Analyze Yourself And Your Tools Research Papers Example

Based on the Myers Briggs personality test, I am an outgoing person, one who likes and actually enjoys being around a lot of people most of the time. Specifically, based on the human metrics exam, I am an extravert, sensing, feeling, and perceiving person. This makes a lot of sense because I really like going out on social events, going to the malls or basically anywhere where there are people; sensing and feeling because emotions play a critical role with the way how I think and talk, even during times of conflict with another person or group of people; and lastly, perceiving because I often weigh the situations first before I make any judgments. I think that this will influence my communication during a conflict positively because these four letter personality type test only showed that I use a balanced approach whenever I think and communicate. That way, my emotions do not really interfere with the way how I must rationally think and at the same time, my sense of justice does not really get distorted because my emotions still have a certain grip.
The Mind Estimator showed that I am good when it comes to abstract and concrete random reasoning. This means that I often process concrete and abstract processes by chunks in no particular order. Because I got a high score both in the concrete and abstract perception and random ordering ability, that means I visualize, conceive, and imagine ideas as well as interpret what I receive from my five senses in no particular order. This means that I am a non-linear thinker. This can affect my communication negatively because most people are linear thinkers and so they may not be able to understand the way how I see, judge, and order things, especially during a conflict. Additionally, I believe that linear and random order thinkers like me have a natural tendency to argue because these two types of people think differently. It just so happened that I belong to the more uncommon group of mind style.
Having assessed my communication skills numerous times throughout this course, I would give myself only an average rating relative to my peers because firstly, I honestly admit that I am not the best communicator out there and there are a lot of improvements I must make especially in this department. For example, I do not usually find it comfortable talking to people with a high level of authority. Sure, I can talk to them but not for long and I often get nervous especially when making negotiations with them. That in itself indicates that I must improve my communication skills even further. I think this would negatively affect the way how I communicate during conflicts, especially if the person I am having a conflict with is a person of authority.
After having my emotional quotient assessed, I got an above average finding. This means that compared to others I am fitter when it comes to the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions often in an effort to stimulate high levels of productivity and collaboration. This would most likely have a positive impact with the way how I communicate especially during times of conflict because I would be able to easily understand why a person behaves or talks in a particular way and from understanding, make a sound decision on how to react, communicate, and ease the tension in order to get out of a conflict situation.
The last test to be included in this essay would be the self-monitoring inventory. It was after this test that I realized that I am a good judge of myself. This means that I often detect whenever I am making a mistake or not; when I am acting out of context or overreacting to a situation or otherwise. In general, I think this can be a huge plus for my communication skills especially during times of conflict because it would become easier for me to know where I stand, whether I am on the right or wrong side in a situation, and from that reference point, make certain actions in order to get out of a conflict or even prevent one from occurring in the first place.
Apart from the objective findings I managed to obtain when I underwent the above-said tests, I learned that there are other factors that might affect the way how I communicate—personal background, under which lie more specific factors like history, culture, ethnicity, gender, social status, family and societal role, are also important factors. Based on experience and being a good monitor of myself, I believe that my personal background influences the way how I communicate heavily. I often find myself making socially-significant decisions based on my past experience, based on the culture in our country, and based on my perceptions on what my gender, personal, and societal roles should be. For example, in a typical situation where I am a part of a group having a casual conversation, I often make conjectures based on the facts and established norms in the culture of the country that we live in. I also do not fail to uphold the fact that I am a unique person who came from a unique culture and as one, I have to defend my personality, my culture, and my personal background against other people who might be too aggressive or judgmental about them.
During conflicts, my communication habits play an important role. Firstly, I have my own ethical approach when communicating in a conflict. I always let the other party express his feelings and speak out first before I respond and do the same. This way, I can be sure that my judgment of the situation and more importantly, of who is right or wrong is correct. From that, I would then know whether I should be apologizing or defending my ground in terms of communicating. Secondly, I was able to find out earlier that I am an empathizer. I think this is a good trait for a person who often finds himself in a conflict like me because people would naturally be comfortable around me. For example I got in a communication conflict with a peer when I was in college and because he somehow perceived me as an empathic person, we managed to solve the conflict fairly easily. Thirdly, I got an above average score on the interpersonal communication competence which I think is a good thing because that means I can comfortable talk to other people, express my feelings and viewpoints to them, without actually creating a conflict. And lastly, I also got an above average score on Spitzberg and Cupach’s model of communication competence. I think it can be a good thing for the same reason that I had in the other tests.
For the record, I do not find any interpersonal communication model as more useful than the others. For me, they can be equally useful, only that there are other people who would prefer using them, albeit unconsciously, over the others.
Negotiating during interpersonal communication is important and for me honing my listening skills must be the top priority because this would enable me to not miss out any important detail about making my negotiation argument to the person I am talking to, something which most people fail at.
Cultural barrier is perhaps the most important barrier that one has to overcome and the next one would be the social class barrier. These two barriers affect the way how people communicate. I know that this does not only apply to me but to a lot of people. For me, the most effective tool to counter these barriers would be confidence and a continuously improving set of communication skills. This way, one would find it comfortable to talk to all kinds of people regardless of those people’s cultural background or social class.