CHAPTER 6: NONVERBAL MESSAGES (PART 2)

     Today we continued on the other 7 channels of non-verbal communication and we also took a look at the sub-topic culture and nonverbal communication. Before today's lecture class begin, we were shown a short video clip which entitled “Non-verbal Communication- The Documentary”. People in the video were asked what they think nonverbal communication is and how it affects the way they communicate with others.

     Now, we will continue on the other 7 channels of non-verbal communication. The fourth channel of non-verbal communication is SPACE COMMUNICATION. In this channel of non-verbal communication, it has 2 branches which are proxemic distances/spatial messages and territoriality. In proxemic distances, there are four distances that define the type of relationships between people. The four distances are as shown below.

Source:http://hubpages.com/hub/A-Simple-Guide-to-Non-Verbal-Communication

Intimate	Ø 0 inches to 18 inches/0 feet to 1.5 feet Ø  for comforting and protecting.
Personal	Ø 18 inches to 4 feet/ 1.5 feet to 4 feet Ø the protective bubble most people keep around them Ø  keeps us protected and untouched by others
Social	Ø 4 feet to 12 feet Ø  the space in which we conduct business or participate in social interaction
Public	Ø 12 feet to 25 feet Ø  the space we usually keep between and strangers or others we view as potentially harmful

Source:
http://mmcraf01.wordpress.com/

     Territoriality on the other hand is a possessive reaction towards an area or to particular objects. Territoriality is closely related to status, power and dominance. There are basically 3 types of territories.        First is the primary territory which is similar to the home field advantage. It is areas we call our own and has interpersonal advantages. It is also a place whereby we take leadership role. For instance, our own room or office table.

     Next, secondary territory is a place that does not belongs to us but since we had occupied that particular place for a long time, it becomes associated with us. Our regular places at restaurants and lecture halls are good examples of secondary territory.

     Lastly, public territory is a place that is open to public such as cinemas and shopping malls.

     Humans mark their territories with 3 types of markers. They use central markers by placing objects at certain places. For instance, when you want to reserve a place for your friend in class, you would place a book at that particular seat.

     There are also boundary markers which is a boundary that separates us from others. An example of boundary marker would be the armrests in cinemas which separates our seat from  people on either sides.

     Lastly, there are ear markers which are identifying marks that indicate our possession of a place or object such as our name, trademark and gang signs.

    The fifth channel of non-verbal communication is ARTIFACTUAL COMMUNICATION. It is a communication of messages through hand-made objects. There are 3 kinds of artifactual communication.

Color Communication Evidence suggests that colors may influence our psychology and surely influences our perceptions and behaviours.

Clothing and Body Adornment People make interpretations about who we are by the way we dress and adorn ourselves.

Space Decoration How we decorate our private spaces communicates who we are to others.

     Smell communication or also known as olfactory communication is the sixth channel of non-verbal communication. It is a process of communication through odor. Odor communicates towards something through attraction messages, taste messages, memory messages and identification messages. 

     Attraction messages is whereby we enhance our attractiveness to others and ourselves. Perfume is an example of attraction message. In taste messages, smell compliments with our taste senses. Without smell, our taste senses would be impaired. Next, memory messages is whereby we recall something through a particular smell. We would still be able to recall something from years ago if that smell is the similar smell we encountered at that period of time. Lastly, identification messages is smell that is used to create an image or identity. Sometimes, we would be able to identify a person through their odor.

     TOUCH COMMUNICATION/HAPTICS is the seventh channel of non-verbal communication. This is the most primitive form of communication that conveys a lot of meanings to people. Through touch people would be able to convey positive emotions such as support and appreciation. Besides that, it illustrates our intention to play either in an affectionate or aggressive way. Touch is also a form of control that direct others to pay attention. Next, there are touch is used to perform ritualistic gestures like shaking hands and hugging a person. Last but not least, it is task-related. For instance, when you help your friend to remove specks of dusts from their clothes, you are actually involved in touch communication.

     Although touch helps us to communicate, we should be aware of touch avoidance which is our desire to avoid touching or being touched by certain people by taking consideration of the circumstances. Touch communication is closely related to communication apprehension, age and gender. Touch is usually avoided in professional relationships and awkward situations or locations.

     The eighth channel of non-verbal communication is PARALANGUAGE which is the vocal and nonverbal dimension of speech such as volume, rate, pitch and accent. A sentence could be interpreted in different ways depending on how we press stress on certain words. This is known as paralanguage cue.

