Q. 1) What is Personality? Explain the three layers in personality.
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Personality is a complex, multifaceted topic. It is more comprehensive in its connotation than “temperament” or ‘character’ but we often confuse it with them. We often identify it with the ‘externals’ of an individual, his looks, voice, dress, manners and gestures, when we remark, “Madhuri has a wonderful personality or Anil has a poor personality.” The externals or physique and appearance constitute only one factor in one’s personality; they do not constitute the whole that is implied by the term personality.
Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. It may be defined as a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world. “Personality is a dynamic organization within the individual of those psychosocial systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.” Gordon Allport (1961).In his definition, Allport tried to recognize the dynamic nature and organizational aspects of personality and tried to emphasize the role it can play in the individual’s adjustment to his environment. We often hear and make comments like “Rakesh is very timid,” or “Geeta is very conscientious.” These descriptive statements refer to personality traits. A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. Adjectives such as honest, dependable, moody, anxious, impulsive, domineering, excitable, friendly, describe dispositions that represent personality traits.A small number of fundamental traits determine other, more superficial traits. For example, a person’s tendency to be impulsive, restless, irritable, boisterous, and impatient might all be derived from a more basic tendency to be excitable.
Q. 2) What are the elements of interpersonal communication?
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The Communicators Minimum of two persons must be involved for any communication to take place. The most basic way to visualize any communication process is to think about a message being conveyed between a sender and a receiver. However, communication is not such a simple process. It is not a one-way process where one person is sending the message and the other is receiving it. While one person is talking the other person is not just listening but also trying to comprehend it, while doing so the person also responds in the form of head nods, smiles etc. So communication is generally a two-way process, an interactive one. While one speaks, the other listens and then he replies.
The Message
It comprises not only the words used or the information conveyed, but it also comprises the various nonverbal messages swapped, like the facial expressions, gesticulations, voice tone and body language. Additional information about the spoken message is conveyed through nonverbal behavior. Nonverbal behavior can reveal about the emotional attitudes underlying the speech content.
Noise
Noise has a distinct mention in the communication theories. Anything which misrepresents the messages, such that what is received is different from what was intended to be communicated by the speaker is referred to as noise. While physical noise (background sounds) can affect the communication process other factors like usage of complex jargon, inappropriate body language, inattentiveness, disinterest and cultural dissimilarities can also be considered as noise in the perspective of interpersonal communication. So any distortion or discrepancy that occurs during the communication process can be viewed as noise.
Feedback
It consists of the response or message from the receiver, which aids the sender to know how correctly the message has been conveyed and also the receiver’s reaction to the message.
Feedbacks can be in the form of verbal statements like “Please repeat, I am unable to understand”, or refined facial expressions or change in posture that may give the sender appropriate indication. Feedback aids the sender to enhance the communication process by regulating, adapting or repeating the message.
Q. 3) Discuss the effect of emotions on mind, body and behaviour.
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EFFECT OF EMOTIONS ON MIND, BODY AND BEHAVIOUR
Learning to become more aware of our emotions is important as they are trying to give us messages to help us survive. If we don’t recognise and respond to our emotions well, they can get more intense over time. This is because the emotion is still trying to get the right message through to us. Emotional awareness can go wrong when –
• We ignore our emotions when we are experiencing
• We try to bury them (suppression)
• We misidentify them (e.g. we think we are angry when we are really frightened)
One big part of emotional awareness is being able to name your emotions and tell them apart. This is a skill called labelling and it is an important step in managing your emotions effectively.
Q. 4) Explain ‘Active Listening’.
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Active listening
Active listening is an important skill and yet, as communicators, people tend to spend far moreenergy considering what they are going to say rather than listening to what the other person is trying to say. Active listening is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. However, active listening can be difficult to master and will therefore, take time and patience to develop. ‘Active listening’ means, as its name suggests, actively listening. That is fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively ‘hearing’ the message of the speaker.
The following points are essential for effective and active listening:
• Be prepared to listen.
• Be objective.
• Keep an open mind and concentrate on the main direction of the speaker’s message.
• Avoid distractions if at all possible.
• Delay judgment until you have heard everything.
• Do not be trying to think of your next question while the other person is giving information.
• Do not dwell on one or two points at the expense of others.
• The speaker should not be stereotyped. Try not to let prejudices associated with, for example, gender, ethnicity, social class, appearance or dress interfere with what is
being said.
• Arrange a comfortable environment conducive to the purpose of the communication,
for example a warm and light room with minimal background noise.
