Week 9, Question 3

The concept that I choose to discuss this week is the concept of motivation because I think that a lot of people, especially students, lack motivation when it comes to listening. The class textbook says that no one can become a better listener without the motivation to do so. I completely agree with this statement. The only way someone is going to become a better listener is if they want to and they actually try. Although, people don't want to admit it we are all a little selfish. We always think what's in it for me? Having the motivation to actively listen has a greater payoff in the end. When you actively listen because you want to you learn new things, have life-changing experiences, and you can build relationships. Having the motivation to improve you listening skills and actually doing it make you a better employee. Listening skills is something that employers values so that is something to keep in mind.

Week 9, Question 2

Selective attention is something that I have a lot of experience with unfortunately. I notice that it happens a lot when I am being told something that I already know or when I don't find that specific topic interesting. I notice that this also happens when I am reading books for school or sometimes even when I'm talking with friends and family. When I do it with my friends and family I'm not doing it to be rude. I tend to do it when I have a lot of other responsibilities to take care of and I am stressed out. For the most part I pay attention to what other people have to say to me. When I am reading my text books I notice that my mind tends to wander and I have to read some sections over a few times in order for me to retain any of the information. This happens because a lot of the time I'm not interested in what the book is saying. One recent example where I had selective attention was when I had to attend the showing of a documentary one of the professor put together. The documentary was very long and I found it really hard to pay attention. I found myself daydreaming a lot and then I would come back and pay attention to the movie. This happened quite a few times while the documentary was showing. I did this because I wasn't interested in the topic and it's not something that I wanted to be doing at the time. By the last bit of the film I was able to overcome my selective attention and pay attention to the message of the documentary.

Week 9, Question 1

The most recent situation that I was in where I found it hard to listen actually occurred today during my child development class. I am taking Chad106 to satisfy one of the areas for my upper devision general, but I'm also taking it because I love kids and I thought this class would be really interesting. Unfortunately this class has turned out to be very boring. Every time I am in class I find it very hard to listen to what the teacher is saying. Part of the reason for this is that her voice tends to be monotone sometimes and that makes it very had to pay attention. The phase that presented the most difficulty for me was the hearing the message phase. I guess you could say I was experience selective attention. I would listen to parts of the lecture, and then i would find myself daydreaming. I think this problem can be overcome if I focus more on the material and not let my mind wander.

Week 7, Question 3

One concept from chapter six that I thought was interesting was humor. As a college student we are taught to be serious, not to waste time, and to always be professional. When I read about humor in this chapter I was surprised it was referred to as an important area of communication. If you were to walk down the street and ask someone what kind of qualities they look for in other people somewhere on this list humor is going to be included. People love to laugh. Humor is a way to relieve stress, support group fantasies, and integrate new ideas. “Humor is based on our ability to take advantage of inconsistencies and incongruence’s.” (Harris & Sherblom) Humor can make people feel better about difficult situations as well. The use of humor in a small group can help get work done faster. When people are happy they focus better on the task at hand. Being happy and relaxed can clear your mind and spark creativity. I know personally that the use of humor by some of my previous group members definitely contributed to a positive group experience.

Week 7, Question 2

Proxemics refers to how we use space to communicate with one another. In other words it is how we use and are affected by space. Our proxemics to one another can have a very big impact on the way we communicate with one another. I have worked with many people from different cultures in the group projects I have done at SJSU. I have experienced in all of my groups that when we first meet with each other we all keep quite a distance from one another. Once we start getting more comfortable with one another that distance gradually starts to close. Chromenics on the other hand is the study of the use of time. “Western cultures are particularly oriented toward clock-based time as an organizing principle in the work world.” (Harris & Sherblom) Time is also money in the work world. Wasting time is like wasting money. In small groups the amount of time being spent by individual members is constantly being monitored. If an individual group member is wasting time they are going to be looked at as lazy and unproductive. In all of the groups that I have worked with at SJSU we are very time oriented no matter what culture we identified ourselves with. We all wanted to get our work done so we stayed on task. Personally I think that there are universal rules for proxemics. Every culture has a distance that they are comfortable with when they meet new people. Eventually that distance changes over time as people get to know each other, but I think that cultures universally agree on certain proxemics. I don’t think that there are universal rules for chronemics. The way time is spent around the world is vey different. The United States is a very fast paced country. It is different than what you would see anywhere else in the world.

Week 7, Question 1

The first principle that I decided to discuss is principle four. Principle four says nonverbal behaviors are guided by the context and power of relationships. For example, two people who work together are going to shake hands when they greet each other in the work place. The same two people who happen to be best friends are going to hug and possible give a small kiss on the cheek when the meet for dinner. Principle four is all about appropriate behavior performed at the right time. The second principle that I choose to discuss is principle five. Principle five says that cultural norms and expectations guide our interpretation. This principle is very apparent in small groups. Being placed in a group with people from different cultural backgrounds is very likely to happen. With all of the different stereotypes and expectations that are assigned to these different cultures the way we nonverbally communicate with others can be seen in many different ways. For example someone may value organization in preparedness in their culture, and if someone is disorganized and unprepared all the time, that behavior will be noticed and make the other person uncomfortable.

Week 6, Question 3

One concept that I thought was interesting from this chapter was verbal interaction analysis. Verbal interaction analysis traces the number of times group member interact with each other. When I read this I thought it was a little silly. I thought if you are working in a group then of course you are going to be interacting with your members all the time. As I thought about it more and thought back on all of my group work experiences I realized that many group members can go through an entire project and not talk to one or maybe 2 or three group members. Being a college student I know how busy we can be at times. When group projects are assigned it can be difficult for everyone’s schedules to match up and meet. When this happens group members tend to communicate through email and text messages. If one group member takes on the role of leader then they talk to all the group members and communicates the information out to everyone. By doing this not all the group members need to communicate with each other. I thought that was a really interesting concept.

Week 6, Question 2

When providing observer feedback to a group you need to make sure that what you are telling them is useful and will really help them improve on their group work skills. Some areas that you can touch on when providing observer feedback is the goals and objectives of the group. You should identify the goal of the group and what they are trying to accomplish and see if they accomplished that goal. The next areas you can assess are utilization of resources. See if the group utilized all of the resources that are available to them. Trust and conflict is another area to look at. You should evaluate the level of trust that the group members have between each other and if there was any type of conflict. If there was conflict, how well did they handle the conflict. Leadership is another area to look at as an observer. You should keep an eye for any group members that step up and really lead the group to get their tasks done and done on time. You can also watch and see if the leadership is shared in the group. Control and procedures is also important. Is the group under control and is there any lack of procedures to guide the team functioning. Interpesonal communication is important because if group members aren’t communicating with one another problems can arise. Problem solving and decision making can make or break a group. If groups can’t solve problems that arise or make decisions together they will get off task and not accomplish anything. Evaluation is one of the last things to look at as an observer. If a group evaluates the way they worked together and the work they did then they are on the right track.

Week 6, Question 1

I think the use of a consultant or an observer for a small group is very important to evaluate the success of a group. Bringing in someone who doesn’t have any connection with the group is beneficial because they don’t have any biases. I think that having someone who isn’t connected to the group is more beneficial because they can provide feedback that is more helpful. They are there to discuss what worked well between the group members and what they accomplished during their time as a group. They also can provide feedback that someone within the group might have missed. Groups can think that they worked well together, but when an outsider is looking at the group they can point out things that might have been overlooked by the group members. Just because a group accomplished a task on time does not necessarily mean that they accomplished it well. Receiving effective feedback from an outsider will definitely benefit a group for the better.