Download Chapter 7 Nonverbal Communication

Chapter 7
Nonverbal Communication
Chapter 7:
Nonverbal Communication
Silence is one of the great arts of
conversation.
» Cicero
Do not the most moving moments of our
lives find us all without words?
» Marcel Marceu
NV Comm. In everyday Life.
NV Comm. is universal.
We use it to judge internal states.
It helps to create impressions.
We use it manage interactions.
NV Comm. is universal
Young children start understanding words at
around 6 months of age but understand
nonverbal communication well before that.
All human beings, regardless of their
culture, utilize nonverbal communication.
Judging internal states
People use NV communication to express
attitudes, feelings, and emotions.
Research shows that we will believe NV
messages instead of verbal messages when
the two contradict each other.
“One’s eyes are more accurate witnesses
than ears.”
Creating impressions
Usually, NV messages will arrive before the
verbal messages and influence the flow of
the interaction.
Your reactions to people are based on NV –
their skin color, age, status, clothes,
attraction, etc.
Managing interactions
We use NV messages to regulate
conversation.
When to speak, how to speak, how to tell
others to talk more – all this is done through
nonverbals.
Defining NV Communication
Nonverbal communication involves all
nonverbal stimuli in a communication
setting that are generated by both the source
and his or her use of the environment and
that have potential message value for the
source or receiver.
Nonverbal messages may be both
intentional and unintentional.
Most NV communication is unintentional,
but still carries and conveys meaning to
other people whether you want it to or not.
Nonverbal communication has 5 basic
functions:
– To repeat (move your head from side to side)
– Complement (facial expression while
apologizing)
– Substitute for a verbal action (Big smile and
hug instead of verbal greeting)
– Regulate (eye contact and bad behaviors)
– Contradict a communication event (relaxed or
nervous)
Guidelines and Limitations
Nonverbal actions seldom occur in isolation.
NV Communication can be ambiguous (the
meaning can be unclear).
We are more than our culture – not
everyone within a particular cultures uses
the same NV communication.
Studying nonverbal behavior can lead to the
discovery of a culture’s underlying attitudes
and values.
Studying nonverbal behavior can also assist
us in isolating our own ethnocentrism.
NV Comm. & Culture
Much of your NV behavior, like culture,
tends to be elusive, spontaneous, and
frequently beyond your awareness.
Nonverbal communication and culture are
similar in that both are learned, both are
passed on from generation to generation,
and both involve shared understanding.
NV Comm. “plays a crucial and necessary
part in communicative interactions between
people from different cultures.”
Because people are all from one species, a
general and common genetic inheritance
produces universal facial expressions for
most of your basic emotions (fear,
happiness, anger, surprise, disgust, &
sadness.)
Body Behavior
Your body is a major source of nonverbal messages. These
messages are communicated by means of general
appearance and attire, body movements (kinesics), facial
expressions, eye contact, touch, and paralanguage.
We tend to draw on a person’s attractiveness, dress, and
personal artifacts to make inferences (often faulty) about
that individual’s intelligence, gender, age, approachability,
financial well-being, class, tastes, values, and cultural
background.
Skin Color
“Skin color is the first racial marker
children recognize and can be considered
the most salient of phenotypic attributes.”
Permanent skin colors have been the most
potent body stimulus for determining
interpersonal responses.
Judgments of Beauty
People are fixated on their bodies.
Long ago, people were using bones as
necklaces and other bodily ornaments.
People paint their bodies, fasten objects to
them, dress them, undress them, burn them,
and even mutilate them in the name of
beauty.
Face painting is still common in Africa,
South America, and Native Americans.
Women in Ethiopia and Eritrea still utilize
facial tattoos as beauty marks.
In India, most women have red marks on
their forehead to show they are married.
“One’s body image and the satisfaction with
it result from comparisons with an implicit
cultural ideal and standard.”
This ideal varies from culture to culture.
In America, tall, slender women and
muscular men are the ideal.