Q. 5. A) What is self awareness? Explain the concept of Johari Window.
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Self-awareness
Self-awareness can be broadly understood as a process of the practice of reflection and evaluation during individual experiences (Crook, 1980; Morin, 2011). However, self-awareness is not merely the possession of conscious awareness of one’s self, that which is no different from the level of self-awareness possessed by all animals, but it is the process of acknowledging oneself, a state where one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self. It is not merely being explicitly ‘conscious’ of what one is doing, but being self-aware is reflecting on the experience being perceived and the stimulus being processed. Thus when a person is working on a task, it refers not just to his/her doing the work mechanically, but how he/she shows his/her specific skill or uniqueness in achieving it, as well as reflecting and acknowledging his strengths and weaknesses in achieving a task. In this process an individual not only understands their own strengths and weakness (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001) but also understands how others perceive them (Baumeister, 2005; Taylor, 2010). Thus, Baumeister (2005) had suggested that self-awareness is “anticipating how others perceive you, evaluating yourself and your actions according to collective beliefs and values, and caring about how others evaluate you.” This anticipation of how others perceive you, Baumeister (2005) refers to is the ‘other awareness’ (Mayer, Salovery, & Caruso, 2004). It is important to understand how one’s own self-awareness is influenced by theunderstanding that one has about the impact of other’s behaviour on our own self, and vice versa. In the example given above, the responses of the others in terms of the impact of an individual’s achievement of the task will influence the individual’s awareness of his capability. Duval and Wicklund (1972) have proposed that an individual has two types of self-awareness, firstly, the objective self-awareness where individuals periodically focus attention inward and begin a comparison process to assess themselves against a salient standard (e.g., a behavior or progress toward a goal). Secondly, they speak about self-awareness in a sense of the self being a socially evaluative object. Thus, individuals see themselves both from self- and other-observation point of view, having different vintage points that individuals use in the reflective process of looking at themselves through their own eyes and the eyes of the others around them (Duval & Wicklund, 1972).Though self-awareness begins at an early age, understanding the self and its complexity only comes about with increased age.
The Johari Window In the concept of self-awareness, model which is of great importance is the one proposed by two American psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (1955), popularly known as the ‘Johari Window’. This model is also denoted as feedback/disclosure model of self-awareness. The model was proposed in a pursuit of improving self-awareness and personal development among individuals when they are in a group. The ‘Johari’ window model is a convenient method used to achieve this task of understanding and enhancing communication between the members in a group. The name of the model, ‘Johari’ came from joining of the first names of both the psychologists.
The Johari window model is used to enhance the individual’s perception on others. This model is based on two ideas— trust can be acquired by revealing information about you to others and learning about yourselves from their feedback. Each person is represented by the Johari model through four quadrants or window panes. The Johari is represented as a common window with four panes. Two of these panes represent self and the other two represent the part unknown to self but to others. The four windows can be broadly understood to constitute information about personal information, feelings, motivation and whether the information that is received is known or unknown to oneself or others. The information is transferred from one pane to the other as the result of mutual trust which is achieved through socializing and the feedback the one gets from other members of the group. Students may attempt to answer the Johari window questionnaire available online to assess for themselves and understand the concepts of Johari window with greater clarity. The four windows of the ‘Johari’ model are as follows:
1. Open self – In the “Open self” part of the window, the information about the person his attitudes, behaviour, emotions, feelings, skills and views will be known by the person as well as by others. This is mainly the area where all the communications occur and the larger the arena becomes the more effectual and dynamic the relationship will be. Practical implications to self here may be seen through ‘Feedback solicitation’. This is a process which occurs by understanding and listening to the feedback from another person. Through such a feedback, the open area can be increased horizontally decreasing the blind spot. The size of the arena can also be increased downwards and thus by reducing the hidden and unknown areas through revealing one’s feelings to other person.
2. Blind self or blind spot – Information about a person that others know in a group but he/
she will be unaware of it. Others may interpret the person differently than he/she may expect. The blind spot is reduced through an efficient communication by seeking feedback from others.
3. Hidden area or fa̤ade РInformation that is known to the person, but will be kept unknown from others. This can be any personal information which the person feels reluctant to reveal. This includes feelings, past experiences, fears, secrets etc. The hidden area can be reduced by moving the information to the open areas.
4. Unknown area – The Information which the person is unaware of to himself/herself as well as others. This includes the information, feelings, capabilities, talents etc. This can be due to traumatic past experiences or events which can be unknown for a lifetime. The person will be unaware till he discovers his hidden qualities and capabilities or through observation of others. Open communication is also an effective way to decrease the unknown area and thus to communicate effectively.
