Non Verbal Midterm Flashcards
Explain the complexity of nonverbal communication and how it is related to the transactional model of communication
Nonverbal communication can directly relate to the transactional model of communication in that there are messages that are encoded (sent) and decoded (received)
Describe the brain processing and awareness of nonverbal cues
Nonverbal messages may be processed in either brain hemisphere even though most of it is processed on the right side. Much of what is processed by the right side of the brain is nonverbal phenomena and much of what is processed by the left side of the brain is verbal phenomena
Understand the classification of nonverbal cues and relative research
The communication environment
Physical environment- nonhuman factors that could affect/influence communication (e.g. furniture, architecture, colors, temperature, noises/music, etc)
Spatial environment- the study of proxemics and the physical relationship/distance between people and how that can affect communication
The communicators’ physical characteristics
Relatively unchangeable physical characteristics of a person during an interaction (e.g. body shape, height, hair, odors, clothes, accessories, etc)
Body movement and position
Dynamic body movement and positioning that can affect communication
Gestures
Posture
Touching behavior
Facial expressions
Eye behavior
Vocal behavior
Explain how verbal and nonverbal communication interrelate
Verbal and nonverbal communication are often connected and overlap. It is impossible to completely disconnect verbal and nonverbal communication. Both can be ambiguous and convey multiple meanings.
Be able to describe the nature vs. nurture debate and be familiar with some of the research on both sides including that surrounding blind/deaf individuals, infants, and twin studies
Some argue that nonverbals are inherited at birth (nature) while others believe that nonverbals are learned over time (nurture)
blind/deaf children are not able to learn nonverbals through visual or auditory cues
These children expressed signs of laughing, crying, smiling, surprise, anger, etc. similarly to sighted/hearing children
Identify the eyebrow flash and what it means
Eyebrow flash is the rapid raising of eyebrows for about one-sixth of a second
Often seen as a friendly greeting behavior but can also mean approval, agreeance, confirmation, flirting, thanking, or ending a statement
Describe how we develop nonverbal skills and the role training can or does play in improving our skills
Development can be found in our everyday experiences which are seen as forms of training. These can be seen in 3 main parts of our lives.
mothers/parents can judge their children’s non-verbal cues
Training in keyboards music has produced improvements in the ability to decode the meanings of vocal expressions
Traveling outside of one’s own country
Identify if we can improve our nonverbal skills with training and why improving nonverbal skills is beneficial
You can train and get better but they cannot all of a sudden be super skilled in it but training and exposure helps for improvement
Explain encoding and decoding and examples of each (i.e. thin-slicing and the research surrounding it)
Encoding: sending non-verbals cues
Facial encoding includes emotions and facial expressions or saying something with a specific tone of voice which could be decoded as sad, angry or disappointed etc…
Decoding: Receiving non-verbal cues
The PONS test (the short videos of the girl talking/moving her hands and feet) showed us our own decoding abilities.
To decode is to calculate the situation or try to see what the other person is sharing through their emotions and non-verbals.
Thin Slicing: Taking a quick 10 seconds snippet of something and decoding what it means.
“5 seconds is as accurate as 5 minutes”
Ex: sexual orientation, telephone operator performance, marriage success (as seen in example video we watched in class)
Describe what interpersonal sensitivity is and why it is considered tacit knowledge (lecture)
Interpersonal Sensitivity: perceiving others accurately and engaging in interpersonally appropriate behavior.
Tacit Knowledge: processing behaviors
Interpersonal Sensitivity is considered tacit knowledge because it is presumed that if you know how to accurately perceive those around you and you can engage in their behaviors you are able to in return know how to process their behaviors and understand them.
Identify gender differences in encoding and decoding nonverbal cues (lecture)
More times than not women score higher than men on testing non-verbal cues. Women also score higher on the tonic test and are known to remember the appearance and nonverbal cues than men.
Females are able to read more non verbal cues than men are.
Describe and identify factors that influence encoding and decoding of nonverbal cues and some research examples
· Describe the 5 (+ intentionality) recommendations for interpreting nonverbal communication
Find out about the participants—age, sex, position or status, relationship to each other, previous history, and the like.
Find out about the setting of the interaction—kind of environment, relation- ship of the participants to the environment, and expected behavior in that environment.
Find out about the purposes of the interaction—what are people’s stated as well as hidden goals, compatibility of goals, and so on.
Find out about the social behavior—who does what to or with whom, form of the behavior, its intensity, who initiates it, apparent objective of the behavior, effect on the other interactants, and so on.
Find out about the frequency and duration of such behavior—when it occurs, how long it lasts, whether it recurs, frequency of recurrence, and how typical such behavior is in the situation.
Describe the functions of gestures and the difference between speech dependent and speech independent gestures
Speech Independent:
Emblems
non verbal translation or dictionary definition.
EX: a thumbs up
Speech dependent
What to referent (what your referencing)
Indicate relationship + visual punctuation
The gestures cannot stand alone. You have to say the words with it to understand.
