Discussion 12: Listening
Think about a time when you were asked to listen to a friend, a coworker, a lecture, a sermon, etc. Briefly explain the context of the situation.
a) What type of listening was needed in this situation? Appreciative, Empathic, Comprehensive, and/or Critical? (You could have more than one answer here.). b) How did you come to this answer?
a) What personal listening style were you using in the situation outlined above? People—Oriented, Action—Oriented, Content—Oriented, and/or Time—Oriented.
b) Do you find yourself using one style more often than others? Which one?
c) What do you think that says about you as a listener?
Overview
What is listening? What purposes does listening serve?
Listening is an active process of receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding to communications.
Listening enables you (1) to learn, to acquire information; (2) to relate, to help form and maintain relationships; (3) to influence, to have an effect on the attitudes and behaviors of others; (4) to play, to enjoy oneself; and (5) to help, to assist others.
What are your listening options?
Empathic-objective listening refers to the extent to which you focus on feeling what the speaker is feeling.
Nonjudgmental-critical listening refers to the extent to which you accept and support the speaker.
Surface-depth listening refers to the extent to which you focus on the obvious surface meanings.
Active-inactive listening refers to the extent to which you reflect back on what you think the speaker means in content and feeling.
How is listening influenced by culture and gender?
Members of different cultures vary on a number of communication dimensions that influence listening: speech and language, nonverbal behavioral differences, and preferences for direct and indirect styles of communication.
Men and women may listen differently; generally, women give more specific listening cues to show they’re listening than do men.
