chapter 5 textbook Flashcards
Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication serves vital functions, providing information, regulating interaction, and defining the nature of the relationship two people share.
Facial expression.
Facial expressions are good guides to others’ moods, but cultural norms influence expressive behavior
Gazing behavior.
The direction and amount of a person’s looking is important in defining relationships and in regulating interaction. In addition, our pupils dilate when we’re seeing something that interests us.
Body movement
Gestures vary widely across cultures, but the posture and motion of the entire body are informative as well.
Touch
Different types of touch have distinctly different meanings.
Interpersonal distance.
We use different zones of personal space—the intimate, personal, social, and public zones—for different kinds of interactions.
Smell
Information about one’s emotions is transmitted to others by one’s
smell.
Paralanguage
Paralanguage involves all the variations in a person’s voice—such as rhythm, rate, and loudness—other than the words he or she uses.
Combining the components
Mimicry occurs when people use similar nonverbal behavior without realizing it. Nonverbal actions allow us to fine-tune the intimacy
of our interactions in subtle but real ways.
Nonverbal Sensitivity
Unhappy spouses, especially husbands, do a poor job at nonverbal communication.
Self-Disclosure
Intimacy involves sharing personal information about oneself to
one’s partner.
How self-disclosure develops
As a relationship develops, both the breadth and depth of self-disclosure increase. Intimacy develops when we perceive responsiveness in others that indicates that they understand us and care about us.
secrets and other things we don’t want to talk about
Couples avoid taboo topics, and some secrecy is routine even in intimate partnerships.
Self-disclosure and relationship satisfaction
Appropriate self-disclosure breeds liking and contentment, and expressions of affection are good for us.
Gender Differences in Verbal Communication
Women are more likely than men to discuss feelings and people, but men and women are equally talkative. However, macho men self-disclose relatively little to other men even when they are friends, and thus are likely to share their most meaningful intimacy only with women.
Miscommunication.
Distressed couples have trouble saying what they mean, and they engage in destructive verbal behavior characterized by kitchen-sinking, drifting off- beam, mindreading, interruptions, yes-butting, and cross-complaining. Criticism, contempt, stonewalling, defensiveness, and belligerence are especially corrosive.
Saying What We Mean.
Skillful senders use behavior description, I-statements, and XYZ statements to focus on specific actions and make their feelings clear.
Active Listening.
Good listeners use paraphrasing and perception checking to understand their partners.
Being Polite and Staying Cool.
Happy couples also avoid extended periods of
negative affect reciprocity.
The Power of Respect and Validation
Partners should communicate respect and recognition of the other’s point of view even when they disagree.
interpersonal gap
which the sender’s intentions differ from the effect on the receiver. Indeed, such gaps are actually more likely to occur in close relationships than they are among strangers
Providing information
A person’s behavior allows others to make inferences about his or her intentions, feelings, traits, and meaning
A husband’s facial expression leads his wife to judge that he is upset
Regulating interaction
Nonverbal behavior provides cues that regulate the efficient give-and- take of smooth conversations and other interactions
A woman starts looking steadily at her partner as the tone of her voice drops on her last word, and he starts speaking because he knows she’s finished
Defining the nature of the relationship
The type of partnership two people share may be evident in their non- verbal behavior
Lovers stand closer to each other, touch more, and look at each other more than less intimate partners do
Interpersonal influence
Goal-oriented behavior designed to influence someone else
As a person requests a favor from his friend, he leans forward, touches him on the arm, and gazes intently
Impression management (of couples)
Nonverbal behavior that is managed by a person or a couple to create or enhance a particular image
A couple may quarrel on the way to a party but then hold hands and pre- tend to be happy with each other once they arrive
talk table
researchers getting info abt relationship w partner
when communication is frusterating they are less happy in 5 yrs
types of interpersonal distance
intimate zone of interpersonal distance extends out from the front of our chests about a foot-and-a-half
personal zone that ranges from 11⁄2 to 4 feet away from us.
social zone (4 to 12 feet),
public zone, which is used for structured interaction like that between an instructor and his or her students in a lecture class.
visual dominance ratio
hat compares “look-speak” (the percentage of time a speaker gazes at a listener) to “look-listen.” A high-power pattern of gazing turns the typical ratio of 40/60 on its head, producing a high VDR of 60/40 (Ellyson et al., 1992). Dominant partners in an interaction can insist, “Look at me when I’m talking to you!” but they often do not offer as much visual attention in return.
