Norvilus 1

Christopher Norvilus
Dr. Hoehl
Com 380- Nonverbal Communication
26 April 2017
Observational Studies #8
For my first observational study, I chose the second study in the Kinesics section. I chose

to conduct the study in a hallway in the basement of the library. As I was talking to a classmate,

who is more of an acquaintance and not a close friend, I could tell that he almost found my head

nods and their frequency to be rude and he was talking. It was evident that he felt as though I

was rushing him through what he had to say. I could tell he cut his idea short when he turned the

floor over to me. We had been discussing a recent Bucks basketball playoff game. After I started

giving my opinion, I stopped and turned the floor back over to him. In doing so, he picked up

where he left off. I noticed he felt way more comfortable and less stressed giving his opinion

because I had slowed down my backchannel. His frequency in speech greatly increased.

For my second observational study, I chose the fourth study in the Kinesics section. I

chose to use an issue of People Magazine to complete this study. Of the 10 different faces that I

chose to view in advertisements, 7 were happiness, 2 were surprise, and 1 was angry. I did not

find any of those faces to showcase blended emotions. The 10 faces that I chose to view were

very straightforward advertisements and to align a primary emotion with each one was very

simple. To give an example of a message that one of the emotions sent, it is important to take

note of the ad for Maybelline makeup. The girl in the ad was sitting in the bleachers at a high

school basketball game. The world around her was slightly blurred and she was sitting there with

her makeup done and a huge smile on her face. It sent the message that the brand makes good

makeup and that wearing it causes girls to feel happy. Another example can be found from an ad
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for an Align probiotic. It showcased a man with a very angry look on his face sitting in a chair

with a plain backdrop. The ad then had written a message asking the reader if he/she was tired of

feeling indigestion and in need of extra help. It got my attention because all of the other ads had

people looking either happy or surprised. The ad was sending the message that his frustration is

common and the Align product is set to relieve those stresses.

For my third observational study, I chose the fourth study in the Vocalics section. I chose

to conduct this study on a Thursday when I had class, work, and plans to talk with my parents

over the phone. I noticed a total of three different accents: typical Midwestern, Southern, and

Haitan. All three individuals with the accents spoke English with my parents speaking some

Creole as well. There were some clear dialectical different between the Midwestern and Southern

accents. Both of these accents I heard from students in the cafeteria. The Midwestern student had

a more drier accent so to speak and spoke rather plainly without many changes in tone or volume

and the Southern student had a lot of vocal inflections in tone or volume and used to the

identifiable phrase yall a lot in her conversation with her Midwestern friend. I observed this

when standing behind them in line and knew it was perfect for one of the observational studies.

When speaking with my parents, the clear dialectical difference was their Haitian accent. It was

most evident when comparing their English to those of the students in the cafeteria. Both were

extremely clear in terms of my understanding but they sound undeniably different from one

another. The cadence of my parents speaking is very different from that of a typical Midwestern

or Southern accent. It was interesting to compare them all with one another and notice where all

of the differences are in particular.

For my fourth observational study, I chose the second study in the Olfactics section. I

conducted this experiment on a Saturday afternoon at Mayfair Mall. I chose to go there because
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all of the smells before and after going there are very routine for me and I wanted to have some

to list for the study that would be interesting for me and also for you as the reader. My list of

smells and their olfactory processes are as follows:

Coffee- identification- negative- I do not like coffee!

Chinese food- influence- positive- I was very hungry. I walked past, smelled the food, and ended

up buying some!

Burning food at Panera- identification- negative- I walked into the mall and immediately smelled

burning coming from the bakery at Panera. As I walked past, I noticed that an employee had

burned a bagel. It was a very unpleasant smell.

Pizza- memory and identification- positive- Pizza is one of my favorite foods since childhood so

walking past the pizza place in the food court brought back memories and made me consider

ordering some to eat.

Sewage work being done in parking lot- identification- negative- This was a very unpleasant

smell and I saw city workers doing sewage work in the parking lot. It made me walk a lot faster

to my car.

12.1 Take your own family situation and analyze it according to these five areas:

touch, temporal and olfactory elements, kinesics, vocalics, physical appearance.

What issues about these nonverbal elements stand out to you? How many of your

nonverbal behaviors are the same or similar to your parents/guardians and/or your

siblings? Had you ever taken note of this before?

For my fifth observational study, I chose the first study in the Nonverbal Communication

in Social Situations section. I analyzed my family which consists of my dad, mom, younger
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sister, and older brother. I thought back to when we were all together at home in Florida last

month. In terms of touch, our norms consist of a lot of hugging mostly with my mom even when

just walking into the room. She loves to be hugged or hug us because we do not get to have a lot

of time together with all five of us because of me being in school in Wisconsin. Our olfactory

elements mostly have to do with memory. When we are all together, my mom cooks a lot of

Haitian food and those smells bring back memories of us sharing meals together throughout my

life. Our kinesics consist of normal, calm body movements. With our vocalics, we are all

respectful of one another but like to playfully argue and can be loud sometimes. It is all in fun

and we always recognize the blessing of spending time together which makes us enjoy it to the

fullest extent. None of these nonverbal elements stand out as issues to me. They are all normal to

me and it was interesting to identify them in terms of this observational study. My parents,

siblings, and myself are all very similar in these behaviors. I had not consciously looked at this

before.