The Use Of Nonverbals Within Interpersonal Contexts

Achieving Effective Nonverbal Communication

Communication is the foundation of interaction between all people across all cultures and walks of life. Even animals who cannot speak communicate with each other and express feelings of hunger, anger and so on. To properly understand why humans communicate the way they do, and the methods they perform while communicating will help us become more effective communicators. Through research, I attempt to effectively and advantageously further my understanding of the use of nonverbals within interpersonal contexts, to examine how we attach meaning to those nonverbals, and how we can use that knowledge to help us become more effective communicators.

Interpersonal communication is the process of sending and receiving information or communication with another person. This is a very broad topic when it comes to communication studies. I want to focus on particular contexts of interpersonal communication concerning the use and understanding of nonverbal messages. It's quite natural for people to attach meaning to the nonverbal messages they receive. In fact, sixty five percent of all face-to-face communication is sent through nonverbal messages (Alberts, 147). This isn't to be confused with nonverbal behavior. Nonverbal behaviors are the actions we engage in while communicating, while nonverbal communication is the understanding of the meaning attached to those messages. For instance, a smile may be understood as an action of happiness even if the communicator is unaware that he/she is smiling. Others will notice this as a typical communication tool, and will be interpreted as one as well, regardless of one's own conscious use of it (Burgoon, Buller, & Woodall, 1996). Through personal experience, I've found that using nonverbal messages while communicating with one other person helps get my messages across more clearly. Such things as body movements, hand gestures and facial expressions help me in my attempt to get a message across to a listener. Public speakers will use their hands and arms in inviting and encouraging ways to persuade and audience into believing the points being addressed. Things such as posture will provide one communicator with the degree or attention of involvement. Posture is understood through such indicators as direction of lean and how attentive they appear. Gestures can play a large role interpersonally between communicators as well. They are intended to express meaning through methods such as hand or arm movements, and movements of the head, face or eyes. Other methods include winking, nodding or rolling your eyes. All of these expressions convey much more meaning than what is being said between two people. As Tema expressed in class, people tend to believe what nonverbal messages tell us more so than what is being said to us.

By understanding why nonverbal messages are important, we are actively changing how we perceive and interpret what messages are being conveyed to us. This can be a very useful topic to understand when visiting other cultures. There are many differences in nonverbal messages from culture to culture. As the textbook describes, President Bush gave a nonverbal hand gesture in support of the University of Texas Longhorns at a conference in Norway, where it is a sign of Satan. This is a perfect example of how nonverbal messages vary across cultures. It is important to be aware of different communication norms across certain cultures. Knowing these differences will save someone from being embarrassed or offensive to people of other cultures.

However, there are universal facial expressions that can be interpreted the same across all or most cultures. These include expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear or disgust. These facial expressions are innate, and understood worldwide.

Another nonverbal aspect of interpersonal communication is proxemics. Proxemics is the study of how one uses space, and how this use of space can serve a communication function. This is particularly important when studying the culturalistic norms of societies outside your own. In the United States, distance between communicators is much different than say Europe or Asia. Here in the US, we use intimate distance (0 to 18 inches) to express the distance of people who we know very well. Personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet) is the distance we communicate with friends or acquaintances. Social distance (4 to 12 feet) is the distance most Americans use when they interact or communicate with strangers. Finally, public distance (12 to 25 feet) is most appropriate for public ceremonies and performances (Hall, 1966). As far as interpersonal communication is concerned, I want to mainly focus on the intimate and personal distances. When you get on a bus in America, there are noticeable distances between the seats, giving the riders their own sense of personal space and privacy. Yet in Hong Kong, public transportation is seen as a totally different way of traveling. Subways are jam packed to their capacity to the point where people riding have to be shoved into the cars for the doors to shut. Asian proxemics are much different than what we're used to here in America. Another example of how interpersonal interactions are different across cultures is how the English view neighbors. The fact that you live next door to a family does not entitle you to visit, borrow from, or socialize with them, or your children to play with theirs (Hall, 86). This shows the English's values of personal space, or proxemics.

Reflecting on how others perceive our messages can greatly affect the messages we will send in the future. It can change the way we think about communicating with people, and help us use more effective ways of achieving that task. There are many non verbal messages that we use everyday in lieu for verbal messages. These include such simple things as waving, or giving a thumbs up. Of course, all nonverbal messages convey certain meanings, many of which are very apparent. For example, if you are asking someone a question, and they shake their head "no", that conveys a specific meaning. The same goes for someone that