Personal Communication Style

1475 Words3 Pages

I keep other people at a distance, both physically and emotionally and thus limit my interactions with other people in all facets of my life. This has shaped my communication style as well as my personality or as the textbook defines it as “An individual 's characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and acting based on the traits he or she possesses.” (McCornack pg.90) This social anxiety colors my ideas about myself as well as my perception of others, which is the (p. 75) “The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information from our senses,” (McCornack pg.75) This leads to Self Fulfilling prophecies concerning judgements I make about people, or “Predictions about future encounters that lead us to behave in ways that ensure the interaction unfolds as we predicted.” (McCornack pg.41) which in turn fuels misunderstandings and greater social anxiety.

We all have a version of ourselves which we show to the world, this face that we show society or as our textbook defines it “The self we allow others to see and know; the aspects of ourselves we choose to present publicly.” (McCornack pg. 52) This social construct allows us to function and communicate with other people comfortably without much self-disclosure, which …show more content…

Proxemics are “nonverbal code for communication through physical distance.” (McCornack pg. 225) For as long as I can remember I have not wanted people to touch me or to invade my space. It wasn’t until this semester that I realised there was a word for some of my behavior, which I now realize keeps people literally at a distance from me using nonverbal methods. Territoriality is the method I use most in keeping people away from me which is “the tendency to claim personal spaces as our own and define certain locations as areas we don 't want others to invade without permission, such as spreading personal stuff to claim the entire library table.” (McCornack pg.

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