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NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION.   Term Paper ID:21851 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Significance, psychology of, decoding, identification, use, origins, categories (emblems, illustrators), forms (facial expression, body motion, paralanguage, touch, clothing, bodily decoration.... More...

26 Pages / 5850 Words 13 sources, 63 Citations, MLA Format $100.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Significance, psychology of, decoding, identification, use, origins, categories (emblems, illustrators), forms (facial expression, body motion, paralanguage, touch, clothing, bodily decoration. Paper Introduction: Nonverbal communication consists of nonverbal behaviors that "acquire meaning as part of a communication process" (Druckman, Rozelle and Baxter 23). These behaviors, which are characterized as channels of communication, include nonverbal vocalizations (paralanguage), facial expression, body movements (including gesture, posture and others), proximity and placement, and miscellaneous aspects of behavior such as clothing, decoration of the body and interactive rituals such as greeting by shaking hands. Nonverbal communication involves two basic processes: the processing of information and the management of impressions. The first process is interpretive in nature as messages are decoded in order to draw inferences from nonverbal behaviors about another person's intentions. The management of impressions is concerned with impact as it is the process of encoding messages Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. But when theperformers were male, the liberated women had significantly lower scores ininterpreting nonverbal behaviors. Bodily Communication. This belief isso widespread that those who are careful to manage the impact of theirinteractions with audiences are able to persuade large numbers of peoplethat they possess the qualities audiences judge to be admirable. 137). Matarazzo. Paralanguage is also a significant factor in problems of ambiguityand deception. "How Gestures Can Become Like Words." Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. Body motions tend to be continuous rather thandiscrete and are, therefore, less prone to have directly attached meanings. It is correct to say that there are a fairlylarge number of emblems among body movements but they are, at the sametime, far outnumbered by less specific nonverbal behaviors. Ed. The intent tochock and repel adults is one set of coded meanings that the teenager withthe pierced tongue invokes in this nonverbal behavior. In order to make a true impact with such clothing 'statements' theindividual needs to possess a certain skill in managing the impression thenonverbal behavior creates. A good example is the"throat-cutting" movement of the finger. In additionto sounds the category also includes such temporal factors as length ofpauses and duration of speech and numerous conversational regulators suchas intonation changes. Anotherexperiment was based on viewing student nurses who simulated a pleasantexperience while viewing an unpleasant film and then watched such a filmwithout falsifying their expressions. In terms of interaction there are alsoimportant differences in decoding abilities. A good example of relatively unspecific body movements are thegestures that accompany conversation. In a study of a patient attempting to present herself as wellenough to leave mental health facilities (in order to commit suicide) itwas found that the head movements were entirely geared toward the falsepresentation of wellness but body movements "conveyed information that shewas actually still disturbed" (Harper et al. This includes the distinctions among communicative, interactiveand informative behaviors mentioned above as well as the distinctionbetween idiosyncratic and shared information. Toronto: C. Ed. "The Meanings of Emotional Expression." Nonverbal Communication Today: Current Research. Themeaning of the act cannot be understood from the act alone. Toronto: C. It is from thisindication of the rate or rhythm of these processes that the gestures oflisteners' take their shape. They possess the highestdegrees of idiosyncratic meaning of the five forms of nonverbal behaviorand they often provide great amounts of personal information. Fernando Poyatos. Yet the ostensibly democratic ritual also retainshierarchical overtones in situations where the offer to shakes hands isunderstood to be the prerogative of a superior. In other societies, most notably amongMediterranean groups, the number of emblematic movements of this type oftengoes quite high with broadly shared comprehension of the coded meanings ofa great variety of gestures. Smiling may have begun as a sign ofsubmissiveness, "indicating to other animals that no hostility is intended,which has gradually become a reassurance signal and finally one of"friendliness" (Frijda 11 ). They alsodistinguished two other forms of nonverbal behaviors that could not beconsidered communicative in the ordinary sense of the word. In experiments "subjects with thehighest rate of talking in three-person groups were judged most positivelyon leadership qualities, while those exhibiting medium amounts of talkingwere rated highest on a measure of liking" (51). Nonverbal communication involves two basic processes:the processing of information and the management of impressions. In deception the pitch of the voice was found to be higher,corresponding, interestingly, to the paralinguistic cues that researchsubjects perceived as connoting love and grief (Druckman et al. 133). 