Page 143 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Psychology and Communication | 131

constructs give the same broad idea as tolerance of ambiguity. Some people
are more rigid than others, and this rigidity affects both on how they com-
municate and how they respond to communication. For instance, authori-
tarians choose not to accept information that may change their attitudes,
(Dillehay 1978), and dogmatic individuals are more responsive to source
cues when it comes to persuasion (DeBono and Klein 1993).

Emotional Intelligence
Though the concept of emotional intelligence was proposed long back, it
received the attention of the researchers in recent years. Thorndike pre-
saged the concept early in the 20th century when he discussed social
intelligence as one of the three sorts of intelligence. In popular literature,
Daniel Goleman (1995) has suggested that the construct has five compo-
nents: self-awareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, empathy
and handling relationships. Salovey and Mayer (1990) have defined emo-
tional intelligence as the ability of people ‘to monitor their own others’
emotions, discriminate among them, use the information to guide their
thinking and actions’.
Individuals with high emotional intelligence are higher in empathy, social
assertiveness, more socially perceptive, are more social, and socially skilled,
has better relational quality and the ability to manage one’s mood, as well as
emotionally stable, optimism, stress tolerance, and self-regard. Individuals
with emotional intelligence are found to have more effective communication
and interpersonal relationships.

Self-esteem
Cooley’s looking-glass self theory is the most important model for under-
standing the self in communication. His premise is that, how we see ourselves
is determined by how we believe our ‘significant others’ see us. We construct
our self-images from how we internalize what we believe others think of
us. Consequently, the stability of self-esteem is affected by the interactions
people have with others, such as family members. There are multiple sorts
of self-esteem: (a) global versus specific esteem; (b) trait versus state esteem;
and (c) personal versus social esteem. Self-esteem has clear relationships
with a variety of communication-related outcomes. People lower in self-
esteem are less likely to take decisions, less likely to ask questions in the
classrooms, more lonely and depressed, more verbally aggressive, and poor
in interpersonal communication and relationships.
Extreme self-esteem might reach the point of narcissism, that is, denying
negative feedback, engaging in greater self-enhancement and always
looking forward to being the centre of attention in any social interaction.

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