Final Study Guide Comm Relationships Ch 3 AND Lecture 5 Gender Communication Men and women view communication differently Tannen Both men and women need independence and intimacy Need them at different times Exhibit them differently Childhood Communication in Play Boys Play in large groups with hierarchical structure Leader status is negotiated Joke Telling Winners and Losers Boast Skills Conflict handled by threats Girls Play in small groups Importance of best friends Intimacy is key No winners or losers Minimize differences Conflict is handled verbally Aspects of Gender Differences Brain differences Genetics Evolution Gender Influences on Communication Verbal vs Nonverbal Verbal men talk more men interrupt more men change topic more men use more instrumental communication Nonverbal women use more eye contact women use more touch women stand closer women make finer color decisions use more qualifiers perhaps use more disclaimers this may sound silly use more tag questions isn t it use more polite forms use more expressive language Nonverbal Communication Since almost anything can be seen as nonverbal communication we restrict what the definition is by saying it needs 1 some degree of intent by either the sender or receiver 2 some degree of consciousness on the part of the sender or receiver Functions of Nonverbal Codes 1 Expressing Meaning how we feel about other people How we see our relationship to them 2 Modify Verbal Messages Complementing the nonverbal elaboration of the verbal message Accenting the nonverbals that underline or focus attention on a specific word or phrase Repeating Substituting Ex a cold stare instead of saying no Contradicting 3 Regulate the Flow of Interaction Beginning and ending a conversation Changing the subject without appearing disconfirming Taking turns Nonverbal Codes Proxemics distance use of space Personal Space imaginary bubble extending out from our bodies Edward Hall Interactional Zones Intimate Distance 0 18 inches Reserved for lovemaking and very private conversations Personal Distance 18 in 4 ft The range at which one is comfortable with friends and acquaintances Social Distance 4 12 ft Used for business transactions and role relations Public Distance 12 25 ft Appropriate for public ceremonies speechmaking classroom lectures and so on The actual distance you are comfortable conversing varies according to your age sex status and culture Territoriality The legal or assumed ownership of space Also defined as the assumption of proprietary rights toward some geographical area with the realization at least for humans that there is no basis for those rights Lyman and Scott 4 types of Terririality 1 Public Territory owned by no one and accessible to everyone 2 Interactional Territories territories that are created by and exist only during an interaction 3 Home Territories allow for even greater degree of privacy 4 Body Territory frequently referred to as personal space Maslow Mintz Experiment demonstrated that people s surroundings can affect their mood their behavior and their ability to form conclusions The two men with the help of Maslow s wife furnished three university rooms the beautiful the average and the ugly rooms as they came to be known The beautiful room had large windows and was designed to be as inviting as possible with soft lights artwork a comfortable chair a bookcase and a pretty rug The ugly room on the other hand was dirty had battleship gray walls and an overhead light with a torn shade and was cluttered with boxes mops a box spring and bare mattress The average room which was intended to resemble a worked in office was neat and clean but otherwise undistinguished Volunteers were then called into each of the three rooms and asked to look at photographs of faces ostensibly to see whether the faces showed energy and well being It turned out that what they saw depended on where they were Physical Appearance Facial features beauty Color length style of hair shape and posture of body are part of the physical appearance Halo Effect Most cultures have strong prototypes about physical beauty Clothing and person artifacts help define the group status and personality jewelry other personal attractions Gaze Eyes Serves 3 primarily functions in communication according to Adam Kendon 1 Expressive plays an important role in displaying emotions Most common 2 and 3 Regulate and Monitor Interaction Signals availability for are fear and surprise communication Facial Expression single most important channel of nonverbal communication Ekman and Frisen Universality of Basic Human Emotions Six basic human emotions The emotions of happiness sadness surprise fear anger and disgust are communicated with similarity Part of our biological heritage 5 Categories of Gestures 1 Emblems gestures that can easily be translated into verbal statements 2 widely shared agreement as to what they mean Illustrators behaviors that accompany speech often emphasizing particular words or painting a picture 3 Affect Displays signals emotions shows how we feel 4 Regulators controls interaction flow 5 Adaptors manage anxious emotionally charged or novel situations biting nails twitching Vocalics Paralanguage how you say something Vocal Characteristics specific sounds that we recognize as speech acts the pitch tempo inflection Vocal inflection sarcasm Vocal Segregates sounds that get in the way of fluent speech stuttering ums uhs Messages in the Voice Often used to infer personality traits Ex When you talk to a stranger on the phone what image do you form of them as you listen Tactile Communication Touch Leakage Unintended signs of our real feelings which are largely but not completely masked in normal facial management Equilibrium Theory In any situation people establish a comfortable level of nonverbal intimacy by balancing various cues Compensation Readjusting your immediacy by distancing yourself When your in a situation and your unwanted intimacy increase you use different nonverbal codes to balance it Reciprocate Reacting in kind to a change that has occurred When someone increases wanted intimacy you match it Lecture 6 Chapter 4 Characteristics of Verbal Codes Creates New Realities creative endeavor allows us to deceive each other Discrete Separate Units saved stored and retrieved Allows for abstract thought Hayakawa Ladder of Abstraction Self Reflexive Language can comment on itself meta communicate Communicate about Things without Being There Denotative Meaning