     Next, we have SILENCE. Silence is also communicates  meanings as importantly and it has its own important functions. Silence usually gives us some time for us to think before we respond to someone. It could be a weapon to hurt others too. For instance, when we use silent treatment toward a person, we are actually hurting him or her mentally. We also use it to respond to certain threats which includes anxiety and shyness. Silence also helps us prevent communication and it is used when we do not have anything to say. Lastly, it is used as a mean to convey our emotional response like annoyance or even love. 

Source:http://www.wordsonimages.com/photo?id=119415-Thought+of+the+day+dalai+lama+

     The last form of the channel of nonverbal communication is TIME COMMUNICATION. It is a study of temporal communication which is technically known as chronemics. It a concern on how we use our time. It is based on the past, present and future. Those with a past orientation have a particular reverence for tradition, old methods, old wisdom but people with a present orientation live in the here and now without planning for tomorrow. Lastly,in future orientation, we look forward, make plans and set goals for the future.

  v      Culture and Nonverbal Communication 

There four main cultural differences in nonverbal communication.

i. Culture and Gesture

  Different cultures perceive non-verbal cues differently from one another. Hand gestures is an

  excellent example. 

Source:http://visual.ly/hand-jive

 ii.Culture and Facial Expression

  Facial communication also varies in culture. They are more indicative of what is publicly permissible 

   than a difference in the way emotions are facially expressed. For example, in Japan, it is 

   inappropriate for women to smile broadly but women in US smile openly. Thus, this shows that 

   there is a difference in culture.

 iii. Culture and Eye Communication

    Most cultures are open to eye communications but to some avoiding eye contact is the better Take 

      Japan as an example, people in that country rarely see eye-to-eye level with one another. They 

      greet one another by bowing. 

 iv. Culture and Touch

                     In Southern European and Middle Eastern there are contact cultures but in Northern European and       Japanese there are low or non-contact cultures. In contact cultures, one is allowed to maintain             close distances, touch each other during conversations, face one another more directly and      maintain more longer and focused eye contact. Non-contact cultures is the total opposite of contact    cultures.

                         With that, we have come to an end of chapter 6. This lesson was quite interesting as we were shown three video clips in class. The first video clip was as mentioned above and the other two was Cultural Communication Conflict - Gestures and a Mr.Bean Video (an movie character who manages to convey meanings to audience by using nonverbal communication only). 

CHAPTER 6: NONVERBAL MESSAGES (PART 1)

         

What is NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION?

Source: © Thinkstock

Nonverbal communication is communication without words. Nonverbal messages don’t stop when you stop speaking either. Even when you’re silent, you’re still communicating nonverbally. For example, the gestures we make, when you smile, frown or even the way we sit and the eye contact we make, all send a strong message.

Using nonverbal communication successfully, can gain two major benefits:

   ·         ↑ ability to send and receive nonverbal signals ;

      attractiveness, popularity, psychological well-being

   ·       ↑ nonverbal skills ;

      successful at communicating information, influencing others

v   Functions of Nonverbal Communication

1. Integrating with Verbal Messages

Here are some ways in which nonverbal messages are used with verbal messages; these will help to highlight the important interaction and integration of nonverbal and verbal messages.

Accent
Underline or emphasize some part of the verbal message. For example, when a person is excited, they usually speak loud and their eyes widen, making the message clearer.

Complement
Add to or complement a verbal message. Thus, pat a person on the back to giving encouragement can increase the impact of the message.

Contradict  
Contradict a message the individual is trying to convey. For example, when someone asking how was your day and you say “good” but they roll their eyes or look down at the floor and shrug their shoulders, you know they are actually not good and they have just negated the verbal message they were sending.

Regulate
Movements may serve to regulate. For example, we use hand signals to indicate that we are done talking and it is someone else turn to talk.

Repeat
 Can repeat the message the person is making verbally. For example, follow you verbal “Is that all right?” with raised eye-brows and a questioning look.

Substitute
 Replace verbal messages. For example, a person's eyes can often convey a far more vivid message than words do.

2. Forming and Managing Impressions

We often form impressions based on seeing a person’s body size, skin colour, style of dress, eye contact and facial expressions. At the same time that you form impressions of others, you are also managing the impressions they form of you.

Here are few different strategies in order to achieve different impressions:

ü To be liked

ü To be believed

ü To excuse failure

ü To secure help

ü To hide faults

ü To be followed

ü To confirm self-image and to communicate it to others

3. Defining Relationships

We also use nonverbal signals to communicate the nature of your relationship to another person; and you with that person communicate nonverbally with each other.

“Tie signs” are signals that communicate your relationship status. They point out the ways in which your relationship is attached together. Tie signs are also used in to making sure the level of the relationship and also used to communicate your relationship status to others.

4. Structuring Conversation

When you are engaged in conversation, you give and receive cues that you are ready to speak, listen, or comment on what the speaker had just said. These cues regulate and structure the interaction. For example, you show that you are listening and that you want the conversation to continue or want to end, mostly through nonverbal signals.

5. Influencing and Deceiving

With the ability to influence, comes the ability to deceive. Relying on nonverbal cues to perceive lying is probable to get you into trouble by leading you to make incorrect conclusions.

6. Expressing Emotions

Nonverbal expressions communicate a great part of your emotional experience. Nonverbal messages often help people communicate unpleasant messages.

 v   Channels of Nonverbal Communication

There are 10 channels of  nonverbal communication :

1. Body Communication

        i.            Body Movements – KINESICS, or the study of nonverbal communication through face and body movements.

There are 5 major types of movements:

   

Emblems Body gestures that are directly translate into words and phrases.

Illustrators­             Enhance the verbal messages they accompany.

Affect displays Movements of the face but also the hands and general body that communicate      emotional meaning.

Regulators  Behaviors that observe, control, coordinate, or maintain the speaking of another       individual.

Adaptors  Gestures satisfy some personal need.  There are 2 types of adapters: ü  Alter–adaptors - movements directed at the person with whom you’re speaking ü  Object–adapters - gestures focused on objects

     ii.            Besides that, general body appearance also involves in communicates. Your body also reveals your ethnicity and may give clues to more specific nationality. General attractiveness is part of body communication too.

2. Facial Communication

It indicates the degree of pleasantness, agreement, and sympathy felt. Expressions show higher physiological arousal than those who suppress these expressions.

        i.            Facial Management

·       Facial management techniques – enable you to communicate your feeling to achieve what you want

   ü To intensity : exaggerate surprise at a part

   ü To deintensity : cover up joy in the presence of a friend who receive a bad news

   ü To neutralize : cover up sadness not to depress others

   ü To mask: express happiness to cover up disappointment

   ü To simulate : express emotion you did not feel

         Notice the changes of face expression in the picture below as you scroll down.

Source: http://psychology.about.com/od/nonverbalcommunication/ss/understanding-body-language_2.htm

3. Eye Communication

The functions of eye movements include:

    ·       to seek feedback

    ·       to inform others that the channel of communication is open

    ·       to signal the nature of a relationship, whether positive or negative

    ·       to change the psychological distance between you and another

    ·       to help others maintain privacy through “civil inattention” (eye avoidance)

    ·       to signal lack of interest through eye avoidance

The other 7 channels of nonverbal communication were discussed in the following lecture class, so we would post that in part 2 of this chapter J

CHAPTER 5: VERBAL MESSAGES

Basically, there are 3 major topics under this chapter.

1.    Principle of Verbal Messages

There are 6 principles of verbal messages.

* Meanings are in people

* Language is denotative an connotative

* Meanings depends on context

* Meanings vary in politeness

* Messages vary in assertiveness

* Messages can be deceive

A) Meanings are in people

We have to understand that the meanings of the message are in people, but not in words. As you changed, the meanings you created out of past message may be changed. Means that, although the message doesn’t change, the meaning you created yesterday and today may not be the same.

Bypassing occurs when the sender and the receiver miss each other with their meanings.

Different words, same meaning	It might look like there is disagreement on the surface but there is agreement at the level of meaning.
Same words, different meaning	It might look like both agree each other just because they use the same words but at the level of meaning, they are not really agree that (both are unconscious of the misunderstood).

B) Language is denotative and connotative.

Denotative is the meaning you found in a dictionary, while connotative is the emotional meaning of the words that given by the speaker.

For example, the word ‘fat’, for boys, it might mean weight gained; but for girls, when she was told that she is fat, she might think that she look uglier than before and might feeling depressed.

Snarl words and purr words are used to clarify the difference between denotative and connotative.

Snarl words are highly negative. E.g.: She is truly shit. They are a group of pigs. Purr words are highly positive. E.g.: She looks like an angle. He is my dream.

 C) Meanings depend on context.
Cultural context

1.The Principle of Cooperation

Meaning to say, both parties try to let each other understand each other in a communication.

The four maxims/corollaries in the principle of cooperation.

The maxim of quality	Say what you know only.
The maxim of relations	Talk about something relevant to the conversation only.
The maxim of manner	Be clear and avoid ambiguities.
The maxim of quantity	Be informative in the conversation.

2.The Principle of Peaceful relation	Maintain peaceful relationships and not to insult others in the conversation.
3.The Principle of Denigration	Avoid taking credit for accomplishment, or raising your own image.

The Gender Context

 Men tend to be direct and sometimes to the point of rude, while women tend to be  indirect and more complicated.

Example of gender context

Men: Have these letters out by three.

Women: It would be great if the letters could go out today.

The other three principle of verbal messages which are meanings vary in politeness, messages vary in assertiveness and messages can be deceive were discussed in the previous post.

2.Disconfirmation and Confirmation

Disconfirmation is a communication pattern in which we ignore a person’s presence and their message. Most people tend to think that a person is rejecting them although the fact is that the person is only disconforming them. We should bear in mind that disconfirmation and rejection are two different matters.

When we reject someone, we only disagree with them on something. We are just unwilling to accept the persons’ actions or words. On the other hand, disconfirming someone is the act of denying that persons’ importance. We kind of neglect what they are saying are doing as to us it simply does not matter. In disconfirmation, the person would feel like they do not exist and in rejection, one would feel like they had done something wrong.

Confirmation is the act of acknowledging someones presence and importance. It also involves our acceptance towards that particular person.

Now, take a look at this scene which also includes the examples of disconfirmation, rejection and confirmation responses.

You just received this semester’s results and they are a lot better than previous semesters’ results but they are still not great. You tell your parents, “I really tried hard to get an excellent result for this semester.”

Here are your parents’ responses in three different manners.

Disconfirmation: What should we have for dinner?

Confirmation: Going out every night hardly seems like trying very hard.

Rejection: Keep up the good work.

In disconfirmation, there are 4 major offensive language practices.

The first offensive language practice is RACISM. We are racist when we make a particular race look inferior to another by using any language through conscious or unconscious attempt. This could happen everywhere and anywhere. Racist language expresses our racist attitudes. For example, it is consider rude to call an Indian person Keling and to African American it is rude to call them blacks or Nigger.

Source: Facebook

There are certain guidelines we should follow to avoid racist remarks. Firstly, we should avoid disconfirming or confirming to statements or message because of a persons’ skin color. We should not insult or attribute others according to their race or cultural beliefs too. Lastly, we should not generalize and connect extremist attacks.

Next, SEXISM is a prejudicial attitude and beliefs with support favoritism that criticizes about a specific gender. It is also known as having a bias towards a specific gender. In sexism, there is sexist language regarded as a language that puts down a person due to his or her gender. In this practice, it is common for people to have sex-role stereotyping which is the assumption that certain roles or professions belong to men and others belong to women. For example, women should take up the profession of a police officer and men should not take over the role of women as housewives. In today’s society, we should take precaution to avoid sexist remarks. How can we do so? Here are some ways to avoid sexist remarks:

v   Avoid disconfirming or conforming to statements or messages because of their   gender.

v Do not insult or attribute others according to gender bias.

There is also HETEROSEXISM that involves attitudes, behaviors and language used to disparage gays and lesbians. Heterosexism is also a language presumes all people are heterosexual. People in the society should not shun those who are homosexual but learn to accept and understand them instead. We should avoid using heterosexist language. We should avoid offensive nonverbal mannerisms that parody stereotypes, avoid “complimenting” gay men and lesbians on their heterosexual appearance and avoid assuming and individual gay person can speak for all gay people.

convey-yourself.blogspot

Lastly, there is AGEISM whereby it is a prejudice against a person of other age groups. This form of discrimination is usually against the old and aging people. For example, a company would want to hire young graduates instead of mid-age men or women who are about to reach the age of retirement. We should avoid putting off someone because she or he is older, be patient with older folks as some of them might just have a problem with listening, do not assume older people are not interested in relationships and finally yet importantly do not assume older people are not interested in the world around them.

To wrap up the points above, racism, sexism, heterosexism and ageism are the major offensive language practices that we should not make it as a habit. Accept others for who they are.

In order to reduce our discrimination towards others, we should learn more on the preferred terms used in talking to and about members of different cultures. We learn to use language that is free of sexism, heterosexism, racism or ageism. This is cultural identifier. There are three forms of cultural identifiers.

