Blog Assignment Week 4

I chose my husband, Danny, and my preschool assistant, Marilyn, to take the three tests this week.  The communication anxiety inventory was the test where our scores differed the most.  I scored in the moderate level, Danny scored me in the elevated level and Marilyn scored me in the low level.  I found these results very interesting because I believe your answers to the questions really depend on what situations you see me interact in.  I know I am not very comfortable in public speaking situations but I also feel that I do a pretty good job in these situations if I am knowledgeable about the information I am presenting.  Marilyn sees me often interact with parents and feels that in those interactions I seem confident and comfortable in my communication with them.  I would agree that usually this is comfortable for me because we are discussing information I feel knowledgeable in. 

            Danny knows me better outside of the working environment and sees my communication anxiety when it comes to talking to people I do not know or about information I am not as confident in knowing.  Danny is also the one I talk to when I know I am going to have to give a group presentation.  He then gets to hear about my discomfort of talking in front of groups. 

            In regards to the verbal aggressiveness scale Marilyn and I scored in the moderate level and Danny scored me in the significant level.  These results did not surprise me because I feel in my professional life I do a better job of maintaining a good balance between respect and consideration for others’ viewpoints.  At home I am sure there are times when Danny does not believe I do a good job of respecting and considering others’ viewpoints. 

            This week I found it interesting how your self-concept shapes your communication with others.  Your self-concept “can shape what you think of other people because your perception of others is related to how you view yourself” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p. 47).  I believe all of our personalities played a role in the scores.

             

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Blog Week 3

Throughout the years I know I have found myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures.  “When we communicate with people who have different cultural backgrounds than our own, we tend to share less information with them than we do with people who share our cultural heritage” (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond, 2011, p. 97).  I know there have been times when I haven’t communicated as much with a parent because of a language barrier or cultural differences.  There are parents that I make stronger connections with each school year and some of it probably has to do with the similarities in our cultures. 

  

One strategy I could use to help communicate with people from different cultures is to ask questions and listen effectively.  I know that when I ask questions I do learn more about a person and their culture.  I did this last year with a parent from Honduras and it was interesting to learn about her and her life in Honduras.  I need to remember to do this with all of my parents not just the ones from a different country.  Most importantly I need to make sure I am listening effectively when we are communicating.

A second strategy I could use to help communicate with people from different cultures is to avoid negative judgments.  I believe this is true no matter who you are communicating with.  You are going to be a more productive, happy person if you avoid negative judgments and more people are going to want to communicate with you.

A third strategy I could use to help communicate with people from different cultures is to become more other-oriented.  I would like to say I always think of others before myself but that is not true.  Being other-oriented can help you be a better communicator but also just a better person.

Reference

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Blog Week 2

I chose to watch “Parenthood.”  I have heard people talk about watching this show but I personally have never watched this show.  I started watching the episode with no sound and it was difficult for me to figure out what was going on.  I could mostly tell if people were family members and watching their facial expressions gave me ideas about how they were feeling.  Watching the body language was helpful to see if they liked the people they were around or to see if they were upset with someone. 

I watched about half of the episode and then I decided to watch it again with the sound on.  I found out that some of the ways that I thought people were feeling was correct but then other times I was not correct.  When I watched with the sound off I thought Max was upset with his dad and did not want him to talk to the person on the phone.  When I watched with the sound on I found out that Max was super excited about getting the job of photographer at his uncle’s wedding and he wanted to tell his dad about it.  Even thought I could get a pretty good idea about what how a person was feeling when I watched the show with no sound it was much more enjoyable to watch with sound.  I definitely had a better understanding of what was happening in the show when the sound was on.  I also found myself getting more emotional about certain parts when the sound was on. 

I believe if this show had been a show I was familiar with it would have been easier to understand what was going on even when there was no sound.  For example, had this show been “Friends” I probably could have understood it pretty well even with the sound off.

One thing that was eye opening for me was once I begin to understand a little bit of the story of the show it was easier to understand what was going on even when there was no verbal communication.  There was a wedding part and a part at the end of the show that just played music while everyone continued acting.  It was easy for me to understand what was going on during this time once I had a little bit of an understanding of what was happening in the show.

Blog Assignment Week 1

The person I chose to write about is actually my husband.  My husband’s name is Danny and he is a division chief for our local fire department.  One of the most important components of his job is having good communication skills.  He spends a lot of his time communicating in person, over the phone, through emails and through text messages.  He is an effective communicator because he is very knowledge about the issues he is discussing and he is also a good listener.  He listens, processes his thoughts and then expresses what he is thinking.  When he is talking to you in person he has good eye contact, a positive attitude and is approachable.  He is great on picking up how a person is really feeling.  There have been times when our nanny has come over in the morning and Danny can tell right away if something is wrong.  Danny will ask her about it and usually there is something going on at home or with someone she knows that she would like to talk about. 

I hope I do model a positive attitude and that I am approachable like my husband.  I would like to become a better listener because there are times where people will be talking to me but I am totally thinking about something else.   I would also like to learn to be a better communicator when it comes to using technology.  Sometimes I worry that my email or text message might not be sending the right message or have the right tone that I am trying to portray.