...University of Phoenix Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Communication is the process through which we exchange information. We communicate verbally and nonverbally. These forms of communication may vary from culture to culture. We use a common spoken language to communicate with one another but it is essential to learn the language in a cultural setting to clearly understand each other. Non-verbal communication includes, but is not limited to, touch, eye contact, volume in our voices, facial expressions, posture, gestures, proximity, sounds, physical appearance and even the clothing we wear. Uniforms, for example, may be associated with the occupational status of an individual; a businessman may wear a suit, and a farmer wears overalls, and so on, each of which implies sets of relationships with the rest of the world. Our attention is usually focused on the study of verbal communication, but non-verbal communication also plays an important role in human interaction. We may use non-verbal communication to emphasize what we are saying verbally or to express our emotions lying beyond the verbal element. Among cultures and nationalities there are differences between verbal and non-verbal communication. Body language for example deals with the use of hands, arms and especially with the face. Facial expressions, such a smile, rolling of the eyes and arching of eyebrows, even breathing, may tell much about the person’s momentary feelings. For example, a person from...
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...Nonverbal Communication Jessica Davis Interpersonal Communications June 15, 2015 (Silence) (Frown) (Rustling Papers) If you could visualize me doing any of the non-verbal actions you would probably assume that I am a nervous speaker. What are non-verbal actions? More often than not you can pick up cues from body language. According to Makodia, “Body language is a term for communication which means the use of body movements or gestures in addition to sounds, verbal language or other forms of communication.” Some body movements include posture, by facial expression, gestures and eye contact. The history of nonverbal communication originated with Charles Darwin and his idea that all mammals displayed emotions through facial expressions. Similar studies by Silvan Tomkins, Rudolf Laban and Warren Lamb also support the assumption of emotions portrayed non- verbally. Most notably was Ray Birdwhistell, who "pioneered the original study of nonverbal communication—what he called 'kinesics.” Birdwhistell is an American Anthropologist most famous for his work in the detailed examination of facial expressions, body language, and gestures that are conveyed during communicatory interaction. Ray Birdwhistell was born in 1918 in Ohio. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology at Miami University in Ohio, his Masters in anthropology at Ohio State University, and finally his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago. He became interested in kinesics by analyzing...
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...Non-Verbal Communication “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” (Peter F. Drucker, N.D.). Non-verbal communication is defined as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless cues between people. These wordless cues comes from our non-verbal behaviors; body movement, gestures, eye contact, personal space etc. (Richard Nordquist, N.D.). Although words are usually used to express our thoughts, we still convey most of the meaning through nonverbal codes. The world’s vast cultural diversity influences the way each culture interprets these non-verbal messages whereby a non-verbal expression is considered to be fine at one place but not at another. Touching perspectives are culturally determined as each culture has a clear view on when and where one may touch or not. In year 2009, as the First Lady of the United States briefly laid her hand on the back of Queen Elizabeth II at a reception, it sparked a global debate as etiquette is stern about this matter as rules are set in stone regarding one’s touch towards the queen (NYDailynews.com, 2009). Here in the United States, handshakes are common even towards strangers while hugs and kisses are exchanged between the opposite gender in the family or close acquaintance. Another example would be an African-American male who came across a Korean female receptionist and got upset as she put his key down on the counter instead of handing it to him. This doesn’t mean that the Korean is unfriendly...
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...Non-verbal communication (NVC) is the process of communicating through sending and receiving written messages and conveying messages through gestures. The quote, “Actions speak louder than words” clearly explains the meaning of nonverbal communication as well as tell us it's importance in our daily conversations. Nonverbal communication is the most important of all types of communications. It is divided into four basic types – physical, esthetic, symbolic and communication through signs. Physical - includes facial expressions, touch, smell, body movements, etc. Esthetic – includes conveying messages through painting, sculpture, dancing, etc. Symbolic – includes those involved in religion and maintaining status. Signs – includes both mechanical and physical. Our facial expressions are especially important in conveying emotions. One should pay attention to the multiple aspects of nonverbal communication and their relation with the verbal communication. In any interaction, one is likely to get simultaneous messages from a person's eyes, gestures, facial expressions, posture, use of space and touch. This would lead to misinterpretation of the conveyed/intended messages. Nonverbal messages are inherently ambiguous and could be multichanneled too. Hence, it is difficult to decode the nonverbal messages. Therefore, care is to be taken while interpreting nonverbal msesages and new and innovative ways to 'read' the same will have to be developed to prevent unnecessary...
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...Communication is transferring information through verbal or written words. There are many principles of verbal and nonverbal communication. Some principles of verbal communication include how we are delivering our message, the tone of voice we are using and the pitch of our voice. All of these principles are important. When using verbal communication to communicate it is important to be confident in the message we are sending and to also have knowledge on what we are communicating about. A good way to practice good communication is to get feedback from someone else. For example good communication skills with someone who has a hearing disability it is important to speak clearly and slow enough to where if they have to read your lips that they can. For good communication it is important that we can conform to the person we are relaying the message to. We can often be misunderstood in a message because of our tone or pitch of our voice which could be bad. How we actually feel about a topic could be misread. We must be considerate about how another person feels about the topic as well. Ask questions and allow questions to be asked so that you are able to understand the message the sender is sending. Nonverbal communication has a few principles of its own as well. With nonverbal communication the key is to watch our facial expressions, body language, good eye contact, and open inviting posture. These are really good principles to look out for when communicating with a person nonverbally...
