The Power of Listening

The Power of Listening
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Purdue University Global
CM206 - Unit 6 Assignment
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The Power of Listening
Introduction
Listening is an essential element of effective interpersonal communication involving a complex process of digesting the intended message received from the verbal communication. A comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the different aspects of listening, characterizing the complex process of internalizing the intended verbal message, creates an excellent platform for understanding its influence or power in interpersonal communication.
The complex nature of the listening process accounts for its equally distinct definitions developed from the various bases for the analysis and evaluation of its key elements or features. These diverse definitions often revolve around a common theme of explaining how the key features of listening function and the objectives they achieve in the processCITATION Enc21 \l 1033 (Encylopedia of Comunication and Information, 2021). Integration of the common theme defines listening as the process through which an individual or groups receive information and extract the intended message from a verbal communication made by another person or group of people. It is a selective process that eliminates all other auditory stimuli within one’s environment to focus on a single source of the stimuli for extracting the content or information from the person passing the verbal communication. There are different types of listening, such as informational, discriminative, empathetic, and critical listeningCITATION Enc21 \l 1033 (Encylopedia of Comunication and Information, 2021). Informational listening features attentive listening to the entire speech from a given source, retaining and understanding the information passed. As the word suggests, discriminative listening refers to the selective reception of information by scanning the immediate environment to eliminate other sources of auditory stimuli to focus on one. On the other hand, sympathetic listening entails establishing emotional connections with the speaker as dictated by the feelings expressed in delivering the information. Critical listening demands more than analysis and evaluation of the verbal content, including contextualizing the message to understand the information better.
Though often used interchangeably, listening and hearing have unique features characterizing and differentiating both processes CITATION Bod11 \l 1033 (Bodie, 2011). Listening, for instan...