Ashley Maldonado Listening Behaviors CTAC 225 MW 9:15-10:45am November 1, 2013 Research Paper Qualitative Research Hypothesis: How

can I become a better empathic listener? The article, Patient Education and Counseling, was describing a research study that was done in other countries based on the communication between doctors and patients. The study was basically a video recording of doctors and patients communicating about health problems. After the conversation was over, each party was asked to give tips for the other on how to communicate and listen more effectively. For the most part, patients and doctors in all the countries came up with the same list of tips, although there were some differences. One difference was that patients in Italy were more aware of the power distance between doctor and patient (Bensing 290). This means that people in Italy thought of their doctors as more knowledgeable and were less apt to share their opinions or argue with what the doctors said. They thought that the doctor was right and more superior. Even though this was the case, the patients still came up with tips for the doctors, but the list was smaller. Once the study was done, the patients and doctors from all the countries were asked to give tips for the other party on how to communicate better. Patients said that doctors needed to be more empathic when listening to people and try to walk in their shoes. They also said that doctors needed to show compassion for their patients and take patients seriously such as looking at them as human beings and not as a bundle of symptoms, (Bensing 289). Honesty was a key virtue that was listed in every country as a tip for doctors as well. One patient claimed that not everyone appreciates complete honesty from the doctor, especially when the news is negative. This led to the tip that honesty should never result in bluntness, but always be sensitive

to patients needs and embedded in empathy, (Bensing 290-91). Doctors said that patients needed to take their appointments seriously. Patients cannot use an appointment as a social event and they needed to actually keep the appointment. Patients needed to be honest about their symptoms, dont exaggerate, dont underplay your symptoms, and dont be embarrassed (Bensing 289). All of the participants, both doctors and patients, agreed that they would take the tips that were given and practice using them.

Ashley Maldonado Although I do not live in any of the countries that were a part of this study, I can benefit greatly from the tips that were given from both parties. Patients said that doctors need more compassion and empathy when dealing with other peoples problems. Patients also said doctors needed to treat them more like people and less like statistics and symptoms. I tend to think about the problem and solutions and less about the feelings behind the problem. When a friend talks about an issue with a friend and how frustrated s/he gets, I tend to think about how to solve the problem versus why s/he is frustrated. A tip the doctors gave the patients was to be totally honest about symptoms and how bad they actually are. I am not a liar, but I tend to over or under exaggerate things when it comes to my problems. So when I listen to my friends problems, I sometimes think that maybe s/he is doing the same thing I do. Maybe his/her problem is not actually as bad as they are making it out to be. To improve the skills that I am obviously lacking, I need to take some essential steps. The first step would be being more compassionate and empathic with other peoples problems. With this, I could really understand how s/he feels and may even be more of a comfort to him/her. Being able to see more clearly someones problems and how they feel and why, make helping them a lot easier because it would be easier to relate to and find common ground. Being more compassionate, I can comfort my friends easier and help them when they need it most. Another step Im going to take is being completely honest and not treating people like a bundle of symptoms. I am also going to stop assuming people are not completely honest with me. By doing this, I can start to trust people and what they are saying. By treating them like real people and not just a problem, I can look at feelings and open myself up. By understanding they are

people, I can add emotions and feelings and not treat them like a math problem with only one possible answer. It is possible that there is more than one solution.

Quantitative Research The article, Development and Validation of the Active Empathetic Listening Scale, was written describing a survey that was sent out to a selected number of randomly chosen houses about effective and ineffective listening. The first card sent out was telling the 600 members that they were potential respondents for the next part of the survey. The second part of the survey was then sent out and the study received 117 responses back. A second survey was sent out to the same group of people and this time 71 people responded, bringing the studys sample size to 188. Out of the total responses both times, 24 surveys were eliminated due to undeliverable or incomplete responses. The end sample size was 164, which makes an effective response rate of 27.7%. The sample was 67.7% male, a median age of 45.5 years old, and 64.4% of them were college graduates (Drollinger 165). The study then was designed to be like an experiment. Those who responded to the survey were then placed into the experiment, (Drollinger 166). These respondents were from a variety of jobs and companies. They were then placed randomly into a category of two conditions; a good salesperson or a bad salesperson. People in the first group were asked to describe a good salesperson and what makes him/her so good. The people in the second group were asked to describe a bad salesperson and what makes him/her so bad. The salespeople who were both good and bad were all described as being 89.6% male and 68.9% were college graduates. The experiment was done to see if listening played a key role in the effectiveness of salespeople. In order to keep bias out, respondents were asked to select a salesperson to describe based on their perception of the quality of the working relationship rather than on their perceptions of the listening skills of the salesperson, (Drollinger 166). This means that people were asked to describe the salespeople based on the relationship they had versus how good they listened. This is because ...it would be difficult to sustain such a

relationship if the salesperson were not a good listener, (Drollinger 166). This means that if a respondent said the salesperson had a bad relationship with him/her, the salesperson was a bad listener because relationships cannot last without good listeners. On the other hand, if the person described a good relationship, the salesperson was a good listener.

Ashley Maldonado The results of the study were significant, in my opinion. They showed that effective listening plays a key role to any part of life. If what the article say is true, a person cannot have an effective relationship without effective listening. Think about all the effective and ineffective relationships people have; bosses, co-workers, spouse, children, siblings, parents, friends, authority, etc. Now think about why each one is good or bad. Was it bad because of a misunderstanding that could have been avoided if there had been effective listening? Is one of the relationships good because both parties are effective at listening to the other? Chances are the answer to both questions is yes. The article states that, Listening theory consistently points to a strong positive link between salespeoples listening and the quality interpersonal relationship. This means that not only is there correlation between good relationships and effective listening, it is also a causation. The article also states that, effective listening has been shown to be positively related to customers intentions to work with salespeople in the futurean indication of a quality relationship. If the salesperson is effectively listening and has a positive relationship, the customers are more likely to work with them again. I can use this in my own life in one significant way; to analyze and correct my present relationships. By looking at these results, I can analyze which of my relationships needs work and which ones are good as they are. The relationships that are bad, I can now look at and say maybe I need to listen a little bit more or maybe I need to change the way I listen entirely. By looking at the relationships that are good and bad, I can compare them and see where the problem lies. Maybe Im more effective at empathetically listening to one person and not another. Maybe its the other person who is not effectively listening to me. In that case, maybe I

need to tell the person that things would work better if they could try to effectively listen to me, the way I do to them. The results have shown me that I can patch up my bad relationships and maintain my good ones. There is hope in all relationships with the right tools.

Graph for Respondents (Drollinger 165) Number of responses from first survey Number of responses from second survey Number of surveys that were eliminated End sample size of respondents Response rate Gender percentage of respondents Median age of respondents Percentage of respondents who were college graduates 117 responses 71 responses 24 surveys 164 respondents to participate 27.7% response rate 67.7% male respondents 45.5 years old 64.4% college graduate respondents

Works Cited Bensing, Jozien M., Myriam Deveugele, Francesca Moretti, Ian Fletcher, Liesbeth van Vliet, Marjolein van Bogaert, and Michela Rimondini. "Patient Education and Counseling." El Sevier 84 (2011): 287-293. Print. Drollinger, Tanya, Lucette B. Comer, and Patricia T. Warrington. "Development and Validation of the Active Empathetic Listening Scale." Wiley InterScience 23.2 (2006): 161-180. Print.