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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Dr. Colangelo

Lecture Notes: Nonverbal Communication

Definition of Nonverbal Communication Communication without words Messages expressed by other than linguistic means Four Characteristics of Nonverbal Communication 1. You cannot not communicate a. Nonverbal communication is always On (multiple channels) b. Much of nonverbal communication is unintentional c. 60-65% of message impact/meaning due to nonverbals 2. It is relational: It serves three social functions a. Identity management b. Define type and status of relationships i. Three kinds of relational messages exchanged nonverbally 1. Liking: facial expression, eye contact, proximity 2. Power: posture, gesture, touch, proximity, objects 3. Responsiveness: speech rate & volume, gesture, face c. Convey emotions (expresses attitudes and feelings) 2. It is ambiguous a. Nonverbal behaviors are clues, not facts b. Must consider four factors to interpret nonverbals accurately 1. The context 2. The relationship 3. Their mood 4. Your feelings 4. It is culture-bound: Meanings and rules change Differences between Verbal & Nonverbal Communication 1. Single vs. Multiple Channels 2. Discrete vs. Continuous 3. Intentional vs. Unintentional 4. Less Ambiguous vs. Open to Interpretation Six Functions of Nonverbal Communication 1. Repeating (duplicates) 2. Substituting (replace) 3. Complementing (reinforce/support) 4. Accenting (add emphasis) 5. Regulating (control flow of comm.) 6. Contradicting (mixed messages, nonverbal carries more weight, deception)
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Nonverbal Channels Kinesics (body movement and gesture) Whether we lean in or move away, stand wide and strong or narrow and weak, talk with our hands or remain completely still - we tell others a lot about us. Even the way we walk can give off signals. Five categories of kinesics emblems: culturally defined behaviors w/verbal translation; like words, except silent (rub right index finger across your left) Shame on you (point at your wrist) What time is it? Functions of emblems Tell others what to do: Wait a minute. I cant hear you. Come here. Convey physical state: Im hot/cold Im sleepy I dont know Act as replies: Yes No Maybe I promise Oh you poor thing. Evaluate other: Hes crazy That stinks Big Deal Serve as insults, including obscenities illustrators gestures that describe or indicate the size or shape or movement of something. convey concepts w/hand movements to illustrate what you mean draw zigzag shape in air if someone isnt familiar w/term zigzag public speakers gesture each time a new point is raised adapters (manipulators) Odd, repetitive, nervous mannerisms tap pens, kick feet, twirl hair, play w/jewelry, groom selves, etc. Behaviors used to manage stress and satisfy personal needs scratching satisfies immediate need play w/jewelry = next best thing to a security blanket rocking back and forth =recreating early childhood experiences fist clenching/foot kicking = hitting or running motions Usually unaware using adaptors: good source of info about emotions Self-adaptors: rub neck, play w/hair Object adaptors: play w/cigarette, shred styrofoam cup affect displays Facial expressions of emotion: anger, fear, happiness, surprise, eagerness, fatigue. First instinct is to look at face if we want to know anothers feelings. The face often gives us away when we try to put up a front. You can consciously control affect displays. Actors control affect displays when they play a role. Liars often pay close attention to and control facial expressions. (See page 12: Nonverbal behaviors associated w/deception) regulators Behaviors that act as traffic signals during interaction Not consciously aware of them b/c rapid and automatic Maintain, request, or deny others a turn to talk with head nods, eyes, hands Posture (a kinesic category: the way you stand, sit, and walk) Two primary dimensions of posture convey openness or willingness to comm.
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Immediacy: the degree of closeness you feel toward another Body movements that reflect an attitude of immediacy direct body orientation (face-to-face) symmetrical positioning (posture similar to other) leaning forward Relaxation: the degree of comfort you feel in conversation Body movements that convey a relaxed attitude non-tense, relaxed body position asymmetry of positioning (posture dissimilar to other) leaning backward Immediacy Behaviors Communicators who exhibit immediacy behaviors are perceived as more likable than communicators who do not exhibit such immediacy behaviors close interaction distances direct body orientation forward lean socially appropriate touching in-context and sincere smiling body relaxation open body positions Postural Stance Messages Include or disregard other people Reflect nature of relationship between interactants: strangers, lovers Reflect status of interactants: superior, subordinate, equal Submissiveness: constricted and closed body postures, limited range of movement, hunched body, downward-turned head, body tension. Kinesic Principles regarding status of interactants Higher status individuals have more spatial privileges than lower status. A subordinate will yield space to a higher status individual. Higher status use expansive gestures and postures to connote status. Higher status individual assume more relaxed body postures while lower status individuals maintain a more tense, upright body position. Higher status have more touch privileges than lower status individuals. Higher status individuals have more visual privileges than lower status. Equal status will usually assume a posture similar to that of other. Face Six Primary Affect Displays Happiness: cheeks/mouth, eye/eyelid area Sadness: eye/eyelid area Fear: eye/eyelid area Surprise: cheek/mouth, eye/lid, brow/forehead Anger: not easy to see unless two or more areas used Disgust:: cheeks/mouth Two Recent Additions (Dale Leathers, 1986) Bewilderment Determination
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Affect Blends: 33 known combinations of primary emotions (contempt: disgust/anger) Facial Management Techniques Intensification: exaggerate what is felt Deintensification: downplay what is felt Neutralization: eliminate all expression of emotion Males neutralize facial displays to avoid appearing vulnerable or weak. Masking: replace w/socially appropriate expression Felt smiles: automatic reflexes to positive emotions False smiles: portray positive emotions not actually felt phony smiles: no emotion is felt People who give insincere smiles at inappropriate times are viewed as less trustworthy than one who smiles sincerely at the right time. masking smiles: covers up negative emotions Females mask anger, being uncomfortable, miserable by smiling. dampened smiles: conceal positive emotion Miserable smiles: responses to negative emotions Communication Styles Witholders: intentionally neutralize emotion Revealers: make no attempt to conceal true feelings Unwitting Expressors: believe emotions hid, true feelings evident Blanked Expressors: believe emotions displayed, face expressionless Substitute Expressors: unintentionally substitute expressions Frozen-Affect Expressors: show one emotion all the time Ever-Ready Expressors: same initial expression to any situation Flood-Affect Expressors: one expression is always recognizable even when they display another emotion Eyes (Oculesics) One of the least controllable areas of face: exposes emotional state Significant change with surprise and fear Very little change with happiness and disgust Four Functions of Eye Contact (Knapp & Hall, 1992) To seek feedback Listeners gaze at speakers more than speakers gaze at listeners 62-75% of interaction time spent gazing while listening 38-41% of interaction time spent gazing while speaking Women make eye contact more and maintain it longer (talking & listening) Because women tend to display emotions more than men? Because women have been conditioned to seek visual feedback? To inform others to speak e.g. when an instructor asks a question and locks eyes with a student To signal the nature of the relationship Positive or negative regard: focused glance vs. avoid eye contact Superiority: stare or glance away Subordination: look directly at superior or perhaps at the floor Visual dominance: increase eye contact w/talking and decrease w/listening
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Amorous, hostile, or indifferent: utilize face and eyes together to decode To compensate for increased physical distance Catching someones eye creates psychological closeness Eye contact and self-disclosure (another expression of psychological closeness) are positively related: as one increases, so does the other. Messages Conveyed by Eye Contact Mutual gaze ensure listening flirting establishing a connection Communicators who maintain a high level of eye contact with others (but not continuous eye contact) are perceived as more competent. Average length of gaze = 2.95 seconds Average length of mutual gaze = 1.18 seconds Exceed this = shows unusually high interest Fall short = suggests disinterest, shy, preoccupied Sustained or direct eye contact and the maintenance of mutual eye gaze with the interaction partner are strongly related to likability. Gaze Aversion signal disinterest in person or topic Perceptions of competence are negatively affected by looking down before responding to a question, characteristically downcast eyes, and a low level of eye contact. Gaze aversion is often perceived as revealing emotional states of fear, guilt, shame, and social inferiority. help others maintain their privacy civil inattention (according to sociologist Erving Goffman) signal end of conversation Gaze Omission unintentional avoidance of eye contact attempt to make contact went unnoticed Staring invasion of privacy; threat to individual could indicate interest at onset of relationship Pupil Dilation Pupil size increases with interest and level of emotional arousal pupils dilate in response to positively evaluated objects pupils constrict in response to negatively evaluated objects Dilated pupils are judged to be more attractive b/c we believe dilated pupils indicate interest in us In Italy, 15th & 16th century women put drops of belladonna into their eyes to dilate the pupils so they would look more attractive Body Appearance (body type and impressions concerning who we are) Body type & personality mesomorph: fat, lazy, jolly
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

