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Running head: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS Nonverbal Communication in Social Settings Literature Review Jade Ashcraft University of Kentucky 1 NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 2 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. NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 3 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 NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 4 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 NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 5 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. NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 6 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 NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 7 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. 8 NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 9 NONVERBAL COMMUNCIATION IN SOCIAL SETTINGS 10