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...Verbal and Nonverbal Communication and Listening Skills Paper Reatte L. Miles Sociology/110 June 22, 2015 Janis Provost Verbal and Nonverbal Communication and Listening Skills Paper This paper is addressing the many different ways in which people communicate both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s define verbal communication, verbal communication encompasses any form of communication involving words that are spoken, written or indicated using sign language. The conversation we have with family, friends, neighbors or co-workers is a form of verbal communication. The ability to communicate with a language that is based on an organized system of words, rather than merely sounds, is what sets humans apart from any other species. Not only do we have language, but we also have the technology that enables us to communicate with one another no matter the physical distance. Verbal communication coexists alongside non-verbal communication, which can affect people’s perceptions and exchanges in subtle but significant ways. Non-verbal communication, (Kinesics and Proxemics), includes body language, such as gestures, facial expressions, eye contact and posture. Touch is one of the most popular non-verbal communication that not only indicates what a person feels or level of comfort, but also illustrates personality characteristics as well. A firm handshake indicates something very different than a timid handshake. Another form of non-verbal communication maybe the sound of someone’s...
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...“Essay on the importance and the use of non-verbal communication” Few weeks back my friends and I went to a restaurant to eat, obviously. So we seat at a table and the waitress comes and gives us the menu. Everyone chose their food and drinks and we were waiting for our food. While we were waiting for our food a group of about 3 people came to the restaurant, they sat at the table next to us, they were not Hungarian they were foreign students and they spoke English. So the waitress also came for them and gave them the menu and took their order. After about half an hour the waitress brings the food for them. One the them wasn’t satisfied with his food so he called the waitress and tried to explain to her that he doesn’t like the food and that there’s something wrong with it. The problem was that the waitress was Hungarian and she couldn’t speak English and at the other side the customers also could not speak Hungarian so had a problem communicating. The guy was trying to explain the waitress that he doesn’t like the food by doing some facial expression and he told her “Nem Jo” and he delivered to the waitress the message he was trying to send. The waitress understood what he was trying to say after a while but could not answer or do anything because she can’t speak English. So she goes and brings the chef. The chef was trying to solve the problem but the bigger problem was that he couldn’t speak English too. The guy did the same for the chef and explained to him...
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...Nonverbal and Unwritten Communication Myra Stilwell Business Communication and Critical Thinking/BCOM275 July 22, 2012 Pamela Lemons Communication is a mixture of verbal, written, nonverbal and unwritten forms. Verbal and written forms of communication are forms that everyone is more knowledgeable with. As humans we speak and have a language, we write our language we can communicate easily with those tools. Nonverbal and unwritten communications are also important to communication. Nonverbal and unwritten communication is weakly described as a conversation between people without using any words. This does not mean there is complete silence in nonverbal communication. The tone, pitch, and loudness of a person's voice are considered nonverbal even though there is a noise being made. There are several different categories in nonverbal and unwritten communications, but we will focus on four categories. These categories do have sound related to them. These communication devices are the use of facial expressions, gestures, body language and posture, and personal space. All of these are considered nonverbal communication. We will touch on each of these devices, give examples of how these devices help conversation, and explain how either the sender or the receiver will use the device. Facial expressions are noticeable, and used by everyone of every age. Facial expressions can convey to the sender that the receiver understands the message being...
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...it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (December 2012) Nonverbal communication is the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) cues between people. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as body language (kinesics), but nonverbal communication encompasses much more, such as use of voice (paralanguage), touch (haptics), distance (proxemics), and physical environments/appearance.[1] Typically overlooked in nonverbal communication are proxemics, or the informal space around the body and chronemics: the use of time. Not only considered eye contact, oculesics comprises the actions of looking while talking and listening, frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation, and blink rate. Even speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals,[2] where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction. Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the act of generating...
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...People act in different ways depending on how they were raised-according to their culture in other words. This also means that their use of verbal and non-verbal communication is affected by their culture which is the different ways in which people behaves, acts or think towards themselves, families and other people in society or simply a set of values and assumptions that are shared by people. It needs not said that the use of non-verbal ways of communicating are directly linked to ones culture hence the conclusion non-verbal communication is culturally bound and culture biased. Non verbal-communication, which involves all external stimuli other than the use of the written or spoken Sword, involves among other things the use of colour, use of space, touching, gift giving and time in conveying a message. The use of colour in communicating is widely used nowadays but its use started a long time ago. For instance, we grew up with the notion that the red colour means danger and that black is associated with darkness. Colours nowadays are used by manufacturers of says pesticides to warn users of the effectiveness of the poison. In communication by colour, colour tells us about people and their culture. They use red to denote a dangerous chemical. At funerals moaners wear black conveying a message of the unpleasant and disheartening death of a loved one. White is associated with purity hence its use at weddings with the bride wearing a wide gown to send the message of her purity and...
