 Moving along in the next step in our discussion of the Hurrier model of listening, we're ready to talk about the EE, which stands for evaluating. So as we look again to Hurrier model, H-U-R-I-E-R, we know they stand for hearing, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. So again, in this video, we're going to focus on the evaluating aspect of the listening process. If we review this, we can see that the evaluating process falls in this process within that area of understanding, interpreting, and evaluating. We're trying to make sense of things and identify the value of what the other person is saying to us. And so evaluating falls into that part of the mix. So when we define evaluating, what we're talking about specifically is determining the accuracy, worth, and relevance of a speaker's message to us. So we're looking at those areas, accuracy, worth, and relevance of a speaker's message. Again, all part of that process of understanding and then interpreting what that person is saying and then finally making assessments on what the value of that is, what the relevance of that is to us. So some common tasks that we come across in terms of evaluating when we're in this part of the process, first, judging the validity and accuracy of the ideas and arguments that the other person is presenting to us, determining whether or not this is true. Whether or not it has value to us in terms of is this accurate information that the person is sharing or is it nonsense? Is it valid? Is it truth that we're hearing from the other person? So that's the first stage of evaluation we've got to identify. Does this information ring true to me? Does it seem like it's accurate and valid information? We're also going to distinguish facts from opinions and judgments. Now this is really a critical skill because oftentimes people don't distinguish between those things themselves, between what are facts and what are opinions and judgments. A lot of times we don't put that qualifier on there to say, well, in my opinion or I believe that this is true, we just state it like it's fact. I mean, think about politics. Think about all the times you talk about politics with people. If you do that and how often they just say, this is what's true, even though it's not an objective fact, whether something is right or wrong necessarily, what they're talking about, it could just be their opinion, which is fine. That's valid as well, but we need to be able to distinguish what is a fact from what is an opinion or a judgment from the other person. Then we inspect, we compare, and we contrast ideas. We need to be able to process and use our cognitive abilities to really detail what is, again, what is accurate, what is true, what is fact, what is opinion, and inspect those things, really dig in and mull those things over in our mind. Then we need to compare and contrast them to other things we've heard, other things we've learned, other things we believe and our values and so forth. We can compare and contrast what this person is telling us with previous knowledge, previous experience, previous beliefs and values that we might have. We develop conclusions set as well. We come to conclusions in this part of the process. We determine, okay, this is what I believe, this is what I don't believe about what this person is saying, this has changed my mind or it has not changed my mind, this is good information for me to draw conclusions about what that person is saying as part of this evaluation process. A couple of other things we do as part of evaluation is to try and spot logical fallacies. We try and identify, we ought to be trying to identify when somebody's sharing information that just doesn't make sense to us. That it's a logical fallacy and doesn't line up with what we know or believe to be true about the world. We need to be able to identify those various illogical arguments or ways that people are trying to persuade us and identify those. We also need to consider speaker bias. Is this person bias and how is that impacting their message and how is it impacting what they're sharing with us and we need to be able to, again, perhaps take things with the grain of salt if necessary and if need be in those situations so we need to be able to detect speaker bias and be aware of speaker bias in that situation. Finally, it's really important that we be assessing the credibility of the speaker. Does a person have some expertise in this area? Do they really know what they're talking about? Is this somebody who has been shared things that I can believe in the past or is it somebody who's been off on some things? What is their credibility? What is their character? Are they somebody that has a high degree of character? Do they tend to be truthful? Do we tend to find that they have integrity? Those things are important and then what is their competence in this specific area? Do they have some expertise? Do they have some knowledge? Have they done some research? Do they work in that field? What is the credibility of the speaker as they're sharing this information and we use that to gauge the value of that information as well. Some basic things that we can do to improve evaluating. What are some things that we can do to improve evaluating? Well, first we can think critically. We can be critical in our thought. Keep in mind critical does not mean negative. Sometimes we think of critical as we're criticizing and those are drawn from the same word but they're not necessarily the same thing. Critical does not necessarily mean that we're being negative. Critical means that we are being deliberative in our assessment and our choice to accept or not accept that information. We're being critical in a sense that we are carefully examining this information, mulling it over, really giving it that fair deliberation and trying to assess its value and its relevance and all those types of things as we hear this information and then determining whether or not to accept it. We ought to be thinking critically and not just letting things wash over us and accepting things because people are saying it to us. Sometimes talk to young people about your daughter. I'll just give you an example of our daughter because she won't watch this video anyway so she'll never know but our daughter when we'd be driving around when she was a teenager should we be driving around and some song would come on the pop radio and she would know every word and after the song was over I'd be like great you know every word. What did that song mean? And she would say I have no idea. I don't know what it means. I just know the words. She's not thinking critically about that music and so we need to do that with the media. We also need to do it just when we're listening to people. We need to think critically. We need to use our brains and engage in is this factual information? Is this information that seems to ring true for me? Is this something that's relevant and important for me? Is this information useful to me in some way? We need to be critical and think critically to improve our evaluating skills. We need to train our mind to do that and not just accept things as they come to us. We also need to understand persuasion. We need a basic understanding of how persuasion works and in order to be able to identify okay is someone trying to persuade us and if so are they being effective and are they using ethical standards. So we need to understand persuasion. We think back to our buddy Aristotle and that the methods of persuasion that we still identify with him that we use today to both teach persuasion and teach the understanding of persuasion and identification of persuasion. Those include ethos, pathos and logos. Those are the real primary elements of the Aristotelian persuasive method. So ethos has to do with credibility. We touched on that. Does this person have character and competence? Are they believable? Are they trustworthy? Can we really kind of accept what they say as having validity because they are trustworthy? So we need to identify and assess the credibility of both the information and the person delivering that information. We also need to think about logos. What are the logical appeals? What are the facts and data that this person is sharing to support these things is and doesn't make sense because we all know statistics can be used for all kinds of different things. We can only if you tell me of statistics for one side of an argument, I can tell you statistics to counter those on the other side of the argument. Right. So we need to identify first of all what logical appeals are being used, but also does this fact and data, do these facts and data line up with what I know to be the reality of the world or what I perceive to be the reality of the world? So we need to identify and try to understand those logical appeals. And then we also need to be able to identify and understand emotional appeals. Right. Emotional appeals having to do with pathos. So pathos tugs at our heartstrings. And so are we being manipulated? We need to be able to identify that. And is this person using pathos in a legitimate way, in a way that is responsible and not manipulative? So how are they using pathos? And is it effective? And am I just being drawn in by these pictures of sad puppies? And that's why I'm adopting an animal or do I have some other evidence that I'm not just being pulled along because of these sad pictures? And so we need to be able to identify and understand pathos and the role that it plays in persuasion as well. OK. So now we have a little bit more information on the evaluation process, a part of the the Hurrier process of listening, the Hurrier model of listening. So we know that that's a critical aspect of listening. Again, that we be critical, that we be assessing this information, that we use that as, incorporate that as part of the listening process and evaluation. So if you have questions about evaluation or about the Hurrier model or listening in general, please feel free to email me. But in the meantime, I hope that you will take a more active role in evaluating and assessing the things that you're hearing as part of the listening process.