COMM2110 CH6 Notes PDF

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Chapter 6 lecture and textbook notes for Fall 2018 COMM-2110 with Nicolle Johnson....

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1 COMM-2110 Interpersonal Communication Chapter 6 Notes

Table of Contents CHAPTER 6 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 6.1 The Nature of Nonverbal Communication Five Characteristics of Nonverbal Communication

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Nonverbal Communication is Present in Most Interpersonal Conversations 2 Nonverbal Communication Often Conveys More Information Than Verbal Communication 3 Nonverbal Communication is Usually Believed Over Verbal Communication Nonverbal Communication is the Primary Means of Communicating Emotion Nonverbal Communication Metacommunicates Functions of Nonverbal Communication

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Managing Conversations Expressing Emotions

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Maintaining Relationships Forming Impressions

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Influencing Others Concealing Information

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6.2 The Ten Channels of Nonverbal Communication 6.3 Culture, Sex, and Nonverbal Communication Culture Influences Nonverbal Communication Sex Influences Nonverbal Communication

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CHAPTER 6 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 6.1 The Nature of Nonverbal Communication Vocabulary ●

Emoji: Cartoon depictions of faces and other objects that first became popular on Japanese cell phone services.

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Emoticons: Textual representations of facial expressions often used in email messages.

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Facial Displays: The use of facial expressions for communication.

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Immediacy Behaviors: Nonverbal behaviors that send messages of attraction or affiliation.

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Nonverbal Channels: Various behavioral forms that nonverbal communication takes.

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Nonverbal Communication: Behaviors and characteristics that convey meaning without the use of words. Frequently accompany verbal messages to clarify or reinforce them.

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Turn-Taking Signals: Nonverbal signs that indicate when each person’s speaking turns begin and end.

Notes ●

We can tell a great deal about people by watching their facial expressions and listening to their tone of voice. We also interpret people's gestures and notice the way they carry themselves.

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In addition, we frequently make judgments about people on the basis of their appearance. Sometimes we even perceive others according to the way they use their time and the space around them.

Five Characteristics of Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal Communication is Present in Most Interpersonal Conversations ●

Whether you talk to people one-on-one or in a group, you have access not only to the words they speak but also to several dimensions of nonverbal communication. In many situations, you can watch people’s facial expressions for signs of how they’re feeling. Voice also conveys data about a person’s state of mind. The way people dress and smell can send you information.

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In electronically mediated communication, such as email, tweeting, and text messaging, we can introduce nonverbal cues through the use of emoticons and emoji.

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Vocal characteristics such as pitch and tone are important nonverbal cues in face-to-face conversation, but they are even more important on the telephone because so many other nonverbal signals are unavailable to use. When people lose the ability to use one of their senses to communicate, they typically compensate by relying more heavily on their remaining senses.

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Nonverbal communication makes use of many nonverbal channels.

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Experts think we put more trust in nonverbal communication because we believe people have a harder time controlling nonverbal signals than verbal ones. Thus, we assume that nonverbal behaviors more accurately reflect what a person is really thinking or feeling.

Nonverbal Communication Often Conveys More Information Than Verbal Communication ●

Communication scholar Judee Burgoon suggested that 65 to 70 percent of meaning come from nonverbal clues.

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Some of the nonverbal channels rely on our sense of vision, such as facial expressions, gestures, and personal appearance. Vocal characteristics, such as loudness, pitch, and tone of voice, engage our sense of hearing. We also use our senses of touch and smell to communicate.

Nonverbal Communication is Usually Believed Over Verbal Communication ●

Experts think we put more trust in nonverbal communication because we believe people have a harder time controlling nonverbal signals than verbal ones. We assume that nonverbal behaviors more accurately reflect what a person is really thinking or feeling.

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The human preference for believing nonverbal signals even when they conflict with words is especially critical for detecting deception, because people often display inconsistent verbal nonverbal behaviors when they are lying.

Nonverbal Communication is the Primary Means of Communicating Emotion ●

We have a large verbal vocabulary for describing our emotions, but our nonverbal behaviors do it much more efficiently. Research shows that humans are acutely sensitive to nonverbal emotion cues.

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Emotion is a powerful influence on our behavior, and our primary way of communicating how we feel is through our nonverbal behaviors.

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We take close not of facial expressions whether we are talking to people face-to-face, listening to them speak to a group, or even watching them on television. On reality TV shows, producers often shoot close-ups of people’s faces during critical moments to capture emotions in their expressions. Most of us can easily think of the type of facial expression that connotes happiness: the eyes tend to be wide and bright, and the person tends to be smiling. That expression differs notably from the facial expressions we associate with anger, sadness, surprise, and other emotional states. The distinctive patterns we perceive for each are keys to helping us interpret other people’s emotions.

