The Process of Interpersonal Communication

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The Process of Interpersonal Communication

Listening is one of the interpersonal skills that are key during communication. In order to accurately receive and interpreted the message being communicated, then listening becomes key. Most people tend to ignore this concept which result to poor communication and inaccurate delivery of message. Speaking is way important but without listening then it loses its meaning. Analysis shows that listening takes the biggest rank as compared to reading, writing or speaking. The importance of listening is increasing with time which is proved by Brown (1982). Listening is categorized in different groups depending on purpose. Listening is the main part of interpersonal communication as illustrated.

Listening can be grouped as; deep listening which occurs when one wants to understand what the speaker is talking about and the perspective of the speaker, full listening which involves close and careful attention of what the speaker is conveying, critical listening which involves using systematic reasoning and careful thoughts to analyze the speakers message with its facts from opinion, therapeutic listening which involves allowing a friend, family or colleague to share their problems and offer support.

Many people though tend to confuse listening and hearing. When hearing does not mean we are listening. Hearing only entails sounds heating the eardrum whereas listening involves conceptualization of information and internalizing the message. In many cases people tend only to hear but not listen. One may also be positive that he or she is listening but later on they realize they were only hearing when it comes to analysis of the message delivered. Listening is not an easy task and its effectiveness is hindered by various factors which are considered as poor listening habits.

People may pottery certain characters knowingly and unknowingly which tend to affect the listening process of people. Interrupting the speaker with unnecessary questions or movements, not maintaining eye contact with the speaker, rushing the speaker and making him feel like he is wasting time, diverting attention to something else and getting ahead of the speaker’s words. This habits tend to divert the minds and hinder the listening ability of a person. The habits are contributed certain barriers to effective communication.

Evaluating the person who is talking tends to limit what the person is gaining from the speech. The person tend to agree it disagree as per his or her own point of view. This tends to change the conversation to a joust. This raises a disagreement other than a mutual understanding. Self-protective listening also hinders good listening where a person is so full of negativity that he or she is not ready to receive alternatives or solutions either looking for pity or attention which result to the person missing the important information. This is integrated with defensive listening to. Authoritative listening and affirmative listening are other barriers where people tend to think of them being right in everything without giving others a chance to give opinion on a subject. Assumptive and judgmental listening are also listening barriers. They are the strongest causes of poor listening as the listener tends to assume they know what the speaker will say next or see like the speaker has no point making them miss the most important points in the speech.

Listening is important as it makes one understand and reproduce the information effectively. To listen carefully one should apply various strategies like good eye contact with the speaker, be open to receive new ideas and opinions, avoid looking down upon the speaker irrespective of the persons social class, gender, ethnicity, age, color or and physical challenge, ask questions when necessary, work on listening more than hearing and take notes during the speech.

Good listening is as important as the speech given in communication. With adoption of proper listening skills then information transfer and reciprocation of the same will be effective and also will grow the interpersonal communication skills. A good listener is always a good communicator.

References

Adler, R. B., Rosenfeld, L. B., Towne, N., & Scott, M. (1986). Interplay: The process of interpersonal communication (p. 504). Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Lavee, E., & Itzchakov, G. (2021). Good listening: A key element in establishing quality in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 14687941211039402.