For our assignment
this week, we were asked to take three assessment tests on different areas of
communication. The measures of evaluation were Communication Anxiety Inventory,
Verbal Aggressiveness Scale, and the Listening Styles Profile (Rubin,
Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009).
In addition to my
own self-assessment, I needed to choose two other people, preferably from
different areas of my life, to evaluate me using the same measures. I have
invited the preschool coordinator, and my daughter to participate.
I did not know what
to anticipate, and when the results turned out to be quite similar, I was intrigued by how
accurate I was in my self-assessment, especially that my results were incredibly
close to my supervisor’s.
The one thing I
found most surprising was that my daughter has been able to detect higher
levels of anxiety in my communication than I did- something that neither my
supervisor nor I have perceived. Although I am not able to determine the exact reason for this discord, I reason that what prompted her to sense this
unease were her own personal schemas. The fact that she is very close to me
might have compelled her to make a connection between her own anxieties and my
own.
The two insights
that I would like to share with you this week are:
1- The roles of the communicators make a significant
difference in the way they perceive others and the way they are perceived
(O’Hair & Wiemann, 2009). As a mother, I was perceived differently than I
was as a colleague.
2- The context in which social interactions take place
may influence the effectiveness of the overall communication process (O’Hair
& Wiemann, 2009). My communication behavior in the workplace may be
interpreted differently than those I display at home.
References
Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., & Sypher,
H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York:
Routledge.
O' Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real
communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Reem,
ReplyDeleteI think that your insights this week are especially powerful. I agree that the roles of the communicators impact the ways in which they are perceived. It's fascinating that your daughter picked up on different traits than you had considered about yourself and that your coworker viewed you more similarly to the way that you viewed yourself.
I wonder what accounts for this difference? For me personally, I feel that I try to always be at my best at work, but at home I may be guilty of slipping into states of mindlessness at times. As a result, my communication skills may falter. Do you feel that you are more cognizant of the type of communication skills you are displaying at work compared to those at home?
Thanks for sharing your insights!
Best,
Parker
Parker,
DeleteThank you for your perceptive observation. I am afraid that I may also be overlooking some important aspects of effective communication at home. It is definitely something to reflect on.
Reem
Reem,
ReplyDeleteThat is quite interesting that your daughter sensed more communication anxiety in you than you did. I think your analysis of why this might be is correct. How old is your daughter?
Tara
Thank you, Tara. She's almost 16 now.
DeleteI had also considered asking my daughter to do these, but at 9 years-old I thought some of it would be over her head. I always tell people I am a much better teacher than I am a mother. I say it as a joke, but I think the more I polish my ECE skills and knowledge, the more I realize where my weaknesses are with my own kids. After a meltdown the other day, I had a talk with my daughter about how sometimes even adults need to do a better job at handling their feelings, and it sparked a great conversation about how each of us could communicate better.
ReplyDeleteI think children in general, and our own children in particular, are adept at reading nonverbal cues. I think it is an important lesson that the children we work with could detect if we are anxious in communication as well as if we are engaging in any level of (unintentional) communication aggression.
ReplyDelete~Lora