Communication week 4

               I took both of the tests and was fairly surprised with my results. On the communication Anxiety Inventory I scored a 44 which is considered mild. The results stated “You reported that you feel a bit uneasy in some communication situations and somewhat more confident in other context. Communication doesn’t seem to be something that you worry about a great deal.” ( )

               On the verbal aggression scale I scored a 57 which is moderate. The results stated, “You maintain a good balance between respect and consideration for others’ viewpoints, and ability to argue fairly by attacking the facts of a position rather than the person holding that position.

               On the listening styles profile I fell under group 1 which is people oriented. The results stated, “You are empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others. This listening style helps you build relationships but can interfere with proper judgment because you tend to be very trusting to others.”

               When I had my little boy’s father do each test on me his results were very different. On the Communication Anxiety scored me at a 55. On the Verbal Aggression scale he scored me at a 59. On the listening styles profile I feel under group 1 which is the same as I had scored myself.

               When I had my best friend do each test on me her results were also very different than my own as well. On the communication Anxiety scale she scored me at a 60. On the Verbal Aggression scale she scored me at a 55. On the listening styles profile I feel under group 1 which is the same as I had scored myself.

Communication Styles

I communicate with a variety of cultures and groups. I am 27 and Caucasian. My children are mixed Caucasian and African American. I work with a variety of cultures; some are from Mexico, Dominican republican, Canada, and Alaska, and Jamaica. In my community there are a lot of mixed groups of people as well. I feel that I communicate differently with people according to what our social standing is. For instance at work I keep everything at a professional level. I can tell my tone of voice is softer and emphasize on kindness. I try to keep my work life at work and try not to hang out with them outside of work unless it is a work function. I say that but then again you gain some relationships with people that somehow introduce them to different functions of your life. I am in charge of a lot of organizations which means I have to be very organized for these events. I am also over a lot of events so I people do tend to see that I have a silly side. I am a teacher here so my class always sees the kid in me. My tone with my class is different than what it would be with the teachers and staff within the school. I teach through a learn through play environment. I don’t speak to them like a child but I feel I do talk to them more in open ended questions and give lots of room for imagination. My students typically range in cultures and groups.

 I am the Secretary of my HOA and have a large influence on the things that go on within my community. I also keep a very professional tone with them. They do however see my fun side a lot more because I am also the event planner. I feel that they may see more of an argumentative type tone with me because they tend to try to make very testing decisions. Sometimes I feel like I am the only sane one in the conversation.

My children, family, and friends tend to get a different tone with me because I feel more comfortable with them. They see the true me. I feel that I can tell them anything or do whatever and all three groups would understand it because they have a connection with me. I don’t feel I have to prove anything with them. This makes my communication style differently.

Communication styles

For this assignment I watched an episode of Shipping Wars. My friend always records it but I have never watched it. We were asked to watch an episode of something that we were not familiar with on mute and then watch it with sound. I have to say with no sound it was quiet difficult to understand what was going on. This particular show puts a lot of capitations in their show so I was able to keep up with things. Apparently the show is about people that are bidding on the lowest prices to ship something. The characters in this episode are Jarret, Jessica, Todd/Tamera, and Dusty Dave. Again the names of the individuals were captioned so it was fairly easy to keep up with what was going on in the show. I did find that is hard to take notes when there is no sound to keep you on track. Every time I would put my head down I would find that I was lost on something that may have happened while I was writing.

Nonverbal: Jarrett seemed to use his hands a lot when talking. He seemed very overly expressive. Todd/Tamera seemed to be a couple that worked together. They were adorable. They gave each other high fives I was taking it that they won the bid. Jessica seemed to have a very hard time getting whatever it was that she was shipping on her truck. It looked to me like she was asking for help. On the customers face you could see some discomfort with Jessica’s customer. She looked unhappy and then it showed a map and laps time. She apparently was late. Jessica seems to be very agitated. It shows a tarp over her haul blow off and it then shows her on a one on one screen talking. She looks pissed.

There were a lot of maps and graphs that showed me where they would be traveling and detailed the arrangements of this haul. The bid prices were all listed out, so it seemed to be self-explanatory.  

When I watched the episode with sound, it was evident that Jessica had messed up something in her haul. The tarp blew off and it made the merchandise mess up. She ended up having to pay the woman back some money because of this. She also had to ask for help which cost her extra money. She still came out on top about 1,000 dollars. All I kept seeing without the sound was people on their computers and then everyone jumping in to their trucks and it was switching back and forth. It really had me confused because I couldn’t figure out how all the people introduced were in this. I thought they were all going to jump on this together and go get a haul as a team. It was evident with sound that they were not a team but bidding against each other. If I would have watched the show before this I definitely would have known this.

Communication behaviors

For this assignment we were asked to choose someone that demonstrates competent communication within a particular context. Then define the behavior that this person exhibits that makes them effective. Last would I want them to model my communication behaviors? The person I chose that demonstrates competent communication is my pastors wife. I feel that she is very kind and advocates with truthfulness, honesty, and accuracy. I feel that she listens to what people have to say and makes sure that she chooses her words wisely to ensure that the conversation is positive. I admire these qualities in her and would love to model them in every way. If she were to model some of my communication behaviors I think one would be to express opinions freely. I am a very opinionated young lady and feel that I express how I feel well.