Judgment

Examples of Judgment in the following topics:

• Be an Open-Minded Listener: Suspend Judgment and Exercise Empathy

  • Open-minded listening requires empathy and a suspension of judgment on the part of the listener.
  • Judgmental listening also occurs when the listener is only listening to the speaker in order to determine whether he or she is right or wrong, rather than listening to understand the speaker's ideas and where they come from.
  • This kind of judgmental listening prevents the listener from fully engaging with the speaker on his or her own terms, and therefore limits the scope of the conversation.
  • Exercising empathy while listening to a speaker is related to suspending judgment in that it requires the listener to work to understand what the speaker says from his or her point of view.

• Culture

  • Without meaning to, we may bring assumptions or judgments into a conversation that don't actually align with the thoughts or beliefs of our conversational partner, and this can create a barrier to effective communication.
  • Maintaining this kind of cultural sensitivity requires some basics of open-minded listening: suspending judgment and employing empathy whenever possible.

• Culture, Ethnicity, and Race

  • Prejudice involves coming to a judgment on a subject before learning where the preponderance of evidence actually lies.
  • Alternatively, prejudice can refer to the formation of a judgment without direct or actual experience.

• Context of Culture and Gender

  • We may have presumptive judgments or opinions about those cultures and races that differ from our own, which are often the result of our own upbringing.

• Listening and Critical Thinking

  • Render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life

• The Speech to Secure Goodwill

  • Goodwill speeches do not make assumptions or judgments about their audience and do not intimidate, embarrass, or offend them.

• Audience

  • Particularly if you are dealing with controversial material, your audience may already be making judgments about you based on your values and morals as revealed in your speech and thus impacting the ways in which they receive your message.

• Gender

  • As with other cultural differences, when listening to a speaker who is communicating in a particularly gendered style, try to focus on the content of the message while suspending judgment and exercising empathy.

• Causes of Poor Listening

  • When listening to a speaker's message, it is common to sometimes overlook aspects of the conversation or make judgments before all of the information is presented.