The National College Iulia Hasdeu

Body Language

By Pop Iulia Cristina

Project realized by student from 12th grade (F) School year 2011-2012

Teachers: Elena Davitoiu and Daiana Gutu

Contains:

I. Introductionpage 2-3

II. The definition of Body Language:

1. What is Body Language?.page 4-5

III. The importance of Body Language: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Words are inadequate...page 5 Subconsciously...page 6 Used to express feelings...page 6 The importance of knowing how we communicate..page 7 Understanding body languagepage 7

IV. Facial Expressions Interpretation: 1. Exemple of some basic emotions.page 8-9 2. A microdictionary of gestures..page 10 3. Facial Expressions.page 11 4. Physical Expression....page 11-12 5. Body Language Signs: Hands and Legs Movement.page 13 6. Posture: An Eminent Body Language Tool.page 13-14

V. Conclusionpage 14

VI. Bibliography..page 15

I. Introduction

Communication between individuals is divided as verbal and nonverbal communication. Body language is a comprehension and communication tool via physical movements and changes that show a person's feelings, thoughts, and attitudes about other persons and things. According to the expert Ercan Kasikci, body language is a form of non-verbal communication that support (as an amplifier, booster of) verbal communication. Baltas affirm that humans used body language before they developed verbal language. I choose to talk about this subject because I was very impressed by how many things can you find out about a person if you know to reveal or to interpret the signs of body language. As far as we can tell, human beings are the only creatures alive on this planet that truly have this ability. This incredible skill gave humans the advantage that put-us-on-top and, if measured in evolutionary timescale, its brand new. People through body language, share with other people their feelings, thoughts, desires, and needs. Body language gives very important clues about people's feelings, attitudes and thoughts, and it helps us to understand their behaviour according to their appearance at the point of decision. These clues are important in understanding and assessing both ourselves and other people. Understanding our body language is not as difficult as some people would have you believe. All human beings use it and so actually have a built-in ability to recognise and read it. Unfortunately, as humans have become increasingly better at verbal communication their ability to consciously recognise body language has faded away. Having a complex spoken language is one of the great evolutionary tricks. It means that vast amounts of detailed information can be passed from one person to another. It seems almost incredible that, over the million or more years of mans evolution, the nonverbal aspects of communication have been actively studied on any scale only since the 1960s and that the public has become aware of their existence only since Julius Fast published a book about body language in 1970. This was a summary of the work done by behavioural scientists on nonverbal communication up until that time, and even today, most people are still ignorant of the existence of body language, let alone its importance in their lives. Charlie Chaplin and many other silent movie actors were the pioneers of non-verbal communication skills; they were the only means of communication available on the screen. Each actor was classed as good or bad by the extent to which he could use gestures and other body signals to communicate effectively. When talking films became popular and less emphasis was placed on the non-verbal aspects of acting, many silent movie actors faded into obscurity and those with good verbal skills prevailed.

As far as the technical study of body language goes, perhaps the most influential pre-twentiethcentury work was Charles Darwins The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals published in 1872. This spawned the modern studies of facial expressions and body language and many of Darwins ideas and observations have since been validated by modern researchers around the world. Since that time, researchers have noted and recorded almost one million nonverbal cues and signals. Albert Mehrabian found that the total impact of a message is about 7 per cent verbal (words only) and 38 per cent vocal (including tone of voice, inflection and other sounds) and 55 per cent non-verbal. Professor Birdwhistell made some similar estimates of the amount of non-verbal communication that takes place amongst humans. He estimated that the average person actually speaks words for a total of about ten or eleven minutes a day and that the average sentence takes only about 2.5 seconds. Like Mehrabian, he found that the verbal component of a face-to-face conversation is less than 35 per cent and that over 65 per cent of communication is done non-verbally. Most researchers generally agree that the verbal channel is used primarily for conveying information, while the non-verbal channel is used for negotiating interpersonal attitudes, and in some cases is used as a substitute for verbal messages. For example, a woman can give a man a look to kill; she will convey a very clear message to him without opening her mouth. Regardless of culture, words and movements occur together with such predictability that Birdwhistell says that a well-trained person should be able to tell what movement a man is making by listening to his voice. In like manner, Birdwhistell learned how to tell what language a person was speaking, simply by watching his gestures. Like any other species, we are dominated by biological rules that control our actions, reactions, body language and gestures. The fascinating thing is that the human animal is rarely aware of his postures, movements and gestures that can tell one story while his voice may be telling another.

