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Solutions to the barriers to effective communication
Nonverbal communication cultural differences
Solutions to barriers to effective communication
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Break a Nonverbal Rule The non-verbal communication rule that I chose to break was to communicate with my husband and my grandson while I kept my eyes completely closed throughout a period of time of approximately thirty minutes. My husband and grandson were in the kitchen having a conversation and I walked in and stood slightly in front of my husband and next to my grandson with my eyes shut. Then the questions began: Why are your eyes closed? Do you have a headache? You just don’t want to look at us? What are you doing? I could not see their faces and reactions; I was merely listening to their tone of voice and changes in their speech. I could also feel their proximity, and the shifting of their bodies. All of these things are examples of …show more content…
Woods states that nonverbal patterns reflect specific cultures and nonverbal behavior is not instinctive but learned in the process of socialization (p. 124). Our culture in Puerto Rico, children are considered to be disrespectful if they make eye contact when spoken to by an adult; especially when being reprimanded. Nevertheless, closing one’s eyes completely is a sign of unreserved disrespect when someone is speaking to …show more content…
At first they thought I had a headache and I could sense their concern. After a few more minutes my husband began asking questions as well as my grandson, to which I stated I was fine just wanted to listen. Then after additional time elapsed they began joking around; then my husband got a little annoyed, until I finally opened my eyes and advised him I was breaking a non-verbal rule; I explained to him how we use varied-intrinsic ways to communicate in every aspect of our lives. I asked my husband how it felt to talk to me with my eyes closed. He stated: “My first thought was that you had a headache, and then I was convinced you were playing a practical joke on us, but when I saw you were not opening your eyes purposely, I just got
Nonverbal behavior is channeled by norms and most of us abide by them without being aware of them. Physical appearance, gesture and body movement, face and eye behavior, vocal behavior, personal space, touch, scent/smell, and time are all forms of nonverbal communication behavior. Norms differ amongst various cultures, ethnic, and geographic groups. There are endless ways and forms to violate nonverbal norms, and by doing so can lead to a barrier in communication, which are problematic to distinguish.
The presence of nonverbal messages in our communication is very important. Following the text, researchers have estimated it is up to “65 percent of social meaning we convey in face-to-face interactions is a result of nonverbal behavior” (131). The movie “Mrs. Doubtfire” is a typical example about the interactions among characters, also with audience. Several scenes in this movie show us the effects of nonverbal messages in communication, especially through the character Daniel, who disguises himself as a middle-aged British nanny in order to be near his children.
Closing the door on an individual is very frustrating and rude toward the person it is affecting. This assignment has taught me that I need to be aware of how I portray nonverbal communication because it can leave a negative impression on someone, and it can also can harsh relations with individuals’. As a result, I feel that I have bettered my nonverbal communication skills, and I am hoping that these skills will help me properly portray myself in a positive
In fact, it’s not easy to define non-verbal communication, because “experts disagree about whether count unintended action as nonverbal communication.” (http://maine.maine.edu/~zubrick/tren5.html, 28/4/2005) Non-verbal communication is deceptively important in how we express ourselves , and it plays a huge part in child’s development into
Richmond, V & McCroskey, J 2011. Nonverbal Behavior in Interpersonal Relations. 7th ed. Allyn & Bacon.
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.
Hickson, M. I. and Stacks, D. W. (1989). Nonverbal Communication: Studies and Applications. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1989.
Nonverbal communication is a very important aspect of communication. It can complement and contradict your verbal messages, as well as help regulate conversations. Some examples of nonverbal communication include gestures, facial expressions, touch, and proxemics. Gestures can be simple, such as waving hello, throwing up a peace sign, and even flipping the bird. However, even repetitive habits such as tapping nails on a desk or bouncing your foot up and down are forms of gestures. In the research article, “Nonverbal Communication as a pain reliever: the impact of physician supportive nonverbal behavior on experimentally induced pain,” Ruben, Blanch-Hartigan, and Hall explore the effects that nonverbal communication have on patients in pain.
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...
During conversations, I have to put extra effort to maintain eye contact. One of the most important aspect of nonverbal communication is eye contact. The use of eye contact can be one of the most crucial and influential feature of our face. In America eye contact is essential “eye contact serves as a signal of readiness to interact and the absence of such contact, whether intended or accidental, tends to reduce the likelihood of such interactions”(Ruben & Stewart, 2015, 34). Eye contact shows that the person is interested in communicating with you, and has respect and appreciation for you. It gives the conversation a sense of flow. However the lack of eye contact can often seem disrespectful across culture. It is due to cultural comparison present regarding nonverbal communication. Every culture has its own altered
Hall, J. (2012). Nonverbal cues and communications.Encyclopedia of Social Psychology Education. Thousand Oaks. CA: SAGE, 2007 626-628. Retrieved November 2, 2013 from SAGE online.
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).
...tention to how people react to one another’s comments, guessing the relationship between the people and guessing how each feels about what is being said. This can inform individuals to better understand the use of body language when conversing with other people. It is also important to take into account individual differences. Different cultures use different non-verbal gestures. Frequently, when observing these gestures alone the observer can get the wrong impression, for instance, the listener can subconsciously cross their arms. This does not mean that they are bored or annoyed with the speaker; it can be a gesture that they are comfortable with. Viewing gestures as a whole will prevent these misunderstandings. Non-verbal gestures are not only physical, for example; the tone of voice addressing a child will be different from the way it is addressed to an adult.
Communication is the simple “process of acting on information,” but communication is a lot more complex than that. Communication comes in varies categories and can be misunderstood if the message is not clear. Verbal and non-verbal communication is a great example where an issue can occur—if the source transmits a message that is not very well developed, then the receiver might interpret the message in a different context than originally intended. In my experience, verbal and non-verbal communication can be misinterpreted quite often. Texting is the most common abstract form of verbal communication—when someone responds with a single word like, “ok, or cool” to a very long text message, that
Teaching requires a strong relationship between the teacher and students. Nonverbal communication is vital, if underestimated, in building this trust. Nonverbal communication is “all those elements of a communication which are not essentially linguistic in nature” (Smith, 1979, p. 637). Some aspects of nonverbal communication include eye contact, facial expression, gestures, touch, proximity, posture, vocal qualities, and artifacts (Smith, 1979; Johnson 1999). These all interact with verbal communication and have many meaning that can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. As such, it is up to the teacher to be sure that their intentions are clear.