13 ).Substitution of an action for a word is a case of intrinsically codedbehavior; making a kicking or punching motion in place of pronouncing thewords "kick" or "punch" is an intrinsically coded act. Even if it were possible to remain utterly still and void of affectthe absence of communication would be interpreted as communicative. J. Aron W. 131-41.Morsbach, Helmut. The conventions surrounding distancebetween people engaged in an interaction vary in terms of the public orprivate situation and in the meeting of intimates, acquaintances, orstrangers. Studies have found, for instance, that subjectsemploy similar kinds of smiles and gestures "as appeasement gestures toforestall aggression" (Weitz 21). Particularforms of facial display are also difficult to account for without tracingthem to innate origins. Paralanguage is also a significant factor in establishing theperception of particular qualities in individuals. 28). Nonverbal Communication: The State of the Art. But Freud's remark also brings up the problem of deception. The variety and prevalence of nonverbal communication hasnecessitated the organization of these phenomena into some scheme ofclassification. 17-36. Other sources of nonverbalbehavior are those that derive from culture-specific tasks or from socialinteraction. 57-67.Frijda, Nico H. The dynamic of such communication is extremely complex since theprocesses are not, of course, confined to a single direction. Thus a shift toward "theaffective component" of nonverbal communication facilitated the researchinto the 'reading' of feelings expressed in nonverbal behaviors (Friedman,"Concept" 3). Each successive reading (with the exceptionof an emphasis on "of") produces a clear "change in the significance of theutterance" without changing its verbal content at all (152). As a result, the control of theseparticular nonverbal aspects of speech can have a strong regulatoryinfluence on another person's speech. "Persuasiveness, empathy, warmth, enthusiasm, and deceit" areall states of which experimental subjects are sure they can make soundassessments on the basis of gestures (Druckman et al. 55-56). But the facial expression described byDruckman et al. Mary Ritchie Key. Paralanguage has been found to be an importantindicator of emotional states and paralinguistic cues are major regulatorsin interaction. Contributions to the Sociology of Language. "In all cultures wealth and status areshown by clothes and bodily decoration" (Argyle 67). Still more research ondeception has raised the important possibility that people motivated indeceive by various reasons (e.g., protection of a third party as opposed toself-interest) might also "produce different patterns of nonverbalbehavior" (Stiff, Corman, Krizek and Snider 578). In otherexperiments neutral photographs of individuals were given to subjects whowere asked to rate the "success" or "failure" of the persons shown. Markeddifferences in persuasiveness can be found in experiments in whichperformers enact changes in their stances. 128). Many affect displays can also be accompanied by bodily movements thataid in dealing with the display. Motley discovered, for example, "that in certain aspects ofconversation a wide variety of facial expressions can communicate a givenemotion because the attribution of affect will be based more on theaccompanying verbal context than on the nature of the expression itself"(Motley 28). These behaviors, which are characterized as channels ofcommunication, include nonverbal vocalizations (paralanguage), facialexpression, body movements (including gesture, posture and others),proximity and placement, and miscellaneous aspects of behavior such asclothing, decoration of the body and interactive rituals such as greetingby shaking hands. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978. Themanagement of impressions is concerned with impact as it is the process ofencoding messages in order to exert influence on another person's"intentions, evaluations or perceptions" (Druckman et al. Other behaviors can be common to a species without being innate.Harper et al. Druckman et al. In one experiment, for instance, Hall found that women whoperceive themselves as "liberated' score higher than unliberated women ntheir interpretation of women speakers nonverbal cues. 71). This, in turn led to greater emphasis on the task ofmeasuring the degree of "correctness" in the interpretation of, andresponse to, nonverbal behaviors in social interactions. This equality can be either real or formally constituted but the fact oftouching essentially eliminates the possibility that one party is superiorto the other. The verbal content of the utterance will be understood bythe receiver, and the sender will know that this content has beenunderstood. "The Role of Body Movement in Communication." Nonverbal Behavior and Communication. On the other hand,the coding that is shared with the peer group is, while slightly ambiguous,a matter of invoking admiration and, for some, of increasingattractiveness. Harper et al. 28). The individual who can convincinglyrepresent grief can cause others, with no knowledge of its cause, torespond in kind. Registering disgust in astandard fashion signals the possibility of danger, or at least anunpleasant experience, to others eating the same food. Butin dealing with those who rank higher in the hierarchy the Japaneseindividual will display nonverbal behaviors, "bow[ing] deeply, show[ing] abroad smile" that would be labeled "hypocritical" or "fawning" behavior inWestern societies (Morsbach 191). They are informative in ageneral sense, however and often are also communicative and interactive(Harper et al. Latency, gaze aversion, speech errors,postural shifts and reduced smiling were all incorrectly believed toprovide cues to deception. Argyle has noted that differences in the management ofdistance between people is one of the most marked differences betweencultures (58). Even if it is accepted, as it seems it must be, that culturallearning manages the display of nonverbal communication (in many areasincluding the face) it should also be understood that there is a stronginnate response to such behaviors. Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, 1979. There are also wide variations in proximity rules amongethnic groups in the United States. His example, the"facial expression of disgust when something nasty is eaten," makes theassertion about communication questionable. Theyidentified "informative" nonverbal behavior as "that which has a shareddecoded meaning" and "interactive behavior" was identified as that "whichinfluences the other person's interaction" (57). But the importance of nonverbal communication inconveying impressions is undoubted. Though communicative approaches seem at first to be "moreencompassing or broader" such approaches "can actually be subsumed intoEkman's classification scheme" (Harper et al. Though a very greatnumber of nonverbal behaviors are not consciously controlled or perceivedand interpreted, the development of awareness of such behaviors seems to bepossible. . In nonverbal animals, forexample, this reaction, along with "drowsiness and excitement," would, infact, have important communicative functions. Male-female touchingwas regarded as unacceptable in many cases -- though this distinctionvaried considerably according to class and region.PARALANGUAGE Paralanguage refers to the "content-free vocalizations and pausesassociated with speech" (Druckman et al. Theresults demonstrated a highly significant degree of correlation betweensubject ratings and the simple emphasis the experimenters placed on thewords "success" and "failure" in giving their instructions (Argyle 152). Fernando Poyatos. In intrinsically coded acts "themeaning of the act is seen in the action itself" (Harper et al. In experimentalsettings with the viewing of posed facial expressions, people could usuallyidentify around 6 percent of meanings in nonverbal behavior. It has also beennoted, however, that the decoding of body cues of either type takes secondplace to the interpretation of facial expression in most cases. Of the three types, object adaptors areusually characterized by greater degrees of self-awareness. Surprise, taken as alarm without immediate fear, would engender aresponse that would make the individual ready for whatever action wasneeded. For example, the raising ofthe eyebrows and opening of the eyes in combination with a closed mouth andthinly shut lips might be coded as surprise combined with either disbeliefor skepticism. The smile isalso, perhaps, the facial expression that most commonly put to conscious,intentional use as it can "function as a pacifier, or set the tone infriendly interaction" (Frijda 11 ). Ed. Among those subjects who first sawthe nurses engaged in honest reactions the body-only films shown tosubjects received more accurate ratings of honesty versus dishonesty thandid the head-only films. Thisincludes the variety of external conditions in place at the time the actionis performed as well as the relationship of nonverbal to verbal acts.Other aspects of usage include the individual's knowledge (either consciousor unconscious) of the act and the external feedback that the personreceives "indicating that his performance is being received and evaluated'(Harper et al. The varieties of display are also extended bythe use of combinations. 31). So long as a behavior isperformed by, or can be understood in relation to, only a single individualit is termed idiosyncratic. The term "origins" refers to the source of actions. Nonverbal Communication: Survey, Theory, And Research. This channel of nonverbal communication has atleast one universal component. In the nonverbal display that accompanied the words,the person not only summarized the description but indicated attitudes thatmirrored those conveyed by the tone of voice in which she told the story(Kendon 131-32). WORKS CITEDArgyle, Michael. By usage Ekman and Friesen referred to "regular and consistentcircumstances surrounding the occurrence of a nonverbal act" (53). The same can be said of the individualwho remains at too great a distance to satisfy convention -- his behaviorcan be construed as insulting or angry and can also be used deliberately toindicate these attitudes. Innate response is any direct physiological reaction and is,Argyle holds, "in no sense intended to communicate" (71). Incomparison to less motivated deceivers, motivated liars over-control otherbehaviors; they "blink, gaze, and move head and body less, and speakslower" (Argyle 79). This becomes clear when experiments are conducted in which actorsread the same neutral words with different intonations or at differentpitches. Wiens and Joseph D. Researchersstill regard the origins of facial expression as an open question so far aswhether they are innate or learned. The powerof nonverbal behavior is also consistent across cultures -- though thedifferences between cultures are considerable in terms of the meanings ofparticular behaviors and proximity is one of the best examples of this.FACIAL EXPRESSION AND THE GAZE Facial expression is a primary means of conveying emotions andinformation, and regulating interaction. Many discrete bodymovements are emblems and, as such, have very definitely coded meaningsthat are widely shared. Ignoring the conventions and approaching too close can beconstrued as threatening behavior. J. Regulators are "behaviors that maintain and regulate speaking andlistening" (Druckman et al. Curiouslythis does not detract from the power of the body to offer cues. There are numerousmanifestations of paralanguage which can be divided into vocal qualities(pitch, intensity, loudness, and