1. “Not As Easy As It Sounds”
Effective Listening:
“Not As Easy As It Sounds”
Presented by:
Kathleen E. High, M.Ed., CCSP, GCDF-I
Independent Education/Career Consultant
Your Dreams & Goals
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

2. Effective Listening Difference Between Listening and Hearing
Listening and Attention
Unable to Hear
Refusing to Hear
Check Your Information Source
Good Habits to Promote Hearing
Bad Habits That Distract from Hearing
Test Your Listening Skills
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

3. Difference Between Listening and Hearing
Listening and Hearing are two different things:
Hearing: The act of receiving the sound
Listening: The act of hearing and understanding what you hear
Hearing:
Is unavoidable and automatic
Uses your ears / sense of sound
Listening:
Takes effort and is voluntary
Is a skill that can be learned
Uses any combination of senses and mental processing
Adapted from: Unknown author “Listening Self Assessment”
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

4. Listening & Attention Listening is Impacted by Attention:
Two Theories:
Selective Exposure:
Pick and choose what messages to expose yourself
Selective Attention:
Pick and choose what messages you choose to receive
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

5. Unable to Hear “Expectancy Violations Theory”
Hearer:
Has expectations about what will happen
Often based on social norms
Communicator:
Violates those expectations
Violation distracts the hearer from the message
Result: Hearer
Focuses on the violation
Instead of the message
(Burgoon, 2018)
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

6. Refusing to Hear: Cognitive Dissonance
Mental Discomfort When Trying to Hold Two Contradictory Beliefs, Ideals, or Values
Humans strive for internal psychological consistency in order to function
Will respond to inconsistency and discomfort by:
Change behavior or thought
Justify behavior or thought by:
Changing conflicting cognition
Adding new cognitions
Ignore conflicting information
(Wikipedia, 2018)
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

7. Check Your Information Source
“Fake News” Websites on the Rise
Encourage False Understanding
Purpose:
False or Misleading
Clickbait
Satirical “News”
Tips for analyzing news sources:
mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/preview
(Zimdars, 2018)
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

8. Good Habits – Promote Hearing
Find Areas of Interest
Judge Content – Not Delivery
Hold Your Fire
Listen for Ideas
Be Flexible
Work at Listening
Resist Distractions
Exercise Your Mind
Keep Your Mind Open
Capitalize on Mind Working Faster than Speech
Adapted from: “10 keys to effective listening”. Cuesta College
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

9. Bad Habits – Distract from Hearing
Calling the subject Dull
Criticizing the Speaker
Getting Overstimulated
Listening for Only Facts
Trying to Outline Everything
Faking Attention
Adapted from: R. Nichols (1960) “The Supervisor’s Notebook”
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

10. Bad Habits – Distract from Hearing (Cont’d)
Tolerating Distraction
Choosing Only What’s Easy
Letting Emotion-Laden Words Get in the Way
Wasting the Differential Between Speech and Thought of Speed
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

11. Test Your Listening Skills
Best way to test your listening and understanding is to paraphrase
Paraphrasing is to put it into your own words
“So what you just said is …….”
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High

12. Works Cited
Burgoon, J. (2018, October 31). Expectancy violations theory. Retrieved from Wikipedia: 2018
Cuesta College. (November, ). 10 keys to effective listing. Retrieved from Online Library: library/listening/10_keys_to_effective_listening.pdf
Wikipedia. (2018, April 23). Cognitive dissonance. Retrieved from Wikipedia:
Zimdars, M. (2018, April 23). False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources. Retrieved from Google Docs: mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/preview
1/2/2019
©2018 Kathleen E. High