Q. 5 B) Define Anxiety and explain Anxiety Management Techniques.
Ans:
ANXIETY
Naresh was walking alone at night when he saw a group of people approaching in the far distance. Instantly, his imagination began to toy with him: “They are surely robbers!” he thought. “No, why just robbers? Murderers, cutthroats! About to set upon me, a lonely traveler, leave me for dead and steal all my possessions! How are my wife and children going to cope without me?!” Naresh heart began to pound. His mouth became as dry as his palms became wet. He shook from head to toe and found himself breathing like an unfit man running to the finishing line of his first marathon. Having thoroughly terrified himself, he stumbled into a nearby graveyard and cowered shaking inside an open tomb, awaiting his fate. Meanwhile, the harmless strangers, worried by his dramatic behavior, approached him and looked with concern down into the tomb. “What, pray, are you doing down there?” they asked. Naresh, calming down quickly, said: “Well, put it this way: I am here because of you and you are here because of me!” Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations. For example, it can be useful before a competition or presentation or a job interview. It will increase your alertness and performance. Anxiety in situations of real danger enables individuals to act quickly to ward off/escape danger. However, severe anxiety is not useful and can diminish an individual’s capacity to take in new information or plan an appropriate response.
Symptoms of Anxiety
• Worrying
• Feeling unpleasant before performance ( often referred to as butterflies in the stomach)
• Panic
• Obsessive thinking styles (thinking about the same thing or issue)
Anxiety can be understood as the inability to accept uncertainty. Individuals avoid certain situations or tasks, in an attempt to avoid a negative outcome. Individuals who experience anxiety procrastinate, refuse to delegate, do excessive checking, avoid situations and constantly Anxiety can be managed by interrupting this cycle which means by actively changing your response to the triggering event which will produce a different outcome.
Anxiety Management Techniques
1. Relaxation Exercises/ Techniques: These include progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, mindfulness, and deep breathing. The benefits of these techniques are:
• These techniques help us to breathe in ways that will promote calm and relaxation.
• They Slow down activity in the mind to avoid or learn to better tolerate “racing thoughts.”
• Increase awareness of tension in the body and improve awareness of the difference between tension and relaxation.
• Lowers general level of tension and restlessness in the body.
2. Get control of your imagination
• Sit down and do your deep breathing.
• Count yourself down from whatever number you deem yourself to be to a 2 or a 1.
• Imagine seeing yourself in the situation you were dreading, but see yourself being calm, composed, cool, and comfortable and things going well. Doing this starts to recondition your mind to feel calmer and more upbeat about upcoming events or regular situations which were causing anxiety.
3. Use the AWARE technique
Fear and anxiety can feel as if they ‘just happen to us’, but we have much more control than we realize. Aware is an acronym standing for:
A: Accept the anxiety. Don’t try to fight it.
W: Watch the anxiety. Just watch it and when you notice it, scale your level of fear and start to breathe longer on the out-breath.
A: stands for ‘act normally’. Carry on talking or behaving as if nothing is different. This sends a powerful signal to your unconscious mind that its over-dramatic response is actually not needed because nothing that unusual is going on. Like fire fighters coming out and seeing that no emergency is happening and so going back to the fire station.
R: Repeat the above steps in your mind if necessary.
E: Expect the best. One of the greatest feelings in life is the realization that you can control fear much more than you thought possible.
Q. 6. A) What is the difference between verbal communication and non-verbal communication? Explain in detail.
Ans:
VERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Effective verbal or spoken communication is dependent on a number of factors and cannot be fully isolated from other important interpersonal skills such as non-verbal communication, listening skills and clarification. Clarity of speech, remaining calm and focused, being polite and following some basic rules of etiquette will all aid the process of verbal communication.
Opening Communication
In many interpersonal encounters, the first few minutes are extremely important as first impressions have a significant impact on the success of further communication. Everyone has expectations and norms as to how initial meetings should proceed and people tend to behave according to these expectations. If these expectations are mismatched, communication will not be effective or run smoothly, and some form of negotiation will be needed if relations are to continue. At a first meeting, formalities and appropriate greetings are usually expected: such formalities could include a handshake, an introduction to yourself, eye contact and discussion around a neutral subject such as the weather or your journey may be useful. A friendly disposition and smiling face are much more likely to encourage communication than a blank face, inattention or disinterested reception.
Reinforcement
The use of encouraging words alongside non-verbal gestures such as head nods, a warm facial expression and maintaining eye contact, are more likely to reinforce openness in others. The use of encouragement and positive reinforcement can:
• Encourage others to participate in discussion (particularly in group work)
• Signify interest in what other people have to say
• Pave the way for development and/or maintenance of a relationship
• Allay fears and give reassurance
• Show warmth and openness.
• Reduce shyness or nervousness in ourselves and others.
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Interpersonal communication not only involves the explicit meaning of words, the information or message conveyed, but also refers to implicit messages, whether intentional or not, which are expressed through non-verbal behaviors.
Non-verbal communications include
• eye contact
• facial expressions
• the tone and pitch of the voice
• postures or gestures displayed through body language (kinesics)
• closeness or personal space
• the physical distance between the communicators (proxemics)
• physiological changes.
