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Nonverbal Communication Essay

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Nonverbal Communication Any communication interaction involves two major components in terms of how people are perceived: verbal, or what words are spoken and nonverbal, the cues such as facial expressions, posture, verbal intonations, and other body gestures. Many people believe it is their words that convey the primary messages but it is really their nonverbal cues. The hypothesis for this research paper was: facial expressions directly impact how a person is perceived. A brief literature search confirmed this hypothesis. Every communication interaction involves two parts: the verbal and the nonverbal. Furthermore, every person is always communicating even when they are not saying a word, thus, it is possible to send an exclusively …show more content…

Body Individuals are perceived according to their facial expressions more so than the words they speak. The aspect of nonverbal communication has been studied extensively for at least four decades. During the 1960s, volumes were printed about "body language." While that label has become trite to the point of jokes, the subject itself is valid and has been given a more appropriate label: nonverbal communication. Words, in and of themselves, do not convey the entire message in any communication interaction. There are always nonverbal cues. Even in a telephone conversation, there is are cues in terms of voice inflection, tone, volume, speed. Loudness and/or a harsh tone, for instance, communicates hostility and/or anger. Whether the speaker means to convey that message or not is immaterial because it is the listener's interpretation that will set the tone for the rest of the conversation. It is difficult enough to interpret words accurately, in fact, there are no doubt more misinterpreted messages than not (Cherney and Tynan, 1990). When the element of nonverbal is incorporated, the rate of misinterpretations increases dramatically (Elgin, 1980). Most people are surprised to learn exactly how much information they communicated about themselves through their facial expressions. The intricacies of what one does with their the eyes, eyebrows, forehead, lips, tongue, teeth, and mouth while listening or talking combine to send some

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