Exam 6: Mindful Listening

With selective listening, however, we screen out parts of a message that don't interest us and rivet our attention to topics that do interest us.

When we listen only literally, we are insensitive to others' feelings and to our connections with them.

The final form of nonlistening is literal listening, which involves listening only for content and ignoring the relationship level of meaning.

Name and explain the internal obstacles to listening.

Selective listening is effective because we focus on the most important parts of a message.

This involves perceiving personal attacks, criticism, or hostility in communication that is not critical or mean-spirited.

As after taking cooking lessons, Thelma bakes a cake for her friend Louise's birthday. When Louise sees the cake, she says, "Wow, that's so sweet. My mom always made a special cake for my birthday, and she would decorate it so elaborately." Thelma replies, "Well I'm sorry that I didn't decorate the cake extravagantly. I guess I still have a lot to learn about cooking." Thelma's response illustrates

Randy says, "I am really bummed out about not getting any job offers." His roommate, Lance, responds, "Sounds as if you're feeling pretty low about the response so far." Lance's communication is an example of:

Ambushers listen intently to gather ammunition they can use to attack a speaker.

This involves listening only for content and ignoring the relationship level of meaning.

Chapter 6 states that effective listening varies according to listening purposes and people with whom we interact. Explain how we adapt styles and behaviors of listening to diverse situations and individuals.

While listening to the lecture, Carlos begins to think about the things he needs to do after class, but stops himself and consciously focuses himself on the information being presented in the lecture and takes in as much as he can. This is an example of ____.

While listening to her friend Bill, Judy occasionally says, "Tell me more" or "That's interesting, go on." Judy is:

People who only focus on particular parts of communication are engaging in ____.

Chelsea does not enjoy the speaker's topic, but her goal is to gather and evaluate the information being presented so she can write a report on the presentation. This is an example of ____.

The only guidelines in listening for pleasure are to be mindful and control distractions.

A form of nonlistening is ____, which involves focusing only on particular parts of communication.

When we listen like this, we attend only to the content level and overlook what's being communicated on the relationship level.

When we listen literally, we don't make the effort to understand how others feel about what they say or to endorse them as people.

Discuss mindfulness and its pertinence to effective listening in interpersonal communication. In your discussion, indicate whether mindfulness is a technique or an attitude and explain how we express our mindfulness to others with whom we are interacting.