I. The importance of nonverbal communication

A. What is nonverbal communication?

1. Nonverbal communication: communicating without words through multiple communication channels

2. Multiple channels refer to various communication media (e.g., facial expressions, gestures, spatial relationships, and communication environment), and also include paralanguage features

B. Actions or words? Includes any cue that communicates a message

C. One code, many interpretations: same cue can have different meanings

D. Verbal and nonverbal similarities: nonverbal cues can:     

1. Repeat the verbal message

2. Contradict the verbal message

3. Substitute for the verbal message (no words needed)

4. Complement or accompany the verbal message and underscore it

5. Accent or emphasize the verbal message

II. Forms of nonverbal communication:

A. The seven forms of nonverbal communication are: physical appearance, paralanguage, facial expressions, kinesics, haptics, oculesics (eye contact), and proxemics

B. Artifacts and clothing

1. Physical appearance includes body type, height, weight, hair, and skin color

2. Artifacts: adornments worn, used to communicate personal and social identity, time, and place

3. Impression management: intentional identity management artifacts, clothing, and even body alteration techniques

C. Paralanguage

1. Paralanguage: how something is said, not what is said

2. Paralinguistic features:

a. Accent: how your words are pronounced together

b. Pitch range: from high to low

c. Pitch intensity: how high or low your voice carries

d. Volume: how loudly or softly you speak

e. Articulation: precision or slurring of words

f. Pace: how quickly or slowly you speak

D. Facial expressions

1. Kinesics: study of posture, body movement, gestures, facial expressions

2. Seven facial expressions universally decoded (SADFISH): sadness, anger, disgust, fear, interest, surprise, and happiness

3. Cultural display rules: procedures for the way we express emotions

E. Gestures

1. Gestures: culturally specific, significant forms of nonverbal communication

2. Four categories of hand gestures and body movements:

a. Emblems: substitute for words and phrases (no words)                        

b. Illustrators: hand gestures that illustrate spoken words

c. Regulators: used to manage pace, flow of conversation

d. Adaptors: unintentional habits to fulfill need (scratching)

F. Haptics

1. Haptics: study of perceptions and meanings of touch behavior

2. High-contact cultures: direct eye contact, direct facing, touching, kissing, loud voices

3. Low-contact cultures: indirect eye contact, little touching, softer voices

4. Moderate-contact cultures: blend of both (includes U.S.)

III. Boundary regulations

A. Regulating interpersonal boundaries

1. Proxemics: study of space between persons

2. In the U. S., four spatial zones exist:

a. Intimate zone: 0-18 inches, for those closest to us

b. Personal zone: 18-48 inches, for closer friends, some acquaintances, colleagues

c. Social zone: 48 inches to 12 feet, for larger events

d. Public zone: 12 feet or more

3. Personal space: unconscious protective territory that we carry around with us and deem sacred, nonviolable, and nonnegotiable

B. Environmental boundaries

1. Environmental boundaries: claimed sense of space and emotional attachment we share with others in our community

2. Neighborhood layout, home design, etc. influence how people behave

C. Psychological boundaries

1. Intrapersonal space: the need for information privacy or psychological silence between the self and others

2. Privacy regulation: important in individualistic cultures and not perceived as critical in collectivistic cultures

3. Feng Shui means air and water in Chinese; the philosophy of combining elements to attain good energy within an area

D. Regulating time

1. Temporal regulation: the attitudes we have about time

2. Chronemics: how people structure, interpret and understand time

3. Two patterns of time which are opposite and govern different cultures:

a. Monochronic-time schedule (MT): schedule time so as to concentrate on one thing at a time

b. Polychronic-time schedule (PT): completing human transactions prioritized over time schedules

IV. Intercultural toolkit: Recaps and checkpoints

Nonverbal checkpoints to consider in communicating across cultures:

A. Flexibly observe and identify nonverbal display rules

B. Attempt a deeper than surface explanation for the behavior

C. Monitor your own nonverbal behavior

D. Be sensitive to nonverbal display rules for emotions in a particular culture

E. Be less judgmental in interpreting others nonverbal signals