Interpersonal Communication

Audience and background fear were the types of contact apprehension I encountered on the job. This was my experience when I was asked to deliver a community proposal to prospective investors. I always struggle to articulate myself in front of a crowd, which is exacerbated when working with a professional audience (Bevan & Sole, 2014). These manifest as fear, which always gets the best of me, resulting in a momentary misunderstanding of facts and putting a stop to the thought process. I felt like I was out of my breadth, I was partly weak at the knee and found it difficult remembering the contents of the report off head; all this due to context and audience anxiety.

2.

To overcome communication one can employ various methods such as learning to be open and preparing in advance before attempting the communication. To be open mean that you should be free and willing to handle whatever question or issue that arises during communication. This often prepares the speech giver and avoids surprise questions which are the culprits in throwing a speaker off balance. Practicing, on the other hand, involves rehearsing the communication if need be in a bid to improve the communication skills and boost confidence (Bevan & Sole, 2014).

3.

The role of communication is a professional setting is to pass information across. Professional forums often involve the exchange of ideas and relaying of information about the findings and experiments that have been done by the participants so far. From this perspective, the primary goal of such a settings is relaying of information.

Discussion 2, Self-Disclosure

1

Self disclosure refers to the opening up of the inner self and conversing about it, this includes sharing feelings and aspirations. It allows us to form bonds by enhancing the feelings of empathy and togetherness. Additionally, self disclosure helps us become self-aware due to the fact that in sharing with others what we feel, it helps us understand ourselves better and learn how to converse with our inner selves.

2

The social media platforms have placed emphasis on connection rather than conversation, which often undermines the personal touch and dynamic nature found in face to face conversations. As a result, individuals have become virtually connected but physically isolated and often alone. This has seriously disrupted individual face to face communication and resulted in a generation where people are increasingly emotionally inept since they often disclose their feelings to and through a machine which offer no dynamic solutions that are often available in the real world with face to face communication.

3

Self-disclosure helps reassure the individual that he is not alone and someone is willing to listen. This takes a huge burden off the person and plays a vital role in the enhancement of psychological health. As a matter of fact, it goes a long way in preventing potentially catastrophic mental conditions such as depression and low self-esteem. The human being is a social creature and as such craves company. However, it is worth noting that the company that a human being craves is not from machines but fellow people, in fact, pets won’t effectively fill the gap either. When machines are a replacement for people, they only last for some time before the individual notices their ultimate inflexibility with regards to reasoning and independence (Bevan & Sole, 2014).

Reference

Bevan, J. L., & Sole, K. (2014). Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/