endomorph: muscular, athletic, competitive ectomorph: thin, nervous, intelligent race, nationality, identity height, weight, skin color, hair color, hairstyle, attractiveness Paralanguage (nonverbal, vocal messages reinforce or contradict verbal) tone Likability is positively associated with a speaking voice that is pleasant, relaxed, emotionally expressive, and friendly and sounds confident, dynamic, animated, and interested. speed Those who talk fast are more persuasive than those who talk normally. Fast speakers are rated as more intelligent and more objective persuaders. pitch Communicators with narrow voice pitch and volume range are perceived to be uninterested in who theyre talking to or what theyre talking about. volume Dominance is conveyed by controlling talk time, speaking in a loud voice, and frequently interrupting the interaction partner. A soft voice with little volume communicates a lack of assertiveness. number and length of pauses Vocal cues such as a relatively fast rate of speaking, substantial volume, and short, purposeful pauses are related to perceptions of competence. disfluencies (er ah filler sounds, stammering, stuttering) Communicators who use hesitations and hedges are perceived as less powerful than those who do not. vocalizations (laugh, cry, giggle, moan, sigh, yawn, whisper, uh-huh, shhh, uh-uh) Giles Speech Accommodation Theory People change vocal patterns to seem similar or dissimilar Change accent, speech rate, duration of turn, pause duration Accommodation produces liking and attraction Differentiation produces negative perceptions Communicators who speak general American dialect with a standard accent are viewed as more competent than those who do not. Haptics (touch) The first communication experience in life A primary means of communication and a basic human need Messages communicated by touch positive emotions: support; inclusion; affection; sexual interest the intent to play: mock fighting the intent to control: to gain compliance; to gain attention Intimacy of touch determined by: part of body doing touching part of body being touched length of touch pressure of touch movement after touch
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

