Chapter 4

THE SELF

Self means the discussion and context of the individual.
It also can be deemed as the way in which communication and interpretation of messages take place within individual.
The area of "self" can be explored and widen into self-concept, self-awareness, self-esteem and self-disclosure.

1. Self-concept
* It is how you feel and think about yourself.
* areas that affect self-concept is social comparison, other's images of you, self interpretation & evaluations and cultural teaching.

2. Self-awareness
* is a process of discovering your personal development and understanding.
* not only limited to the individual but also for others around you that will help you to become self aware about your ability.
* The Four Self - Houston Window

- the four different windows explain different parts of ourselves that we know ourselves; others know better than we do; some remain hidden from other and some totally UNKNOWN to you or anyone.

- open arena: known to self and others
- facade: known to self but unknown to others
- blind spot: unknown to you but known to others
-unknown: unknown to you and others

* you can growing in self awareness by listen to others, increase your open self, seek information about yourself and dialogue with yourself.

3. Self-esteem
* means confidence or the level of trust or assurance to yourself
* way to increase self esteem:
   - attack self-destructive people
   - seek out nourishing people
   - work on project that will result in success
   - remind yourself of your success
   - secure affirmation

4. Self-disclosure
* is an act of telling others about things that they wouldn't know about you - telling your hidden self
* factors influencing self disclosure
   - who you are
   - your culture
   - your gender
   - your listeners
   - your topic and channel

Chapter 3

LISTENING

Listening is a type of perception by which we receive auditory signal. It helps us to play, relate, influence and to learn. Hearing and listening are different, hearing is just basic step of receiving sound but listening is process receiving sound and our brain will interpreted what we listen. 

There are 5 stages of listening: 

Stage 1: Receiving

• It can be verbally and non verbally
• Hearing auditory stimuli 
• listening can be more effective if we: 

            - pay attention on the speaker

            - avoid distractions in the environment

            -refrain from thinking about how you will respond

            - maintain your role of listener by not interrupting

Stage 2: Understanding

It will be more effective when decoding speaker's messages if we:

- relate the speaker information to what you already know

- see the speaker's messages from the speaker's point of view

- ask questions for clarification

- paraphrase speaker ideas to facilitate mutual understanding

Stage 3: Remembering

Retaining messages received and understood for at least some period of time. It can be more effective if we:

- identify speaker's main ideas and supporting evidence

- summarize messages in ways that are easy for you to retain

- repeat names and key concepts to yourself

Stage 4: Evaluating 

We judge messages that we hear, it will be more effective if we:

- resist evaluation until you fully understand the speaker's points

- assume the speaker is a person of goodwill

- distinguish facts from inferences and opinions

- identify any biases, self-interest, or prejudices that may influence the speaker's messages

Stage 5: Responding

Responding occurs in two phrases:

- response while the speaker is talking=back channeling cues, means to let the speakers know you are paying attention

- response after the speaker has stopped/ while conversing.

This stage can be more effective if we:

- express support for the speaker by using varied backchanneling cues

- express support for the speaker in your final responses

- take ownership of responses by using "I" messages

Listening will be difficult if speaker and listener have different cultural, there are 6 diversify of listening & culture: 

1. Language & speech

- every speaker speaks an idiolect

- speaker and listeners who have different native language

2. Non verbal behavioral differences

- speaker from different cultures have different display rules

- listen = verbal+nonverbal

- if verbal and nonverbal contradict with what you expect, it will become noise or interference, for example: you make the hand gesture of come here but you say "go away". 

3. Direct and indirect styles

- direct style: "say what you mean and mean what you say"

- indirect style "they emphasize politeness and maintaining a positive public image rather than absolute truth"

4. Balance of story versus evidence

- in some cultures (e.g. US) most people want evidence before making decision rather than critical thinking

- but for some other cultures, they may be more influenced by the word of high credibility source

5. Credibility
- is what make a speaker credible or believable will vary from one culture to another
- for example: competence teacher is the most important factor for parents to send their children in preschool

6. Feedback
- members of some cultures give very direct and very honest feedback
- but some cultures have the norm of "it's more important to be positive than to be truthful and so they may respond with positive feedback even though they don't feel it"

There are 4 ways to listening effectively:
1. Participatory and passive listening 

- the key to effective listening is to participate mentally and physically
- listening without talking and without directing the speaker in any non verbal way is powerful means for communicating acceptance

2. Emphatic & objective listening
- understand what a person: means + feelings = empathy
- emphatic listening means for both increasing understanding and for enhancing relationships
- there are times when you need to measure the meanings and feelings against some objective reality

3. Non judgmental and critical listening
- effective listening includes both non judgmental and critical responses
- open your mind and understanding the message and then evaluate or judge the message

4. Surface & depth listening
- Distinguish the surface and depth meaning of the communication
- for example: how do you like my new haircut

Chapter 2

Perception

Perception is about our 5 sense which is sight, taste, hear, touch and smell.
It is also impression that others give you and what you project to others. Although the meaning of first impression and perception are same but there are slightly different which is we can change perception to an object or person but we will not change the first impression toward an object or person.

 

There are 3 stages of perception process:
1. Sensory stimulation occurs, this is the stage of our sensory organ stimulate.

• For example: you see someone that you have not seen for years

2. Sensory stimulation is organized, we organized what we can feel according to various principles in this stage. There are two principle which is proximity principle and closure principle.

• For example: you organized the person you see belongs to which group of friends

3. Sensory stimulation is interpreted-evaluated, we involving evaluations on the part of perceiver.

• For example: you start thinking what his/her name.

Besides, there are 7 processes influencing perception which is implicit personality theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy, perceptual accentuation, primacy recency, consistency, stereotyping and attribution.

Today we also learnt how to make perception more accurate which is analyze impression, check perceptions, reduce uncertainty and increase cultural sensitivity.

Chapter 1

Lecturer taught Chapter 1 today.

We had learnt 5 types of communication which is intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, public communication, small group & organizational communication and mass communication.

Intrapersonal communication is type of communication of talking to ourselves, while interpersonal communication is 2 way communication for example talking to friend. Thirdly, public communication is the communication of listen to person who give you information such as listen to lecturer when he giving lecture. Next, small group and organizational communication is communication of group of people for example discussion of assignment. Lastly, mass communication is communication via mass media such as radio and internet. 

6.5.2014

Today was my first Human Communication class. Lecturer (Sir Anwari) gave us short briefing about this course and ask us divide into group. We had 13 chapters for this subject and we need to do a video presentation, assignment and this blog too. The purpose of this blog is to update what we had learnt from his lesson.