II. The definition of Body Language

1. What is Body Language? Body language is a form of mental and physical ability of human non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously. The term 'body language' refers to all the signals given by a person either by voluntary or involuntary body movement. It includes all gestures, postures and expressions through which an individual displays his physical and mental state in order to communicate non verbally with others. At times, body language is also referred to as nonverbal communication, which is technically incorrect. Nonverbal communications include the body movement as well as the tone of the person, whereas body language only stresses on the movement of various parts of the body.

Body language has lately become one of the most important life skills for us. It's normal tendency to use various parts of our body, even when we are verbally communicating with someone. Studies reveal that body language and tone of our voice play a prominent role in our communication. James Borg states that human communication consists of 93 per cent body language and paralinguistic cues, while only 7% of communication consists of words themselves; however, Albert Mehrabian, the researcher whose 1960s work is the source of these statistics, has stated that this is a misunderstanding of the findings. Others assert that "Research has suggested that between 60 and 70 per cent of all meaning is derived from nonverbal behavior." Nonverbal communication helps us reinforce what we say and makes our message stronger and easier to decode. One aspect of nonverbal communication is body language. Our face expressions, hand movements, gestures, and are physical appearance reflect how we feel emotionally. Communication is not only through words, the way our body reacts to certain things plays a role too. When we smile, cry, have good or bad posture, frown, and yawn or dress a certain way we send messages through body language.

Most body language messages are sent through our face and gestures. On our face, the way the corners of our mouth wrinkle up or down when we are happy or sad, how are forehead creases when were angry, or how are eyes wrinkle when we laugh genuinely are all conveyors of certain messages. The face and the eyes many meanings and can be recognized or decoded easily. Facial expressions are a very important part of communication because they convey the inner workings of emotion. Waving hi to someone, high-fiving, dancing a certain way, leaning in too much, or leaning back too much are all gestures and a form of communicating through body language. Any type of message reinforces the original message that a person is trying to communicate. Gestures give us insight into what the person is really trying to convey because these can either make the original message stronger or contradict it. For example, when we observe two people in a romantic Hollywood movie, an actress playing the role of an angry wife may be saying continuously how everything is alright but her face expressions would reveal if that is in line or contradictory to the original messages. If she is angry and decides to yell, her hand gestures might be faster and her facial expressions more vivid. Appearance is another important aspect body language. We use our bodies continuously to send messages and reinforce anything communicated earlier. The way we dress is very important in effectively communicating. For example, if we someone at a formal event wearing jeans it can send out many mixed messages. For a punk rock star it might say I dont care maybe in a good way but for the marketing manager of a firm it might say I dont care in a bad way. Clothes are only one aspect of how we dress. Body piercing, excessive or minimal use of perfume, general body odor, and how we wear make-up also give out messages.

III. The importance of Body Language People cannot live without each other, we are social beings. As soon as we are in contact with others we are communicating. For this we can make use of spoken and written language. In these ways we make the content of a message clear to each other. However we can also communicate without words. This kind of communication tells us something about the relationship between people. Often this is more important than getting the content of the message across. The communication about this non spoken communication, which tells us something about the relationship between people, is called Meta-Communication. Communicating about communication! 1. Words are inadequate When we connect with a person, we also have to make it clear to each other how the content of a spoken message needs to be interpreted. How we do this says something about the relationship we have with the other person, or think we have anyway. Often words are inadequate for this purpose. For instance we do not tell each other that easily how we feel about each other, or how the words of a message need to be interpreted. To make the meaning of our words clear we use body language. Body language is a language without spoken words and is therefore called nonverbal communication. We use body language all the time, for instance looking someone in the eyes means something different than not looking someone in the eyes. In contact with others it is just not possible to be not communicating something.
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2. Subconsciously Usually body language occurs unconsciously. Yet the body language we use decides to a large extent the quality of our communication. It follows that therefore it would be good to become conscious of our own and others' body language. We can learn to use our body language for a purpose. As well as learn to understand and interpret body language of others. It is important to note that body language has different meanings in different cultures. How we can interpret body language depends on the situation, the culture, the relationship we have with the person as well as the gender of the other. This means that there is not one signal that has the same meaning all over the world. If you do not take this into account you may get yourself in some serious trouble! Body language is also interlinked with spoken language and a whole pattern of behaviour from a person. As well as that, various body language signs can complement each other to make a particular meaning crystal clear or strengthen the meaning of what we communicate. Some groups have developed a whole specific body language which can be very explicit in its meaning and is used to communicate where the use of words may otherwise be difficult or dangerous. Examples of this are mostly groups, such as gay people, people in slavery, prisoners, etc. who have a history of prejudice against them from the dominant culture.

