Communication as a Mirror into Who You Are: The Role of Self-concept

Introduction

This essay explores the idea that communication is a mirror into who you are, focusing on self-concept and the challenges of navigating through one's own self-concept. The essay will argue that communication is influenced by cultural background and personal experiences, and that understanding one's point of view is essential for effective communication. We will reflect on their own challenges in communication and the importance of avoiding assumptions about others. Richard West and Lynn H. Turner in their book Understanding Interpersonal Communication second edition. Also, explores the challenges experienced by the scholar as it feels personally comforted with the new learning; the impact the communication style has and the way the scholar builds and maintains meaningful relationships, along with the ability the scholar has to apply the new skill to the day-to-day relationships. This paper will argue that communication is a mirror into who we are. The way people see and connect is influenced by the cultural background and many complexities of being a human being. This difficulty is expressed by each communication style as well as the relationships a person will build in their lifetime. As the subject of communication is extensive this paper has focused on self-concept and the experience of the scholar has as it navigates through the own self-concepts this is supported by what West & Turner say “Our self-concept often changes as we grow older. Sometimes we want to change the way we see ourselves but we’re not sure we can. By taking a calculated risk, you may find that the way you see yourself—and, in turn, the way you see others—can change dramatically.” (West & Turner, 2011, p. 73) this theory will be explored in each paragraph as the scholar changes her perceptions of herself as consequents the way she sees others.

Before arguing that communication is a mirror into who we are. It is fundamental to define key learning that assists with the argument presented in this paper West & Turner define “interpersonal communication as the process of message transaction between people to create and sustain shared meaning” (West & Turner, 2011, p. 10). Human being around the world are expressing themselves with each other for the solid purpose of communication; the complexity that takes in creating a shared meaning urgent us to understand that meaning is affected by a variety of areas cultural background, family dynamics, memories, values, gender, and a person’s experiences, along with many other things (West & Turner, 2011, p. 11). This paper will focus on a person’s self-concept which is created by self-esteem and self–awareness. Self-concept explains that our communication reflexes a person’s inner being just like a mirror does reflect the objective in front of the mirror. “Self-awareness is our understanding of who we are” (West & Turner, 2011); and “Self-esteem is an evaluation of who we perceive ourselves to be” (West & Turner, 2011); as communication occurs each individual is processing the message through the self-concept and responding under the own parameters of understanding, for this reason, is essential to understand our point of view to ensure we are not communicating from our point of view only without taking in consideration those whom we are communicating with.

The concepts taught in this unit challenge me to my core, they make me feel burnable it remained me of seeing my reflex into a mirror seeing all of my faults as well as discovering a great aspect of my selves that I have never seen before. The first challenge was to accept that I tend to assume I know about the individual character or a situation base on my self-concept. My assumption created a barrier which makes it impossible to communicate with an individual who appears to be different from me or who have defended values (West & Turner, 2011, p. 101). I never saw myself as a person who makes assumptions of other before knowing them, this revelation makes me reflect on my job as part of my occupation I am required to make basic assumptions about the scope of work in a project this does not include people and it was something I was eager to changes as I did like this flaw in my character as I never saw myself as a judgmental person. In addition, I discovered that growing up in three different countries with three different cultures and two different languages is one of the reason I did not feel below to a particular group of people or background (West & Turner, 2011, p. 100) while this has affected my self-esteem for many years was truly amazing coming to that conclusion furthermore it was clear to me that I have two different communicate styles at work I am more abstract communicator than at home without forgetting I can occasionally be a pseudo listener while all of this sound negative I can see a great opportunity to develop a better communication skill which will assist me in my new chosen profession.

Each week, as I completed a new exercise a new challenge was presented to me, I was given the ability to understand what area of my communication needs to change, and I took the opportunity of focusing on the possibility of improving my communication. The first area to develop was to stop assuming I knew people as this was my first barrio in communication (West & Turner, 2011, p. 96). I begin by asking myself, what is that person’s story? This helped me a great deal as from the minute I started to ask myself this question I recognized that my knowledge of this person was null so my communication changed, my listening improve and I approach the person with I different main set. I have to be honest from time to time I have to stop myself from assuming people, however, this concept along has changed my communication style and the interaction with people, in general, has changed. Furthermore, I am now more comfortable around people that I do not know; as I stop judging people this gives me the ability to see the person as they are. The next challenge was to pay close attention to my abstract communication style at work (West & Turner, 2011, p. 123). Being aware of the way I communicated assisted me to I started to build a new relationship with my co-workers, as our communication styles are different I am taking the time to give them more context to our discussion. One of my co-workers, in particular, is a great pseudo-listener he can be nodding, looking at you and doing all the characteristics of a great listener (West & Turner, 2011, p. 199), still, he is a pseudo-listener, as a result of my learning I ask more question as part of our discussions, I give him the opportunity to have the conversation later as it appears we are not listing to each other, and he is feeling more countable telling me if he does not require the information I have to give him I can see the benefits this has brought to our relationship.

As I take time to consider my future I reflect on the privilege that has been in takings part in this unit in professional communication as the concepts presented in this course are fundamental to my new chosen profession of counseling; through the developing and understanding of my perception of myself and others, the different types of communication verbal and nonverbal and many more including listening this new skills and understanding will enable me to assist people were they are; As I ponder further in my future I realize that the skill's development in this subject is not limited to my work life but the applications of this skills are endless this new still will continue in assisting me in building meaningful relationships with real connotations, in addition, this will assist me to have the discernment to see when my point of view could be clouding my perception of others and their point of view. In my practicing, these skills for a short period I can see the benefits in my professional and personal life as my current relationships have improved but more importantly, the perception of myself has changed to the point that I am happily looking in the mirror. This first unit of my degree has reassured me that this is the correct career path for me and this revelation I am grateful.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this essay has discussed how communication reflects who we are, as individuals, we filter our communications through our personal beliefs and experience from our worldviews we perceive people, and we make a connection just like a mirror shows the object in from of it our communication show what is inside of us. Clearly, our self-concept changes through our internal growth the life experiences and perception of the world is different from a 10year old to a 40 year all this is a result of the physical changes as well as why we process the perception others have of us, for this reason, is important to understand your self-awareness and self-esteem (West & Turner, 2011, p. 61). Nevertheless, each individual has the own set of flaws accepting and working with them is vital for our internal growth. One suggestion is for schools to teach children about the own self-concept the fact that is flexible, that I different from person to person and the way can influence communication this could help teenagers to see themselves in a different light.

References

1. West, R., & Turner, L. (2011). Understanding interpersonal communication (2nd ed., p. 10-199). Boston: Wadsworth.