so on), speech disturbances (stutter,repetition, filled pauses, and others), and incoherent sounds. Research has found that nonverbal behaviors were significantlydifferent overall in cases where people lied (on instruction) for theexperimenters. A word or two can usually replace such anonverbal act without altering the meaning of the communication. The strongest support for the innatenature of facial expressions comes from studies of children born deaf andblind who nonetheless exhibit characteristic facial expressions identicalto those displayed by sighted, hearing children (Weitz 22). Touching is another aspect of distance (as well as of body movements)and one that is very tightly regulated by social convention. The variations in sound that people employ tend to have shared codedmeaning. Ed. Motley, for example, cites studies that found significantly low levels ofability in observers asked to decode photographed expressions that occurrednaturally in surreptitiously photographed conversations. People notice changes in the amount oftime that a performer spends engaged in gazing at them and their reactionsto this vary according to the situation in which they find themselves.Researchers have found, for example, that when a person is to be thesubject of an interview he would prefer not to be subject to the gaze ofthe interviewer. One of the most important roles for paralanguage is the regulation ofinteractions. In some cases theseinnate responses can also be exaggerated in order to convey a message.They are, however, truly innate. The nurses had identified facial expression asthe primary focus for deceptive behavior and had largely ignored themanagement of the impact of their body positioning and movements (Harper etal. Thisraises the intriguing possibility that cues that usually evoke thestrongest positive response, because of their relation to emotions thatinspire the greatest trust, are also employed in deception in order toeliminate or reduce the possibility of mistrust and disbelief. In combination with paralanguage, verbalexpression and body movements the expression of surprise can cover manysituations and degrees of reaction. But suchpractical uses of nonverbal skills are only in the early stages ofdevelopment. This distinction is flexible,however, since there are numerous nonverbal behaviors that have both kindsof meanings "depending on how they are classified by viewers" (Harper etal. 65). On this premise it is suggested that learning both greatercontrol and understanding of affective behaviors will facilitate a numberof undertakings.. 2nd ed. 28). 32-67.Harper, Robert G., Arthur N. Their identificationof the characteristics of nonverbal behavior made this clear. 33. 33. The gaze has significant effects on others in interactions. But two areas have that have produced greatresearch interest are the differences in such decoding and encodingabilities and the possibility that nonverbal communication skills can beoperationalized for practical ends. The varieties of facial display are so complex that it is notsurprising that in many areas researchers have really arrived at only alimited understanding of how facial expression conveys messages and isdecoded in the course of the most common interactions such as conversation. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors alsointeract in very complex ways and "probably it will eventually becomepossible to think in terms of one communications system with verbal andnonverbal elements inseparably intertwined" (Friedman, "Concept" 1 ). 69-95.Druckman, Daniel, Richard M. Examples of regulators are the nods orinquisitive facial expressions that are the interactive and informativeaspect of the listener's role in an interaction. Investigation into nonverbal communication has caused the rise of theconcept of skills development in nonverbal communication. 1 3-19.Hall, Judith A. Coding refers to the ways in which "meaning is attached to nonverbalacts" (Druckman et al. 51).CLOTHING AND ADORNMENT Physical self-presentation is another aspect of nonverbalcommunication. "The Repertoire of Nonverbal Behavior: Categories, Origins, Usage and Coding." Semiotica 1 (1969): 49-98.Friedman, Howard S. This is, of course, trueacross the two types of communication. The custom was alsolimited to greetings between males until recently. Contributions to the Sociology of Language. As Weitz notesthe power of gaze is sufficient that "both small and large amounts tend tobe interpreted negatively, but a moderate amount (at least in a neutralcontext) leads to increased liking" (31). The usageof these acts is conscious and usually results in external feedback.Anyone decoding such a nonverbal act assumes that it was performedintentionally and that its meanings are being deliberately communicated.Emblems are usually arbitrarily or iconically coded. Dittman,however, was interested in demonstrating that the linguistic model could beapplied to body movements. In homogeneoussocieties group membership is indicated by the adoption of "local symbolicsystems" (Argyle 67). Druckman et al.mention, for instance, studies in which listeners' movements have beenfound to coordinate with their own cognitive processes. Thisdiscrepancy is due to the fact that in genuine interactions the positionsof interpreter and creator of impressions switch rapidly back and forthbetween participants -- even when the interaction is not conversational.External feedback is constant as interpretation is reinforced when thematching response is perceived to be based on a either a correct or anincorrect interpretation of the previous action. Theelimination of distance and the implication of intimacy makes touch aparticularly limited nonverbal behavior except among certain relatedindividuals such as friends and