6.3: Functions of Listening

Listen Skills Vary by Context

We might assume that many of you have noticed that when you are watching a movie, or listening to music, you are engaged differently than when you are listening to one of your professors. Similarly, we think that when you are having a heart-to-heart conversation with a friend, family member, or partner, you might be tuned in with more intensity than you are in class. We listen differently in different situations, and that is entirely appropriate! There is value in understanding that there are different functions of listening because we can then use the most appropriate listening skills to meet the purpose or occasion. Using these functions appropriately will lead to better engagement and understanding.

Comprehensive Listening

Victoria was not the best student until she was at university. It was as though a light bulb went off in her head that said, “if you want good grades, you better listen.” Being a student, employee, friend, or partner in a relationship may require that you engage in comprehensive listening. Comprehensive listening is the type of listening we engage in with the goal of understanding information. We all listen to messages throughout the day that require comprehensive listening. If you listen to a podcast, national or local news, or attend work meetings, you would still want to understand what you heard. This function of listening is what you would access if you were listening to a lecture in class, an employer giving you instructions on how to learn to use the POS (point of sale) system, or your partner telling you what their needs are in a relationship. Numerous careers place a heavy demand on this type of listening. Physicians need to understand the area of pharmacology to prescribe medication correctly. If physicians didn't listen well while in medical school or retain and recall that information, they could make life-threatening mistakes in prescribing if the medications one might be taking are incompatible. Depending on the context you are in, you may find that it would be difficult to have information repeated to you so listening well is important. At the deepest level of interpersonal communication, comprehensive listening may impact a relationship for better, or worse.

Evaluative Listening

In the stages of listening you learned that you need to assess the credibility of what you hear, and this means you will need to analyze what you hear. Evaluative listening is a function of listening that fulfills the goal of analysis and evaluation of messages. We engage in evaluative listening in many of the same contexts where we engage in comprehensive listening. Evaluation allows us to determine whether a message is true, or logical. Whether you are a juror on a murder trial or listening to your partner’s excuse regarding why they were late coming home, you will analyze the messages that you hear. Although not all evaluative listening may be a matter of life and death, it may still impact another person.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Vice Presidential Debate - by Lawrence Jackson is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

How we engage in evaluative listening can also impact us at the relational level. If you have ever disagreed with a parent, friend, partner, or co-worker, you might find that you have had to analyze the messages you are listening to quite intently. Or perhaps as you offer an explanation of your behavior to someone in your life you have noticed their reactions as you are speaking. Are they making eye contact with you or looking down? As you learned in Chapter 5, looking into a person's eyes helps us interpret messages because we rely on nonverbal behaviors to assess the truth of a message. Evaluative listening allows us to assess whether people in our lives are being candid, genuine, and truthful.

Discriminative Listening

At different times we may hear our partner tell us a story, and their voice just sounds different. You might perceive that they sound sad or distressed. What is it about their tone that made you so sure something was wrong? Although this next function of listening may not be used as much as others, it still serves an important function. Discriminative listening is a unique function of listening that occurs during the receiving stage of the listening process and involves the ability to discern sounds. This form of listening is physiological, and if you can hear, then you can access this function of listening. For example, an automotive mechanic may be quite skilled at listening to the sounds of a car that someone brings in to be repaired and they can discern which part of the car needs repair. If you are sitting on a jury listening to testimony, would you be able to tell if someone is lying? Communication scholar Judee Burgoon notes that it is difficult to speak using complex utterances when you are attempting to provide a fraudulent story (Burgoon, et al., 2015). If you have ever caught someone in a lie, your first clue may have been the way that person stammered while speaking. As you can see, we listen by using all of the stimuli available to us including our voice, tone, and other nonverbal behaviors.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Herbert Doyle by Defense Visual Information Distribution Service is in the Public Domain CC0

Appreciative Listening

Do you think that all forms of listening must be connected to your ability to understand or recall information? No! Appreciative listening is our ability to listen for enjoyment and is considered the easiest of all listening functions. Listening to music, watching a television show, attending a concert, or even listening to a great speech or classroom lecture are examples of appreciative listening. There are times when we are listening purely for enjoyment, but there are also occasions when we might be combining listening functions. If you consider the example of a great classroom lecture by your professor, you might be listening for comprehension, evaluation, and appreciation all at the same time! One of these functions of listening will be the dominant form based on the occasion.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett by J. Breschoten is licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0

Relational maintenance often requires appreciative listening. Focusing on the words you are hearing, the sound of someone's voice that brings you joy, or listening to someone important to you tell a story would be examples of appreciative listening. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us were forced to rely on technology such as FaceTime, Messenger Video, or Zoom to communicate with loved ones. Although it was not in-person communication, we were still able to keep our connection with others during such a difficult time.

Empathetic Listening

Have you ever just needed to vent, or have someone listen to you because you needed a friend? Or have you been placed in that position where someone needed you? Empathetic listening occurs when we try to feel what another person is feeling, and this can be considered the most challenging of all listening functions. Empathy means listening to understand the other person’s feelings and/or emotions with the goal of validating them. Empathic listening is a higher-level listening skill and therefore requires more energy. It has often been described as "putting yourself in someone else's shoes."

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Listening Attentively by Beatrice Murch is licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0

One of my students described her sadness over the cancellation of her sister's quinceañera due to local public health guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are unfamiliar with this custom, it is described as follows:

[The] celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, marking her passage from girlhood to womanhood; the term is also used for the celebrant herself. The quinceañera is both a religious and a social event that emphasizes the importance of family and society in the life of a young woman. It is celebrated in Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as in Latino communities in the United States and elsewhere. (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.)

Based on students' facial reactions, even in Zoom, it was evident that many students were able to empathize with the student. Let’s look at one student’s story that helps illustrate the importance of empathetic listening.

Student Voice

One of our authors shares her experience:

In teaching Interpersonal Communication for many years I have always appreciated students who are willing to share their experiences. To provide you with some context for what you will read, I’d like to remind you of the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. While he was visiting his father in Florida, he was spotted by George Zimmerman, who was a Neighborhood Watch volunteer. Zimmerman thought Martin was up to something criminal, and in his report, he described Trayvon Martin as wearing a hoodie. Zimmerman used one single shot to gun down Martin, and since that day, the hoodie has been a symbol that reminds us that even the clothing we wear can be a life-or-death matter. Now, recall the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot in a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores in Georgia on February 23, 2020, a mere eight years after the murder of Trayvon Martin.

In June 2020, I invited one of my former students to speak at a campus-wide panel on racism. Brandon, who is Black, shared his experience of living in Georgia for a while when he went to stay with family during the pandemic: "You will see how I am dressed today. I am wearing a shirt and tie with a pullover sweater. I no longer leave the house wearing a hoodie. I will never wear a hoodie again because I can't. I can't risk being out in public and looked at as a thug or criminal because of how I'm dressed."

Why do you think I felt that this story was important enough to share with you? This powerful student story is emblematic of two important aspects of interpersonal communication. First, this story demonstrates that not all listening functions require a response, and this was one example where someone just needed to be heard. Brandon’s story is sadly not unique, but it conveyed the importance of when it is more important to listen and not speak. What this story also represents is the imperative that we have in our society to listen so that we can help create the change that needs to happen to improve race relations. As educated as we, and as much as we think we know, this story is one of several that day that pierces our hearts. We can be better by listening to others.

Reflection Questions

1. Has there been a time when someone needed you to listen and you didn’t realize the importance of their need until later?
2. Did this story help you better understand how empathetic listening can impact individuals and society as well?