Midterm 1 Categories of Nonverbal behavior, Distinctions, History

Question 1

given vs. given off behaviors

Answer 1

given- purposive and intentional; under control of the actor

given-off- not purposive OR intentional, not under control of the sender

Question 2

which is more trustable: verbal or nonverbal?

Answer 2

nonverbal

Question 3

encoding

Answer 3

also known as intention, what are people’s intentions when they emit this behavior?

Question 4

decoding

Answer 4

perception/ interpretation

-how do receivers of this behavior interpret it?

Question 5

interactive responses

Answer 5

are there behaviors that have a reliable behavioral effect on others? (ex: invasion of space)

Question 6

shared encoding and decoding

Answer 6

are there behaviors whose meaning senders and receivers consistently agree on?

Question 7

what are some of the important aspects that affect the usage of nonverbal behaviors (e.g., external conditions, awareness, external feedback)

Answer 7

circumstances in which the behavior happens (ex: external behaviors-public vs. private)

• also, relationship between verbal and nonverbal behavior, is it used intentionally or not?
• does the behavior draw external feedback?
• type of info conveyed

Question 8

behaviors that are: idiosyncratic, informative, communicative, interactive

Answer 8

• idiosyncratic- usage and meaning is peculiar to individual
• informative- shared encoding and decoding
• communicative- enacted with a clear, conscious intention to convey a message
• interactive- influence or modify another persons behavior

Question 9

origins of behaviors (e.g., innate neurological mechanisms, etc.)

Answer 9

• innate neurological mechanisms (ex: startled expression, hard-wired)
• species constant experiences- all have to do
• learning and socialization (o.k. sign)

Question 10

coding (e.g., arbitrary, iconic, etc.)

Answer 10

• arbitrary- no intrinsic meaning in behavior, meaning happens by convention (ex: peace sign)
• iconic- (v for victory) preserve some aspects of the referent, do not need verbal to be understood (call me, gun)
• intrinsic- the act IS a case of the thing that is signifying (aggression)

Question 11

five categories of nonverbal behavior (from Ekman & Friesen –e.g., emblems, illustrators, etc.)

Answer 11

• emblems: nonverbal behavior that function like words, can replace language (ex: waving, hi, bye), most cultural specific, learned by convention
• illustrators: adds visual dimension to verbal part, 100% dependent on language, mean nothing without it and vice versa (ex: i got a fish THIS big)
• adaptors: largely unconcious, behavior we emit to manage or regulate our arousal (when it’s too high or too low), ex: twirling keys, which is object, or touching hair which is self), rarely aware
• regulators: traffic code, stop sign, red lights of convo, manage flow of convo
• emotion displays: collection of nonverbal behavior used to convey emotion to others (face, voice, posture, gesture, touch, etc.)

Question 12

relationship between verbal and nonverbal (e.g., substitute, complement, etc.)

Answer 12

• substitute: verbal may not always be possible or appropriate, substitute for nonverbal
  ex: plane signals to land-hand gestures, emblems
• complement-modify message in some way, ex: shouting a message, packaged deal
• accent-highlight particular part of message (not over there, over HERE)
• regulate-regulators, regulate verbal, goal sign of convo (let me finish, hurry up), no informational value, regulate flow of conversation, very important