family. Ekman and Friesen proceeded from anempirical basis and sought to identify the phenomena they observed as abasis for the formulation of theoretical approaches to nonverbal activity.Their basic claim was that previous theorists had applied a communicativeframework to nonverbal behavior in such a way as to limit the view ofnonverbal behavior by treating it as "analogous to linguistic phenomena"(Ekman and Friesen 57). Researchers have also discovered that those whoattempt to deceive display even finer shades of nonverbal behavior than arenoticeable without specific training. Friesen. The other aspect of usage is the type of informationconveyed. There are, of course, notable exceptions to this. The salesperson who can convey enthusiasm or interestthrough management of impact or the psychologist who can detect deceptionwill be farther ahead in the pursuit of his or her profession. The impact of paralanguage on communication can be easilydemonstrated, Argyle suggests, by reading the sentence "Professor Brown'sdaughter is fond of modern music" and placing the emphasis on a differentword with each reading (152). Body movements tend toprovide less specific information than other channels of nonverbalcommunication. 66). The firstprocess is interpretive in nature as messages are decoded in order to drawinferences from nonverbal behaviors about another person's intentions. All aspects of self-presentation areoccasionally used to make the individual more attractive to others in thegroup. Siegman and Stanley Feldstein. "The Modification of Word Meaning by Nonverbal Cues." Nonverbal Communication Today: Current Research. Thus to judge anemotional state purely on the basis of facial expression can lead tomistakes in decoding messages. Yet the sameobservers had very little difficulty decoding the same emotions when thesubjects knowingly acted them out for the camera. But inexperiments where spontaneous behavior was rated (by observers who were notinvolved in an interaction with the performers of the behaviors) successrates ranged from a high of around 48 percent accuracy, for theidentification of happiness, to chance levels for other emotions (Argyle82). Thus "the coding of affect displays isnot at all obvious" (Ekman and Friesen 78). The entire field of nonverbal communication has barely begunto be understood and there are many opportunities for extended research onthe basics in an area in which, ironically, most people think they arealready fairly good managers and excellent decoders. The custom of shaking hands on meeting wasoriginally a "means of indicating that one was not carrying a weapon in theright hand" (Morsbach 19 ). Surprise and degrees of surprise can, forexample, be conveyed by means of a number of variables of facial expressionthat, operating to greater or lesser degrees, are coded for that emotion.The expression of surprise has been observed as having five basiccomponents in facial expression: brows are raised (making them curved andhigh); skin below the brow is stretched smooth; horizontal wrinkles appearon the forehead; the eyelids are opened wide and the white of the eye showsabove, and sometimes below, the iris; and the jaw drops, with lips andteeth parted, but remains somewhat slack (Druckman et al. The experimentsconducted by Motley emphasized the importance of the context in whichfacial expressions were made. citestudies that demonstrate this idea. Cross-cultural studies have notproduced consistent evidence for the innate origin of facial expressions.But, as Weitz notes, "a filter of display rules over an innate base maywell explain" the differences between emotional display in various cultures(22). Theproblem with these assumptions could, they argued, be discovered in thecourse of the empirical observation of nonverbal behaviors. New York: Oxford UP, 1979. It has been suggested that many ofboth listeners' and speakers' movements in conversation have functionsother than mere coding of messages for each other. 47). is also frequently modified. give the example of "the common experience that food isdelivered to the mouth by the hands" (129-3 ). The ability to influence another person's speech through themanagement of paralinguistic cues was found in studies of timing effects.In terms of "duration of utterance, reaction-time latency, and percentageof interruptions" researchers have found that people have a tendency toimitate the other party in interactions. Bodily movements were also found to conveyfrom moderate to high intensity of emotions "while body positions canreflect a full range of intensity (Harper et al. 16 ). Shirley Weitz. This category of behaviors is broken down into "self-adaptors (head-scratching, picking at fingers), alter-adaptors (folding arms across body,upward leg movements), and object adaptors (smoking movements, fondlingjewelry)" (Druckman et al. nonverbal cues of affect, orientation, and intention" areconcerned (Hall 33-34). Interactions are reciprocal and nonverbal feedback is anessential regulator of communication. An example of this type of communication would bethe wearing of school colors. Teachers who gazemore at their students, for example, "generate more work and more learning"(Argyle 161). Those who as for help, forexample, receive more help when their gaze levels are higher.Persuasiveness is aided by increased levels of gazing. What Ekman andFriesen found was that the linguistic communicative model did not allow forsufficiently fine distinctions among nonverbal behaviors. Theinnate origin of these basics of the expression of surprise are fairlyclear. "Nonverbal Communication and Hierarchical Relationships: The Case of Bowing in Japan." Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. Berlin: Mouton, 1982. More than anything, the difficulty of identifying nonverbal cues inexperimental settings points up the complexity of nonverbal communication.In ordinary interactions the rate of accuracy is necessarily far higherthan researchers can find in staged settings. Rozelle and James C. But if the cues appear to beambiguous the receiver will need clarification -- or will dismiss theutterance as too ambiguous to process. The likely origins of proxemic behaviors are those "wider aspects ofthe environment, such as the size of houses and the degree of crowding"(Argyle 59). Finally this ledto greater emphasis on the "actual dynamics of the influence process" innonverbal communication (Friedman, "Concept," 3). Numerousexperiments have demonstrated these effects. "Facial Expression and Visual Interaction." Nonverbal Communication: Readings with Commentary. 2-27.---. Frijda's example of the smile is an important case of a facialdisplay in which the cultural overlay functions in many ways. 2nd ed. The gaze is an aspect of facial expression that is important enoughto be treated as a separate category of nonverbal behavior. Baxter. "Once they were part of a sequence ofgoal-directed acts, but subsequently they have become automatic habitualacts that occur during adulthood outside normal awareness" (Harper et al.132). The assumption, therefore, that all or most facial displays that arenot consciously deceptive, are direct evidence of emotional states isincorrect. The speaker may assume either hostility oracquiescence from the lack of response and carry on a ridiculous one-sidedconversation based on the inferences he decides to draw from the corpse's'management' of nonverbal channels of communication. Men, for instance, areperceived as being far more persuasive when in relaxed positions and faredbetter in terms of persuasiveness when they adopted body-open (limbs-outward) positions rather than standing with limbs turned inward (Druckmanet al. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1982.Ekman, P., and W. In India there is even an incredibly rigid set of distances(outdated except in rural areas) at which members of various castes areallowed to approach each other -- ranging from 7 to 64 feet. The "V" sign made with the fingers to indicate "peace" is anexample of an arbitrarily coded act. "Facial Affect and Verbal Context in Conversation." Human Communication Research 2 (1993): 3-4 .Stiff, James, Steve Corman, Bob Krizek and Eric Snider. Eds. Indeed it can also be used as a threatif an individual chooses to do so. Though Dittman calls these "quite completesystem[s] of emblems" and implies that they play a large role in replacingspeech they are, in fact, fairly limited when compared to the range ofcoded meaning in, for example, sign language for the deaf (84). "The Concept of Skill in Nonverbal Communication: Implications of Understanding Social Interaction." Skill in Nonverbal Communication: Individual Differences. Adaptors are usually behaviors that were learned early as the means ofmanaging emotions or interactions. The briefest possible flashes ofexpressions, the quick attempt to replace expressions (as in using a smileto cover an expression of displeasure or anxiety), and the use of emblems -- hand gestures that are usually easily understood but which are, in liars,"only partly displayed, and not in the normal presentation position"(Argyle 81). 189-199.Motley, Michael T. Like emblems they are usuallyintentional but seldom personally informative. The concept of skills in nonverbalcommunication is widely accepted in so far as such skills as the basic"ability to decode nonverbally communicated affect" or the "ability toencode . Louder statements tended to beviewed as more convincing so long as they did not reach a level at whichthey were perceived as being indicative of hostility or anger (Druckman etal. Similarly the expression of terror or happiness in thefaces of children stimulates an appropriate response in adults. The three categories of characteristics are usage, origins andcoding. Robert Rosenthal. But themanagement of the expression of emotions has a long history, Certainly oneof the best known examples is the Japanese custom of managing affectsituationally. Other studies identifiedthe importance of vocal qualities in showing that some characteristicswere, regardless of the content of utterances, regarded as indicative oflow credibility. 16 ). Hall speculates that females, under the"pressure to defer to authority (which is disproportionately expected ofthem compared to males) is accompanied by "the concomitant necessity ofnoticing the authority figure's moods and desires" (Hall 59). A common example of this is theteacher who exaggerates enunciation, extends duration and reducesvariations in vocal qualities as he answers a child's question in order toexert an influence on the form of the child's half of the conversation. 131). The innate nature offacial expression has often found support in studies comparing children ofvarious ages and primates. Facial display features many of the most complex and minute muscularmovements in the human body. Another phenomenon that has been observed in people trying todeceive is that head and body movements will often display greatdisparities. nonverbal behavior is so importantand its meanings can be interpreted quickly enough so that it can truly bedescribed as an inevitable aspect of interaction. Interviewers, on the other hand, feel it is essential notjust to subject the other to their gaze but to observe the fluctuations inthe direction of his gaze (Argyle 16 ). Inthe meantime the dimensions of nonverbal behavior are not yet fullyunderstood. Their claim was that this linguistic approach madethe prior assumption that all nonverbal behavior was communicative and thatthis communication was of the same type as linguistic communication. In functioning in crowds or with strangers affect is keptto a minimum in a fashion that most Westerners would regard as rude. Such interactions cantake several directions. 