THE DEEP STRUCTURE OF CULTURE: THE ROOTS OF REALITY



NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION:

THE MEDIUM OF FEELINGS

I. THE IMPORTANCE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION.

A. Reasons for studying nonverbal communication.

1.We make important judgments and decisions with nonverbal communication.

2.We can learn about the affective and emotional states of other people through nonverbal behaviors.

3. Many first impressions are formed through nonverbal cues.

4. Nonverbal communication has value in human interaction because much of our nonverbal actions are not easily controlled consciously.

5. Nonverbal communication has a strong link to culture.

II. DEFINITION OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION.

A. Includes all nonverbal stimuli in a communicative setting generated by the individual and the individual's use of the environment.

B. Stimuli must have potential message value for sender

and receiver.

C. Includes intentional and unintentional nonverbal messages.

III. FUNCTIONS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION.

A. Repetition of what was said verbally.

B. Complements (adds to) what was said verbally.

C. Substitutes for what an individual was going to say verbally.

D. Regulates and manages the communication event.

E. Contradicting: nonverbal actions can send opposite signals.

IV. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE.

A. Like culture, nonverbal behavior is learned, passed on from generation to generation, and involves shared understandings.

B. Nonverbal cultural differences give insight into underlying attitudes and values of a culture.

C. Studying cultural nonverbal patterns can help us identify our own ethnocentric attitudes.

V. CLASSIFICATIONS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

BODY BEHAVIOR.

A. General appearance and dress.

1. We make judgments about people based on how attractive we think they are. .

a. Decorating the body is a cultural universal.

b. Standards and judgments regarding attractiveness are subject to cultural variations.

2. Clothing helps us understand the messages and values of a culture.

a. Traditional dress is found in many cultures.

b. Dress in often a sign of social status in Mexico.

3. Skin color can also influence how we perceive and communicate with others.

B. Body movements: Kinesics

1. Every movement conveys information about an individual.

2. All cultures have some system for understanding the meaning of movement.

3. Body movements that convey meaning:

a. Posture and sitting (can show status, affiliation, cultural values, and good or bad etiquette).

b. Hand and arm movements (specific actions and the size of the action carry cultural messages).

C. Facial expressions.

1. People are more likely to interpret facial expressions accurately if they interpret them within the entire communication context.

2. Facial expressions can be individualistic and do not convey cultural meanings with which we are familiar (smiling in Japan to hide sorrow).

3. Some facial expressions are thought to be universal (smiling, joy).

4. The display and intensity of emotion is culturally based.

D. Eye contact and gaze.

1. Our interpersonal relationships are affected by how we use our eyes.

2. Most individuals use the eyes to see who they are with so that they can adapt their behavior appropriately.

3. Culture and co-culture memberships modify how much eye contact we may engage in and with whom (prolonged gaze versus eye avoidance).

E. Touch.

1. Touch is the earliest sense to mature.

2. In the American culture, touch becomes less important than sound as children move from infancy to childhood.

3. The meaning inferred from touch is influenced by several factors.

a. The mood or state we are in.

b. Past history.

c. Perceived relationship with the toucher.

d. Duration of the touch. e. The extent the touch is active or passive. f. The location of the touch.

4. The duration, frequency, and location of touch is largely culturally based.

5. Co-cultures also display differences in touching (for example, homosexuals and women).

F. Smell.

1. Smell is a basic mode of communication.

2. The strength and proximity of a smell,the perceived relationship with an individual, the context, and past association with an individual all influence the meanings we give to smell.

3. Cultures perceive odor differently and assign it different meaning and importance during interaction.

G. Paralanguage.

1. How something is said holds different meanings in different cultures.

a. Arabs tend to use a great deal of volume.

b. East Asians often speak in soft tones.

2. Three categories of vocalization:

a. Vocal characterizers (laughing, crying, yelling).

b. Vocal qualifiers (volume, pitch, rhythm, tempo, tone, rate).

c. Vocal segregates ("uh-huh" and "shhhh").

3. The meaning given to laughing and giggling are also influenced by culture.

5. Accents and dialects often play a role in intercultural communication.

6. There are co-cultural differences in paralanguage usage and meaning.

VI. SPACE AND DISTANCE.

A. The study of proxemics is concerned with such things as personal space, seating, and furniture arrangement.

B. Personal space is the space around our bodies that we claim as our own.

1. Responses to violations of personal space are based on individual and cultural factors.

2. Space and values can be connected.

3. Space between couples and space between individuals in public settings varies culturally.

C. Seating arrangement is influenced by culture and can reflect status, role distinctions, and interpersonal norms.

D. Furniture arrangement can reflect a culture's orientation towards formality, interaction, and territorality.

E. There are co-culture variations in the use of space.

1. Whites stand further away from African Americans than they do from other whites.

2. Men and women use space differently.

VII. TIME.

A. Cultures use and conceive of time in very different ways.

B. Three common categories of time:

1. Informal time: most rules for informal time are not explicitly taught and function below the level of consciousness.

a. punctuality

b. waiting time

c. pace

2. The manner in which a culture views and uses the past, present, and future gives insight into how its people communicate.

a. Chinese and British cultures are pastoriented and resist change.

b. Filipino and Latin American cultures emphasize a present-orientation to time.

c. North Americans and Hindus are very future oriented.

3. Hall's monochronic and polychronic time orientations.

a. M-time is practiced largely by Northern Europe and North America and is characterized by a segmented orientation towards time that emphasizes schedules, promptness, and doing.

b. P-time is practiced by such cultures as Black Africans, Native-Americans, Spanish and Mexicans: it stresses people not schedules and perceives time holistically and less tangibl.

VIII. SILENCE

A. Silence sends nonverbal cues during a communication situation.

B. Silence functions as an interval in an interaction and as a feedback mechanism.

C. Our use of and reaction to silence is culturally determined.

1. Many Eastern cultures use silence as a common and preferred form of communication.

2. Some Western cultures see silence as nonfunctional and prefer continuous verbalization during interaction.

3. Variations in the use of silence can also be found among the dominant culture and Native American Indians.

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