Self-Concept of Communication

The self-concept has incredible power to shape your communication with others. It can shape what you think of other people because your perception of others is related to how you view yourself. When you interact with other people, you get impressions from them that reveal how they evaluate you as a person and as a communicator. (O'Hair & Wiemann 2012, p.47).

When evaluating myself as a communicator, one thing that surprised me the most was the fact that I and the other two participant’s results were quite the same in communication anxiety, listening styles, and verbal aggressiveness. Being that I perceived myself so accurately as others also perceived me was surprising because people always tell me that I don’t ever give myself enough credit when it comes to many things with effective communication being one of them. Two interesting things that I have learned about communication is the self-fulfilling prophecy and self-efficacy.

Self-fulfilling prophecy, a prediction that causes an individual to alter his or her behavior in a way that makes a prediction more likely to occur is very effective in both my professional and personal life when positive. (O'Hair & Wiemann 2012, p.51). For example, professionally being that I am a teacher who looks at all her students as having the potential to succeed in whatever they do, despite their different learning styles, causes them to be more confident and not to shy away from a challenge.

Lastly, self-efficacy guides your ultimate choice of communication situations, making you much more likely to avoid situations where you believe your self-efficacy to be low.(O'Hair & Wiemann 2012, p.50). For example, in my personal life I am more detailed and honest when it comes to writing versus face to face communication. I tend to express my thoughts in a more detailed way when writing especially in situations whereas I know my nervousness and nonverbal cues will give a message that will be misinterpreted.

Communicating in a Culturally Diverse Environment

Even though we communicate naturally and unconsciously daily it’s necessary that we adjust the way we communicate considering the audience or situation of our environment. When communicating, things that I take into consideration is the persons age, religion, sexual orientation, and experiences. In the following examples I will provide three strategies I would use when communicating with preschoolers, peers, and professionally:

• With preschoolers, I connect by giving my undivided attention, using simple ways of communicating, and a mild tone. I do not use over explanation when answering their questions and I know that I must actively listen and pay attention to their body language because sometimes they may display unspoken emotions. To maintain positive communication I provide them with rules without saying the word “NO”. For example, instead of saying “No running.” I would say “We walk.” which will avoid any arguments and help to be more clear.
• Amongst my peers I am able to let my hair down, relax, show my emotions, not focus on my tone, nonverbal behavior, and I do not have to use language that is so to say always appropriate. We can tell it how it is when we’re with one another and we don’t have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes or hurting anyone’s feelings. I am also comfortable enough to talk about my experiences, situations, or things that I worry about knowing that they would not just say what they think would be polite or what I want to hear but they would tell me what they think is best.
• Professionally, I communicate by maintaining eye contact to show that I’m comfortable, good posture to show confidence, positive body language, and I speak clearly with thorough explanations and knowledge of whatever subject that I am discussing. When using my active listening skills I allow enough time for the communicator to express themselves and not be so quick to speak.

 Adjusting the way I communicate improves effectiveness because this omits confusion which can lead to misinterpretations or misunderstandings and also provides respect for others.

Hindsight: Square One

Sound Turned Off

The show opens with a man and a woman having an argument as she chases him outside of a restaurant. She seems to be telling him how he doesn’t understand how she wants to pursue her dreams but she also wants to work on their relationship. In response, he asks for his engagement ring back. Her friend then begins to comfort her because she seems upset about the break up. The main character then sees herself in the mirror as a young woman representing that she is now young and free.

Her and her friend are now finding videos so that she can cheer up and get over the episode of what happened with her boyfriend. During movie night they seem to be having a good time laughing and talking about the good fun times and decide to prank call like their teenagers again but then change their minds. The women continue to have a conversation about their life mistakes and things that they would have done differently.

The main character then wakes up the next morning confused in disbelief and wondering if the break up actually happened. Her friend fills her in on everything and gets cheerful about a decision they both made the previous night. While getting ready for work she picks up a Walkman and beeper so I’m guessing that this show is based on the 90s. While in the building at work she then begins having flashbacks of herself fainting in an elevator. While at work everyone is looking at her as if they found out about her break up. A colleague approaches her and discusses the situation when is then approached by her boss and offered a higher position seeming to be very excited. While in her new office a lady walks in looking confused  and tells her she is to be seen by the boss about being promoted and instead is then fired.

Sound Turned On

In the opening scene the man and woman are actually arguing at the fact that she decided not to get married at their actual wedding. She doesn’t think that they will make it as a couple so he asks for his ring back. She then turns to her friend and says, “This is the worst thing that has ever happened.” they both reply by joking and laughing. The main character is actually back in time that’s why she is in the mirror looking younger. While watching movies with her best friend she is actually telling her about the future. Her friend is so amazed at the fact that you are able to watch movies on a cell phone in the future. This is the reason why they were looking at the phone because her friend doesn’t understand how you could watch movies on such a small screen so the main character informs her about the screens on the Iphone.

She states that she actually misses the future and not her fiancé. She wakes up the next morning wondering what year it is wondering if she is back in the current time on still in the past. As she is preparing for a promotion at work she looks at the pager and Walkman speaking about how she misses the future because of all the things that she has to carry instead of one electronic doing everything. While in the building where she works as she passes the elevators it reminds her of what happened before she was sent to the past.

The office has found out what happened in her relationship while speaking to a colleague about it she is approached by her boss and told that she has been promoted to Vice President. As she is settling in and excited she is told that she is in someone else’s office by the person who’s office it actually is. When speaking with her boss he teases her about him actually promoting her. She is then told to go get coffee so that she knows that she is still nothing but a secretary.

            If this had been a show that I was familiar with I think that I would have been more accurate, especially about the traveling in time. For the most part, I was precise with what was happening except for a few misinterpretations

Competent Communication

While thinking about competent communication my younger sisters come to mind. I have two younger sisters that live in Delaware and they both are in college. Talking with one another sometimes is hard because we all have schedules that conflict with one another. Even though texting is an effective way we all communicate, we don’t always get to fully express ourselves through this because we are only able to send short messages.

One way of communicating I love that my sisters started a couple of years back was to send a personalized card that included a current picture of themselves with a short message to inform me of things such as how they are doing, activities they are participating in, exciting things that have come encounter with and so on. Even though these cards are not long they are a little more detailed than the text messages. They are decorative and not dull, have a theme, and a concise message. The words chosen are positive and of a natural conversational tone.

I feel as though this is an effective way of communicating which I have chosen to follow because of their clear understanding of writing. Communicating though writing has its advantage because you are able to write specifically what you mean, which can be clearer than verbal conversation because it helps the reader not to misinterpret. The writer is also able to revise their message as many times as they like before sending and the receiver is able to keep the written message and refer back to it later on.