Download Running head: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL

Running head: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS
Nonverbal Communication in Social Settings
Literature Review
Jade Ashcraft
University of Kentucky
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Abstract
We communicate for many different reasons every day. These reasons can be
the same or change continuously. Some of the reasons we communicate are for
physical needs, identity needs, and social needs. Our self-concept is a set of
perceptions we hold of ourselves. Self-esteem is evaluations of self worth (Adler and
Proctor II, 2013, p. 38). The two of these play a very large role in the life that you
live and how you communicate with others. This paper analyzes the way people
interact with others through nonverbal communication in different social settings
that include the workplace, classrooms, your everyday encounters, and when it
comes to risk taking.
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According to Brian Tracy, “Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's
like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve
the quality of every part of your life.” I believe this quote truly portrays every kind
of communication. Once you learn how to communicate with others in an effective
way you will continue to grow in a sense that you will get better at communicating
verbally and nonverbally. If you are not willing or strive to be a better
communicator than you will lack skills that you need to use in your life on a daily
basis. Communication plays a role in the work place. Employers and employees
communicate with each other via face and email. This can go from saying hi to
someone in the morning, chatting at lunch, or sending mail back and forth regarding
personal information or information regarding work or a presentation coming up.
Employees have friends, and even enemies at work. How do you determine who falls
under each category? As we grow up we learn how to determine who are people we
went to be around and those we don’t want to be around. Sometimes you may not
know the difference at first. If I were at work and someone was always against me,
doing things to spite me, or constantly rolling their eyes at me, I would consider
them an enemy. Then there would be people I consider my friends. These are the
people I would hang out with outside of work on a regular basis or have lunch with
everyday. Associates are people who are just there. They are people who you work
with that don’t bug or irritate you but you are not telling them your life story. I
would say hello to an associate and be friendly.
Communication is important when determining whether or not someone
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enjoys his or her job. We all have to get a job to earn money to support our families
and ourselves. I believe it is not hard to tell if someone enjoys their job or if they
dislike it by the way they portray themselves while at work. Some different factors
that play into this decision include whether or not the person is successful at their
job, does the person come in with a good attitude and seem pleasant, if they get their
work done on time or if they fall behind others and deadlines, and if they are helpful
to other employees or rude when needing assistance. There are also different
factors that contribute to the very beginning of the process of getting a job that one
has applied for. Heimstra’s (1999) study on how first impressions last on employers
defined different characteristic of a good interviewee. This list included having a
good, firm handshake, being honest about your answers to questions, answering
questions in an intelligent manner, being competent, and seeming trustworthy in a
sense that if the employer decided to hire you they would feel safe in that you would
do the right thing if need be. Along with communicating verbally that you are
interested in the job, nonverbal communication is important in an interview. If you
are slouching or not really paying attention the employer will probably go with
another candidate. Future employees should make the interviewer feel like the
company needs you to work for their company. Staying interested and direct eye
contact with the person is always a benefit.
The workplace and classrooms are a lot alike in the sense that everyone has a
specific role for himself or herself. Each person including students and the teacher
must complete their daily tasks to be successful. Teachers portray nonverbal
communication every day. A teacher can be nice and helpful to their students. The
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teacher could come in each day with a smile on their face and do hand motions that
they are excited to come into work and help children learn. A good teacher will also
smile a lot and seem interested in what the students have to say. A teacher that
doesn’t care for their job as much could come in angry and slouching. They may be
mean to their students or not help them learn anything to help them in the future.
Nonverbal communication affects the students’ ability to learn in a specific
classroom. If the teacher is not nice or if they do not care about their students, those
children will have a harder time when they move on to higher classes.
According to Floyd (2014), “nonverbal communication plays a role in your
daily encounters and how you display affection.” Empathy is something that occurs
when you realize the emotions or things that others are going through or
experiencing. Emotions play a lot in to the way people portray their nonverbal
communication toward others. In this article it is discussed that affection is shown
mostly by nonverbal communication. People can say words that tell someone how
they feel about them but you never truly know the exact way someone feels until
they are able to show their emotions by the things they do, not the words they say.
The article describes the difference between affection and affectionate
communication by determining that the communication aspect is something we do
rather than something we say. It is about portraying your feelings. You could have
someone say something to you and you may or may not feel the same way. The only
way they will truly know is if they can tell by the way you are communicating with
them. If you feel the same way you would do things to show that you feel that way.
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In turn, if you do not feel the same you may seem quieter or stand-offish. (Floyd,
2014)
Guo and Huo did a study about how people understand communication
across different cultures. This is something we encounter every day talking to
people of different race, ethnicity, and social class. In their study across different
English classes they found that it is important to learn about other cultures so
people can eventually learn to see the differences in the way they communicate and
they will be able to pick out these specific behaviors. In different countries some
people smile and laugh when they are happy and in others some can be quiet or
have a straight look on their face (2014).This article discusses the differences across
countries with different time systems. These times systems are described as
monochronic or polychronic. There is also a lot of attention paid to proxemics. Space
and distance in communication are very important. From the time people are born
they start communication with noises or nonverbal communication (Adler and
Proctor II, 2013)
I found an article called “Certainty Broadcasts Risk
Preferences: Verbal and Nonverbal Cues to Risk-Taking.” Nonverbal communication
plays a large role in your every day life and almost every thing you do. I didn’t
realize it would play a large role in risk taking. There are people who are really in to
risk taking and doing things other would not normally do. These people often try to
see how risky others can be by testing them and trying to get them to take the risks
that they take. There are people who try to see how risky others will be without the
person they are testing even realizing too. This includes police officers trying to
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derive information. In this study there were participants who were asked to look at
different situations and what they would do to save or protect themselves in the
situation. They then were assessed to see how they reacted to the situations with
their verbal and nonverbal cues. This also plays a role in police deriving information
from suspects because a policeman will interrogate until they see how much
information they can get out of you (Moons, Spoor, Kalomiris, and Rizk, 2013).
In conclusion, nonverbal communication plays a lot more of role than I would
have ever imagined. I knew that we all had nonverbal cues bit I never knew it could
lead to such interesting things that you encounter in different social settings
whether it is at the workplace, in a classroom, a daily encounter with someone, or
when someone is tempting you to do risky things. This is a very important topic
when it comes to interpersonal communication and it is very interesting to me that
it is being studied more and more. Everyone should pay attention to the nonverbal
cues they put out to others because they could be misinterpreted which could lead
one down a bad road of even more bad impressions.
NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS
References
Adler, R.B., & Proctor, R.F. (2011). Looking Out/ Looking In, Thirteenth Edition.
Boston: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning
Floyd, K. (2014). Empathic Listening as an Expression of Interpersonal Affection.
International Journal Of Listening, 28(1), 1-12.
doi:10.1080/10904018.2014.861293
GUO, M., & HU, W. (2013). Teaching Nonverbal Differences in English Class:
Cross-Cultural Communicative Approach. Studies In Literature & Language,
7(1), 60-64. doi:10.3968/j.sll.1923156320130701.2550
Hiemstra, K. M. (1999). Shake My Hand: Making the Right First Impression in
Business With Nonverbal Communications. Business Communication
Quarterly, 62(4), 71-74.
Malachowski, C. C., & Martin, M. M. (2011). Instructors' Perceptions of Teaching
Behaviors, Communication Apprehension, and Student Nonverbal
Responsiveness in the Classroom. Communication Research
Reports, 28(2), 141-150.
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