What Would a Unified Field of Listening Look Like? A Proposal Linking Past Perspectives and Future Endeavors

Most reviews of "listening research" are narrow in scope, focusing only on research published by listening and communication scholars. Given that unique contributions to listening have been provided by scholars from disciplines as varied as psychology, anthropology, management, and linguistics, this review explores connections and divergences that span the academic landscape. After briefly introducing and reviewing listening related research from three primary areas—information processing, competent behavior, and individual differences—we offer a heuristic framework that ties these lines of study together and provides a structure for assessing and generating new listening research. A concluding section suggests lines of future investigation. Notes 1Taking a social scientific approach in our review, we assume that the prime component of science is understanding (CitationBerger, 1977). Our critiques reflect this view. Also underlying the three perspectives is the assumption that listening includes a set of identifiable skills, attitudes, and/or cognitive abilities that can be objectively formulated, measured, and taught. Finally, all perspectives share the belief that listening is a multidimensional process (i.e., encoding, decoding, construction of meaning, participant relationships, etc.) that is much more complex than originally perceived (CitationRoberts, 1988; CitationRubin & Roberts, 1987). 2The most current literature reviews have been limited to research published in the International Journal of Listening (CitationWolvin, Halone, & Coakley, 1999), or to research reflecting the International Listening Association's definition of listening (Wolvin, in press)—the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages (CitationILA, 2007). 3Although early theorists (e.g., William James) recognized the importance of human cognition for psychology, the scientific study of cognition was largely ignored in favor of behaviorism. Behaviorists did not deny the existence of mind, but simply rejected the study of cognition, claiming it was unscientific. 4Although certainly relevant, the more than five decades of research on client-centered therapy originally developed by psychologist Carl Rogers are not reviewed here because there is little empirical data to support most theoretical claims associated with "active listening."