The Usage of Nonverbal Comm

MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 1 SULAY JALLOH

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

DEFINITION:

Nonverbal communication is communication without words. You communicate nonverbally when you gesture, smile or frown, widen your eyes, move your chair closer to someone, wear jewelry, touch someone, raise your vocal volume, or even when you say nothing.

THE USAGE OF NONVERBAL COMM.

1- Nonverbal comm. Communicate ACCENT (to emphasize some part of the verbal message). E.g.: Bang your fist on the desk to stress your commitment.

2- Nonverbal comm. is used to COMPLEMENT (to add shade of meaning not communicated by your verbal message). E.g: You might smile when telling a story (to suggest that you find it humorous)

3- Nonverbal comm. is used to deliberately CONTRADICT your verbal messages with nonverbal movements. E.g: by crossing your fingers or winking, you indicate that you’re lying.

4- Nonverbal comm. is used to REGULATE or control the flow of verbal messages, as when you make hand gestures to indicate that you want to speak.

5- Nonverbal comm. is used to REPEAT or restate the verbal message nonverbally. E.g: Follow your verbal "Is that all right?" with raised eyebrows.

6- Nonverbal comm. is used to SUBSTITUTE or take the place of verbal messages. E.g: You can signal "okay" with a hand gesture. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 2 SULAY JALLOH THE CHANNELS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Nonverbal communication is probably most easily explained by identifying the various channels through which messages pass. There are ten channels: body, face, eye, space, artifactual, touch, paralanguage, silence, time, and smell.

1. THE BODY

Two areas of the body are especially important in communicating messages. First, the movements you make with your body communicate, and, second, the general appearance of your body communicates.

A) Body Movements There are five major types of body movements:

(a) emblems. (b) Illustrators. (c) affect displays. (d) Regulators. (e) Adaptors.

(a) Emblems are body gestures that directly translate into words or phrases. E.g: "V" for victory. Emblems are culture-specific, so be careful when using your culture’s emblems in other cultures.

(b) Illustrators enhance (literally "illustrate") the verbal messages they accompany. E.g: Using illustrators to communicate the shape or size of objects you’re talking about.

(c) Affect displays are movements of the face (smiling or frowning) but also of the hands and general body (body tenseness or relaxing posture) that communicate emotional meaning. They can be conscious or unconscious. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 3 SULAY JALLOH

(d) Regulators are behaviors that monitor, control, coordinate, or maintain the speaking of another individual. E.g: When you nod your head, you tell the speaker to keep on speaking.

(e) Adaptors are gestures that satisfy some personal need. E.g: scratching to relieve an itch or moving your hair out of your eyes.

a) Self-adaptors are self-touching movements. E.g: rubbing your nose. b) Alter-adaptors are movements directed at the person with whom you’re speaking. E.g: removing lint from someone’s jacket c) Object-adaptors are those gestures focused on objects. E.g: shredding a styrofoam coffee cup.

B) Body Appearance Your general body appearance also communicates. E.g Tall presidential candidates have a much better record of winning the election than do their shorter opponents. Tall people seem to be paid more and are favored by interviewers over shorter applicants . Attractive people have the advantage in just about every activity you can name. They get better grades in school, are more valued as friends and lovers, and are preferred as coworkers.

2) FACIAL COMMUNICATION

Facial movements express at least the following eight emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, contempt, and interest . The emotions are generally called primary affect displays. They’re relatively pure, single emotions. Other emotional states and other facial displays are combinations of these various primary emotions and are called affect blends. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 4 SULAY JALLOH A) Facial Management Techniques There are four facial management techniques: a) Intensifying helps you exaggerate a feeling. E.g: Exaggerating surprise when friends throw you a party to make your friends feel better.

b) Deintensifying helps you underplay a feeling. E.g: To cover up your own joy in the presence of a friend who didn’t receive such good news.

c) Neutralizing helps you hide feelings. E.g: To cover up your sadness so as not to depress others.

d) Masking helps you to replace or substitute the expression of one emotion for the emotion you’re really feeling. E.g: To express happiness in order to cover up your disappointment in not receiving the gift you had expected.

3) EYE COMMUNICATION

The messages communicated by the vary depending on the duration, direction, and quality of the eye behavior. E.g: In every culture there are strict, though unstated, rules for the proper duration for eye contact.

A) The Functions of Eye Contact and Eye Avoidance Eye contact can serve a variety of functions. a) To seek feedback. b) To inform the other person that the channel of communication is open and that he or she should now speak. c) To psychologically lessen the physical distance between yourself and another person. E.g: When you catch someone’s eye at a party, you become psychologically close though physically far apart. d) Eye Avoidance helps others to maintain their privacy. You might do this when you see a couple arguing in public. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 5 SULAY JALLOH e) Eye avoidance can also signal lack of interest though not always the case.

4) SPACE COMMUNICATION

Space communication speaks as surely and loudly as words and sentences. E.g: Speakers who stand close to their listener, with their hands on the listener’s shoulders and their eyes focused directly on those of the listener, communicate something very different from speakers who stand in a corner with arms folded and eyes downcast.

