Nonverbal Communication

To me interpersonal communication describes the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between two different people. Joseph DeVito states that “interpersonal communication is inevitable, irreversible, and unrepeatable” due to these things effective communication is a necessary skill for us to function in our day to day lives (p. 20). Therefore, I have created a theory for interpersonal communication that goes as follows; To experience effective communication you must understand: your culture, the other person’s culture, and how to listen effectively. By knowing these three things you can consistently avoid misunderstandings and promote understanding in your interpersonal and intercultural relationships.

Non-verbal communication consists mainly of the things people do with their body language. There are times where words are expressed and non-verbal communication could help emphasize the message. A few examples of nonverbal communication are hand gestures eye contact, facial expressions as well as tone and volume. I was given this assignment to observe a situation and take note of the nonverbal communication that occurred. I also had to observe whether the non-verbals were able to execute the message and if the behavior was acceptable.

I decided to go to Panda Express at 5:30 pm for my observations, while there I was able to observe just how much people rely on nonverbal communications to get their point across. Although I witnessed several encounters of unique body language, there were also a few actions that reoccurred several times in several different people. For example, when a customer would approach the counter where employee served the food, the employee would raise her eyebrows and smile at the customer. The employee’s smile, however, did not reach her eyes suggesting that while it is her job to smile and be welcoming to the customer, she most likely did not want to be at work. Additionally, I noticed that when customers approached the counter about 90 percent of them had their arms crossed. The act of crossing ones arms usually means that a person is trying to put a barrier between them and a situation that they either don’t like, or are uncomfortable with. This may mean that the customers were displeased with having to wait in line to get their food, on the other hand it may be that they were simply comfortable folding their arms. Once they reached the front of the line, every customer pointed to the food they wanted along with verbally telling the employee. This made their communication more effective as it helped to overcome the barrier of sound because the restaurant was noisy.

Technology can be positive through providing face to face live video and audio chats, but can also be detrimental when it comes to simple texting without nonverbal messages. Facetime has been able to provide expressions and voice cues that help bring meaning to verbal messages. Nonverbal communication is hard to fake and is more trustable. While, texting can be detrimental to relationships because the meanings of words are skewed since they don’t have nonverbal cues to give context and meaning to them. The relationships that is most influenced by technology is my friends at Uconn because we spend so much time together and the amount of closeness I feel with these people is no comparable to those affected only by technology because I feel a sort of closeness through maintaining a close distance to them and I have the ability to exchange vocal and facial cues.

There are many levels and moving parts in communication. We rely on both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication in order to send, receive, translate and respond to each other (Cheesebro, O’Connor, Rios, 2010). The spoken or written word only comprises of about 7% of our communication with each other. The other 93% is made up of voice quality and non-verbal communication (Heathfield, 2011). Non-verbal communication or demonstrative communication comes in many forms. It includes body language, facial expressions, eye contact, posture, touch and tone of language.

Body language (the process of communicating nonverbally through conscious or unconscious gestures and movements). People all of the world use body language or gestures to communicate nonverbally. I personally think that nonverbal communication and body language are one of the biggest barriers in communication especially between one culture to other. Body gestures can be misinterpreted as rude or disrespectful depending on the country, region, or even the city you’re from.

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.

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

Physical appearance helps with face to face communications or interactions. Like if you are looking at someone who is tall, thin, short, or fat.

In a romantic relationship, it is easy to have miscommunication between a man and a woman. “Most researchers agree that 70% or more of the meaning of any message is communicated through nonverbal channels like eye contact, facial expressions, posture, hand gestures, etc.” (Stinnett, 2015). Verbal and nonverbal messages are like a relationship, they work well together that way the message is sent and delivered appropriately and that there is no miscommunication. Women have their way of expressing themselves to their boyfriend, fiancé, and or husband and vice versa for men. This paper will focus on the varying behavior of gender in expressing the different type of emotions using nonverbal communication in a romantic relationship. Following

There are a some aspects of nonverbal communication that should be upheld and followed by all nurses and healthcare professionals. When treating people, the results or new is not always good and there is no telling how someone will react once they are given new regarding their health. If the news is bad, the healthcare professional tasked with giving the news should be aware of the nonverbal messages they are sending to the message receiver. Is the sender slouched and sluggish? Are they standing up straight and smiling? Small little things like a person's posture can completely change the tone that is delivered with a verbal message. A real situation of this is if a patient is tested to be positive for cancer, the person tasked on giving the news would want to give off a light and even somewhat happy mood. The goal is not to get up the hopes of the patient or to trick them but, to give them hope and let them know everything will be okay, even if there is a chance it won’t be. Hope is a very powerful tool for people and it’s important to project hope through nonverbal means like body language. If a patient sees the doctor or nurse appear calm when delivering new as serious as cancer, the tone of calmness will be sent along with the verbal message which may help the patient feel more hope and comfort.

During a speech an onlooker in the crowd is more likely to remember the experience over just simply the words spoken. They might remember the expressions of the speaker 's face or the hand gestures of the speaker as he moved back and forth across the stage. The onlooker will remember the posture of the speaker and if he was just slumped over on his podium. They will remember the proximity of the speaker to themselves. Surely they will remember the speech pattern such as our President Obama 's speech have short phrases with pauses in between. All of those things are considered nonverbal communication and help make a good speech or for a salesperson a good sales proposal in the business world. In order for a salesperson to excel they must master those nonverbal techniques as well as be able to speak efficiently and have a decent product. Throughout this paper I am going to look at how nonverbal communication is approached by different people as well as how to improve someone 's communication non verbally.

Chapter 7 is about nonverbal communication message of Looking Out Looking In question asks to name three different types of nonverbal communication and give a real life example of each, then show which nonverbal function it serves and discuss the level of ambiguity that is present with each. Three types of nonverbal communication are gestures, touch, and time. The first nonverbal communication pattern listed is gestures, gestures are the movements of hands and arms. Gestures were one of the first forms of human communication. The most used gestures are called illustrators which accompany speech but don’t stand on their own. The second most common type of gestures are called emblems which are nonverbal behaviors that have a specific

One thing we all have in common is that we must all communicate in one form or another. Everyone communicates even if they know it or not. Both verbal and nonverbal communication is used during conversations. Using both forms helps convey and support the message you are trying to send.

These are ten non-verbal communicators that say a lot about your person and/or develop positive/negative first impressions. First impressions cannot be taken back so it is important to make a good one the first time around. These are some tips you can use to make sure your interview ready and to make sure you give off a good first impression