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Several studies suggest that the facial expressions of these basic emotions are interpreted very similarly across cultures. Psychologist Paul Ekman took photographs of people communicating

4 six basic emotions through their facial expressions: happiness, fear, disgust, anger, sadness, and surprise. He then showed the photos to participants in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, and the United States. He asked the participants to match each photograph with what they believed was the emotion being displayed. Ekman found that the participants were equally accurate at describing which emotion was displayed in each photograph. ●

SImilar studies have repeated those results using groups from a range of cultures, including Greek, Chinese, Turkish, Malaysian, Ethiopian, Swedish, Italian, Sumatran, Estonian, and Scottish. The degree of similarity in interpretations of emotion displays does differ from culture to culture. It also differs from emotion to emotion, with facial displays of some emotions, such as happiness, being more consistently than others, such as fear. It appears that facial expression of our most basic emotions are interpreted similarly around the world.

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We also pay attention to vocal cues to understand a person’s emotional state. When someone is creaming and using harsh vocal tones, we usually infer that he or she is angry, whereas laughter and lots of pitch variation suggest happiness or excitement. We are more accurate at interpreting emotions through vocal cues than through facial expressions. We don’t necessarily get more information about their emotional state from their voice than from their facial expressions, but we might get more accurate information.

Nonverbal Communication Metacommunicates ●

Metacommunication is communication about communication and we often metacommunicate verbally. Several nonverbal behaviors also help us achieve the goal of communicating clearly.

Functions of Nonverbal Communication Managing Conversations ●

Nonverbal cues assist us in inviting, maintaining, and ending conversations. ○

Initing conversations: Three nonverbal cues are especially relevant for inviting conversations: personal space, physical appearance, and eye contact.

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Maintaining conversations: During a conversation, you’ll probably use gestures, eye contact, and tone of voice as turn-taking signals. Research shows that most of us maintain more eye contact with a conversational partner when we’re listening than when we’re speaking.

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Ending Conversations: Changes in eye behavior and posture are particularly common strategies for ending a conversation. The behavior called left-positioning (angling our posture away from the person) signals that we are preparing to leave the site of the conversation.

Expressing Emotions ●

Two most expressive nonverbal channels for emotion are facial expressions and vocal behaviors.

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Facial expressions of emotion: Many of us “wear” our emotions on our faces. We begin signaling our emotions through facial displays very early in life. Studies have shown that infants begin smiling in response to external stimuli around the end of the first month of life. By two months of age, most infants smile more in the presence of a parent than a stranger.

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Vocal expressions of emotion: Experimental research on vocal displays of emotion has shown that emotion affects the voice in many ways. Specifically, intense emotional experiences increase the pitch and loudness of the voice, while decreasing the rate of speech. Less-intense emotions cause fewer changes in the voice.

Maintaining Relationships ●

Nonverbal behaviors that are important for relationships include attraction and affiliation, power and dominance, and arousal and relaxation. ○

Attraction and Affiliation: Many nonverbal behaviors send messages of attraction or affiliation.

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Power and Dominance: Power is the potential to affect another person’s behavior, and dominance is the actual exercise of that potential. Many people also use artifacts (objects or visual features in an environment) as status symbols.

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Arousal and relaxation: Arousal refers to an increase in energy. We experience arousal in two fundamentally different ways depending on whether it is accompanied by positive or negative emotions. When it is accompanied by positive emotions, we experience arousal as excitement. Most of us express excitement through nonverbal cues. When arousal is accompanied by negative emotions, we experience it as anxiety. The opposite of arousal is relaxation, which we feel in situations of decreased energy. As with arousal, we experience relaxation in two different ways depending on the emotion involved. When relaxation is accompanied by positive emotion, we experience it as contentment. When relaxation is accompanied by negative emotion, we experience it as depression.

Forming Impressions ●

Nonverbal cues influence two general types of impressions: those related to a person’s demographic characteristics and those related to a person’s sociocultural characteristics. ○

Demographic impressions: Includes one’s age, ethnic background, and gender. The voice is a nonverbal channel that helps us form demographic impressions of others.

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Sociocultural Impressions: Include one’s socioeconomic status, which is an index of how much money and education a person has and how prestigious his or her career is. Can also

6 include the cultural and co-cultural groups with which people identify. Personal appearance is usually the most informative nonverbal channel for forming sociocultural impressions. Influencing Others ●

Nonverbal communication can be persuasive when it is applied as part of several strategies, including creating credibility and promoting affiliation. ○

Creating credibility: We often project an image of credibility by adopting a personal appearance that conveys expertise and authority. Speaking loudly, quickly, and expressively, with a good deal of pitch variation, makes a person sound credible. The use of eye contact and gestures that clarify the verbal message also enhances a person’s credibility.

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Promoting Affiliation: We are more persuaded by people we like than by people we don’t. Touching in appropriate, familiar ways can make us feel close to others. Casual touches make people more likely to comply with our requests. Affiliation is also enhanced by interactional synchrony, which is the convergence of two people’s behaviors.

Concealing Information ●

Individuals have many reasons for choosing to conceal information. Some people lie to benefit themselves, or lie to avoid hurting themselves. Often, people choose to be deceptive to avoid hurting others.

