BODY LANGUAGE: Nonverbal Communication BODY LANGUAGE: Nonverbal Communication

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BODY LANGUAGE Nonverbal CommunicationBODY
LANGUAGE Nonverbal Communication

• Materials Nancy Henley, Body Politics Power,
  Sex Nonverbal Communication and Interpersonal
  Perception Test 15

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Bodily language is crucial for our performance.

• Nonverbal communication refers to how we say
  things with our body postures and movements,
  facial expressions, gestures, touching, eye
  contact, use of space and so on.
• many channels or areas of expressing body
  language.
• Examples

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• verbal and nonverbal communication are combined
  to form a message
• Lying Ekman 10,000 expressions in The Facial
  Action Coding System combinations of 43
  independent muscles in the face, Clinton infamous
  statement
• Search for machines Polygraph (William Moulton
  Marston)

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• In Most interactions, each of us plays both the
  role of encoder and role of decoder. produce
  communications (verbal and nonverbal) directed at
  others (encode). And we interpret, decode.
• We use these cues to form impressions and reach
  conclusions about others, a remarkable feat,
  because in any interaction, hundreds or even
  thousands of verbal and nonverbal cues stream by
  us, vanishing in milliseconds.

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• discard most cues, seizing on the few e.g. a
  momentary facial expression, a vocal inflection,
  a fleeting gesture, that tell us what the other
  person means or is feeling
• We can recognize a persons facial expression of
  emotion from as little as l/24th second exposure,
  and it is often possible to interpret other
  peoples behavior, feelings,and relationships from
  something as simple as a photograph.

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• Because our culture considers trivial, ignores
  and doesn't educate its members to nonverbal
  behavior, it constitutes a vague stimulus
  situation. Its interpretation is then highly
  susceptible to social influence which further
  maintains the status quo.

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Henley 9 different areas of bodily expression.

• Body Language expresses one's social role. They
  are the front stage performance of the role.
  Bodily language reinforces social status, part of
  the decorum part of the performance
• Goffman's theme is the performance Every social
  situation is a drama. Bodily communication
  amplifies performance,

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• More than the arrangement of facts, there is an
  interpretation of facts.
• Goffman would look for nonverbal communication to
  convey other's belief in the part one is playing.

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Emersons three themes

• We look at activity to learn its theme its
  frame what is really going on. Nonverbal
  communication occurs in her three areas

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• The Setting,
• Language,
• Demeanor

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setting

• Goffman emphasizes the context that lets us see
  the meaning of the factual arrangement.
• Cues are given off that help us develop the
  frame, how people use space or territory and time

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• Props are key to a setting, explicitly part of
  the body language, toying with objects, looking
  at them, having them in the background, give off
  cues as to what is going on, how people use them
  toying with an object suggeststs to the DA, who
  done it
• Goffman refers to them as Sign equipment
• the props that aid the performance, they are
  appropriate, e.g. Carrying a briefcase for
  professor.

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• Space proxemics how close we are to each other
  Reflects Intimacy, solidarity or power
• Body language is not only individual, it is
  interactive.

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• several ways we use space and time, as a
  continuum. different contexts, reflecting
  different uses of space amounts of time
• 1) public time asking directions, checking out
  library books how space used here?
• 2) social time, making purchases, inquiring about
  services
• 3) personal time job interviews, doctors and
  dentists appointments
• 4) intimate time close family interactions and
  gatherings.

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• Proxemics how we use personal space. Intimate
  distance 0-18 inches, nonpublic interactions,
  such as comforting too close for asking
  directions
• personal distance 1.5- 4 feet people who are
  bonded, discussions with others
• social distance 4-12 feet, formal business and
  social discourse
• Public distance 12-25 feet too far for party

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Demeanor

• Goffman refers to Expressive Cues. we use
  expressive cues to send and receive thoughts and
  feelings.
• Ranking, hierarchy, height
• Touch who can touch whom? We have status ridden
  society
• Gesture, Posture
• Eye contact
• Facial expression

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• Facial expression

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The standards

• Require individuals to show respect for the
  region and setting one is in, to impress the
  audience or avoid sanctions.
• There are a number of fronts for our acts,
• The front stage is where the performance is
  given.
• The actor's performance in the front region gives
  the appearance that the activity here maintains
  and embodies certain standards

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• Activity occurs in the presence of other persons,
  i.e. in the front region, some aspect of the
  activity are expressively accentuated and other
  aspects might discredit the fostered impression
  are suppressed.

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• Take the following description of a couple
  having an affair, overseen by a common friend
  that did not know until that moment when he spied
  their back stage behavior that they were surely a
  close couple. Their Body Language revealed that
  they were lovers in secret Last Orders

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• From the front of the van I could see them
  clearly, fifty yards, ten o'clock, Ray on the
  side of the bench nearest me. It seemed to me
  that though they made the shapes of two separate
  people, sitting on the same bench, so you might
  have thought it was just a chance encounter, they
  also made a single shape that was the two of them
  together. Ray leant forward and lit a cigarette,
  cupping his hands against the breeze. Then he
  took a puff, took the cigarette from his mouth
  and with the same hand, elbow on knee, stroked
  his bottom lip with his thumb. There was a paper
  bag wedged between them with the remains of
  something, because Amy dipped her hand into it
  and threw crumbs for the birds pecking near their
  feet, sparrows, pigeons. She did this quickly,
  with a jerk of her arm, as if she half wanted to
  shoo the birds away, not fed them, but the crumbs
  kept them coming back. Ray didn't feed the
  birds. He smoked and rubbed his lip and
  scratched his neck. Then he sat back and at that
  exact moment Amy leant forward as if they were a
  machine that worked like that. She stroked her
  leg just below the knee as if she had an ache
  there.

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• Vertegaal from Queens U. on eye gaze, a strong
  link between the amount of eye contact people
  receive and their degree of participation in
  group communications.

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paraLanguage

• not the meaning of the words we say, but to how
  we say them the rhythm, pitch, intensity,
  nasality, slurring, etc.
• Who controls the conversational flow?
• Self disclosure
• tone

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Power

• Why does nonverbal behavior cement power?
• Power (status, dominance) is a major topic of
  nonverbal communication, and nonverbal behavior
  is a major avenue for social control on a large
  scale, and interpersonal dominance on a smaller
  scale.
• nonverbal power gestures provide the
  micropolitical structure, the thousands of daily
  acts through which nonverbal influence takes
  place, which underlies and supports the
  macropolitical structure.

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• Many nonverbal behaviors have the dual function
  of expressing either dominance or intimacy,
  according to whether they are asymmetrically, Or
  symmetrically used by the partners in the
  relationship.

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Interpersonal Perception Task 15,

• WE DID NOT SHOW THIS IN CLASS
• The scenes were about behavior,
• look not only to identify the right answer, but
  figure out why you choose it
• Identify what kinds of cues are found in
  nonverbal communication that are unavailable in
  words alone?

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Items

• facial expressions
• words, tones, hesitations
• eye movements
• gestures,
• personal space
• posture and touching. occur simultaneous, as in
  real life.

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5 categories of interaction

• 3 scenes for each
• status,
• kinship
• intimacy
• competition
• deception

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• Going to ask you to choose between A and B, or
  sometimes both. you can guess because the issue
  is that we are attuned to cues that we in
  everyday life guess at.
• Then think about what it was, words or nonverbal
  communication that led to the answer,
• silent cues are powerful. We remove sound, but
  other cues visible.