Week 5 assignment

Week 1 Assignment: Noise Interference with Interpersonal Communication

Student’s Name

COM200: Interpersonal Communication

Cheri Ketchum

November 17th, 2019

Commented [KC1]: Nice title page, as it complies with APA guidelines.

This week’s assignment is going to be based on a video called “A Failure to Communicate.” The

video shows several forms of miscommunication between a deaf woman and a woman of culture. In the

beginning of the video there is no noise interference, but as the video goes on you start to see how

noise can affect communication. In this assignment I was task with describing two or more instances

where miscommunication was noticed, describe two or more principles of competent communication

while citing Bevan, explain how the characters in the video followed or did not follow the two principles

identified while citing Bevan, explain one or more forms of noise from Bevan and how it caused

miscommunication in the video, and discuss advice on how to overcome noise based on Bevan.

There were several instances within the video were miscommunication was noticed. I first

noticed miscommunication when the woman of culture got upset at the fact that the deaf lady would

not help her. The principles I noticed in this moment of miscommunication were respecting yourself and

others, and listening and evaluating the message for responding (Bevan, 2020). Respecting yourself and

others means that you can see their viewpoint and respect their viewpoint on the situation (Bevan,

2020). Listening and evaluating the message before responding is when the receiver of the conversation

listens and evaluates the situation before they have a response (Bevan, 2020). Both of these principles

were noticed because the woman of culture felt like the deaf lady was ignoring her, when she really

wasn’t ignoring her but couldn’t hear or understand her because of a disability. The way that respecting

others and yourself wasn’t followed is because while the woman of culture was waiting for the train to

come and try and get advice on how to get to a certain location, the deaf lady was helping her and she

took offense to it and thought that the deaf lady was ignoring her, then tugged at her to get her

attention and it looked like she was screaming at her. The deaf girl followed the principle of respecting

others and yourself because she told the woman that she usually read people’s mouth in order to help

them, but out of respect she used her translation device to help the lady understand what was going on

and asked her to use the translation device. In this particular instance the two noise distractions I

Commented [KC2]: That is a very long sentence! Instead of saying what students were tasked with, they should explain what they will do.

Commented [KC3]: There is good detail here. To improve, I just wanted to see the student explain exactly what message was not received in the way the sender intended as that is the heart of miscommunication.

Commented [KC4]: Respect for what? The instructor can guess on what was meant (e.g., respect for her culture and wearing the hijab), but students should try to be more precise. A second principle was not identified in this exchange and this hurt the grade a bit.

noticed were psychological and physiological (Bevan, 2020). Psychological noise is noise that a person

has inside of them due to the situation and their feelings (Bevan, 2020), physiological noise is a noise

that is a result due to one of the people involved having some sort of disability (Bevan, 2020).

Psychological noise distraction was observed because the woman of culture got upset at the other

woman because she was acknowledging her. Physiological noise distraction was observed because one

of the ladies had a hearing impairment, so it caused a miscommunication. The way that these noise

disruptions could have been overcome is by understanding the links to physical and mental health

(Bevan, 2020) and being aware of any misconceptions that were received (Bevan, 2020).

The next instance where miscommunication was noticed was when the deaf woman was using

the translation device to try and help the other lady out. In this miscommunication I noticed three

principles achieve shared meaning, acknowledging multiple views, and learning and practicing

communication skills. Achieve shared meaning is a principle that is used to make sure that both parties

understand the message that is being sent (Bevan, 2020). Acknowledging multiple views is when one

person understands that their viewpoint is only one of many (Bevan, 2020). Learning and practicing

communication skills is when you apply an understanding with the tools through practice (Bevan, 2020).

Achieving shared meaning was practiced by the deaf lady by asking the other lady to please use the

device so that she can read what is being said so she can be effective in helping the other out.

Acknowledging multiple view points was applied by both ladies because the deaf lady was able to

understand why the other lady would not take of the scarf covering her face, by letting her know I

usually read your lips to understand you but since you can’t due to cultural reasons, she has a

translation device that would be helpful, the cultural lady was able to see why she was using the device

instead of talking to her directly and that she wasn’t ignoring her, but she couldn’t hear her due to a

hearing impairment. The cultural lady used the principle of learning and practicing communication by

learning how the device worked, and then using it to be effective in her communication. The noise

Commented [KC5]: Good point about how this was a misunderstanding based on assumptions being made.

Commented [KC6]: You are on the right track here, but some practical advice, based on these points, would have made this explanation stronger.

Commented [KC7]: Okay. This is a great explanation, as that was important to this participant in the interaction. As students write their papers, they should try to provide this level of detail.

distraction that was happening at this part of the video were physical noise. Physical noise is any noise

from an outside source that interferes with proper and effective communication (Bevan, 2020). The way

that physical noise was interfering with this section of the video is because when the lady was trying to

talk into the device to help with the communication process the train ran passed and the device

recorded the trains movement, she tried one more time and the announcer came over the loudspeaker,

and the device recorded what the announcer said over the loudspeaker instead of what the lady was

trying to say. The way that the noise could have been overcome in this situation is by moving to a

quieter area, where the noise would not interfere with the device.

In conclusion, I learned a lot about the communication process by watching this video and it has

helped me to understand how noise can affect communication. I am now able to evaluate any situations

that may lead to miscommunication, and what I can do to be more effective in communicating. This

video and paper have showed me that there are ways to overcome miscommunication in different

situations.

Commented [KC8]: Perfect on this second form of noise because it explains exactly how one can overcome the problem.

Commented [KC9]: Try to stay closer to the word/page limits. The paper was supposed to be 500 words/2 pages. This was 994 words and almost 3 pages.

References

Bevan J L(2020). Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication. Chapter 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ox5LhIJSBE

Commented [KC10]: Omit this content. Students can find all course readings in APA style if the go to “Modules,” then click “Required Resources” under “Course Materials.”

Commented [KC11]: This is not in full APA style. Here is the full title - Legrand, T. (2011, November 22). A failure to communicate [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ox5LhIJSBE