NonVerbal Communication

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Non-Verbal Communication

• WXES2112
• Thinking and Communication Skills

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Non-Verbal Communication

• Objectives
• Introduce types of non-verbal communication
• Show the importance of non-verbal communication
  to support a verbal communication

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Non-Verbal Communication

• Non-verbal communication makes no use of the
  words, sentences, grammar and other structures
  that we associate with spoken and written
  language.
• Non-verbal communication includes facial
  expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body
  posture and motions, and positioning within
  groups.
• Verbal communication is organized by language
  non-verbal communication is not.

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Non-Verbal Communication

• Types of non-verbal communication
• Proxemics
• Orientation
• Eye contact or gaze
• Facial expression
• Gesture, especially use of hands and arms
• Dress
• Posture
• Paralanguage

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Non-Verbal Communication

• Other forms of non-verbal behaviour
• Changes in our skin pigment such as blushing when
  we are embarrassed
• How much control do we have over the non-verbal
  signals we transmit?
• Smell
• Animal used smell to send out signals that both
  attract and repel
• Men/women used synthetic odours that will attract
  opposite sex

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1. Proxemics

• The study of how we handle the space around us,
  especially in relation to other people
• Human beings are territorial!
• We create for ourselves spaces that belong to us
  and to which we try carefully to control access
• Example
• Our homes
• Our spaces at work or school
• Issue how space is occupied is about how
  territory reflects the power relations within
  groups of people. The more powerful a person the
  larger and more impressive the space they will
  occupy

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Proxemics - continue

• Another important type of space the space we
  carry with us
• Individual invisible space that we protect from
  outside intrusion
• Invisible bubble around us
• Determined by the situation and by the
  relationship we have, or might like to have, with
  the person or people who are near to us
• In crowded place such as a bus or train
• Cultural/religious differences in our attitudes
  to the proximity, or nearness, of other people
• Dont touch touching things, other people, or
  even our own bodies, is socially undesirable.
• Some cultures physical contact with relative
  strangers is openly encouraged

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Proxemics - activities

• Consider how space are occupied within the
  classroom.
• How is the teachers space marked out?
• How are other spaces occupied?
• Where would a newcomer or visitor to the class
  sit?
• What do you feel if you are in
• A crowded bus
• A stadium
• A lonely beach

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2. Orientation

• Closely linked to the concept of proxemics
• The way in which people place themselves relative
  to one another
• When someone comes sits next to you, it is
  generally seen as a much friendlier (closeness)
  orientation than someone who sits directly
  opposite (potentially confrontational) to you.

Activities

• Do we trust people more if they sit in certain
  positions in relation to us
• Why do we feel uncomfortable when people stand
  behind us?
• Describe how a detective ask a suspect of murder
  case.
• During interview, why interviewer sit apart from
  interviewee.

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3. Eye Contact

• Important way in which we communicate our
  feelings towards other people
• Initial eye contact to assess a stranger
• Staring identified as threatening form or
  behaviour
• If we staring at someone, their behaviour will
  change, often becoming either defensive or at the
  other extreme aggressive towards you
• Deeply suspicious of people who cannot look us
  in the eye they are seen as shifty or people
  with something to hide
• Gazing look steadily men gaze at women,
  sometimes in intimidating way
• Eye contact can be an index of the closeness of
  a relationship that people share

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Eye Contact - continue

• A popular belief, we can detect the truth in
  peoples eyes. Although people may hide the
  truth with words, their true feelings will be
  revealed in their eyes
• However eye contact has some degree of ambiguity
  about its meaning (has the opposite meaning)

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4. Facial Expression

• We face other people when we talk
• Facial expression is bound to be an important
  indicator to other people of our attitudes, state
  of mind and relationships to them
• Human face has a complex arrangement of muscles
  that allows us to produce a whole range of
  different expressions, most of which are an index
  of our feelings (happy, sad, pain, etc.)
• Smiling important facial gesture that indicate
  that we pleased to see other people

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Facial Expression - continue

• Smile vs Frown
• Smile in forced way
• Say cheese when a photograph is taken
• A smiling television presenter

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Facial Expression - Activities
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5. Gesture (Hands and arms)

• Gestures, e.g handshake
• Changing their meanings over a period of time
• How to tell someone to be quiet in a library?
• We use gesture when our voice engaged, e.g
  talking on the telephone, we used gesture to tell
  another person to come and sit down
• Many of the gestures are automatic. When we
  speaking on the telephone, we often make hand
  gestures
• Gestures that we make for pushing people away vs.
  drawing them towards us.

