Psychology - Non Verbal Communication

• Verbal communication


  The use of words to pass on information, including both spoken and written words
• Nonverbal communication

  Everything else besides verbal communication, such as facial expressions, body language, tone and volume of voice
• Eye contact

  • Looking directly at each other or avoiding eye contact to pass on social meaning, regulating the flow of conversation, and signaling attraction
• Body language

  • How we use the position of our body parts to pass on information about our emotional state, including open vs closed postures, mirroring, and personal space
• Research on nonverbal communication is important to help people who struggle to socially communicate and to understand cultural differences
• Much research on body language is open to subjective interpretation as it is an unconscious process
• Debate on whether body language is innate (genetic) or learned (from socialization)

  Interactionist approach suggests we are born with some innate body language traits that adapt in response to experience
• Cultural differences in interpreting emotion in emojis

  • Americans focus more on the mouth, Japanese focus more on the eyes
• Animals have evolved instinctive knowledge of body language to help with survival
• Babies show a wide range of body language from birth designed to trigger caretaking behaviour in adults