anyone else present situation relationship between people touching Heslins Intimacy Continuum: Uses of touch functional/professional: haircut, teeth cleaned, check for fever, help someone up social/polite: handshake, body guide, pat friendship/warmth: arm-link, shoulder embrace, full embrace, mock attack love/intimacy: waist embrace, kiss, hand-to-head, caress, body support sexual arousal: pat, kiss, caress Medical Benefits of Touch Subdues heart irregularities Relieves depression Lowers blood pressure Touch Avoidance (Andersen & Leibowitz, 1978) People who avoid touch are apprehensive about communication in general. The more comm. apprehension a person feels, the more s/he will avoid touch. People who avoid touch also avoid self-disclosure. People who self-disclose very little have high touch avoidance scores. People who disclose little will touch little. People who disclose a great deal will touch a great deal. Men avoid same-sex touching more than women. Women avoid opposite-sex touching more than do men. Older married people avoid opposite-sex touching more than do younger married. Proxemics (how you use and communicate with space) Halls Four Zones of Personal Space Intimate (0-18 inches) Personal (18 inches to 4 feet) Social (4-12 feet) Public (12 feet and beyond) Factors that Determine Use of Space Concerns for privacy, intimacy, dominance, and status Personality Characteristics and Space Extroverts require less personal space than introverts Anxious people and shy people prefer greater distances People who need affiliation and desire control narrow the distance Deviants (criminals, violent people) need more personal space to protect selves Territoriality (claiming an area w/o legal basis) Preventing Territorial Invasion Markers: strategically place objects to mark our spot Labels: tags with names, signs marked reserved Offensive Displays: clenched fists, glaring Tenure: being there first and staying there the longest Three types of Territorial Encroachment
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Violation: Unwarranted use of anothers territory (enter without permission) Invasion: Entering changes the meaning (parent befriends teens friends) Contimaination: Rendering a territory impure (smoking a cigar in a kitchen) Defense behaviors when encroachment occurs Withdrawal: retreat from invader; leave the territory Insulation: block by erecting a barrier (sunglasses, fences, Black English) Turf Defense: fight off whoever enters (gangs defend their streets) Chronemics (the use of time; how you organize it, react to it, the messages it communicates) Cultural time Formal time: the way a culture defines and teaches time seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years phases of the moon, seasons Informal time: time terms that lack specific meaning forever, immediately, soon, right away, as soon as possible Psychological time: The importance you place on the past, present, and future Past Orientation relieve old times, regard old methods as the best events are recurring so past wisdom is applicable Present Orientation: most prevalent among lowest-income males Hedonistic, pleasure seeking, partiers: enjoy the present, take risks, engage in a variety of impulsive actions Fatalistic & worry-free: live one day at a time, not to enjoy it but to avoid planning and avoid anxiety of a future that seems determined by fate Sees those with strong future orientations as obsessed with accumulating wealth or achieving status. Future Orientation (positively related to future income) Work motivation & perservereance: strong work ethic, complete tasks despite difficulties and temptations Looks down on present-oriented person as lazy and poorly motivated Goal-seeking & planning: pleasure from planning and achieving goals Pragmatic action: do what they have to do to achieve what they want Obsessive daily planning: make daily to do lists; great attention to details Messages Communicated by use of time Interest-Disinterest Organized-Disorganized Considerate-Inconsiderate Social-Unsociable Artifacts (clothing, jewelry, hair style, home, office, car, colors) Functions of Clothing Protects from weather and injury during sports Serves to maintain modesty by concealing body parts Cultural display of ethnicity, socioeconomic, political, philosophical affiliations Inferences Made From the Way You Dress social class: Rolex vs. Timex seriousness: efficient, reliable, authoriative (Dress for Success by John Molloy)
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

