Glossary
Active listening:
Readiness
to listen persistently.
Anxiety: A feeling
of being threatened by something that cannot be defined. It is this intense
dread with feelings of helplessness which prevents any targeted countermeasures.
Appeal: A cry, call
or warning to act or not to act. An appeal can be open or hidden.
Attending behaviour: Readiness
to be present; the ability to focus attention exclusively (such as in active
listening).
Bagatellization:
An
unnecessary trivialization of problems.
Blocking: A pause
in conversation caused by emotion.
Catalogue
questions: Questions which offer a choice of ideas for the answer.
Code: Vocal expressions
of attitudes, determined by a certain group of people. This can be divided
into a cultivated pattern (elaborated code = EC) or limited pattern (Restricted
code = RC).
Communication: In
the widest sense, an event in which a sender and receiver exchange signals
with the aim of understanding one another. In the more narrow sense, communication
means the exchange of signals between living beings which serve to pass
on meaning and understanding. Communication between people means the attempt
to construct social contact, to deepen or to maintain it.
Compassion: To suffer
with the other by putting oneself in the spiritual or physical situation
of the other. This should not be confused with empathy, fellow-feeling
or sympathy.
Compensation: One
defense mechanism by which a substitute goal is striven towards, in order
to prevent anxiety in the face of frustration, since one's own goals cannot
or should not be attained, as they are not appropriate.
Compliance: The willingness
to follow a medical recommendation.
Comprehension, projective:
The
one who is listening projects his wishes, interests, needs, anxieties and
fears into that which he hears.
Comprehension, selective:
The
listener only picks up that which fits his view of the world.
Conflict: Irreconcilability
of motives, ways of behaving and dealing with others; conflict can be either
intra- or interpersonal.
Coping: The process
of working though a problem in order to overcome it.
Defense
mechanisms: Processes to overcome threats and anxiety which are usually
unconscious and distort reality (repression, regression, identification,
projection, compensation, rationalization or creation of reactions).
Distancing: Maintaining
control of one's own reactions to what is expressed by the other partner
in discussion or conflict.
Dread: The feeling
of not being able to deflect (certainly not without effort) a certain identifiable
threat.
Empathy:
To
experience the experiences of the other so intimately as if they were one's
own, but never to lose the "as if" status.
Expression: The physical
replaying of feelings. Psychological conditions or processes are made visible
in appearances, ways of behaving, acting or the results of action. It is
possible to differentiate between physical, emotional and vocal expression.
Feeling
of self-worth: The conscious appreciation of one's own worth. This
depends on the recognition, affection and praise of others or on the personal
opinion that one has of one's own worth.
Fellow-feeling: To
experience the feelings of another, sharing them completely i.e. see with
his eyes, hear with his ears.
Identification:
A
defense mechanism during which other desired personality traits or characteristics
are taken on in order to stifle anxiety about personal weakness.
Interaction: A two-way
exchange of information between two people, with interplay of thoughts
and feelings, attitudes and opinions.
Interpretation Questions:
Questions
which contain conclusions which have been drawn from what the discussion
partner has said or done.
Language:
Expression
and presentation of thoughts, feelings and desires by meaningful characters.
Depending on the carrier, it may be by mimicry, sign language, phonetic
language, or speech.
Mirroring:
This
is an important supplementary technique for active listening. The person
leading the discussion shows that he has understood or is trying to understand
by repeating (paraphrasing) what he has heard the other say using his own
words. This verbalization means grasping the emotional content of the experience
of the other in words.
Motivation: To move
people to a certain way of action or behaviour by convincing them.
Non-verbal
communication: Passing on information with the help of sketches, gestures,
stances, expressive movements and physical contact.
Pause
in discussion: A brief break in the discussion. A voluntary pause can
be for decision or communication, an involuntary pause can be due to blocking
or interruption.
Prejudice: Emotionally
charged content which appears to be based on knowledge.
Problem: Tension (experience
of discrepancy) between an undesired present position and a desired "should
be" position. Problems are undesirable conditions that one would like to
change.
Projection: A defense
mechanism by which one's own undesirable feelings are attributed to others,
in order to reduce one's own anxiety when confronted with these feelings.
Question:
The
verbalized request for certain information; closed questions (decisive,
structured) can be differentiated from open (non-structured) questions.
Reflection
questions: A question which repeats part of what the other has said.
Regression: A defense
mechanism by which primitive forms of satisfaction replace one, several
and in certain circumstances all motives for more complex forms of satisfaction.
Regression is the retreat of a person into a primitive (earlier) level
of motivational development.
Repression: The most
important form of defense mechanism, by which unsupportable motives, moods
and suppositions are not taken into consciousness by a mostly unconscious
process, or are split off.
Resonance: The total
reaction of somebody leading an interview to the contents of the statements
of his client.
Self-revelation:
An
active process which imparts more to the listener about the speaker than
is actually said in words. Elements in the process of self-revelation include
vocal expressions (phonetic), way of speech (style, formulation, choice
of words) and somatic expressions (mimic, gesticulation).
Sounding questions: Targeted
questions, aimed at obtaining specific information.
Sympathy: An agreement
of the worth of the feelings, ideas and tastes of the other.
Understanding:
The
ability to use thoughts to help to come to conclusions and diagnoses and
a rational insight into the motives for thought and behaviour of the other.
Verbal
communication: Communication in the form of words and sentences.
Word:
Simplest
carrier for meaning in speech.
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Linus
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Pharma Verlag Frankfurt/Germany, 1991
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