Chap. 4: Non-verbal Communication

Types of non-verbal communication

• Posture and gesture

• Face and eyes

• Voice

• Touch

• Physical attractiveness

• Clothing

• Distance

• Time

• Territoriality

• Environment

Body Language (Types of communication)

• Small bodily movements such as facial expression and eye movement

• How do we connect with non-bodily things (Ex: clothing, furniture, cigarette)

Posture (Types of communication)

• Kinesics (Study of body movement, posture, and gesture)

• Influence how much space we appear to occupy

• approachability

• People often mirror each other

• Manipulators (part of body grooms, messages, rubs, holds, pinches, picks, otherwise manipulates another part

Face and Eyes (Types of communication)

2 reasons face is complicated

• Produce high number of expressions

• Change expression rapidly

6 emotions:

• Surprise, fear, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness

Eye contact (Types of communication)

• Communicate attention/engagement

• Too little makes you seem uninterested or distracted. Too much can make you seem creepy or intimidating

• Varies across cultures/individually

Voice (Types of communication)

• Parelanguage: Non-linguistic means of vocal expression (rate, pitch, tone, pauses, speed)

• Disfluencies: Non-linguistic verbalizations (“um”, “er”, and “ah”)

Can can misinterpreted/trained/modified

Touch (Types of communication)

• Essential to health development

• Interpreted differently depending on: Gender, hierarchy, personal history

• Depends on relationships (sexual relationship is the closest, while public relationship is further away).

• Functions in professional contexts:

  • Greeting/building support

  • Support/reassurance

  • Regulation of interaction

  • Task-oriented touch

Attractiveness (Types of communication)

• Not just physical appearance, includes: grooming, clothing, style, overall presentation

• Impacts credibility, has social advantages

• Power of first impression

Clothing (Types of communication)

• Covey: Economic status, education level, social status, moral standards, athletic ability/interests, belief systems, level of sophistication

As we know someone, clothing skrins in importance

Distance (Types of communication)

• Proxemics: Study of how people/animals use space

(EX: intimate, personal, social, public(

Time (Types of communication)

• Chronemics: Study of how humans use/structure time

• Use time varies on culture

• Functions of time in communication:

  • Punctualility

  • Response time

  • Time allocation

  • Peace of interaction

Territoriality (Types of communication)

• Communicates: ownership, idenifty, power, and boundaries

• Markers of territoriality:

  • Markers

  • Body language

  • Boundaries

  • Defensive behaviors

Respecting or violating can lead to strengthen or harming relationships

Environment

Frames communication:

• Physical space

• Design

• Objects

• Lighting

• colour

• Temp.

• Nosie

• Overall atmosphere

Social Media and Non-verbal (includes)

Emojis

• Digital ‘non-verbal’ cue

• ‘Emotional work’

• More then one is waste of time