Good communication skills are the basis of any successful relationship, both personal and professional. Multiple nonverbal signals and behaviors are used daily. It is important to recognize some of the types of nonverbal communication that includes proxemics, vocalic, and kinesics to communicate and establish relationships.
Proxemics is the study of space and distance that occurs between people in the process of communication. In proxemics the relationship with a person determines how much space is needed for communication to take place. Steve Duck stated in the book of Communication in Everyday Life, “The occupation of space and the distance you maintain from others conveys messages about control, acceptance, and relationships”. Proxemics is what gives the speaker the ability to speak in their space. It is also important to know that the level of personal distance that individuals need to feel comfortable can vary from culture to culture. Intimate distance requires a closer relationship or greater comfort between individuals. It often occurs during intimate contact such as hugging, whispering, or touching. Personal distance happens between people who are family members or close friends. The closer the people can comfortably stand while interacting can be an indicator of the familiarity of the relationship. Social distance occurs between individuals who are acquaintances. With someone you know fairly well, such as a co-worker you see several times a week, one might feel more comfortable interacting at a closer distance. Public distance used in public places. Talking in front of a class full of students or giving a presentation at work is good examples of such situations. Certain situations do not allow people to keep ideal dist...
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...can communicate many things, including interest, affection, hostility, or attraction.
Nonverbal communication is more important and overlooked in society by the person giving off the messages. People are often unaware of the nonverbal behavior they use, unless someone tells you. Nonverbal communication is an extremely compound yet essential part of overall communication skills. A basic awareness of nonverbal communication can help improve interaction with others. Knowledge of these signs can be used to encourage people to talk about their concerns and can lead to a greater shared understanding which is the purpose of communication. Nonverbal communication is a powerful tool that can help connections, expressing meanings, and to build better relationships.
Works Cited
Duck, Steve. McMahan, David. “Communications in Everyday Life” Nonverbal Communication. Pg.89-108
Elly is a couple’s counselor, even though she concentrates on relationships, she does disclose in additional parts of nonverbal communication. Elly considers that your nonverbal skills involves our listening skills, and responding skills. If you can improve your observing skills, therefore you will improve your understanding, and observing others nonverbal skills. She also extends her knowledge into further various types of nonverbal communication, for example; sign language, deaf, deaf and being blind, children, and adults with special needs, and even babies. Also, animals put off nonverbal communication as well. Elly also addresses other types of nonverbal communication such as; accidental, empathetic, violent, offensive, personal space, dance, sounds, and even touch. Finally, our emotions, posting photos, and even digital manipulation. I would utilize greatly from this article, due to the fact, I found it extremely helpful for myself on the topic of nonverbal communication. There was a great deal of information I was able to obtain from this
This concept focuses on the theory of a bubble called “personal space,” and how we tend to consider our close surroundings to be our own personal area. The size of “personal space” varies from culture to culture, but was divided into four categories within the North American culture. These categories are intimate distance, which is skin contact to 18 inches and is reserved for those whom we trust and with whom we are emotionally close, and personal distance, which is 18 to 4 feet for a range of personal communication varying from couples on the closer end to friends towards arm’s length. Then there is social distance ranging from 4 to 12 feet, which can increase the person aspect of a conversation, such as between a student and their professor, and finally public distance, which is 12 feet at least and establishes a distance in which two-way communication is less frequent (Adler et. al, 2015, pg. 193-194). People tend to react negatively to a stranger entering their personal space, and use strategies in an attempt to create a “wall” between them and the other individual. One of the examples in this section reminded me of a time when a person that I found attractive made her way into my personal space in social setting, which instantly caused me to read into her behavior. Even though no words were exchanged, simply be entering my close proximity she was sending me a message, and I read into the situation. This is where the ambiguity of nonverbal communication can come in to play. However, by her entering my personal space, between 18 inches and 4 feet, it sent me a signal that could have been interpreted to mean that she wanted me to see that she was nearby and initiate a conversation. However, if she had been a stranger who I was not interested in conversing with and I found myself stuck in
In every society nonverbal communication is one of the most powerful tools that a person can use to interpret the message that is being delivered. Even though verbal communication is fairly straightforward, nonverbal communication allows others to sense the true emotions of the person that is expressing them. For example even though a person may say that they are not irritated, their usage of voice may display otherwise. Nonverbal communication not only reveals hidden messages, but it also complements, substitutes, and exaggerates verbal communication.
Currie (2007) states Effective Verbal Communication is important when building relationships with clients, customers, and the media (pg 1). Verbal communication is important along with listening skills so that communication between parties is clear. Verbal communication is accompanied by sign language called non verbal communication. This communication can be expressed in many ways: One can ask another “How are you today” Reply, “I’m okay” but the shrugging of the shoulders, squinting of eyes and lips closed tightly together gives another answer.