71).PROXEMICS Proxemics is the term used to refer to the distances between peopleengaged in interactions or, as is often the case in public situations,avoiding them. The usage varies over time and this tends tosupport the innate hypothesis while suggesting that later culturaladditions are just as significant. In American society a head nod would be a goodexample of such an emblem. Friedman points out that sarcasm, innuendo and irony canall be implied by tone of voice or the management of emphases("Modifications" 61). These movements are called adaptors andthey provide more personal information than any of the nonverbal behaviors. Robert Rosenthal. If cues are ignored altogether or dismissed as irrelevant, thenthe receiver will merely miss the message. But it appears that peoplecan do a lot better at detecting deception than most do in ordinarysituations. The gaze plays important rolesin interactions: everything from initiating and terminating contact toexpressing disapproval or approval. The most comprehensive scheme was that developed by Ekmanand Friesen in which they categorized nonverbal behaviors according tocommunicative type and described the characteristics of such behaviors asaspects of usage, origin, and coding. This change cameabout as some researchers recognized that skills development could beinvaluable in many professional settings. Another type of extrinsic coding isthe iconic in which the act resembles the meaning. "Individual Differences and Changes in Nonverbal Behavior." Communication Research 21 (1994): 555-81.Weitz, Shirley. Nonverbal communication consists of nonverbal behaviors that "acquiremeaning as part of a communication process" (Druckman, Rozelle and Baxter23). Nonverbalbehaviors are either innate responses, culturally learned, or sociallylearned. Incomparison-based experiments subjects were found to be able to identifyemotions fairly precisely from the combination of head cues and body acts,but body position and head orientation were found to convey informationabout gross affective states. Affect displays are usually directly related to facial expression.Though facial expressions occur frequently "without intention or awareness"they can sometimes be interactive and communicative as well. Studies of deception and nonverbal behavior can be dividedinto those that feature highly motivated liars (i.e., those who have beenpromised monetary rewards for successful deception) and less-motivateddeceivers. They also, becausethey are widely understood, carry idiosyncratic meanings less often thanother nonverbal behaviors and are less informative regarding the performerof the acts The second category, illustrators, consists of movements thatdirectly illustrate what is being verbalized. In impression formation the movements of the body contributesignificantly to observers' assessments of performers' qualities andintentions. Mary Ritchie Key. In the case ofarbitrarily coded acts there is not even a resemblance between act andmeaning. Frijda, for example, discusses smiling whichthough it is often regarded as an expression of joy is, more accurately, anexpression of non-aggression. . Thus amongthe less 'liberated' women their attention to a male performer exceededthat paid to a female performer because of the women's desire to "maintainapproval and to avoid disapproval" (Hall 58). It can involve clothing, bodily decoration (e.g., tattoos),hair styles and makeup. Hogrefe, 1988. The presetidentification of any specific set of patterns of nonverbal behaviors usedin deception will always be susceptible to manipulation according to theskills of the person deceiving and to environmental variables. Mehrabian (as quoted in Druckman etal.) concluded, for example, that "when there is inconsistency betweenverbally and implicitly expressed attitude, the implicit portion willdominate in determining the [impact of] the total message" (85). Sigmund Freud said thatno one can keep a secret; "If his lips are silent, he chatters with hisfinger tips, betrayal oozes out of him at every pore" (quoted in Harper,Wiens and Matarazzo 133). Thoughfacial expression and the gaze have been found to be the channels ofnonverbal expression that have the greatest impact on the receivers ofcoded messages, there is considerable variation in the power of effectaccording to the circumstances in which various types of nonverbalcommunication are used. Teenagers are particularly prone to such expression, although suchexpressions rapidly become just another means of belonging to a group --even if it is an anti-group initiative that begins it. Other researchers have found that people tend largely to look at thewrong kinds of nonverbal behaviors, or to view them incorrectly, when theyare trying to detect deception. As thereceiver decodes the message the management of his response is alreadybeing formulated. Sage Library of Social Research 139. They are not, however,interactive behaviors since they usually have become habitual and, as such,are not performed with the direct intention of controlling the other'sbehavior. Anexample would be the old scene acted out in farcical comedies where theactor takes part in a 'conversation' with a corpse. Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, 1979. Shared meanings exist in acts when they wouldbe similarly understood by several people. lista number of examples of intrinsic coding which can be broken out into suchcategories as spatial coding, e.g., holding the palm down and level toindicate height (13 ). Emblems are those movements that can be translated directlyand are easily understood. In another cross-cultural switch, the recent emergence of tattooing and body-piercing aspopular forms of body decoration among American teenagers represents astrange combination of two separate sets of shared meanings. The nonverbal behaviors that appear in motivated liars includedilation of the pupils, raised voice pitch and hesitations in speech. 