attitudes (conservative or liberal): men who wear earrings or long hair concern for convention: wedding and engagement rings sense of style: the latest fashions or hairstyles creativity: purple mohawk hairstyle Environment: Similar inferences made as those gained from the way you dress Color Each culture associates different meanings with various colors Red: warmth/death; passion/war; life/revolution; patriotism/danger Blue: devotion/discouragement; truth/doubt Yellow: intuition/cowardice; divinity/impure love Green: nature/envy; hope/jealousy; freshness/opposition Purple: power/mourning; royalty/regret; nostalgia/resignation Color affects us physiologically Red light: respirations increase; eye blinks increase; provocative Blue light: respirations decrease; eye blinks decrease; more soothing Color influences perceptions and behavior If you have to pick the wardrobe for your defense lawyer heading into court and choose anything but blue, you deserve to lose the case ... Black is so powerful it could work against the lawyer with the jury. Brown lacks sufficient authority. Green would probably elicit a negative response (Kanner 1989) Smell (olfactics) Without smell, taste would be severely impaired Sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than sense of taste Facts about smell and communication Animals and humans protect personal space from strangers scents. People move away from others wearing scents. Most Americans avoid or cover up natural odors, while other cultures rely on scents as a basic part of their communication. In conversation, Arabs consistently breathe on each other as a way of being involved and keeping tabs on changing emotions. Half a century ago, perfume was an extravagance of rich women. Four main ingredients used in perfrume: All are animal products: musk from a gland near the sex organs of a muskrat or male musk deer; ambergeris from intestines of sperm whale; civet from the civet cat; and castor from glands of the beaver. Today perfumes are twice as strong as those of the last century. More perfume to overcome smoke and alcohol and impact the olfactory sense which is weakened by these habits. There is a facial and bodily response to both liked and disliked odors. Pleasant: body relaxes, breathing improves, mouth opens. Unpleasant: head jerks back, nose wrinkles, and upper lip raises while saying Ugh or Phew. People cough, compress their lips, rub their nose, frown, put hand over the mouth, actually spit, and wave away source of the smell. Psychology to smell in that some odors affect emotional states. Ylang-ylang will sooth anger borne of frustration and wild rose will lift one out
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

of a depression. Familiar odors enhance sense of confidence and well-being. Spread around familiar odors in an unfamiliar place (hotel room) to mark it as yours and accent the familiarity. Summary of Nonverbal Behaviors Associated with Deception Channel Face Pupil dilation Blinking Body Adapters Paralinguistic Response Length Speech errors Speech hesitations Pitch Verbal Negative statements Irrelevant statements Immediacy statements Leveling terms Behavior Liars eye pupils dilate when lying. Liars engage in more frequent blinking when lying.

Liars engage in some type of adapting, such as rubbing hands or arms together. Liars usually speak for a briefer time duration than truth tellers. Liars usually communicate messages containing more speech errors (e.g. mixing present and past tenses, and so forth). Liars usually communicate messages containing more pauses and filled pauses (e.g. ah, err, humm). Liars usually communicate messages with a tone of voice higher in pitch compared to when theyre telling the truth. Liars frequently include some negative statement, like I was afraid youd ask, I hated it, etc. Liars frequently include some irrelevant statement in the lies they communicate (e.g. dont answer questions directly). Liars frequently include some expression of non-immediacy in the lies (e.g. that vs. this or those vs. these). Liars frequently include more vague terms such as the usual stuff, stuff like that, you know. May also include universal expressions: all, every, none, etc. At least one channel (face, body, voice, or verbal) fails or even contradicts the message communicated in other channels.

Channel Discrepancy

The following behaviors are not reliably and consistently related to deception: Frequency of eye gaze Smiling Head movements Illustrators or other gestures Shrugs (as in the shrug emblem indicating uncertainty: I dont know) Foot/leg movements Shifts in posture Response latency (the hesitation between question asked & answer given) Speech rate
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Dr. Colangelo's Lecture Notes: Nonverbal

Self-references (the number of times someone refers to self, I, my, me, mine, etc.) Zuckerman, M & Driver, RE (1985). Telling lies: Verbal and nonverbal correlates of deception. In Multichannel integrations of nonverbal behavior, (AW Siegman and S Feldstein, eds.) , 129147. Hilssdale, NJ:Erlbaum.

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