In Japan, diminutive women are the ideal.
In Africa, being “plump” is considered a
sign of beauty, health, and wealth. Slimness
is evidence of unhappiness or disease or that
a woman is being mistreated by her
husband.
What is seen as beautiful in one culture may
look hideous to people from another culture.
Question
How do judgments about body behavior
affect communication in Taiwan?
What "values" of body behavior are most
valued in Taiwan? Which "values" are least
valued?
What is considered beautiful in Taiwan?
How about hideous?
Attire/Clothing
“Clothing can be used to convey economic
status, education, social status, moral
standards, athletic ability, and/or interests,
belief system (political, philosophical,
religious), and level of sophistication” (p.
203).
Arab Clothing
Modesty is valued among Arabs. Girls are
not allowed to go to swimming classes
because they cannot expose their bodies.
Women’s garments must be “flowing” and
not show off their bodies. They must also
cover their face.
Men do not wear shorts or unfastened shirts
in public.
In all its guises, clothing inscribes ideologies of
truth and deception, echoing the words of
Scripture, and revealing—and unraveling—that
honor can only be attained when every robe
donned is a robe of honor and every garment a
garment of piety.
One must be tolerant of external differences so
that you do not let them impede communication.
Body Movement: Kinesics
"None preaches better than the ant, and she
says nothing" (p. 204).
"How people hold themselves, stand, sit,
and walk communicates strong nonverbal
messages. Whether you intend to send a
message or not, every move you make
potentially communicates something about
you to others" (p. 204).
Kinesics
Send messages about
– Your attitude toward the other person
– Your emotional state
– Your desire to control your environment.
Although all people use movement to
communicate, it is culture which teaches us
how to use and interpret these movements.
Posture
Posture, like movement, is also culturally
specific and can be used to send NV
messages.
Ways of sitting also vary from culture to
culture. The way someone sits in one
culture may be rude or very offensive in
another culture.
Sitting
Slumping, upright, legs together, legs apart,
legs crossed – all convey something.
What are the proper posture and sitting
position for males and females in Taiwan?
Are they different than Japan? How about
America?
Gestures
Gestures vary from culture to culture.
A gesture in one culture may be very rude
or offensive in another culture.
In the U.S., pointing is a very common
gesture, but pointing varies from culture to
culture.
Idiosyncratic gestures are gestures towards
yourself or using yourself to make the
gesture.
Beckoning means gestures designed to get
people to come to you.
Head movements are often used to denote
acceptance and understanding.
Cultures also vary about the amount and
size of gestures used.
Generally, Italians, South Americans,
Africans, and Middle Eastern people use a
lot of big gestures.
Japanese tend to use fewer, smaller
gestures.
Women tend to use fewer and smaller
gestures than men.
Facial Expressions
You actually have THREE faces:
The first is your assigned face, the one you
are born with.
The second face you can manipulate at will.
The third face is changed by your
surroundings and the messages you receive.
Even though all other NVs are culturallyspecific, there is evidence to suggest that
culture does not control the face.
Most researchers believe that there are six
facial expressions which are innate,
universal, and carry the same meaning
around the world: happiness, sadness, fear,
anger, disgust, and surprise.
Cultural norms, however, still dictate when
and where we can use these expressions.
Eye Contact
Eyes have 6 important communication
functions:
– Indicate degrees of attentiveness, interest, and
arousal.
– Influence attitude change and persuasion
– Regulate interaction
– Communicate affect
– Define power and status relationships
– Assume a central role in impression
management.
Direct eye-to-eye contact is common and
expected in America, but it is taboo in many
other parts of the world.
There can be problems when Asians and
Westerners communicate with people from
cultures where prolonged, direct eye contact
is customary.
Women maintain more eye contact than
men.
Touch
Touch is essential to our socialization
process.
We use touch for social politeness, sex,
consolation, support, and control.
Touch varies among cultures and sexes.
Paralanguage
Vocal cues let us make judgments about the
person’s personality, emotional state, ethnic
background, and rhetorical activity.
