Listening Style Effects of Receiver Apprehension & Communication Competence

My primary listening style is definitely people-oriented. I think this listening method is good at overcoming most listening barriers as described in chapter 7 of our text. The biggest downside to this method is that anyone with this listening style can suffer from pseudo listening and even go native when becoming overly involved with someone. According to the provided website, people with this style of listening “May associate so strongly with others they do not see limitations and faults, and may be drawn into unwise relationships.” I see this as overcoming listening barriers too well. This is definitely the most serious problem with this type of listening that I have experienced.

My secondary listening style is content-oriented. This style suffers from selective listening in which the listener throws out pieces of information he or she does not find credible. The listener often only takes in bits and pieces of information that catch his or her attention. This can lead to incomplete understanding and have significant consequences in the future.

Culture to me is synonymous with our text’s definition of “An established, coherent set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices shared by a large group of people.” I think that is a wonderful definition of culture. I used to be unbelievably bad for stereotyping people before even talking to them. Doing so led to confusion and overall miscommunication. Another barrier that I have experienced when dealing with people of other cultures is Individualism versus Collectivism. Here in the US, we are a very individualistic society, but elsewhere can be the exact opposite. Personal priorities can be vastly different between cultures and it is important to keep that in mind. I think the best way to overcome most of these listening barriers is to always keep an open mind. Our text lists three ways to create Intercultural Competence: World-mindedness, attributional complexity, and communication accommodation. Even simply listening to silence for a few minutes a day can improve one’s ability to listen effectively.

Based on the information I found in the book and website, I believe that my primary listening style is content-oriented. The book mentions that content-oriented listeners like hearing both sides of an argument, like to be intellectually challenged, and like to thoroughly evaluate their information before forming their opinions which is something I can strongly relate to. My secondary listening style is people-oriented. Hearing other’s life stories, creating bonds, and empathizing with other’s emotions are all things that I sometimes find myself doing when engaging in conversations with others.

I believe that content-oriented listeners have a lot of benefits. For example, most content-oriented listeners are great at the understanding, interpreting, and evaluating steps of the listening process because of their desire for an intellectual challenge. They tend to form conclusions based on an unbiased principle. However, the website states that this type of listening can create problems with appreciating the ideas and wishes of other people because of a lack of “sufficient supporting evidence”. I believe that content-oriented listeners might also find a problem with selective-listening especially if they do not find a conversation intellectually challenging. They may only listen to the parts that seems interesting to them. I think that people-oriented listeners have an advantage at knowing how to respond to people well because of their empathy. They are perceived as caring and harmless to most, but since they usually end up listening to the personal life stores of others, I imagine that they would sometimes struggle with pseudo-listening. If they listen to someone tell a long, boring story, they may pretend to be listening when they aren’t. If this begins to become a habitat, people are likely to view them as dishonest.

There are sometimes cultural challenges when it comes to communication. For example, countries with collectivistic cultures emphasize people- and continent-oriented listening styles. This may make encounters with people from these cultures a little intimidating. Other countries also have different preferences on emotional displays, physical contact etc.) I have found myself judgmental at first before I talk to someone from another country than me, but the most important thing I have learned when engaging in communication with people from other cultures is to stay calm and adapt your listening style to whatever seems most comfortable and appropriate. If the person you are talking with seems to prefer a more emotional conversation, then you should be sure to use people-oriented listening. Culture is a set of belief, values and attitudes that are shared by a group of people that make you unique. Culture is something that should be celebrated and the idea of being able to speak to people from other cultures is something everyone should celebrate as well.

There are several ways to help overcome listening barriers. In Julian Treasure’s TED Talk, he suggests 3 minutes a day of silence or quiet in order to help “reset your ears” so that you will be able to hear the silence again. He also suggests doing the opposite by putting yourself in a noisy environment and trying to differentiate each channel of sound you are hearing in order to help improve the quality of your listening. I think this could help with selective-listening because it allows you to view each channel. In the book, it mentions a way to overcome selective-listening by slowly trying to broaden the range of information you can actively attend to in each conversation. The book also mentions positive feedback which I think could help those who struggle with pseudo-listening because it would help them stay engaged with what they are hearing by giving both verbal and nonverbal cues like saying “uh-huh” and nodding their head.