Updated Communication Strategies

This past week, I have learned so much about the communication process, and how my communication style has developed over the years. I have never thought on the significance of past experiences, and how those experiences have a direct effect on the way we see or perceive others. In our text," Real Communication An Introduction", the authors correlated our past experiences( schemas), with how we perceive others. After reading some examples( in the text), of how our thoughts about ourselves shape our opinions of others, I came to the realization that all of my interactions with others, left deposits, and with each encounter, my communication style was altered.  After evaluating myself in all three areas, I have found that I am for the most part a pretty effective communicator. My husband use to tell me; especially if he was attempting to avoid a subject," I think you enjoy hearing  yourself". The people I chose to evaluate me, were people who knew me quite well: my sister, and my friend ( over twenty year friendship). I tried my best to choose people who would be completely honest with me about me. Both people's scores, fell almost in the exact range as mine. They both felt I am a person who tries very hard to positively communicate. I do not believe in attacking others in order to prove my point of view. I was a little surprised to see that on the verbal communication section, I have the tendency, if a person is acting foolishly, to be a little aggressive in my attempt to change their behavior. Professionally, I am able to suppress behaviors that may come off as intimidating; but people I am very close too, may get to see a different side of me. Because I understand, that when I interact with others, I am using my schemas to evaluate the people I'm communicating with, they( people ) too are evaluating me based on their schemas; it is important that we as educators fight hard, to eliminate schemas that may hinder fair evaluations of others