Nonverbal Communication
People are connecting to each other by
communication. When someone speaks, his feelings, attitudes, and opinions are
clearly understood on the way they express their words. It depends on the
person's ability and intention to give the desire message to the receiver and
to make sure it gets across to the listener. That would create harmonious and
understanding environment between people. But nonverbal language could be used
to illustrate our emotions more than the verbal communication or what we declare
by mouth. Even though nonverbal language is not reliable, because it could be
misreading or misjudged, there are many studies indicate that body language has
an important effect on a person's social life, his success in dating
relationships and his function in the workplace. Nonverbal communication is
also differs from one gender to another. Communication does not always happen
in spoken words or sounds, but rather non-verbally. The paper will explore
examples and show the variances between different types of fields.
Types of Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication
is the expression of language by our body movement, posture, and facial
expression, without spoken or written words (Moore , Hickson, & Stacks, 2010). There
are many types of wordless messages that could have a meaning behind them and
reflect the person's personality in the same time. Firstly, according to
Birdwhistell (as cited in Moore,
Hickson, & Stacks, 2010), there is kinesics communication which is known as
the body language, and it includes our facial expressions, gestures and
postures. The
anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell was the first to come up with this term in
1952. He did many studies by filming people in social events, and then he
analyzed their behaviors. He concluded that our body reveals similar language
to the words we speak, and some of them are originated from our culture and
spoken language (as cited in Moore, Hickson, & Stacks, 2010)
Secondly, there is artifacts type of nonverbal
communication and it is about the importance of our appearance to make an
impression on the observer, whether it is clear in controlled elements, such
as, hair color, clothes style or the uncontrolled ones such as, physical
conditions [information gathered from site 2&3]. Also a person's care for
his appearance reflects many aspects of his social status such as, his
occupations.
The third type of body language is proxemics, which is about how the
distance between people as they interact could reflect their emotional feelings
and their level of comfort. A lot of people try to keep their distance while
talking to others to maintain their comfort. However, there are some places
where you cannot choose how far you can be from a person. For example, in the
subways people are standing if front of each other within a very small and
uncomfortable distance and that bothers a lot of people because those strangers
are standing in the intimate distance of you, which is from 0 to 18
inches. [4]
There are other distances other
than the intimate one. For example, the personal distance is between 1.5 to 4
feet. Which makes it very easy for people to communicate with each other in
formal and non-formal situation without feeling uncomfortable. In addition,
there is the social distance, which is from 4 feet to 12. You see that usually
in business field where people keep their distance as they shake their hands.
They do not get any closer to keep the relation as formal as it could be. [4]
The last type of the body language
is haptic communication, and it is associated with touching, whether to show
positive feelings such as, sympathy, or negative one such as, punishment [6]. There are seven types of touch which are patting,
pinching, embracing, licking, linking, stroking and guiding. The meanings of
these touch depend on other factors such as, the part of the body is being
touched, the frequent and the strength of the touch (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Also, both genders respond to the touch
differently. For example, women usually are bothered from opposite sex touch
whether the touch is gentle or forceful, while men usually are bothered from
same sex touch.
Nonverbal Communication in Social
Life
Many experiments have been done to understand
nonverbal communication in particular the emotions that appear in social
situations and how it controls people's interaction. But some of these studies
are not reliable because subjects are aware of the purpose of the experiment
and they do not behave naturally .One of these experiments was done by
showing group of people pictures and drawings, and ask them about their
feelings toward these pictures. But the result of this experiment was not
accurate, because people's facial expressions were controlled carefully and
they did not behave naturally [1]. For example, people showed nonverbal
reinforcement of verbal behaviors differently, such as, how they smile, gaze at
each other, than if they were not aware of being watched [1]
Also, the response of both genders to
nonverbal language is different. Studies have showed that men are not good as
women in reading nonverbal cues. " Men seem to be better at expressing
positive emotion, whereas women are better at encoding negative emotions "
( Moore , Hickson,& Stacks,
2010).In addition, there is less touching between males friends, little
eye contact and they do not tend to sit closer to each other than between
female friends. For example, male friends would skip a seat between both of
them in a movie theater, if there is not third person accompany them. On the
other hand, women are more likely to touch those who are familiar with and they
like. Eye contact is important as well for women during a conversation with
others, and they tend to sit closer to other female friends, in contrast to
men.( Moore , Hickson,&
Stacks, 2010).
In addition, it has been
noted that people's liking for others may decrease if others are more powerful than
them, and it is more common between women than men. The power of nonverbal
signs can be illustrated in different ways, such as, the person dress, his
ability to initiate the touch and how his office organized and decorated in
expensive way (Moore, Hickson, &
Stacks, 2010). Women tend to have eye contact for long duration and keep
a larger distance between them and other people to show their control. Men
usually work to show their powerful over other men, because they want to be
better and quicker than others. This is shown in interactions that involve
sport interests or time management. For example, punching and backslapping in
sport situation is a sign of control. But as the acquaintance develops between both
genders, by sharing personal feelings or their daily lives details, the signs
of power are not going to be shown anymore and their nonverbal signals become
equal(Moore , Hickson, & Stacks,
2010).
Nonverbal Communication in the Work Place
To be successful in the workplace, people
must be aware of both verbal and nonverbal communication, in order to make an
impression on others in terms of power. Many studies indicated that nonverbal
behavior is associated with gaining power and being stronger. A study was done in 2005 by D.
R. Carney, J.A.
Hall and L. Smith LeBeau (as cited in
Hall& Knapp 2010) by asking college students to imagine communications
between people with different level of authority and status in the workplace,
and express the type of behaviors that would be shown among those people. The
result was that many students identified certain behaviors reflect the desire
to control other people, such as, the ability to start a conversation, stand closer,
and show less attention to other people.
Some jobs require the employees to
use power in indirect ways in order to show their honesty and real feeling. For
example, salesperson goal is to increase the nonverbal selling power, but he/she
must know how to manipulate the client in order to respond correctly to the
customer's body signals. Some of those nonverbal signals include looking in the
eyes of the speaker during a conversation, which reflects honesty and interest.
However, avoiding eye contact or gazing past is a sign of being bored or
feeling insecurity.
Conclusion
Many sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists have done
studies to extend our understanding of nonverbal communication. Because we are
showing and receiving this communication in our daily lives and it controls
part of our behaviors. Nonverbal communication is a way of self expression. In social interactions, people reactions
differ conforming to the gender and the power of the person they are
communicating with. Moreover, in the workplaces, the physical appearance and
the personal cues that a person uses in terms of power or credibility reflect their
capability to manipulate the interacting.
In my opinion, the skill of
body language reading is so valuable and can lead us to understand what in the
mind of another person. Instead of judging someone because they were not looking
at us in inappropriate way as we may think, the meaning of this look may vary
by knowing their background or culture. From this research, I found that most
studies were focused on Americans people and the U.S. environment, even though
there is a whole world out there and their behaviors need to be studied. Also,
I do not think all people are aware of this communication, even though it is
practiced every day. That's why sometimes we complain about not having a
successful relationship, or not being successful in the world
of work. I believe
nonverbal communication is a basic fundamental to have a great social life and work.
People need to be educated of it to assure the success of their lives.
References
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[2]
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[3]
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[4]
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[5]
Visited 7:30 p.m.
Knapp, M. L., & Hall, J. A. (2010). Nonverbal
communication in human interaction (7th ed.).Boston : Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Moore, N. J., Hickson, M., & Stacks, D. W. (2010). Nonverbal
communication: Studies
and
applications
(5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
