Communication-
Nonverbal, Listening, and Verbal
“When you talk, you are
only sharing information you already know.
By listening, you have the potential to learn something new.” Dr. Jim Robusto (personal communication,
July, 1997).
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| Cast from Sex and the City |
This was an interesting experiment. I chose to watch an old episode of “Sex and
the City”. No, I have never watched it
before! I did already know that the show
was about four young women friends who live in New York City, however, I was
unaware of the relationship that they had with other people in their
lives. The title of the episode was “The
Cold War”. Based on what I saw, I
thought the cold war was between Carrie and her love interest. When I watched the show again with the sound
on, I learned that the cold war was between Carrie and her three other
friends. She was spending more time with
him than with them. Because I was
honing in on nonverbal communication, I was amazed at how much I was able to
figure out just by watching the nonverbal cues. Their gestures, body movements,
facial expressions, and eye behavior told me a great deal about what was being
said (O ‘Hair & Wiemann, 2012,p. 134-137).
In the case of Samantha, I could tell that she was doing something with
wigs because in every scene she had a different hair color and style. Proxemics
(O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p. 140) also gave me cues about the closeness of
each relationship. For example, in the
opening scene, Carrie was with a man in a restaurant sitting very close to each
other. At the dog show, three of the
four girls and a gentleman were all sitting very close together, leaning over
each other to talk about things related and unrelated to the dog show. From this exercise I learned that in new
situations it is essential to pay attention to nonverbal cues. The nonverbal cues can tell you a great deal
about what people are thinking or feeling.
They can play a major role in any situation, however.
Had this been a show that I normally watch, I think it
would have been easier to figure out what was going on. Because you learn the relationships between
the people in the show, you can predict how they will react with each other and
to different situations. The longer you
are in relationship with a person or group of people, the easier it is to gauge
their response to a new situation.
References
O’Hair, D. &
Wiemann, M., 2012. Real Communication: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Boston,
MA: Bedford/St. Mary’s.
You spoke about how it would have been easier to understand the relationships if you had watched the show previously and been able to predict relationship patterns. TV shows are great at ritualizing behavior patterns (as our text refers to this behavior) in order to give us a sense of closeness with the characters. Children love rituals too. I will try to keep this in mind for the preschool environment, and incorporate predictable behavior patterns in order to establish intimacy and foster better communication.
ReplyDeleteCarol,
ReplyDeleteThis week's excercise helped me to see how nonverbal communication affects communication. In some scenes I could tell by the body language and facial expressions if the scene was serious or funny. After turning the sound on, I was right most of the time. Therefore, nonverbal communication can send messages to receivers about our attitudes or mood.
Carol,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post. I have to agree that it is amazing how much you can learn from just nonverbal communication. Tone of voice, eye behavior,facial expressions, gestures, posture, and body language communicate a lot to others.
Thanks for sharing. I look forward reading your future posts.
Crystal