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Gesture - Activities

• In sport hand gestures are often used as a code
  for relaying information without opposing team
  being able to decipher it. Financial market and
  race tracks, employ extensive use of hand
  gestures for conveying information.
• Why?
• Watch a politician or other person addressing a
  public meeting either on television or, by
  attending yourself. Make a list of a different
  types of gesture they use.
• How does each of these gestures relate to the
  message being spoken?
• How do you, the audience, respond to different
  hand gestures?
• Any there any gestures that make you more
  inclined to accept the verbal message?

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6. Dress

• Dress we combine items of clothing and the
  appropriateness of certain types of styles of
  dress to specific situation.
• Funeral people wear black or dark coloured
  clothes as a symbol or mourning avoid colour
  clashes.
• The clothes we wear make a statement about
  ourselves interpretation by other people.

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Dress - continue

• Uniform used to signify the role or function
  that a person performs e.g policemen, army,
  school children, etc.
• Also signifiers of the rank and status of the
  person who wears them.
• Have impact on the behaviour of both the wearer
  and those with whom they are in contact.
• Provide sense of belonging- to show our
  allegiance to a group (subcultures such as
  hippies, rappers, punks, etc. or support our
  football team or army etc.)
• Example of formal dress business suit always
  dark shades?

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Dress - continue

• Time dependent dress code
• Office - formal
• Relaxing or socialising casual
• Initial judgments about people because of their
  clothes
• Dress one aspect of the physical appearance
• Hairstyle, jewellery, make-up, body adornment and
  body modification
• Open for interpretation by other people

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Dress - Activities

• How do you decide what to wear?
• Do you always have a choice?
• Are there clothes that you hate wearing?
• Do the clothes you wear make a statement about
  yourself?
• What is your attitude to school uniform?

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7. Posture

• The way in which we position our bodies
• Early age
• sit up straight, shoulder back instruction
  heard at home or school
• Upright posture people who have confident
  (police, army)
• Posture is another sign of the status and role
  within society (army, police)
• Use posture as one means of indicating to another
  person our feelings of friendship or hostility
• hands on hips confrontational and hostile
• Group imitating the postures of the people they
  are with (mirroring, postural congruence)
• Cross legs, fold their arms
• Reinforce group identities

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Posture - Activities

• Make a list of postures that might be considered
  hostile. Make a list of postures that might be
  considered friendly.

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8. Paralanguage

• Those utterances that we make when we are
  speaking
• When we speak, we make noise that arent words
  (um or ah), we raise and lower voices, we
  pause, we stress some words
• Important aspect of the message when we are
  communicating
• E.g The house is on fire statement
• The house is on fire! stressed
• Voice intonation (pitch)- indicator of intention
• Flow of voice

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Paralanguage - Activities

• Accent and dialect are important aspects of
  paralanguage as they determine the way we sound
  to other people. Different regional accents are
  spoken with unique intonations and rhythms. Many
  of these accents carry with them connotations of
  the attitudes behinds the voice, many of which
  are obviously quite stereotypical.
• Consider following regional accents
• Johor/Kelantan/N.Sembilan/Penang
• Do you have accent?
• How this make you react to these accents?
• Are the assumptions you might make correct about
  attitude and accents or dialect?

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The Link

• Most of time we use verbal non-verbal
  simultaneously
• Issue Which is more important (Verbal vs. Non
  Verbal)
• One of the functions of NVC as a regulator (a
  mechanism that helps us to control the flow of
  conversation)
• Indications cues such as eye contact, facial
  expression

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Group Activities

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3