What are your main take away lessons from the assigned reading this week? Describe and explain.

This week’s assigned reading had numerous insightful lessons. Among the lessons that interested me was the concept of communication and self-esteem. This is not something quite new, but it is something that most people tend to ignore. High self-esteem gives an individual the willingness to communicate compared to people with low self-esteem (Adler et al., 2014). They are not afraid of the reactions that other people have towards what they say. This would go a long way into concluding that they are also not afraid of speaking their minds out. Having such a perspective is quite critical for communication purposes. This is because it helps to eradicate the barriers of communication that are likely to present themselves due to the openness that persists.

The topic on communication and the development of self was quite informative too. Adler et al. (2014) claim that evaluations of others still tends to influence the belief about oneself in some areas. This is regardless of the age bracket that an individual falls in. People are usually self-conscious of what others talk about their appearances among other things. Apart from the verbal communication, people also tend to react to non-verbal cues that they get from others as they end up affecting the way that they lead their lives.

The part on perceiving others was also quite interesting. Adler et al. (2014) assert that self-perceptions normally affect the way that we communicate with others. People tend to organize perceptions of other people by use of perceptual schema, which entails cognitive frameworks that allow people to accord order to the selected information. The four types of schema that are usually used include physical constructs that classify others according to their appearance, role constructs used in social positions, interaction constructs that focus on social behavior and psychological constructs that refer to the internal states of the mind and dispositions (Adler et al., 2014). These types of constructs that people use tend to affect the way that they relate to each other strongly.

How will they affect the way you communicate?

These lessons are likely to affect the way I communicate. This is because I have gained a reassurance that high self-esteem gives an individual the willingness to communicate. As a result, this is something that I will always ensure that I embrace for all my communication prospects. This is because it will give the opportunity of getting my way more so when I am bargaining on something or trying to argue for a particular aspect.

Being aware that what other people say about me is likely to affect my beliefs is something that I will take serious too. It is easy to believe that upon reaching a particular age, other people’s opinions will not matter, but it is not always the case. Being conscious of the existence of this concept will help me in ensuring that I do not get influenced easily by what people communicate about me.

Given that self-perceptions affect the way that we communicate with others, I will have to be open-minded at all times. This will mean that I will not be judging people based on how they appear, but on what they are communicating about. This is more so important for an educator given the relevant interaction with diverse students.

In what ways do the concepts in the videos and readings relate to your professional life in education?

The video by Susan Can regarding introverts has helped challenge an aspect about my profession regarding socialization. As an educator, there is a high probability of wanting students to become extroverts in order to improve various aspects of their life. However, the video has helped me understand that this is not necessarily important since people are likely to work best in environments and conditions that they find more suitable. As a result, as an educator, being an introvert is something that I will not bash my students over.

The video on Embracing otherness relates to my professional life in that there is the probability of defining myself based on what other people expect of me. This would result in the creation of an identity that I thought came from deep within me, but that is not actually the case. This is something that will always have an effect on my self-esteem since it will be more dependent on others rather than myself.

The video on empathy, on the other hand, relates to a lot of communications that occur in the daily life. Using only the ears to listen is something that affects even the educators. Sometimes we fail to get what the students really want to pass around since we are not focusing on other elements of communication. There is also this concept of giving people advice when they try to communicate with us about certain issues. This is not always the case since the person might only be interested in pouring his or her heart out without being judged or told what to do. They just want someone to listen.

Reference

Adler, R., Rodman, G., & DuPré, A. (2014). Understanding human communication (12th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Reponses

Lorena Arroyo

Hi Lorena,

I really enjoyed reading your post. It is detailed hence adequately informative. The concept of treating others the way you would want to be treated is very applicable in communication. This is because the way you communicate with other people is likely to affect the way that they communicate with you. This is due to the perceptions that they develop as you communicate. The way that you have described empathy in communication is also very elaborate. Understanding other people’s situations is very important for effective communication to occur. There is a way that you are supposed to communicate with an individual given the situation at hand. Words that you choose to use might end up hurting the other party immensely in light of the current occurrences in their life. Being mindful and choosing words appropriately will go a long way in ensuring that people have effective communication at all times. I also liked your interpretation of Thandie Newton’s video. Most of the times people indulge in things and activities based on how others perceive them. Most of the times people are lost and try to find themselves based on what other say about them. This is why people actualize identities that they could not have been associated with in the past.

Kaylon McGee

Hi Kaylon,

It is very true that what people say about us tends to influence the way we regard ourselves. When people say good things, we tend to feel happy and contented of who we are. However, when negative messages arise, there is the tendency to doubt ourselves and development of the need to make various changes. I also agree with the notion that self-esteem determines a lot how we communicate. When people have high self-esteem, they are usually sure of themselves. This means that they will always take control of the communications that they are involved with. They will have the ability to speak up their minds without the fear of how others will perceive them. This helps in getting their way while interacting with other people in different circumstances. It is also true that we should present ourselves differently in respect to the circumstances at hand. An effective communicator ought to know what to say, when to say it and how to say it. This ensures that the other party has not been aggrieved and the appropriate message has been captured. Someone might be passing a message with good intentions, but the way they bring it out might distort the intentions.

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