Friday, March 13, 2009

Chapter 8-Nonverbal Messages

In this chapter we introduced nonverbal communication: body movements, facial communication, eye communication, touch, paralanguage and silence, spatial messages, artifactual messages, and temporal communication. Body Communication What meanings are communicated with body movements? What meanings can your general body appearance communicate?
  • Among the body gestures identified are emblems, which translate words and phrases rather directly; illustrators, which accompany and literally illustrate the verbal messages; affect displays, which convey emotional meaning; regulators, which monitor or control the speaking of the other person; and adaptors, which serve some need and are usually performed only partially in public.
  • General body appearance (height, weight, level of attractiveness, and skin color, for example) can communicate your power, attractiveness, and suitability as a friend or romantic partner.

Facial Communication

What meanings do facial movements communicate?

  • Facial movements express emotions, such as happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust/contempt, interest, bewilderment, and determination.
  • Some facial movements manage the meanings being communicated using these techniques: intensifying, deintensifying, neutralizing, and masking.

Eye Communication

What messages do eye contact, eye avoidance, and pupil dilation communicate?

  • Eye contact: monitor feedback, maintain interest/attention, signal conversational turns, signal nature of relationship, compensate for physical distance
  • Eye avoidance: give others privacy, signal disinterest, cut off unpleasant stimuli, heighten other senses
  • Pupil dilation: indicate interest/arousal, increase attractiveness

Touch Communication

What meanings can you communicate by touching?

  • Among the meanings touch can communicate are positive affect, playfulness, control, ritual, and task-relatedness.
  • Significant gender and cultural differences are found in touching behavior and in the tendencies to avoid touch.

Paralanguage and Silence

What meanings do variations in paralanguage and silence communicate?

  • Paralanguage cues are used for forming impressions, for identifying emotional states, and for making judgments of credibility, intelligence, and objectivity.
  • Silence is used in widely different ways in different cultures: to provide thinking time, to inflict hurt, to hide anxiety, to prevent communication, to communicate feelings, or to communicate "nothing."

Spatial Messages

How do you communicate using space?

  • The major types of distance that correspond to types of relationships are intimate distance (touching to 18 inches), personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet), social distance (4 to 12 feet), and public distance (12 or more feet).
  • Theories about space include protection theory, which claims you maintain spatial distance to protect yourself; equilibrium theory, which claims that you regulate distance according to the intimacy level of your relationship; and expectancy violations theory, which explains what happens when you increase or decrease the distance between yourself and another in an interpersonal interaction.
  • Your territories may be identified as primary (areas you own), secondary (areas that you occupy regularly), and public (areas open to everyone). Like animals, humans often mark their territories with central, boundary, and ear markers as proof of ownership. Your territory (its appearance and the way it's used) also communicates status.

Artifactual Communication

How do you communicate with artifacts, for example, with space decoration, color, clothing and body adornment, and scents?

  • Space decoration influences perceptions of energy, time, status, and personal characteristics.
  • Colors communicate different meanings depending on the culture.
  • Clothing and body adornment serve especially as cultural display and communicate messages about status and social thinking.
  • Scents can communicate messages of attraction, taste, memory, and identification.

Temporal Communication

What are the different time orientations and how do these influence behavior?

  • Three main time orientations can be distinguished: past, present, and future.
  • These orientations influence a wide variety of behaviors, such as your willingness to plan for the future, your tendency to party, and even your potential income.
Citation: http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_devito_intrprsnl_10/9/2356/603204.cw/index.html

No comments:

Post a Comment