There are similarities and differences in how I evaluate myself and how others do to me. I chose a colleague and my husband as the evaluators. The similarities, both of them agree to put me in group 1 or the ‘people-oriented’ group as my listening style which also the same as my own result. They also evaluate my verbal aggressiveness in the same moderate level although I have seven points’ lower score. The difference fall in the communication anxiety inventory level. They result in low level which means they consider me to be comfortable communicating in most situations and feel confident in anticipating it while I result in mild level. This surprised me because what others see me to be comfortable in most situations, as a matter of fact, I feel differently. My husband who has known me more than 20 years sees me as a confident person in encountering for a comfortable communication situation while deep down in my heart I do have a feeling of in confidence in communicating with others in certain situations.
The results
of the evaluations give me two insights:
1. There is always a ‘part’ of each
individual which will not be recognized by others no matter how close they are.
As what I got from the evaluation on me, the self-esteem (how I feel about
myself) is not recognized by the people I meet and interact every day.
2. Although the result of my verbal
aggressiveness is categorized in moderate level, I realize that my ability to
argue has to be put as an alert to remind me to be careful when I deal with a
difficult person or specifically difficult families in early childhood context.
References
Rubin, R.,
Palmgreen, P., &Sypher, H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.
Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com
. Rubin, R.
B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.)
(2009). Communication research measures
II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com
Hi Brigitte,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and agree with your insights. My evaluators assessed me as someone who is a confident speaker when speaking in large groups and honestly deep down inside I feel the opposite. I feel that when I speak in public or in large groups I am not making any sense. I guess the way we present ourselves really does say a lot.
Thanks for sharing!
Erika
Hi Brigitte, I appreciate your analysis of how some people not knowing a part of you no matter how well they "know" you. I had not thought of this before. Interestingly enough, my family scored me high in verbal aggressiveness while I scored myself moderate. I figure there's something to it so I need to work on this aspect of my communication. Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteBrigette,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and explanations of how you and others view yourself. Your insights brought out some very valid points that no matter how close individuals are there will be apart that they may not see. I also scored mid level when it comes to communication anxiety, large groups make me extremely nervous.