Expressions of Nonverble Communication

Facial expressions -The human face is extremely expressive, able to express countless emotions without saying a word. And unlike some forms of nonverbal communication, facial expressions are

Nonverbal messages are an essential component of communication in the teaching process. It is not only what you say to your student that is important but also how you say it. An awareness of nonverbal behaviour will allow you to become a better receiver of students’ messages and a better sender of signals that reinforce learning.

Nonverbal communication or body language makes up 55% of effective communication. This plays the biggest part in communication, and it shows the client or colleague more information than words alone ever could. Nonverbal communication includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, head movements, eye contact, posture, and the use of distances and space. Understanding and using nonverbal communication can enhance the connection between you and others, navigate challenging situations and well as expressing interest in the conversation. this can also established effective rapport between you and the client or colleague.

There are eight key forms of nonverbal communications used on a daily basis. These forms can affect the way people view another person; however, without understanding the forms of nonverbal communication there is certain to be a lot of misinterpretations. Cultural and language differences are a common reason for miscommunication. When communicating with people in different cultures, a person should be extremely aware of the hand gestures and nonverbal communication tools they are using. Many of the hand gestures used in the United States that mean good things, mean offensive and profane things to other cultures. Nonverbal communication is described as body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions. It is known that people reveal more information through nonverbal communication, than words alone to get a point across. There will always be some interaction between two or more people that everyone’s

Thesis Statement: Body language expresses emotions and actions unconsciously and differs between men and women depending on their brain type, emotional experience and culture.

Since I have attempted to resolve my issue with nonverbal behavior before, the decision to improve that skill was easy, but developing an overall effective plan that had at least a moderate potential for success was an arduous process. I started by listing the common nonverbal behaviors I exhibit during these episodes that obstruct any interpersonal communications; sent or received. Next, I analyzed the list to determine how universal each behavior was in my daily interactions. Though, I thought there would have been more, I was surprised to find only a few of my nonverbal behaviors reappeared in different interactions. I continued to revise the list until the entries were mostly unique to the situation. As a result, the revised list is as follows: fidgeting, rubbing my lower back, itching one of my legs, squirming in my seat (excludes repositioning myself), erratic paralanguage

Individuals are perceived according to their facial expressions more so than the words they speak.

Nonverbal communication is behaviors and characteristics that convey meaning with out the use of words. Sometimes accompanying verbal messages, to clarify or reinforce them. (Floyd, Communicating Nonverbally, 2013) It is said to be true that nonverbal communication sometimes gives more information that verbal communication. People’s facial expressions, gestures, and personal appearance are all forms of nonverbal communication and it relies on our sense of vision. For instance, when my sorority and I get together for a meeting and the president of our chapter stands up in front of everyone to share information, it is important that we let her know that we are interested by nodding our head in agreement, smiling at her, clapping our hands, and keeping eye contact with her so she knows our focus is on her. For our chapter it is important to reassure our president that we are listening and focused on what she has to say by using nonverbal behaviors. Without nonverbal communication, it would be hard to tell when someone is interested or not in a conversation. Nonverbal communication helps us maintain

Body language, while easily overlooked as a means of communication, is used every day when people interact with one another. We interact beyond words by using what we call nonverbal signals. According to many experts in this field, such as James C. McCroskey and Virginia P. Richmond, the authors of Nonverbal Behavior in Interpersonal Relations, body language makes a huge difference in our daily communication. For example, the way we pose, the expressions on our face, and even the tone of our speech, which are all nonverbal communication methods, change the volume of speech and thus have various impacts on the overall communication. Almost half of our communications involves people’s use of body language to convey their thoughts, whether or not those happen unconsciously or consciously; understanding body language is very important for daily communication with one another. Since Eastern University is a small Christian college, students and professors have the opportunity to have better and intimate relationships with each other. Therefore, professors should not only use more efficient body languages to interact with students individually but also use various types of body language to improve class atmosphere. Furthermore, the use of body language can help international students have a better understanding of the American education system.

In Darwin’s concluding remarks, he argues that with regard to the “chief movements of expression” as utilized in common interaction, humans partake in behaviors, which bring them gratification and thus these behaviors become habitual over the course of time. He furthermore argues strongly that emotions themselves are innate, however, more often than not our reaction to the expressions of certain types of emotion seem to be a more learned behavior. He uses as exemplars of this, his own children during their infancy. He found that when the children exposed to certain facial expressions or displays of emotion, despite having never been previously exposed to them, they still reacted in the predicted and expected manner as most adult humans.

Paul Ekman was influenced by Charles Darwin’s book titled, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, originally published in 1872. Charles Darwin used photos, drawings and body postures from animals and humans and compared them with facial expressions and emotions. For instance, a growling dog has many facial features similar to an angry human. “Darwin argued that the existence of these similarities demonstrates that emotional expression must have evolved through natural selection in the same way that other characteristics evolved. He further contended that the expressions must serve a function; they enhance survival of the organism”. (Reevy, G. 2010 Encyclopedia of Emotion (Vol. 2, pp. 410-411). I believe

It has been previously proven, that in the first few moments of meeting someone, we form an opinion of them. The problem with this idea is stereotypes. One of our society's biggest mistake is that we judge people based on what they look like, or how they act.

Emotions are described as an underlying spark or force that motivates us to react (Singleton, G., Robinson, J.C., & Robertson, J., 2012). They are proposed to have been formulated as an adaptive response to a stimuli, in which we pay attention to on some form of an unconscious or conscious level (Singleton, G., Robinson, J.C., & Robertson, J., 2012). Emotions are conveyed through a means of physical expression or cues; such as, our facial expression or body language (Singleton, G., Robinson, J.C., & Robertson, J., 2012). Positive emotions are displayed through open forms of body language such as relaxed arms, uncrossed arms; and it is shown through facial expressions such as, smiling, having raised eyebrows, and wide eyes (Singleton, G., Robinson, J.C., & Robertson, J., 2012).

Humans are better than animals at interpreting not only verbal but also nonverbal cues. Most animals can understand some nonverbal messages; for example, two cats that are not sure of each other arch their backs. A dog carrying a toy to another dog means he or she wants to play; sniffing another dog’s derriere is simply introducing itself and learning about the dog from its scents. Licking a human’s face means the dog is showing a sign of love and affection. Elephants, because they are very intellectual have many forms of nonverbal communication; such as, wrapping their trunks around each other, as a sign of excitement, rubbing their bodies against each other to show affection or a male raising his trunk to show dominance (“Elephant Communication” 1). Animals can interpret nonverbal cues in their own species. Humans can interpret their own cues but they can also interpret the cues of other animal species’; for example, humans know that when a cat arches its back, it is either scared or angry and when a dog lays its head on your leg, it wants attention and love. Humans’ nonverbal communication consists of facial expressions; such as a smile when happy or a frown when sad, body language; such as crossed arms which means I’m in charge and not open to suggestions; vocal articulation and inflection, for example, raising a voice or a soft, consoling voice and finally, body gestures; like a raised hand which means to stop or stay. Only a few of these are understood by other animal

Boose, G., Jaffe, J., Segal, J., & Smith. M. (2013). Nonverbal communication. Retrieved from https://classroom.phoenix.edu/afm214/secure/view-thread.jspa?threadID=58196411