COMM1500 Chapter 5: Listening Actively

Listening Styles (4)

1. Action-Oriented Listeners: People who prefer information to be factual and to-the-point; no extraneous details, only details of information that have something to do with the topic ex) Business men who want brief info. because they want to do something with it 2. Time-oriented Listeners: Prefer brief + succinct information because they want to stick to their schedule -- no rambling. "Drive-by Listeners" who have somewhere to be. 3. People-oriented Listeners: View listening as an opportunity to establish commonalities between themselves and others. Cite concern for speakers' emotions. Aren't nervous to interact in a small group ex) therapist 4. Content-oriented listeners: Listening to the message of what others are saying. Search for facts, details before making any decision. Enjoy receiving complex and provocative information ex) Judge *most of us use only 1 or 2 listening styles

Barriers of Listening (6)

1. Noise 2. Message Overload: more information received than can process 3. Message Complexity: Too many details, unfamiliar language, tired 4. Preoccupation: conversation narcissism (worried about your own worries, not thinking about topic being spoken) 5. Listening gap: Listening-understanding --> How fast you can talk vs. how much you can understand (you usually understand faster than someone can talk) 6. Filtering messages: Focusing on what we agree with and/or only focusing on 1/3 of subjects.

5-Step Process to Listening

1. Receiving 2. Attending 3. Understanding 4. Responding 5. Recall

Improving your listening skills

1. Reduce outer noise- mute out other thoughts you may have 2. Listen with Empathy (Perspective Taking) -- Be empathic and non-judgmental when responding. 3. Listen with an Open Mind - always assume you can learn something new 4. Listen Actively - show you are being active in conversation by fully participating (giving feedback, paraphrasing, commenting) -- takes effort, but shows others you care 5. Listening Critically - figuring out speaker's biases, paying attention to different details (advising/evaluating) **Must be careful: If you give advice when it is not asked for, you may look like a know-it-all. If you evaluate too quickly, you may jump to conclusions ("Ambushing Effect") or listen to info. that you might throw back at the speaker ("the Judge") 6. Silent listening - Let the speaker get his/her entire story out into the open

Incompetent Listening (4)

1. Selective listening: taking in only bits and pieces that are immediately salient 2. Eavesdropping: intentionally and systematically setting up situations so that they can listen to private conversations. 3. Pseudo-listening: Behaving as you are paying attention when you really are not. Prevents us from attending to or understanding information. 4. Aggressive listening ("ambushing"): Attend to what others say solely to find an opportunity to attack their conversational partners ex) Provocateurs: post message solely as "trolls" to annoy others

Pseudo-listening

Behaving as if you're paying attention when you're really not. Ineffective because it prevents us from attending to and understanding information.

Feedback (Good vs. Bad)

Communicate attention and understanding while others are talking Good: frequent eye contact, open body position, paraphrasing Bad: Jump to conclusions, closed body position

Responding (4th)

Communicating their attention and understanding to you by clearly and constructively responding through positive feedback, paraphrasing, and clarifying. -During/after interpersonal exchange -Can offer back-channel cues: verbal/nonverbal behaviors such as nodding and making comments like "Uh-huh" -Paraphrasing: Summarizing others' comments

Attending (2nd)

Devoting attention to received information -Degree to which you attend to received information is often determined by salience of info. -Individual attention span/level -To improve: limit multitasking and elevate your attention (mental bracketing: systematically putting aside thoughts that aren't relevant to the interaction at hand)

Active Listening

Embody 5 listening functions: to comprehend, to discern (listen to someone's vocal tone), to appreciate, to support, and to support

Message recall: How much do you retain?

Immediately: 50% 48 hours later: 25% 7 months later: 7%

Understanding (3rd)

Involves interpreting the meaning of another person's communication by comparing newly received info. to against our past knowledge -evaluate info. and then store it *differentiates listening vs. hearing

Listening

Involves receiving, attending to, understanding, responding to, and recalling sounds and visual images.

Receiving (1st)

Reception of verbal/nonverbal stimuli (non-verbal inflection, volume, verbal content) *Seeing + Hearing = Receiving* Hearing: Physical process of receiving audio stimuli, but with little interpretation Listening: Making sense of the spoken message Mindful: Aware/attentive to what others say to you Mindless: Not paying attention (lack of social awareness) *Noise pollution often obscures attention from auditory input. Can enhance ability to receive by becoming aware of noise pollution and adjusting your interactions accordingly.

Recall (5th)

Remembering information after you've received, attended to, understood, and responded to it. *Very rarely word-for-word, remember paraphrase To improve: use mnemonic devises Bizarreness effect: causes us to remember unusual info. than commonplace info.

Short-term memory VS. Long-term memory

Short-term: temporarily houses NEW information while you seek its meaning Long-term: the part of your mind devoted to permanent information storage.