Listening skills and Rationalization of Empathy

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K02027
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 08010:Sociology-related
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Okegawa Yasushi 神戸大学, 国際文化学研究科, 協力研究員 (50585362)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: コミュニケーション能力 / 社会学 / 会話ハウトゥ本 / 聞き上手

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Purpose of this research is to clarify how discourse for improvement in communication is changing in contemporary Japanese society where emphasizes the need for communication skills. The analysis material is conversation how-to books.In many conversational how-to books,it emphasizes that listening(receiving the ball of the coversation) is the most important thing in conversation. And listening skills conveying the “I am interested in you” message and questioning skills developed since the 2000s.The view that “if you do not have good motivations, you will not be able to have a smooth conversation” came to the dead end of reflexivity in how-to-make-conversation books until the1980s.The view that “if you lack proper awareness, various conversation skills and, good motivation, your conversational catchball will not improve“ appeared since the 2000s. The conversation how-to books since the 2000s are enabling visualization of non-congtive skills to be liked by others.

Free Research Field

社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

社会学におけるコミュニケーション能力研究は、ハイパーメリトクラシー論・メリトクラシ―の再帰性論、コミュニケーション能力偏重・万能論、関係性の個人化論など、多様な研究が展開されている。ただしコミュニケーション能力は「伝達不可能なもの」「習得の仕方が不明なもの」と想定されている点では共通している。一方本研究では、会話ハウトゥ本のようなメディアでは、2000年代以降にコミュニケーション能力をより視覚可能なものにする言説が存在していることを明らかにした。