Kate Hamilton

COM 1010

27 March 2019

Communicator Case Study

APPRAISER:
Janet Hamilton, Registered Nurse, 46 years old, Licensed RN, Associates of Applied Science of
Nursing.

IMPACT:
Janet Hamilton has communicated with me for my whole life and taught me how to
communicate since I have been able to talk. Throughout my whole life, I have seen her
effectively communicate with many individuals in different situations.

HIGHLIGHTS:
I noticed that there were significant differences between my self-evaluation of cognitive
complexity than Mrs. Hamilton’s. In addition, the ethics section had the most amount of rating
differences. Throughout the rest of the self-assessments, my ratings were consistent and very
similar with the ratings from Mrs. Hamilton.

ANOMALIES:
I did not see certain aspects of my communication styles that are present to those
communicating with me. Mrs. Hamilton’s unique point of view acknowledged some conscious
and subconscious communication behaviors that I do on a daily basis. In addition, I was very
surprised in the difference of the cognitive complexity ratings. Mrs. Hamilton rated me far more
than what I rated myself.

NEXT STEPS:
I will use the ratings provided by Mrs. Hamilton to better my communication techniques. With
these ratings, I will be able to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses and improve areas that
are lacking in communication proficiency.

APPRAISER:

I chose Janet Hamilton to be my appraiser in this communication case study. She is a 46-year-

old Registered Nurse who worked for Intermountain Healthcare for many years. In addition, she

has a lot of experience communicating with a variety of age ranges. She has an Associates of

Applied Science of Nursing from Salt Lake Community College.

IMPACT:

I chose my mother Janet Hamilton for this communication case study because she is the

individual I have communicated with the most. She has taught me to effectively communicate

since I was born and taught me the life skills I need to be an effective communicator in any

situation I may be in. She has been able to communicate with me in the ways I understand and

helped me learn things about myself that I never noticed. In addition, she understands my

communication style and knows how to communicate with me when I need it. In addition, she

can understand my verbal and nonverbal communication and acknowledge an issue or situation

even though I have not verbally expressed it to her. Her communication techniques have

helped me to be able to overcome personal turmoil. In addition, it helped me discover

uncharted territory when talking with certain individuals in unfamiliar circumstances. Because

she has taught me many things regarding communication, I believe that it would be fitting for

her to perform the communication analysis and help me understand my communication styles.

HIGHLIGHTS:

One thing I learned from these assessments is that my mother and I have similar numbers on

the self-awareness section. There was a slight difference in the response to the question, “I

make snap judgements about others.” I rated myself a four and my mother rated me a two. I

think there is a difference in these responses because I do not share my snap judgements with

others, so she would not know these thoughts. In addition, there was a difference in the

response to the question, “When I meet people for the first time, I don’t modify my behavior to

please them. What you see is what you get.” Like the question above, my mother is often not

around when I meet new people, so she would not know how I act. In the adaptability section,
there was only a one-point difference between my evaluations and my mother’s. There was

only one question where there was greater than a two-point difference in the responses. I

believe the closeness in these responses stem from all the personal changes I made during my

last month in high school and my transition into college. In addition, I learned that because of

my experience in adapting and transitioning, I now know how to change and fit into any

situation I may be in. In the listening section, my mother and I only had different responses for

two of the questions. I think this is because we both genuinely listen to each other and try to

help each other with their problems. The two questions were “I give into mental distractions,

whether you like the person” and “I give in to physical distractions.” I believe there is a contrast

in the responses for these questions because I have always tried to hide if I was distracted in a

conversation, so I do not think she would be able to tell if I was distracted while communicating

with her.

ANOMALIES:

There were a lot of surprises on the empathy page of the evaluation. There was an eight-point

difference between my mother’s score and my score. This surprised me because my mother

and I are both empaths. We feel everything deeply and tend to be very sensitive. I was

surprised that the scores were not closer together. However, after looking back at my

responses from the beginning of the semester, I realized that I would have rated those

questions higher if I took the time to reflect on previous experiences. The biggest score

difference, however, comes from the cognitive complexity page. I rated myself a 15 and my

mother rated myself a 27. I think the difference on this page comes from my mother’s ability to

think of multiple different scenarios for one situation. Because of her ability to think of many
different possibilities for one scenario, she overrated my cognitive complexity and thought of

many things that I did not think of. The most second highest amount of differences in this

case study, however, were on the ethics analysis page. I rated myself much higher on the ethics

scenarios as opposed to what my mother rated me. I think there is an incongruence in these

scores because I tend to overanalyze situations and strive to be truthful and ethical in every

situation I am put in.

NEXT STEPS:

I have learned many things about the strengths and weaknesses in my communication habits

and behaviors from doing this communication analysis. I will use the differences learned in the

highlights and anomalies segments to strengthen my communication by not giving in to my

physical and mental to-do list when I am listening to others. In addition, I will strive to improve

my self-awareness and analyze my surroundings to be able to become an effective

communicator. Lastly, I will work on my cognitive complexity abilities to see other points of

view and be able to communicate effectively with whomever I come in contact with.