In my opinion, the lecture material on the topic is useful in terms of revealing the importance of the original intent of interlocutors in any conversation and emphasizing the influence that personal communication styles may have on the emotional coloring of the interaction process. The most important and, thus, thought-provoking for me was the assumption that the misunderstandings are oftentimes based on the differences of communication styles and people’s inability to adapt themselves in order to change the frame of any particular situation. Having reviewed the lecture, I decided to consider my behavior through the prism of conversational signals and devices that are unconsciously put into action in the course of communication.
The question that arose in my mind is the following: “How often do we find ourselves in the situation, when people simply cannot get along, and how can we become flexible enough to bridge the gap of communication?” Once we find the answer and learn how to pay attention to the conversational signals and devices that different people exploit in different situations, we will be able to change our behavior for others to feel comfortable while interacting with us. The quality and emotional response to such interactions will be more satisfying for the two parties.
Understanding Communication - Non-verbal Behavior and Communication
The starting point of the lecture material is that communication, being it verbal or non-verbal, always involves other people and if they do not attribute any meaning to your behavior it will never become a non-verbal communication. The situation, when people interpret your behavior in a certain way even without your intention, is also interesting because it emphasizes the necessity of paying attention to such manifestation of your inner feelings, as physical appearance, body language, touch, etc. Particularly important for me was the list of categories of non-verbal behavior, which can make an unconscious statement to other people, because it covered the points that I have never considered as meaningful before.
It was stated that we tend to trust non-verbal communication more than the words that are spoken out loud. Therefore, I would like to think over the question of how often the discrepancy between words and actions occurs in our everyday life and how can we use it to facilitate the process of interaction. The knowledge about functions and categories of non-verbal communication is really helpful because it can eliminate the possible misunderstandings between people, who might interpret the same message differently.
