbal communication and it can be made effective by following certain ways, which are improvement of vocabulary, increase of awareness and adaptation of language and checking for understanding (Sole, 2011). Improvement of vocabulary depends on many steps such as reading, using dictionary, making notes of newly learned words and using thesaurus for knowing about synonyms, so I can use all these ways for improving my vocabulary that will improve my overall verbal communication skills. One should acquire language fully and adapt it in daily usage, but its usage should be as per situations. This can be learned by considering the usage of language before delivering anything. Whatever is used in the lieu of verbal communication must be understood at both ends so, understanding should be developed. In routine usage, feedback should be acquired for checking understanding of sent message (Sole, 2011). I felt problematic by communicating with one of my teachers because as a student, I was unable to make proper usage of language for delivering my message. I could improve my communication with that teacher by increasing my vocabulary and using suitable language as per situations. Nonverbal Miscommunication Intercultural communications are very crucial as the communicating parties should be aware of each other’s culture and associated customs and values. Unawareness causes trouble (Sole, 2011). For example, once a friend of mine came to my home at a party. In his culture, he was supposed to talk to ladies with his eyes towards the ground and this gesture was used as a sort of respect for the ladies. However, when he met my mother, he kept his eyes down and my mother and I thought that he did not like to meet us. His action was not what we regarded it. Considering him to be upset and uncomfortable, I tried to get rid of him. However, when I came to know about his custom of respecting ladies with his gesture, I was really worried that I considered him wrong. In the future, I will try to gain knowledge of all the cultural values and customs of my multicultural friends so that we can enjoy better together. Everyone Has a Culture This fact cannot be negated that every person has a cultural background, which plays a crucial role in building one’s personality. I consider my cultural background associated with my religious identity. I am a Christian and follow certain norms and customs related to my religion. For example, I go t Church every Sunday for praying. This is also a sort of cultural union as people from many places, but holding Christian identity visit the same Church and we had interpersonal communication. We had our religious events such as New Year event, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and much more. We celebrate our events wholeheartedly and invite our family and friends to our homes for celebrating the events. In addition, we also celebrate national holidays with other people. We have friends belonging to other cultures and religious identities, but we accommodate other people. We cook special foods on special events and get-togethers. Willingness to Listen I have high willingness to listen to others as my score is 84, which indicates that I want to listen to people around me (Richmond & Hickson, 2001). The score is quite effective as it shows that I can have good interpersonal relationships as listening is a key element in interpersonal communication. It cannot be said that it was accurate, however, it was near to accuracy. I think that every person has something to tell. Even the most boring persons have something good to tell. However, the key to good interpersonal communication is to allow people to express themselves and develop understanding by listening to them effectively. One person’s willingness to listen improves his interpersonal communication because people regard him cooperative and accommodative as he is always ready to listen to other people. The measure showing willingness to hear is quite good, but I feel that there can be other ways to evaluate listening willingness. Empathy To have empathy means that one person has the ability to consider the situation and feelings of other people by considering himself on their places. A person who is empathetic is able to be sensitive towards people and is able to understand their problems considering himself to be someone else. Therefore, being empathetic makes a person much more accommodative to other people as he is able to relate to them and their problems (Sole, 2011). Sometimes, if one tries to be empathetic to someone, he cannot because he cannot consider himself to be in the other person’s place. For example, once I saw a black wild dog and I was with my friend. My friend got terrified at seeing the dog considering it wild and started to run out of fear. I was amazed to see him running and I left him alone to handle his fear himself. I was not afraid of the dog as I have a dog as a pet at my home. At this situation, I was not empathetic with my friend as I was unable to relate to his fear. To empathize with my friend, I should have accompanied him and helped him in handling his fear. Attraction in Interpersonal Relationships There are many attractions in people due to which, we try to form interpersonal relationships with them such as physical proximity, physical attractiveness, perceived gain and similarities and differences (Sole, 2011). As far as I am concerned, I get attracted to people’s personalities, however, later on, I improve my relationship based on the similarities that I find in other people. I worked in a group of four people in my school days and I was unable to get along with one member because of his silent personality. However, later on, seeing him to be a good and friendly person and finding similarities in his personality and characteristics, I formed good interpersonal relationship with him. Initially, he appeared silent and restricted and never tried to share anything because of his confusion to be in a team. However, with the passage of time, he was able to share and come out of his silence that changed his appearance for me. Unprofessional Work Environments To work professionally, one has to use formal language, have integrity and respect for others, have personal responsibility and collaboration (Sole, 2011). While working in a group form in my school project, I was to work collaboratively with three other members for the project so that we can appear with something inspirational. We were of young age, so we had little professional experience that caused us some problem in handling each other. The situation was quite unprofessional as we never used formal language and have lacking personal responsibility. With the understanding of professionalism and collaborative working by keeping view all sensitive issues, the unprofessional attitude towards working with other members can be controlled. Professionalism in working environments enable us to improve our communication skills effectively that result in better working in which, we try to give respect to everyone and have some sense of personal responsibility. Professional work environment is supportive for effective communication skills. The Influence of Mediated Communication The mediated communication has improved interpersonal relationships as it allows people to interact with one another and communicate through long distances. People can communicate with one another without being physically present and can form continuous connectivity through different mediums such as email, instant messaging, mobile and so on. People have better chances of interaction with other people belonging to multiple cultures through social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace (Sole, 2011). The example of mediated communication can be usage of smart phones and social networking websites through which, people can always remain in touch with other people. The mediated communication has also hurt interpersonal relationships as people have lacking face-to-face communication. Because of mediated communication, people are unable to have nonverbal cues such as online communication lacks in listening to voices and see facial expressions. Therefore, the mediated communication is advantageous as well as disadvantageous as people are able to interact through long distances, but face to face communication is lessened. References Sole, K. (2011).Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Richmond, V. P., & Hickson, M. (2001). Willingness to listen measure. In Going Public: A Practical Guide to Public Talk. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Read More