Human communication involves interaction between or among people. Various types of human communication include interpersonal, public, intrapersonal, and intercultural. This paper addresses three questions dealing with human communication.
Relationship deterioration refers to the stage in interpersonal communication when the bonds holding people together weaken (Pearson et al., 2006, p.99). At this point, both parties in the relationship are unhappy with the current state of affairs. The causes of relationship deterioration include having unrealistic expectations from the relationship. Financial difficulties, work-related problems and third party relationships are also among the causes of relationship deterioration.
Circumscribing is the stage in relationship deterioration characterized by decreased interaction, shorter time together and less depth to sharing. At this stage, a couple may appear normal from the outside, but communication between the couple is minimal. The couple tends to avoid certain topics of discussion considering them as a taboo. The coupe hardly communicates at this stage and therefore, it becomes difficult to know what they feel about each other.
The relationship at this stage begins to go back to its superficial stages, and the couple loses interest in it. As the word describes, each person in the relationship starts to draw a circle around him or herself. This circle does not include the other person and therefore, there is little or no interaction between the parties (Pearson et al., 2006, p.122).
The couple does not share their feelings neither show any commitment to the relationship. At this point, the obvious pairing is diminishing. It is essential for the couple to reinvest in their relationship at this stage to avoid losing the investment made to the partnership in the past. The couple could take a vacation, go for counseling or sit down and talk to salvage the relationship.
Effective listening is one of the most crucial skills that an individual should have in order to ensure efficient communication. To solve complex problems in businesses and personal relationships, it is crucial to develop effective listening skills. Effective listening is more than hearing the spoken words.
It involves analyzing the meaning of the messages spoken, and focusing on the person speaking rather than the words spoken. Several barriers affect effective listening and include environmental distractions, close mindedness, defensiveness and pride among others (Pearson et al., 2006, p.134).
In the given scenario, Ben hinders effective listening because of his pride. Ben believes that other peoples’ opinions are invalid in the group meeting. He claims that since he has been doing the work for five years, he knows how to do things better. This is pride and it hinders him from listening effectively to other members of the group. Pride involves an element where a person does not value the other person’s opinions.
An individual takes over the conversation because he or she believes he has nothing to learn from the other members of the group (Pearson et al., 2006, p.131). A proud person has the attitude that he or she is better than any other individual in that group is. This pride is what Ben has from his comments. It is a personal obstacle to effective listening and hinders human communication.
In addition, pride involves a person’s attachment to personal beliefs and values. Personal beliefs and values cloud a person’s thinking restricting effective listening. People tend to find only those views that support their beliefs and discard those that do not. With time, a person attaches him or herself to a certain viewpoint and cannot listen to other people’s opinion affecting listening.
Human communication is the process by which people in relationships and groups use information to interact with one another and the environment. This communication is beneficial because it enables people to understand how businesses work. Several functions of human communication include physical, identity, social and practical needs. When a person identifies something by revealing how it works, a person is using the practical function of human communication.
The practical function enables a person to understand a situation better. This function enables people to understand themselves and their self-interaction with others.
This function is vital in communication because it enables people to understand the functioning of daily tasks. In most organizations, employers encourage their employees to utilize practical communication skills in order to achieve the organization’s goals (Pearson et al., 2006, p.143).
Through practical communication function, it is possible to understand processes in the organization and explain their functioning. In addition, it becomes possible to understand the making of the processes though practical communication. Besides, practical communication enables a person to understand what the processes consists.
Further, practical communication enables students in various institutions to communicate effectively. Practical communication enables students to progress academically by analyzing situations in their academic work and providing solutions. Communication through group discussions is possible because students utilize practical ideas to develop solutions.
Practical communication facilitates interaction among people in daily activities enabling understanding of different situations. This function of communication is paramount in daily interactions because people are able to operate effectively. Therefore, it is necessary for individuals in a communication process to be practical in their dealings to be able to identify different situations and analyze them.
Reference
Pearson, J., Nelson, P., Titsworth, S., & Harter, L. (2006). Human Communication with Learning Tool Suite. New York: McGraw-Hill.