I have found it extremely difficult to confirm others when I
disagree with them. I find that I am very adamant about my opinions and forget
to acknowledge other’s views. I wasn't sure how to tell the difference between
the three terms but after reading the chapter I understood how they can
coincide with each other. The first confirmation is recognizing. You can recognize that another person exists
with nonverbal behaviors and verbal communication. The second confirmation is acknowledgement.
You can acknowledge what another feels, thinks, and says. We can acknowledge this
by nodding our head and making eye contact. The last confirmation is endorsement.
This involves accepting another’s feeling or thoughts. After reading the
chapter I understand that endorsement “isn’t always possible if we are trying
to be honest with others”. If we don’t agree with someone we may not always be
able to give them an endorsing response. In order to confirm someone it must be
genuine and sincere. There is a way to confirm someone without endorsing their
thoughts. A person can acknowledge what another person is feeling but not
necessarily agree with their thoughts.
Although we all have our own beliefs and opinions, it is very important to keep an open mind to those around you. By identifying this flaw in your interpersonal communication skills you are able to quickly identify how to fix the problem. As you described in your post you must first reconize that the other person exists. By doing this you have to relize that they too have their own beliefs and opinions. The second step is acknowledgement. To acknoledge someone is to realize that while they have opinions, they are entitled to those opinions. The finsl step is endorsment where you either accept or decline someones beliefs. I really enjoyed reading your post this week, and hope that you get better at accepting the views of others.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely about it being hard to confirm with others when I disagree with them. When I have an opinion on a subject, I always feel as though my opinion is correct and no one else can even be partially right. Like you, I never was able to tell the difference between the terms that the chapter uses. In reality, I never even thought about the terms in any manner. I always knew that there were different parts to confirming a conversation, but I guess I never really thought about what they were until reading this section. I really enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDelete