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.
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| Source:http://hubpages.com/hub/A-Simple-Guide-to-Non-Verbal-Communication |
Intimate
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Ø 0 inches to 18 inches/0 feet to 1.5 feet
Ø for comforting and protecting.
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Personal
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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
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Social
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Ø 4 feet to 12 feet
Ø the space in which we conduct business or participate in
social interaction
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Public
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Ø 12 feet to 25 feet
Ø the space we usually keep between and strangers or others we
view as potentially harmful
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| 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.
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Clothing and
Body Adornment
People make interpretations
about who we are by the way we dress and adorn ourselves.
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Space
Decoration
How we decorate our private
spaces communicates who we are to others.
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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.
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| Source:http://www.wordsonimages.com/photo?id=119415-Thought+of+the+day+dalai+lama+ |
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.
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| 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).
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