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...A Reflection on my Development of Non-verbal Communication and Empathy In this annotated bibliography, I summarized and critiqued three peer-reviewed articles. I also reflected on how these articles changed my view on how foundational registered nursing skills, such as non-verbal communication and empathy, develop. Chan, Z. Y. (2013). A qualitative study on non-verbal sensitivity in nursing students. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 22, 1941-1950. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04324.x The author found that non-verbal skills, such as appropriate touch, facial expression, body positioning, and voice, improved patient outcomes (Chan, 2013). Chan (2013) used a qualitative research design with 16 nursing students from Hong Kong to determine how the...
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...Nonverbal Communication In The Workplace Edward G. Wertheim, Ph.D. says “People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in interpersonal situations” (Wertheim P. 1). Even though we are all capable of communicating, not everyone is an effective communicator. The ability to communicate effectively is essential in the workplace. I am going to focus on the importance of becoming a more effective communicator in the workplace through nonverbal communication. Kory Floyd suggests that we often relay more information through nonverbal communication, than we do by using words alone (Floyd p. 211). Floyd suggests that since our nonverbal communication is going to convey the majority have what we intend to say it is important to understand what our nonverbal behavior is saying and it is also important to use how to use nonverbal communication to our advantage. Generally, when people hear the word nonverbal they think of hand gestures and facial expressions. However, there is much more to it than that. Edward G. Wertheim, Ph.D., explains that nonverbal communication consists of 4 parts: visual, tactile, vocal and use of time, space and image (p. 2). I am going to focus on the visual part of nonverbal communication. The clothing that we wear, our hair style, and the way we present ourselves in the workplace can have great influence over others’ perception of us. Depending on the nature of your business or line of work this can all vary in importance, for example: if...
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...How people can avoid the culture shock? Understanding different countries' body language and idea of time would be able to help the visitors are easier to adapt the new culture. A Method to adapt the culture shock easily which is understands the counties' body language. Some people have culture shock or misunderstanding caused by non-verbal behavior. For example, According to Davis that South American during their conversation they like has eye contact, touching, and smiling. Also, they have about a foot of stand distance while talking (20). On the other hand, Asian don’t like have eye contact while they talk. They feel uncomfortable of direct eye contact. But for family or teacher, they do have eye contact for respect. The other example is Asian very restrained and introverted. They don’t like to touch people. They feel weird to hug people and cheek-to cheek social kiss. If someone smiles to them on the street, they feel that person is crazy. However, American likes touch people while they talk and give hug to everyone they know and kiss their cheek. If we don’t understand their culture, we may have misunderstood caused of non-verbal communication. When I first time to Hawaii, people like to give me cheek’s kiss to greet or say goodbye. I was shocked and feel uncomfortable. I wiped my face right after they left. In my case, I don’t understand their culture. I had misunderstood of their body language, social kiss and hug is part of American’s culture that showing their love and...
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...Informal and External Communication (Non- Verbal) A good communication is the foundation of any successful business relationship; it’s important to recognize that non-verbal communication such as facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, posture and tone of voice is the key for any interpersonal communication. All of our nonverbal behaviors, the gestures we make , how fast and loud we talk, how close we stand send strong messages ; these messages are wordless signals that don’t stop when we stop speaking or even when we are silent. Informal Communication: Informal communication happens when a company does not follow any prescribed or official rules and procedures. In a corporation, this type of communication is a spontaneous relationship between participants or employees and if put into a good use could change the organizations interaction. In order for a manager or leader to succeed they need to observe the behavior of other people in the office and try to stimulate and comfort them. A manager with a successful career is able to maintain a good relationship with employees by engaging and perceiving their feelings and thoughts. It’s normal for any of us to interpret non- verbal gestures unconsciously; however, managers need to learn how to interpret employee’s gestures consciously and can be difficult as non- verbal communication can be very culture specific. A lack of nonverbal messages may also be a signal that the speaker is carefully controlling their body language...
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...Non-Verbal Communication Is More Effective Than Verbal Skills in the Workplace We live in this global world which is full of different kinds of people. Where we work together, play together and certainly live together as well. With respect to personal lives, we need people and a person need us for various kinds of jobs and assignments like comfort, security love and most importantly is friendship. On the other, in context to work environment, we need people in order to achieve organizations objectives and goals, which are impossible without any mean of communication. Thus communication plays an important role that ties us together. Our needs, our feelings, our ideas, our wants are tied through form of communication. The better we will be at communication, the more will be outcome in achieving our dreams and hopes (Alessandra & Hunsaker, 1993). Communication is regarded one of the fundamental and most important tools of workplace. No matter what we are communicating internally or with bunch of clients, it is critical to take in consideration that there is a lot to communicating than what comes out of one’s mouth just (Brennan 1974). In reality, now a day’s communication isn’t just about wordy communication in workplace only but non-verbal as well. It is said that effective communication is indeed building block of any good and healthy relationship, be it professional or personal. So it is essential for us to be familiar with, that it is our non-verbal communication (gestures...
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