Introduction
Listening is a system of interrelated components, inclusive of both mental processes and observable behaviors, and occurring in six stages: hearing, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. This paper will evaluate and analyze four types of listening, appreciative, empathic, comprehensive and critical.
Four types of listening
Appreciative listening occurs when we listen to something that helps us relax and unwind. For example, attending a concert or a comedy show, will enable listener enjoy what they are hearing and relax. Empathic listening serves a therapeutic function (Gamble & Gamble, 2018). It helps people come to terms and develop a clearer prospective on the situations they face. It is mostly used in interpersonal relationships, when a partner tries to understand what another person is going through. Moreover, this type of listening can occur in public speaking also, when audience is listening to something traumatic that the speaker went through.
Comprehensive listening occurs when one tries to comprehend speaker’s words. For example, when a person is lost and asks for directions, therefore, they try to comprehend the directions given. Similar type of listening also happens in lectures, when students listen to the professor talk with the objective of gaining knowledge. Critical listening often happens in addition to comprehensive listening. It occurs when someone not only tries to understand the message, but also judge it’s validity and worth, whether to accept it or not (Gamble & Gamble, 2018). It could happen in work discussion, when it is required not only to understand the message, but also to evaluate it based on own opinion and experience.
Conclusion
Four types of listening consist of appreciative, empathic, comprehensive and critical. First two types are more emotional related, when going to concerts or listening and emotionally relating to a person. Whereas the second two types are more logical, when listener tries to understand and then evaluate information. All four types regularly happen in the everyday life.
References
Gamble T.K. & Gamble M.W. (2018). The Public Speaking Playbook. SAGE Publications, Inc.