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One of the most commonly studied facial behaviors that can indicate deception is smiling. When we are telling the truth, we are more likely to use a genuine smile that reflects actual positive emotion. When we are being dishonest, we are more likely to use a false smile, one that makes it appear as though we are happy even though we are not. Both types of smile draw the edges of the mouth upward, but a genuine smile also causes the skin around the eyes to wrinkle, whereas a false smile does not.

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Attempting to conceal information can also influence certain vocal behaviors, such as by increasing the pitch of the voice.

6.2 The Ten Channels of Nonverbal Communication Vocabulary ●

Artifact: An object or visual feature of an environment with communicative value.

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Chronemics: The use of time.

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Facial Displays: The use of facial expression for communication.

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Gesticulation: The use of arm and hand movements to communicate.

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Halo Effect: The tendency to attribute positive qualities to physically attractive people.

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Haptics: The study of how we use touch to communication.

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Intimate Distance: The distance most people in Western cultures maintain with intimate partners; ranges from 0 to 1.5 feet.

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Kinesics: The study of movement.

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Oculesics: The study of eye behavior.

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Olfactic Association: The tendency of odors to bring to mind specific memories.

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Olfactics: The study of the sense of smell.

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Personal Distance: The distance most people in Western cultures maintain with friends and relatives; ranges from 1.5 to 4 feet.

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Proportionality: The relative size of one’s facial features.

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Proxemics: The study of spatial use.

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Public Distance: The distance most people in Western cultures maintain with public figures during a performance ranges from 12 to 25 feet or more.

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Social Distance: The distance most people in Western cultures maintain with casual acquaintances; ranges from 4 to 12 feet.

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Symmetry: The similarity between the left and right sides of the face.

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Vocalics: Characteristics of the voice that convey meaning in communication; also referred to as paralanguage.

Notes ●

Ten channels of nonverbal communication: facial displays, eye behaviors, movement and gestures, touch behaviors, vocal behaviors, the use of smell, the use of space, physical appearance, the use of time, and the use of artifact.

1. Facial Displays ○

According to the principle of facial primacy, the face communicates more information than any other channel of nonverbal behaviors. That principle is especially true for three important functions of facial displays: identity, attractiveness, and emotion.

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For most of us, the two sides of our faces look similar, but they aren’t exactly alike. Attractive faces have greater symmetry than unattractive faces.

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On a proportional face, all the features are of the proper size, not in an absolute sense but relative to one another.

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How accurately we decode emotions from other people’s facial expressions depends on several factors, the first being emotion itself. The other factor is sex. In general, women tend to be better than men at decoding facial displays of emotion. People who are very

8 outgoing and extroverted tend to be better at interpreting facial emotion displays than people who are shy or introverted. 2. Eye Behaviors: The eyes communicate more than any other part of the face. We use eye contact to signal attraction to someone and to infer that someone is attracted to us. We use it to gain credibility and to come across as sincere or trustworthy. We use it to persuade others and to signal that we are paying attention and understanding what others are saying. We can also use eye contact when we want to intimidate someone or take a dominant or authoritative position in a conversation or a group discussion. 3. Movement and Gestures ○

Your gait, or the way you walk, is one example of how your body movement can communicate a particular message about you to others. Research indicates that most people use gestures even before they begin speaking.

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There are several forms of gestures: ■

Emblems: Gestures that have a direct verbal translation. Whenever you see an emblematic gesture, you should be able to translate it into words. Examples include the wave for “Hello” and “Goodbye” and the upright extended palm for “stop.”

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Illustrators: Gestures that go along with a verbal message to clarify it. If you hold up your hands a certain distance apart when you say that fish you caught was “this big” your gesture serves as an illustrator to clarify what you mean by “this big.”

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Affect Displays: Gestures that communicate emotion, or affect. Some people wring their hands when they’re nervous, and some cover their mouth with their hands when they’re surprised.

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Regulators: Gestures that control the flow of conversation. One example is raising your hand when you’re in a group and wish to speak.

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Adaptors: Gestures that are used to satisfy some personal need, such as scratching an itch or picking lint off one’s shirt. When we do those behaviors to ourselves, we call them self-adaptors. When adaptors are directed at others, they’re called other-adaptors.

4. Touch Behaviors ○

Touch is the first of our five senses to develop. Five major areas in which touch plays a critical role in conveying meaning: affection, caregiving, power and control, aggression, and ritual.

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Affectionate Touch

9 One reason affectionate touch is so important is that it contributes to our physical and

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mental well-being. Infants who are regularly cuddled experience faster physical development than those who are not, and people who are touched during stressful events experience less stress than those who are not. People suffer when they do not receive enough affectionate touch. Psychologist Harry Harlow is credited with many groundbreaking discoveries

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regarding the importance of touch for children. Concerns over sexual abuse of children have caused many public school districts to

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adopt “no to...