What is Nonverbal Communication

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What is Nonverbal Communication?

• No one definition
• Dr. A. OBrien

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Verbal and Nonverbal are

• so intertwined that
• theres a fuzzy line between them.

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The idea is

• there are categories of communication that
  overlap some aspects of each other.

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• Its not as simple as
• WORDS
• NO WORDS

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Pioneer in nonverbal research Ray Birdwhistell

• defines nonverbal communication
• ... the signals to which meaning will be
  attributed

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Note

• some sounds are not vocal,
• e.g., snapping ones fingers, stamping a foot
• nv includes vocal and nonvocal phenomena

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American sign language is verbal... but silent

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Also other vocal phenomena

• more sounds than words e.g., zap...buzz

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Some nonvocal

• made with the breath,
• taking a small bit of air
• onomatopoetic words - zzz

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Mehrabian uses

• Explicit SAID IN WORDS EXACT RULES ABOUT
  IT

• Implicit
• SO SUBTLE ,NOT IN WORDS
• LACK OF EXPLICIT RULES

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Categorizes implicit or non verbal behavior

• Immediacy
• Status
• Responsiveness

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CLASSIFYING NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR
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Body Motion (Kinesic Gestures)

• Movements of the
• Body
• Limbs
• Head
• feet and legs
• facial expressions
• eye behavior
• posture

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• Some movements provide information about emotions
• Some give info about personality traits or
  attitude

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Ekman Friesen

• Classification of nonverbal acts

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Emblems

• nonverbal acts with
• a direct verbal translation

a word or two or a phrase... generally culture
specific
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Emblems

• Thumbs up OK
• V with fingers peace
• Finger pointed to temple suicide
• Hand grasping throat choke
• hand to mouth eating
• tilt head, eyes closed sleeping

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Use of Emblems (a)

• Insults
• Directions come go stop
  slow down
• Greetings
• Departures

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(No Transcript)
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Use of Emblems (b)

• selected responses to questions yes
  no maybe I dont
  knowphysical stateemotion triumphant
  angry sad

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Part of body associated with emblems

• Often the hands... but not exclusively
• Nose wrinkle Disgust
• Drop of the jaw and exaggeratedraising of the
  eyebrows Surprise
• Upturned palms, shrugged shoulders
  Uncertainty

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Use of Emblems 1

• When verbal channels of communication are blocked
  
• Sign language of the deaf
• Gestures used by television production personnel
• Gestures used by SWAT team

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Use of Emblems 2

• Signs between two underwater swimmers.
• Motions made by people too far apart to hear each
  other well.
• We choose emblems the way we choose words
• We dont think very much about it.
• We generally dont string emblems together.

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Illustrators

• directly tied to speech - movements that
• accentuate a word or phrase
• sketch a path of thought
• point to present objects
• depict a spatial relationship
• depict the pacing of an event
• draw a picture of the referent
• depict bodily action

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Illustrators

• They may also be emblems used to illustrate
  verbal statements but you leave the word out
  and use the emblem.

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Aware of the illustrators?

• Less deliberate than emblems. (They seem to be
  within the realm of awareness, but we are not as
  aware of them as we are of emblems which we use
  much more deliberately.)

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Frequency of Illustrators

• ...more in face to face situations
• ...fewer over the intercom or telephone
• ... in excitement and enthusiastic situations
• ... when the receiver isnt getting the message
  through words alone
• ... when you cant find the right word

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Affect Displays

• Facial configurations that display affective
  states sad tired ecstatic
• Used to
• Repeat
• Augment
• contradict
• can be unrelated to verbal affective statements.

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Affect Displays

• Can occur without our knowing it (Once it
  happens we are aware of it.)
• We may or may not want to communicate our
  affective state through such displays

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Regulators 1

• Non verbal acts
• that maintain
• and regulate

the interactions between two or more participants.
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Regulators 2

• They can tell the speaker to continue hurry
  up become more interesting explain let the
  other talk

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Turn-taking regulators

• (the most studied kind) Head tilting Nods Eye
  contact
• e.g. less eye contact if you want to terminate
  conversation.

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Status of regulators

• On the periphery of our awareness hard to stop
  them.
• Almost involuntary
• We may not be aware of doing it ourselves, but
  are very aware when others do it to us.

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Adaptors

• Learned early in life
• Less well documented
• Less well understood

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Self-Adaptors

• Manipulations of own body indicating increase in
  anxiety
• Examples
• holding
• scratching
• picking oneself
• eye-cover contact - (might be shame or sadness)

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Alter-Adaptors

• Related to interpersonal behaviors probable
  holdovers from early aggression, fleeing,
  fighting
• Examples
• leg movements
• looking over shoulder before gossiping

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Object adaptors

• Learned later in life - more socially acceptable
• stroking a pipe
• tapping a pencil
• hands in pockets
• twisting a ring

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Physical Characteristics

• Not all nonverbal communication comes through
  movement and motion
• Some are static self presentation characteristics
  
• body height
• Weight
• Hair
• skin color, tone
• breath odor

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Touching Behavior

• (Haptics)
• strokingpushing

guiding anothers motion
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Paralanguage

• How - not what you say.
• Speech behavior
• Voice quality and pitch
• Range and rhythm control
• Tempo
• Articulation
• Resonance
• Glottis control
• Vocal and lip control

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Vocalizations

• Non verbal sounds - not words, but convey a
  meaning.
• Divided into three categories
• vocal characterizers
• vocal qualifiers
• vocal segregates

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vocal characterizers

• Laughing
• Sighing
• Crying
• Belching
• Inhaling
• Excessive groaning
• Whining
• Yelling
• Whispering

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vocal qualifiers

• intensity (loud-soft)
• pitch height
• high-low
• extreme drawl to extreme clipping

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vocal segregates (separators)

• um uh ah

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Proxemics

• use and perception of social and personal space.
• Small group ecology - seating arrangements spati
  al relationships related to leadership,
  communication flow

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Proxemics

• Personal space orientation variations sex,
  age, status, cultural orientation, etc..
• Territoriality - term associated with our staking
  out a personal space we dont want infringed
  upon.

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Artifacts

• When objects interact with persons to send nv
  cues clothes lipstick false eyelashes
• wigs perfume

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Environmental Factors

• Associated with the communication event that
  impinge upon the human relationship, but not part
  of it.
• furniture
• architectural style
• interior decorating
• lighting conditions
• colors
• temperature

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• The End
• based on Mark Knapps research in nonverbal
  communication from Bridges Not Walls A Book
  About Interpersonal Communication, John Stewart,
  ed., McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 1990.