non verval communication: Eye contact Flashcards
verbal and non verbal communication
Verbal communication is any communication involving spoken or written words.
Only half of communication is verbal and the other half is non- verbal communication (NVC).
what is eye contact
When two people look at each other’s eyes at the same time.
how does eye contact relate to the flow of a conversation
Kendon found that speakers looked away when they were about to speak and gave prolonged eye contact when about to finish.
Shows eye contact encourages turn-taking in conversation.
how can eye contact signal attraction
Conway et al. found that people who use eye contact are judged as more attractive even with a negative facial expression.
how can eye contact express emotions
Adams and Kleck found that participants judged emotions of joy and anger as more intense when shown a picture of someone gazing straight at them as opposed to gazing away.
They judged emotions of fear and sadness as more intense when the gaze in the picture was averted.
one strength of eye contact study
A strength is that studies can explain an important feature of autism.
People with autism have difficulty communicating with others because they often do not use eye contact.
Knowing the importance of eye contact means that people with autism could be taught these skills.
two weaknesses of eye contact study
A weakness is the use of rating scales to make judgements.
Studies in this area rely on people rating their views of ‘attractiveness’ and ‘intensity of emotion’, and these are open to bias and interpretation.
This suggests that studies of eye contact may produce biased evidence.
Another weakness is that studies of eye contact involve quite artificial tasks.
In Kendon’s study, participants were asked to get to know someone as part of the experiment.
This means the results may lack validity as they do not reflect what would happen in everyday life.
