Page 369 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Model Question Papers | 357

about others, we recall examples of their behaviour and base our judgments and our
impressions based on these. For example, you meet a person for the first time, and
he or she smiles warmly at you and comes running to help you when you drop your
books—all these actions are examples of the trait of kindness, so we include this trait of
kindness in our first impression of this individual.
In contrast, other models stress the role of abstractions—such views suggest that,
when we make judgments about others, we simply bring our previously formed
abstractions to mind and use these as the basis for our impression and our decisions.
A growing body of evidences suggests that, both exemplar and mental abstractions play
a role in impression formation. In fact, it appears that the nature of impressions may
shift as we gain increasing experience with others. At first, our impression of someone
we have just met consists of largely of exemplars (concrete examples of behaviour they
have performed) later, as our experience with this person increases, our impression
comes to consist mainly of mental abstractions derived from many observations of the
person’s behaviour.

c. The most studied individual difference in the field of interpersonal communication has
been communication apprehension. Communication apprehension is more interperson-
ally oriented it is also known as unwilling to communicate/and social-communicative
anxiety.
Behaviourally, people with high levels of communication apprehension are less likely
to talk in social settings, and when they do participate they engage in mostly acknowl-
edgements and confirmation. They also engage in less eye contact and are more self-
protective and less disclosure. Perceptually, they are seen less positively by others in
variety of settings, such as interviews and social interactions.
Apprehensive people are less assertive or argumentative, less conversationally sensi-
tive, less independent and more interdependent. They have lower self-esteem, are more
insecure, not willing to take risk, and has inferiority complex. Not surprisingly, such indi-
viduals suffer from more social isolation and more emotional and psychosomatic health
problems, related to academic achievement and cognitive performance, Occupationally,
this disposition affects career development and career choices, and apprehensive indi-
viduals are less likely to be successful the harmful effects of this disposition be reduced
through the use of a variety of behavioural techniques. The most common of these are
systematic desensitization, cognitive restructuring and visualization.

Section – B

4. a. Individuals have certain dispositions in communication. One is argumentativeness and
the other verbal aggressiveness. Argumentativeness is considered to be constructive, as
it involves an individuals’ willingness to attack another’s arguments while defending
his or her positions. Highly argumentative individuals are better decision makers and
are more interesting than less argumentative individuals. They are also more dynamic,
competent and credible. They do not withdraw from conflicting situations.

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