1.       Race and nationality

Do not label people with names that they dislike based on their skin, colors, or traits. We should be sensitive to everyone’s culture. For instance, we should know that it is inappropriate to repute Asians as Orientals as this term regards European culture as preeminent.

2.      Affectional orientation

Do not use the word gay and lesbian in situations like, “I didn’t that someone who is gay/lesbian would be able to do that.” Why is it so? This is because the word gay and lesbian technically refers to a persons’ lifestyle, not their sexual orientation.

3.      Age and sex

 It is impolite for us to call an older person who is above 65 years old as old people. The word old person is rather offensive, so we should regard them as senior citizens. We should also call females and males below 17 years old as young female or girl and young males or boy. For those above 17 years old we should regard them as man and woman. Bear in mind that we should avoid using the word lady too as it is actually a type of stereotype of a proper woman.

For this second major topic on disconfirmation and confirmation, Mr. Anwari had showed us a video on racism. Below is the video. Enjoy J

3.Using Verbal Messages Effectively

The term intensional orientation (the “s” is intentional) refers to the tendency to view people, objects, and events in terms of how they are talked about or the way they are labeled. While extensional orientation refers to a tendency to look first at the actual people, objects, and events before looking at the labels.

For example, intensional orientation occurs when you think of a professor as an unworldly egghead, as that is your generalized image of a professor before getting to know the specific professor. In contrast, extensional orientation means you look at the professor without any preconceived labels, but guided by what he does or says, not judging him by the labels.

 The right way to correct intensional orientation is to focus first on the object, person, or event and then on the way in which the object, person, or event is talked about. Do not allow the labels to obscure what they meant to symbolize although labels can be helpful guides. Besides that, we have to avoid allness. The world is infinitely complex, and because of this you can never say all there is to say about anything—at least not logically. You may think you know all there is to know about certain individuals or about why they did what they did, yet clearly, you don’t know all.

For instance, you go on a first date with someone, just because of the boredom in the first hour during the first date, you may infer that this person is dull, always and everywhere. Yet it could be that this person is simply ill at ease or shy during first meetings. The problem here is that you are judging a person based on a very short acquaintanceship. Further, if you then define this person as dull, you are likely to treat the person as dull and fulfill your own prophecy.

 A useful extensional device that can help you avoid allness is to end each statement, sometimes verbally but always mentally, with an “etc.” (Et cetera)—a reminder that there is more to learn, know, and say; every stat to be sure, some people overuse the “et cetera.” They use it as a substitute for being specific, which defeats its purpose. Instead, it should be used to mentally remind yourself that there is more to know and more to say. Everything is unique. Language, however, provides similar nouns, such as teacher, student, friend, enemy, war, politician and liberal. Such nouns can lead you to group together all teachers, all students, and all friends and divert attention from the uniqueness of each individual, object, and event.

The misevaluation known as indiscrimination, a form of stereotyping, it occurs when you focus on classes of individuals, objects, or events and fail to see that each is unique. Indiscrimination can be seen in such statements, " He’s just like the rest of them: lazy, stupid, a real slob." "Read a detective novel? I read one when I was 16. That was enough to convince me." Index is an extensional device that is antidote to indiscrimination, a mental subscript that identifies each individual in a group as an individual even though all members of the group may be covered by the same label. For example, when you think of an individual politician as just a “politician,” you fail to see the difference between this particular politician and other politicians. However, when you think with the index—when you think not of politician but of politician 1 or politician 2 or politician 3—you’re less likely to fall into the trap of indiscrimination and more easy to differentiate the politicians.

Polarization, referred as the fallacy of “either/or,” is the tendency to look at the world and to describe it in terms of extremes—good or bad, positive or negative, healthy or sick, brilliant or stupid, rich or poor, and so on. Polarized statements come in many forms; for example: < After listening to the evidence, I’m still not clear who is right or who is wrong? < Well, are you for us or against us?

Most people and events exist somewhere between the extremes of good or bad, hardworking or lazy, pretty or ugly and so forth. Yet there seems to be a strong tendency to view only the extremes and to categorize people, objects, and events in terms of these polar opposites. When you use this either/or form in situations in which is 

inappropriate; for example, “The supervisor is either for us or against us.”

The two choices do not simply include all possibilities: The supervisor may be for us in some things and against us in others, or he or she may be neutral. Anything could be. Static evaluation is the tendency to retain evaluation without change while the reality is changing. The mental date helps to keep your language and thinking up to date and guard you against static evaluation. For example, you have to bear in mind that the people you know in 2010 are different with 2012, as time goes by, they will change

That is all on chapter 5….