These non-verbal signals can give clues and additional information and meaning over and above spoken (verbal) communication.
Non-verbal Messages Allow People To:
• Reinforce or modify what is said in words. For example, people may nod their heads vigorously when saying “Yes” to emphasize that they agree with the other person, but a shrug of the shoulders and a sad expression when saying “I’m fine thanks,” may imply that things are not really fine at all!
• Convey information about their emotional state.
• Define or reinforce the relationship between people.
• Provide feedback to the other person.
• Regulate the flow of communication, for example by signalling to others that they have finished speaking or wish to say something. Many popular books on non-verbal communication present the topic as if it were a language that can be learned, the implication being that if the meaning of every nod, eye movement, and gesture were known, the real feelings and intentions of a person would be understood.
6. B) Explain strategies of effective study skills.
Ans:
Strategies of Study Skills
Experts use effective strategies in understanding the information in their area of expertise and in advancing it. Let us now explore some effective strategies that students can develop to become competent at learning and studying. Patricia Alexander (2003) use the label acclimation to describe the initial stage of expertise in a particular domain such as English, biology, or mathematics. At this stage, students have limited and fragmented knowledge that restricts their ability to detect the difference between accurate and inaccurate and relevant and tangential information. To help students move beyond the acclimation stage, teachers need to guide students in determining what content is central and what is peripheral, as well as what is accurate and well supported and what is inaccurate and unsupported. In Alexander’s (2003) view, students don’t come to the classroom equipped with
the strategies they need to move beyond the acclimation stage. Teachers must help students learn effective strategies and practice them in relevant situations before students can experience their value. students also need to be encouraged to change and combine strategies to enrich their study skills. Spreading Out and Consolidating Learning Students’ learning benefits when teachers talk with them about the importance of regularly reviewing what they learn. Students who have to prepare for a test will benefit from distributing their learning over a long period rather than cramming for the test at the last minute. Cramming tends to produce short-term memory that is processed in a shallow rather than deep manner. A final, concentrated tune-up before the test is better than trying to learn everything at the last minute. Asking Themselves Questions When students ask themselves questions about what they have read or about an activity, they expand the number of associations with the information they need to retrieve. For example, as students read, they can be encouraged to stop periodically and ask themselves questions such as “What is the meaning of what I just read?” “Why is this important?” and “What is an example of the concept I just read?” If students generate questions like this while reading a lesson or listening to an audio or video lesson, they are more likely to remember the things.
Taking Good Notes Taking good notes from either a lecture or a text benefits learning. Students should not write down everything they hear when they take notes. They need to grasp the important things from a lesson and write down notes. Some good note taking strategies are:
• Summarizing: Students should listen for a few minutes and then write down the main idea that is a speaker is trying to get across in that time frame. Then listen for several more minutes and write down another idea, and so on.
• Outlining: Outlining what speaker is saying, using first-level heads as the main topics, second-level heads as subtopics under the first-level heads, and third-level heads under
the second-level heads.
• Using Concept Maps. Practice drawing concept maps, which are similar to outlines but visually portray information in a more spider like format.
All the three note-taking strategies help you evaluate which ideas are the most important to remember. Outlining and concept maps also help you arrange the material hierarchically, which underscores an important theme of learning: It works best when it is organized.
Using a Study System Various systems have been developed to help people to remember information that they are studying from a book. One of the earliest systems was called SQ3R, which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. A more recently developed system is called PQ4R, which stands for Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, and Review. Thus, the PQ4R system adds an additional step, “Reflect.” From the later elementary school years on, students will benefit from practicing the PQ4R system. The system benefits students by getting them to meaningfully organize information, ask questions about it, reflect on it, and review it. Here are more details about the steps in the PQ4R system:
• Preview. Preview involves briefly surveying the material to get a sense of the overall organization of ideas – to look at the headings to see the main topics and subtopics that will be covered.
• Question. Ask yourself questions about the materials as you read it.
• Read. Read the material actively such that you immerse yourself in what you read and and strive to understand what the author is saying. This helps you to avoid being empty
reader, who just track the lines of text. So, try to read actively and mindfully to register every important thing of the text.
• Reflect. Occasionally stop and reflect on the material. This increases meaningfulness. Be analytic at this point in studying. After you read something, challenge yourself to break open the ideas and scratch beneath their surface. This is a good time to think out applications and interpretations of the information, as well as connecting it with other information already in your long-term memory.
• Recite. This involves self-testing yourself to see if you can remember the material and reconstruct it. At this point, make up a series of questions about the material and then try to answer them.
• Review. Go over the material and evaluate what you know and don’t know. After the sixth step, if you could not get satisfactory feedback given to yourself then you need to repeat the cycle once again to get mastery over the text after giving a pause to
reading.
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