Week 9, Chapter 7, Question 1

For me one of the hardest things to do is control my memory. More importantly my short term memory has been the problem. When engaged in a conversation I try and listen to the best of my ability but sometimes it can be hard to decide what is important to them and what is important to me. But when you are trying to repeat back what you heard in order to get it straight. But there are times when selective hearing also comes into play when you tend to hear that you want to hear in order to prove your point, I tend to do that a lot as well. I have to try and really retain what the person is saying in order to compose a good counter argument or response. But from time to time it is like I am just waiting to talk and I don’t really hear what the person is saying.

Week 9, Chapter 7, Question 2

There have been a few times where I have had selective attention. It happens more often than we want because a lot of times we are waiting to talk versus actually listening. It is actual work when trying to listen. Being in sales it is a huge deal to listen to specifics when trying to gather information about potential customers. But most often I feel that selective attention or selective hearing happens during arguments or debates. Most times people don’t actually listen to what is being said and are just trying to be right by any means possible. For instance, There was a time where me and my dad were getting into a pretty heated political debate. We tend to do this a lot and the ultimate goal is to prove to the other our point whether we are right or wrong. Now obviously in politics it is extremely if not impossible to be 100% right, but this doesn’t stop us from trying. Most of the time we are just spitting words out left and right and not truly listening to anything other than we want to hear. If we were to take a step back and truly listen we might see that we may being arguing the same point but in different perspectives.