Interpersonal Communication Critique Essay

1. Describe your perception of the situation. It seems like Toya is very defensive and that she assumed that because no one has brought up the attention to detail that she seems to lack, and the proof reading the supervisor feels is not up to par that she was doing everything correctly, even when the supervisor does not feel the same way 2. What do you think is the self-concept of Toya? I feel like Toya’s self-concept is reflected appraisal. She has taken what the boss said in terms of doing well at her job and assuming because there was nothing negative she was doing everything correctly.

In the same way I feel she is self-fulfilling prophecies, because she feels like she is living up to expectations and when she hears different she gets defensive and jumps to who is talking behind my back. 3. How is self-concept affecting the interaction? Is it helping it? Hindering it? Explain. I think her self-concept it hindering her, because she always needs praise and approval and then when she is told she still has room for improvement, and gets very upset and defensive to the point of feeling like someone is talking about her behind her back.

4. Using the process of human perception starting on page 68, explain the situation. She was being selective noticing the work the Toya has been doing. She has been focusing on not only the good but all the needs improvement work that she feels Toya is doing, and on Toya’s side she has been selective in learning the new job, and getting the praise for picking it up. The next step is organization, or trying to make sense of what we are selecting to notice. The manager is seeing that Toya is very responsible and always on time to work, but also that she needs to pay closer attention to detail and her grammar and spelling.

Toya is making sense of the new job that she is learning and taking her cues from what the manager is telling her. She believes that because she has not been told any negative that she is doing fine. The last step is interpretation, which is how we describe what we have perceived in terms that make sense to us. For the manager she wanted to sit Toya down and go over what she could use improvements on, but she was concerned that Toya would take it the wrong way and get offended and hurt, which she did.

For Toya she felt that people were talking about her behind her back saying she is not doing the job well and got upset. 5. Then, using the guidelines for improving perception and communication on page 83, provide at least two tips (or advice) for each on how to handle the situation in an effective way. In this situation I would tell the manager instead of asking “what if someone said there were a few areas to improve” I would have said something like you are working really well, and with just a few changes your work would be perfect.

That way she doesn’t feel like you are coming at her and she doesn’t feel like people are talking behind her back. For Toya my advice would be, you are new and nothing is going to be perfect in the two weeks you have been there, instead of jumping to the conclusion that someone is talking about you behind your back, ask what areas could use work, and take it as constructive criticism which is easier said than done, but jumping to conclusions could lead to you losing your job eventually.