Refective Journal Essay

Wk #2
HSER 508
Reflective Journal
Natasha Cansler-Fortune
May 31, 2013

This week we learned the following: internal conversation. How internal conversation affects communication. Discussed a list of strategies for making interpersonal connections. Self-assessment that determines listening level and factors that influence how we listen. And we learned how to integrate the readings into a discussion of identity and the impact of communication upon identity.

What stood out to me most was the discussion about self assessment that determines listening level and factors that influence how we listen. Different situations require different types of listening. We may listen to obtain information, improve a relationship, gain appreciation for something, make discriminations, or engage in a critical evaluation. (Stewart 2012)

Informative Listening
“Informative listening is the name we give to the situation where the listener’s primary concern is to understand the message. Listeners are successful insofar as the meaning they assign to messages is as close as possible to that which the sender intended.” (Kline)
Relationship Listening
The purpose of relationship listening is either to help an individual or to improve the relationship between people. (Kline)
Appreciative Listening
Appreciative listening includes listening to music for enjoyment, to speakers because you like their style, to your choices in theater, television, radio, or film. (Kline)
Critical Listening
The ability to listen critically is essential in a democracy. On the job, in the community, at service clubs, in places of worship, in the family—there is practically no place you can go where critical listening is unimportant. Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of policies and procedures, and our own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual needs require us to