Many types of listening
Techniques >Listening > Many types of listening
There are many names for different types of listening. Here is a collection of types and the different names that get ascribed to them, along with a brief description of each.
Name | Description |
Active listening | Listening in a way that demonstrates interest and encourages continued speaking. |
Appreciative listening | Looking for ways to accept and appreciate the other person through what they say. Seeking opportunity to praise. Alternatively listening to something for pleasure, such as to music. |
Attentive listening | Listening obviously and carefully, showing attention. |
Biased listening | Listening through the filter of personal bias. |
Casual listening | Listening without obviously showing attention. Actual attention may vary a lot. |
Comprehension listening | Listening to understand. Seeking meaning [but little more]. |
Content listening | Listening to understand. Seeking meaning [but little more]. |
Critical listening | Listening in order to evaluate, criticize or otherwise pass judgment on what someone else says. |
Deep listening | Seeking to understand the person, their personality and their real and unspoken meanings and motivators. |
Dialogic listening | Finding meaning through conversational exchange, asking for clarity and testing understanding. |
Discriminative listening | Listening for something specific but nothing else [eg. a baby crying]. |
Empathetic listening | Seeking to understand what the other person is feeling. Demonstrating this empathy. |
Evaluative listening | Listening in order to evaluate, criticize or otherwise pass judgment on what someone else says. |
False listening | Pretending to listen but actually spending more time thinking. |
Full listening | Listening to understand. Seeking meaning. |
High-integrity listening | Listening from a position of integrity and concern. |
Inactive listening | Pretending to listen but actually spending more time thinking. |
Informative listening | Listening to understand. Seeking meaning [but little more]. |
Initial listening | Listening at first then thinking about response and looking to interrupt. |
Judgmental listening | Listening in order to evaluate, criticize or otherwise pass judgment on what someone else says. |
Partial listening | Listening most of the time but also spending some time day-dreaming or thinking of a response. |
Reflective listening | Listening, then reflecting back to the other person what they have said. |
Relationship listening | Listening in order to support and develop a relationship with the other person. |
Sympathetic listening | Listening with concern for the well-being of the other person. |
Therapeutic listening | Seeking to understand what the other person is feeling. Demonstrating this empathy. |
Total listening | Paying very close attention in active listening to what is said and the deeper meaning found through how it is said. |
Whole-person listening | Seeking to understand the person, their personality and their real and unspoken meanings and motivators. |
See also
Types of listening, Depth of listening, Active listening