129). This, in turn, is seen to function as anindication of the listener's comprehension and, when the rhythms areinterrupted, as an indication of the desire to take his turn in theconversation (Druckman et al. In making thesedistinctions the researchers intended to remove nonverbal communicationfrom the tyranny of linguistic analysis and allow it to be understood onits own terms. The palm extended toindicate height is an illustrator. Touch can also, of course, beritualized in daily use. 43). It is amistake to think that "body language," as it is popularly called, is a suremeans of detecting deception in interactions. Extrinsically codedacts are those acts that signify something other than the act itself. There are variations in affect that are the result ofinternalizing tendencies on the part of individuals. Coding of regulators appears to relate specifically todemographic characteristics of the individual. Other researchers have also made an important distinction between thecommunicative content of body positions versus that of body movements. In many cases,especially in less homogeneous groups the adoption of certain styles ofself-presentation can even indicate a desire to deny membership in thegroup. The dimensions of skill in nonverbal communication have produced somefascinating insights in the learning of coded meanings and the decoding ofmessages. Hogrefe, 1988. Other cues were overlooked entirely, includingpupil dilation, less blinking, reduction in head movements and shorterutterances (Argyle 81). Voices that were highest in pitch were perceived as conveyinglove or grief while voices that were loudest were perceived as displayingcontempt or anger (Druckman et al., 44). They "tend to be diffuse in meaning, indicating broad'psychological states' rather than specific emotions or intentions"(Druckman et al. Berlin: Mouton, 1982. Basic questions about the originsof facial expression stem from the fact these nonverbal behaviors and theirrelation to particular emotional states in humans have significantsimilarities to such behaviors in other primates. London: Methuen, 1988.Dittman, Allen T. Yet the sender can still be unsure that the message has beenconveyed. Ed. Kendon gives theexample of describing a person's habit of sitting in a chair at night andsmoking a big cigar. In itsrestrictive application the theory even made it difficult for observers tonotice that many behaviors did not conform to the model. Similarly, the difference in loudness had an effect on people'swillingness to be persuaded by statements. Numerous studies have found,for example, that those who tend to internalize emotions and to avoid orcontrol facial display tend to be the most skillful at "judging others'emotions" while facially expressive people often remain less sensitive tothe messages conveyed by others (Weitz 27). The channels of communication reviewed here are: placement inrelation others (proxemics); body motion (including movements of the headand extremities as well as posture and gesture); facial expression(including the gaze); paralanguage (including such aspects as tone, speed,pitch, and volume); touch; and clothing and bodily decoration. These behaviors can be acquired by the individual throughimitation or they can be learned either incidentally or in a structuredsetting. Accuracy in decoding nonverbal behaviors is difficult to assess sincethe process in social interaction is not conscious. Ekman and Friesen distinguished betweenextrinsically and intrinsically coded nonverbal acts. Ed. Ed. "Gender, Gender Roles, and Nonverbal Communication Skills." Skill in Nonverbal Communication: Individual Differences. The idea that the expression of emotions canbe decoded with any great accuracy apart from context is challenged by suchstudies. It should also be noted that iconic representationcan include nonverbal behaviors that treat a subject in a concentratedglobal manner of which words are sometimes incapable. The open mouth draws in extra oxygen and the open eyes take inwhatever needs to be seen. The five categories of nonverbal behavior that are, according toEkman and Frisien, "distinguished by the particulars of usage, origin andcoding" are termed emblems, illustrators, regulators, affect displays andadaptors (63). Nasal, monotone, or breathy voices were perceived in thisway. Yet the effect of such paralinguistic cues is thatit can still remain uncertain whether the coded message has been decoded bythe receiver. But it has subsequently been elevated to aform of greeting that implies equality through the intimacy of the contact. The gaze level is also seen as an indicator of thecredibility of an individual -- despite research that demonstrates that theaverted gaze is not the strong indicator of deception that people believeit to be.BODY MOVEMENTS Body movements, or kinesics, includes gestures, changes in postureand the movement of the head, hands, and feet. If it were not much higherit would be almost impossible to carry on most social interactions. There is a shared coding regarding such options. Ekman and Friesen identified communicative nonverbal behavior as"that which is intended to transmit a message" (57) As a mode ofcommunication, however, it is not necessarily susceptible to the same kindsof analysis employed with linguistic communication. New York: Wiley-Interscience- John Wiley and Sons, 1978.Kendon, Adam. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.