A) Spatial Distances (See Table 8.1) There are four distances that define the type of relationship between people and the type of communication in which they’re likely to engage.

a) Intimate Distance: ranging from actual touching to 18 inches, the presence of the other individual is unmistakable. Each person experiences the sound, smell, and feel of the other’s breath. You use intimate distance for lovemaking, comforting, and protecting.

b) Personal Distance: refers to the protective "bubble" that defines your personal distance, ranging from 18 inches to 4 feet. This imaginary bubble keeps you protected and untouched by others. You can still hold or grasp another person at this distance but only by extending your arms.

c) Social Distance ranges from 4 to 12 feet; at this distance you lose the visual detail you have at personal distance. You conduct impersonal business and interact at a social gathering at this social distance. The more distance you maintain in your interactions, the more formal they appear.

d) Public Distance from 12 to more than 25 feet, protects you. At this distance you could take defensive action if threatened. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 6 SULAY JALLOH Influences on Space Communication Several factors influence the way you relate to and use space in communicating. They are as follows:

a) Status: Equal status maintain shorter distances between themselves than do people of unequal status. When status is unequal, the higher-status person may approach the lower-status person more closely than the lower-status person would approach the higher- status person.

b) Culture: Members of different cultures treat space differently.

c) Subject matter: Personal subjects you maintain shorter distances. Also, you stand closer to someone praising you, than to someone criticizing you.

d) Gender: Women generally stand closer to each other than men do. Similarly, when someone approaches another person, he or she will come closer to a woman than to a man.

e) Age: Children stand much closer to each other than do adults.

5) ARTIFACTUAL COMMUNICATION

Artifactual messages are those made by human hands. Such as:

a) Color, b) Clothing c) Space decoration. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 7 SULAY JALLOH

6) TOUCH COMMUNICATION

Touch communicates a wide variety of messages. Here are five major ones: a) Touch communicates positive feelings such as support, appreciation, inclusion, sexual interest or intent, composure, immediacy, affection, trust, similarity and quality, and informality.

b) Touch often communicates your intention to play, either affectionately or aggressively.

c) Touch may control the behaviors, attitudes, or feelings of the other person. E.g: You touch a person to communicate "move over," "hurry," "stay here," and "do it."

d) Ritualistic touching centers on greetings and departures. E.g: Shaking hands to say "hello" or "good-bye," hugging, kissing.

e) Task-related touching is associated with the performance of some function. E.g: Checking someone’s forehead for fever.

7) SILENCE COMMUNICATION

Like words and gestures, silence too communicates important meanings and serves important functions. Silence allows: a) The speaker time to think, time to formulate and organize his or her verbal communications. E.g: messages of intense conflict, or those confessing undying love. b) Some people use silence as a weapon to hurt others. We often speak of giving someone "the silent treatment." MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 8 SULAY JALLOH c) Sometimes silence is used as a response to personal anxiety, shyness, or threats. You may feel anxious or shy among new people and prefer to remain silent. By remaining silent you preclude the chance of rejection. d) Silence may be used to prevent communication of certain messages. In conflict situations silence is sometimes used to prevent certain topics from surfacing and to prevent one or both parties from saying things they may later regret. e) Like the eyes, face, and hands, silence can also be used to communicate emotional responses. Sometimes silence communicates a determination to be uncooperative or defiant; by refusing to engage in verbal communication, you defy the authority or the legitimacy of the other person’s position.

8) TIME COMMUNICATION

Temporal communication (known technically as chronemics) concerns the use of time—how you organize it, how you react to it, and the messages it communicates. (SELF TEST)

The time orientation you develop depends on your socioeconomic class and your personal experiences. Different time perspectives also account for much intercultural misunderstanding since different cultures often teach their members drastically different time orientations.

E.g.: members from some Latin cultures would rather be late for an appointment than end a conversation abruptly or before it has come to a natural end. So, the Latin sees this behavior as politeness. But, others may see this as impolite to the person with whom he or she had the appointment. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 9 SULAY JALLOH

9) SMELL COMMUNICATION

Smell communication, (olfactics), is extremely important in a wide variety of situations. Here are some of the most important messages scent seems to communicate: a) Attraction messages: Humans use perfumes, colognes, and the like to enhance their attractiveness to others and to themselves. b) Taste messages. Without smell, taste would be severely spoiled. E.g: it would be extremely difficult to taste the difference between a raw potato and an apple without smell. c) Memory messages. Smell is a powerful memory aid; you can often recall situations from months and even years ago when you happen upon a similar smell. d) Identification messages. Smell is often used to create an image or an identity for a product. Advertisers and manufacturers spend millions of dollars each year creating smell for cleaning products and tooth pastes.

CULTURE AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION Not surprisingly, nonverbal communication is heavily influenced by culture. Although Americans consider direct eye contact an expression of honesty and forthrightness, the Japanese often view this as a lack of respect. The Japanese will glance at the other person’s face rarely and then only for very short periods.

Folding your arms over your chest is considered disrespectful in Fiji, pointing with the index finger is considered impolite in many Middle- Eastern countries, and waving your hand can be considered insulting in Greece and Nigeria. MC109/COMM100: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 10 SULAY JALLOH

Touching varies greatly from one culture to another. E.g: African Americans touch each other more than do whites. Similarly, touching declines from kindergarten to the sixth grade for white but not for African American children.

Similarly, Japanese touch each other much less than do Anglo-Saxons who in turn touch each other much less than do southern Europeans.

Not surprisingly, the role of silence is seen differently in different cultures.