Communication can be defined as ‘imparting or exchanging information by speaking, writing or through another medium’ (Stevenson A, 2010). It is part of everyday human interaction and involves the exchange of information between two or more people. The Transactional model of communication reflects what happens in everyday communication situations, whereby people act as the sender and receiver. It shows communication as an ongoing process and each person communicating will react differently depending on the environment, their personal experience, culture, self-esteem and attitude (Butland M, 2012). Verbal communication is conveying information through words by either writing or speaking and includes tone and volume of voice. Non-verbal communication is the use of body language such as gestures, facial expressions, posture, appearance and active listening to relay information to another person. Mehrabian (1971) states that 55% of communication is non-verbal, 7% is verbal and 38% is vocal (i.e. relating to tone of voice and sounds). This suggests that other than visual body language, listening and vocal expressions are also an important part of communication (Dunhill A, Elliott B and Shaw A, 2009).
Nonverbal communication is rich in meaning. Everyone communicates through nonverbal gestures and motions. I realized that you can decipher a lot from an individual or individuals by just paying close attention to what they do, and that words are not really necessary. Watching two people interacting, I figured that they are really close by their space communication, eye language, and body movements.
Nonverbal cues involve everything but the spoken word which includes: body posture and facial expressions, gestures, eyebrows, eyes, tone of voice, speed of delivery, inflections, volume, and proximity. Even one's attire sends messages to others. Each area of the nonverbal has the power to send a message; combined they tell the listener what is meant and what is felt. The power of the nonverbal cannot be over-rated; it will almost always ...
Savvy nonverbal emotional communication is also an extremely important resource for managing and avoiding conflict. No part of nonverbal communication speaks louder than your emotions – and nothing can have greater influence over others.
Some examples of the supportive communication includes smiling, leaning towards the patient (proxemics), making eye contact, and using a warmer tone of voice when speaking. The unsupportive nonverbal communication included no eye contact, minimal facial expression, and a cold tone of voice. This shows that nonverbal communication is not only a very important aspect of communication in general, but contributes to the overall well being, or discomfort of others as
Non-verbal communication decodes messages using body language and facial expressions. Therefore, non-verbal communication is a type of language as its own that can be used universally. This includes, touching behavior, proximity, eye contact, gestures and many more. Furthermore, non-verbal communication can be misinterpreted as well because people from other countries has different ways of interpreting gesture...
Usually while communicating we do not give space ( proxemics ) much thought. But proxemics is a very important aspect of non-verbal communication. I am a very affectionate person and I hug people a lot. It is my portrayal of affection. Though my manner of hugging is different, as it is according to my comfort level with that person. This is because there are different level of appropriate space, depending on your relationship with the person you are communicating with. I give side-way hugs to people I know but aren’t that close to. This type of hug would be considered in information and business distance. Another type of hugs I give are back rub hugs. I usually give back rub hugs to those whom I am comfortable with, making these type of hugs to be casual conversation distance. My much more intimate hug, where I snuggle into another person would be considered to be in intimate distance. Every type of my hugs are categorized in different space levels. These space levels are important because it affects the receiver influence on the message my hugs give. The receiver is going to interpret the message my hugs give through these space. Though not everyone define proxemics the same way due to cultural gap. Every culture defines appropriate space while communicating differently. Sometimes it creates misunderstanding between receiver and sender due to misinterpretation
However, after I learn the concept, I found it is important in our lives. To talk about why this lesson was important, at first, “More time is spent communicating nonverbally than verbally” (150). For example, we will use eye contact and facial expressions to give feedback of our group presenter. It is important to let them know if we understand or not. Then “Nonverbal messages are usually more believable than verbal messages” (151). The emotion is the thing that people always cannot hide so we can know more information nonverbally. Therefore, after I learn this important lesson, I found more ways to understand and communicate with my
Nonverbal communication surrounds us all the time. “Nonverbal communication is all aspects of communication other than words” (Wood, 2016, p. 135). It is not communication with words, but we use nonverbal communication when we talk. We use nonverbal communication without even realizing it in every facet of our lives. This type of communication can be challenging depending on someone’s culture. Something that means one thing in America, can mean something totally different in another country. It is important to know this so that you don’t offend someone from another culture (Wood, 2016, p. 149).
Nonverbal communication affects your how people communicate with you. When using nonverbal communication make eye contact when speaking to the person, this show you are focused on the person and the
I learned a lot about Human Communication in this class when I read the chapter about Nonverbal Communication. Nonverbal Communication is the process of using messages that are not words to generate meaning. I learned that it happens every day. I also learned that is very hard to read or understand depending on the person you are speaking to or with. Verbal and Nonverbal codes work in conjunction with each other. The words we speak or say are used in conjunction six different ways: to repeat, to emphasize, to complement, to contradict, to substitute, and to regulate. I never knew until reading this chapter that we do these things all most every time we communicate. These are things I took for granted until now. I now know that I will pay