COMM120
Group Presentation Outline
Topic: Active Listening Skills in Family Relationships
I. Introduction
Listening is essential for the well-being of family communication and provides significant
benefits. Your family members and partner values and listens to what you are saying.
Listening helps to relate, form, and maintain relationships. An important aspect of listening
is to become aware that it happens in stages. The key is to identify listening barriers and
apply active listening skills to enhance the relationship.
A. Key Interpersonal Principles and Concepts
1.
Listening is process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to
spoken and/or nonverbal messages.
a. The stages of listening include receiving, understanding, remembering,
evaluating, and responding.
Suggestions: Resist until you fully understand, assume the speaker has goodwill,
distinguish fact from inference, and identify any bias or self-interest from the
speaker.
b. Listening barriers include physical and mental distractions, biases and
prejudices, and avoiding premature judgment.
c. The styles of listening effectively polite listening skills include avoid
interrupting the speaker, show empathy, maintain eye contact, and
positive feedback. The Techniques of active listening include
paraphrasing the speakers’ meaning, remain objective, and focused on
content of message.
2. The relationship type family.
a. Family includes such factors as shared roles, shared history, and shared
living space.
b. The types of families are traditional couples and independent couple
II. Two Communication Challenges and Problem Solving Strategies
A. Listening skills in Traditional Family relationships
1. Challenge: “One of the biggest problems my husband and I face are our
listening skills. He tends to stage hog, which makes me feel as though my
ideas are not as important as his are. I never feel fully listened to. I tend
to pseudo listen, which leads to conflict situations and we end up
arguing.”
2. Problem-Solving Strategy: Make a date with husband in a distraction free
environment. Talk about the importance of employing polite listening
skills. Address the challenge of not having equal talk time. Emphasize the
importance of empathy by encouraging husband to explore the feelings
of wife by listening. Additionally, stress the importance of maintaining
eye contact and giving positive feedback while practicing a silent listening
response. Schedule a follow-up date to check progress about issue.
B. Listening skills in Independent Family relationships.
1. Challenge: “One of the biggest problems my wife and I face are our listening
skills in regard to getting side-tracked and not really listening to what the other is
saying. She jumps to conclusions and is not aware of what I am saying. She starts
making interpretations of things that I did not say and mean. I tend to react by
getting emotionally aroused and cranky”
2. Problem-Solving Strategy: Make a date with husband in a distraction free
environment. Share with wife the need for change (using “I” language) and ask
for her viewpoint. Generate possible solutions to the behavior observed. In this
case, it is important to become aware of listening barriers such as prejudging the
speaker. Address the challenge by suggesting active listening skills that include
paraphrasing and remaining objective and focused on the content of the
message. Schedule a follow-up date to check about progress.
Works Cited
Barinaga, Marcia. “Listening in on the brain.” Science, vol. 280, no. 5362, 1998, p. 376+.
Academic OneFile,
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e7ed764a2063a532bc45f64. Accessed 28 Nov. 2012.
Flaum, Sander A. “Eyes up, I’m talking to you!” Medical Marketing & Media, Mar. 2015, p.
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46eac637a9ad9d7f3c505f7. Accessed 30 Mar. 2016.
Haroutunian-Gordon, Sophie. “Plato’s Philosophy of Listening.” Educational Theory, vol.
61, no. 2, Apr. 2011, pp. 125-139. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.17415446.2011.00395.x. Accessed 28 Nov. 2012.
Waks, Leonard J. “John Dewey on Listening and Friendship in School and Society.”
Educational Theory, vol. 61, no. 2, Apr. 2011, pp. 191-205. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1111/j.1741-5446.2011.00399.x.. Accessed 28 Nov. 2012.
West, Richard L. and Lynn H. Turner. The Family Communication Sourcebook. SAGE
Publications, Inc, 2006. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=467120&site=ehostlive. Accessed 28 Nov. 2012.
Yeung, Rob. Emotional Intelligence: The New Rules. Marshall Cavendish, 2009. Rob
Yeung’s New Rules Series. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=314993&site=ehostlive. Accessed 28 Nov. 2012.

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