Listening Skills Overview

Listening

• Misconceptions about listening: Listening is not the same as hearing.
• Hearing: Is the physiological process of receiving sound waves.
• Active listening: Requires effort and attention to understand the message.
• Passive listening: Involves hearing without effort and attention.
• Pseudolistening: Pretending to listen.
• Five Step Listening Process: 1. Hearing the message. 2. Understanding the message. 3. Remembering the message. 4. Evaluating the message. 5. Responding to the message.
• Listening Styles:
  • People-Oriented: Focus on the speaker's emotions.
  • Action-Oriented: Focus on the message and action.
  • Content-Oriented: Focus on the message's facts.
  • Time-Oriented: Focus on the time constraints.
• Listening Barriers:
  • Physical: Noise
  • Psychological: Stress, fear, anger
• Responding Styles:
  • Silent Listening: Not interrupting.
  • Questioning: Clarifying understanding.
  • Paraphrasing: Repeating the message in your own words.
  • Empathizing: Expressing understanding.
  • Supporting: Offering encouragement.
  • Analyzing: Offering an interpretation.
  • Evaluating: Criticizing the message.
  • Advising: Offering advice.

Social Penetration Theory

• Breadth: Range of topics discussed.
• Depth: Level of intimacy in the topics.
• Frequency: How often communication occurs.
• Valence: Positive or negative emotions associated with the topics.
• Johari Window:
  • Open Self: Known to self and others.
  • Hidden Self: Known to self, but not others.
  • Blind Self: Known to others, but not self.
  • Unknown Self: Unknown to self and others.

Nonverbal Communication

• Difference between verbal and nonverbal: Verbal communication uses words, nonverbal communication uses everything else.
• Importance of nonverbal communication:
  • More believable: Actions speak louder than words.
  • Ever-present: Even silence is communication.
  • Can enhance understanding: Support verbal messages.
  • Can inhibit understanding: Conflicting messages.
  • Communicate feelings: Express emotions.
  • Can express what verbal cues can’t: Expressing complex emotions.
  • Can be more efficient: Faster than verbal communication.
• Interpreting nonverbal messages:
  • Ambiguous: Open to multiple interpretations.
  • Continuous: Constantly changing.
  • Multichannelled: Multiple nonverbal cues being conveyed.
  • Intentional or unintentional: Conscious or subconscious.
  • Interpretation is culturally based: Different meanings across cultures.
• Intimacy/Involvement: Closeness.
• Dominance: Power dynamic.
• Nonverbal Communication Codes:
  • Kinesics: Body movement.
  • Proxemics: Use of space.
  • Haptics: Touch.
  • Chronemics: Use of time.
  • Paralanguage: Vocal cues.
  • Appearance: Physical appearance.
  • Artifacts: Objects used to communicate.

Verbal Communication

• Meanings are in people, not words: Words have different meanings to different people.
• Words are:
  • Symbolic: Represent something else.
  • Arbitrary: No natural connection between word and meaning.
  • Context bound: Meaning depends on the situation.
  • Culturally bound: Different meanings in different cultures.
  • Abstract: Represent general concepts.