The Concept of Communication Style Essays -- Interpersonal Communicati

The Concept of Communication Style The concept of communication style has been defined by Rober Norton as "the way one verbally, nonverbally, and para verbally interacts to signal how literal meaning should be taken, interpreted, filtered, or understood"(1996.p.229) In this, Norton has identified nine communicator styles. A persons style may be dominant, dramatic, contentious, animated ,impression leaving, relaxed, open, or friendly. These dimensions measure how you interact in various situations. For example, if I speak frequently and try to control the converstaion, you might assume that I am dominant in my communicator style. In determining my own commuication style I had a questionnaire completed by both a friend, acquaintance , as well as completing one myself. The friend that I chose was my room mate Ryan Seslow. . Ryan and I have been friends since highschool so he knows me very well. The person that I chose to complete the acquaintance section was my friend Leslie Margasak. Leslie is my girlfriends roommate therefore our communication is somewhat limited. Through the following research and analysis I have created a table (Table:1) that shows the means for my friend aquaitance, and myself. The summaries and findings in which I calculated provided me with insight of my dominant yet friendly communication style. It also provided me with a different perspective as to how other people interpret my communication habits. For example, the mean for myself on the category "relaxed" scored a 1.3. However, my friends mean was 3.1 and my acquaintance was 5.1. Through the text of Interpersonal Communication, I was able to determine that this fluctuation has to do with the self concept theory. "Self -concept is defined as each person's own subjective view or image of him or herself as a person" (tremont p.213) In my opinion I do not see myself as relaxed(1.3), but my friend does as well as acquaintance. I do not see as relaxed as the others indicated in the table. Usually I feel rather more stressed and even a little nervous rather than relaxed when communicating. One calculation in which which I noticed to have simmialr realuts was based on the means for being dramtic. I scored high in this category on all three surveys.(see table:1) When a person is classified as dramatic it refers that the person "likes to act ... ...do so by staying relaxed. I scored a relatively low mean in the openess category and this is an area I would like to change. The means showed that I am not open nor am I percieved to be a very open person. Overall my communication style is very dominant, dramatic and friendly. Howvevr, despite this though Im not a very open person. I feel that my communication style does allow me to get people to listen to me closely becayse of my dramatics or ability to tell srotires in vivid detail and picturesqe. I am animated and expressive when I feel the need to emphasize a point or statement. This also helps my communication confidence since I know now that what I say often does an considerable impact on those who I am communicating with. In conclusion I am very pleased with the data which I recorded. I now understand my communciation style better yet at the same time have located areas in which I can begin to improve on. Through this assignment I learned a great deal about how I communcate as well as how others percieve my communication style. References 1.)Trenholm and Jensen, (1996). Intterpersonal Communication. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth Publishing Company.