Creating a positive interpersonal climate

Haha, a day have 2 posts~~~ It's seems too much for me and also for my audience~~~ ^_^

As today is black-cloud day, i use the time to study the Univ-material and also do some other reading; I finally complete a book called "Psychology Applied to Modern Life". Although it is not a very good book, it still kind of interesting and practical in a certain extent. And i would like to excerpt some of the interesting topics here.

The first topic I would like to excerpt is "Creating a positive interpersonal climate", here below is some suggestions into practice:


1. Learn to feel and communicate empathy
Empathy involves adopting another's frame of reference so you can understand his or her point of view. When you empathize with others, you genuinely appreciate their feelings and understand their problems. Empathy includes sensitvity to others' needs and acceptance of their feelings.

2. Practice withholding judgment
You can promote an open climate for communication by trying to be non-judgmental. This doesn't mean that you give up your right to have opinions and make judgments. It merely means that you should strive to interact with people in ways that don't put them on the spot (forced to offer an opinion when they would rather not) or make them feel inadequate.

3. Strive for honesty
Mutual trust and respect thrive on authenticity and honesty. Even if others don't know exactly what your underlying motives are, they often can sense that you're not being entirely honest. Of course, striving for honesty does not mean that we are bound to communicate everything we feel at any time to any person. Though it is true that some interactions necessarily involve pain -- for example, breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend -- we can avoid many unpleasant interactions by being truthful without being needlessly hurtful.

4. Approach others as equals
You may know from personal experience that most of us don't like to be reminded of another's higher status or greater ability. You can improve the effectiveness of your communication if you try to disregard status differences in your conversations. Especially when you have the higher status, it is better to approach people on equal terms.

5. Express your opinions tentatively
Rather than give the impression that you know all the answers, strive to communicate that your beliefs and attitudes are flexible and subject to revision. You can convey this message by using qualifying words or phrases. For example, instead of saying, "This is how we should do it", you might say, "There seem to be several pissible approaches; the one that seems the best to me is......What do you think?"