Paralanguage focuses on how something is
said and not the actual meaning of the
spoken words.
Paralanguage has 3 parts: 1) Vocal
qualifiers; 2) vocal characterizers; and 3)
vocal segregates
Vocal Qualifiers
We can learn a great deal about a person
just by their vocal qualifiers.
Cultures vary on vocal qualities such as
volume.
Women tend to have more varied vocal
qualities in their voices than men.
Vocal characteristics
These are vocalizations that for a specific
culture convey a learned meaning.
The meaning for sneezing and laughing, as
well as other vocal characteristics, varies
among different cultures.
Vocal segregates
These are sounds that are audible and have
meaning in a specific culture, but are not
actual words.
English: uh, uhm….
Japanese: hai, so, e…
Chinese: ???
Space and Distance
Proxemics is concerned with people’s
personal space, seating, furniture
arrangement, and other such matters of
space.
Our use of personal space is learned on
both the conscious and unconscious level.
There are 4 levels of personal space.
4 levels of space
Intimate (contact to 18 inches)
Casual-personal (18 inches to 4 feet)
Social (4-12 feet)
Public (12+ feet)
Something as simple as seating
arrangements also varies from culture to
culture.
Americans usually reserve the end/head of a
table for leaders.
How do people assign status and hierarchy
in China with seating?
Chinese believe in feng shui / 風水 and will
often arrange furniture according to specific
rules.
American living rooms often have all
furniture pointed toward the television set.
American offices, especially those of
bosses/leaders, are often arranged to
maximize status/power.
Time
We can understand a culture’s sense of time
by learning about how members of that
culture view informal time, the past, present,
and future, and whether or not their
orientation toward time is monochromic or
polychromic (p. 224).
“To cut up life into moments of being, in
sum, is for the individual to possess a means
by which that life can be filled, shaped, and
reshaped in significant ways” (p. 219).
Cultures vary in their use of and perception
of time.
Informal time
Cultures take different approaches to
showing up to engagements on time or late.
Cultures also vary as to the pace with which
they perform specific acts.
What are some differences in punctuality
and pace between America and Taiwan?
Cultures vary in their perceptions and uses
of the past, present, and future.
How do America and Taiwan differ in their
perceptions of the past, present, and future?
Cultures organize time in two ways:
Monochronic (M-Time) or Polychronic (PTime).
M-Time is when a culture believes that time
is lineal and segmented.
“time is a scarce resource which must be
rationed and controlled through the use of
schedules and appointments, and through
aiming to do only one thing at any one
time” (p. 223).
M-Time cultures value punctuality, good
organization, and judicious use of time.
P-Time cultures see “the maintenance of
harmonious relationships as the important
agenda, so that use of time needs to be
flexible in order that we do right by the
various people to whom we have
obligations” (p. 223-224).
For P-Time cultures, time is less tangible;
hence, feelings of wasted time are not as
prevalent as in M-time cultures.
Silence
Cultures vary in their use of silence.
Silence is also a form of communication; it
also carries meaning.
Silence can be interpreted as agreement,
lack of interest, injured feelings, or even
contempt.
You must be careful not to assume that
people are communicating only when they
talk.
It behooves you to know cultural attitudes
toward talk, noise, and silence.
What are the differences between America
and Taiwan when it comes to silence?
Homework
1. Locate pictures from
magazines/newspapers that show different
facial expressions like a) anger, b) joy, c)
sadness, d) fear, and e) revulsion.
1. How would you interpret the following
situations:
1. Two people are speaking loudly, waving their
arms, and using a lot of gestures.
2. A customer in a restaurant waves his hand
over his head and snaps his fingers loudly.
3. An elderly woman dresses entirely in black.
4. A young man dresses entirely in black.
5. An adult pats a child’s head.
6. Two men kiss in public.
1. In Taiwan, how late can you be for
different social engagements?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Class
Work
Job interview
Dinner party
A date with a friend