Greeting Behavior Essay

Greeting Behavior of College Students

I never thought that the topic, “Greeting Behavior of College Students” could be such a diverse and widespread theme as it is; the more I thought about it, the larger and more diverse the topic grew. First of all there is the definition of greeting, which I define as the act of a friendly saluting. I define behavior biologically, by the way of a learned pattern of reactions to a stimulus.

What is included in the greeting behavior? Is it the first eye contact or is it only the learned pattern of a friendly exchange of words? In the greeting included is the first eye contact, the first unconscious measurement of the opponent. So posture, body size, social

I am only able to describe what I have seen and observed in my personal surroundings and how I have interpreted the different situations.

The average greeting pattern of students in the student union of ISU looks like the following example: The two opponents walk toward each other, recognize the opponent as somebody known and the first signal is usually a smile flushing over the faces of the opponents. The greeting procedure itself is mostly practiced by a “Hello, how are ya”, or a “What's up?” Sometimes, if the opponents know each other better, they shake hands or even embrace each other, accompanied by a clap on the back. A small talk may follow.

What I observed are the differences in this pattern. For example, I found that females are more likely to show a bigger smile and to show more teeth than males do. Males show sometimes a big smile sometimes they do not show any face expression at all. When the two opponents walk toward each other, I often observed that they drive their hands through their hair, before or after they shaked hands.