3. Used to express feelings Body language is used especially to express feelings. For instance if we do not like someone, it is often difficult to say that directly to the person. However we can make it clear either intentionally or unintentionally through body language. The opposite is also true. We may say that we ARE angry through words yet our body language may be saying loud and clear that we are NOT. This can be very confusing for the receiver. This is usually described as giving out double messages - one message in words and an opposite message in body language. It is also difficult to lie or cover up our feelings through body language. People may give their true feelings away by not being aware of their body language. Research has shown that most people pay more attention to, and believe more readily, their impression of how a person acts through body language than what is said through words. As a consequence we tend to doubt, or put a question mark behind, the spoken words if they do not correspond with the language of the body.

4. The importance of knowing how we communicate

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How we come across to someone is decided only for a small part by the words we speak. To leave a good impression behind, say at a job interview, it is important that we know, and to a certain extent can control, our body language. The person on the receiving end of our body language will have a feeling or impression that is often difficult to describe - difficult to put into words or difficult to prove what actually was communicated. Haven't we all said at times: 'I have a feeling he/she likes me', or something like: 'I doubt if what he/she is saying is really the truth'. This type of feeling is called intuition. Body language plays a big role in intuition as it gives us messages about the other person that we can interpret at an intuitive level. It is therefore necessary to get to know our own body language first. We should learn about it so that we can recognise it in others as well as in ourselves. For this purpose, all the different aspects of body language that we can learn something from will be described next. 5. Understanding body language Owing to the fact that body language gestures reflect a wide range of emotions knowing how to read body language can turn out to be helpful in a job interview, in a meeting, in a business function or special date. Your ability to read and understand another person's body language can mean the difference between making a great impression or a very bad one!

IV. Facial Expressions Interpretation One of the most important aspects of body language, facial expressions speaks in volumes for an individual. It's impossible to talk to someone in person, without displaying your emotions through your facial expressions. Although some people have mastered it, it's difficult to fake emotions, especially if the person with whom you are communicating can observe and interpret your body language. If you are sharp enough you can easily catch any individual who is faking emotions. You can't have a smiling face when you are talking with someone you don't like at all. The smile will be a fake one and fake smiles can be easily inferred.

1. Exemple of some basic emotions

Joy / Happiness

Your forehead is relaxed, and may show light wrinkles as you eyebrows are lightly raised. The corners of the mouth are curling up, sometimes showing the teeth. If someone's laughing out loud, the mouth is open. The cheekbones are lifted. Your eyes show wrinkles in their outer corners (when 'the eyes don't smile', these wrinkles are absent; it's a telltale sign that someone isn't really happy).

Anger Your forehead is pushed together in a frown, pushing down the eyebrows. Oftentimes your teeth are showing, with snarling lips and depressed corners of the mouth. Your nostrils are standing out and the nose is wrinkled. The eyes are bulging out, putting tension on the eyelids.

Sadness The corners of your mouth are depressed, often with a shaking lower lip. The eyebrows are squashed together, and the forehead is frowning. The skin around your eyes is pulled in, and the eyes are tearing up (or even crying). Wrinkles are forming from the nostrils to the corners of your mouth.

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Scared Eyes are getting big, and the eyebrows go up and then down again. Your lips are stretched outwards, and your lower lip is pulled down. Your skin will look pale, as blood is retracted from your head, and sweat can form on your forehead.

Surprise

When you're surprised, your eye brows are pulled up high, making your eyes wide open, and your forehead wrinkled.

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2. Facial Expressions Forehead Eyebrows Eyes wrinkles= outer edges up= centered= gazing up= gazing down= gaze to side= wandering= Nose Lips wrinkled= pointed up= parted, relaxed= together= wide open= Arms crossed= open= Hands on top of head= scratching head= rubbing eyes= rubbing chin= folded= Fingers interlocked pointing at you OK sign V sign anger anger focused thinking shame guilt disinterested, bored disgusted, confused, arrogant happy possibly concerned very happy, very angry angry, disapproving honest, accepting amazement puzzled, confused tired thinking timid, shy tense angry all is fine "peace"

Physical expression Physical expressions like waving, pointing, touching and slouching are all forms of nonverbal communication. The study of body movement and expression is known as kinesics. Humans move their bodies when communicating because, as research has shown, it helps "ease the mental effort when communication is difficult". Physical expressions reveal many things about the person using them. For example, gestures can emphasize a point or relay a message, posture can reveal boredom or great interest, and touch can convey encouragement or caution.

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One of the most basic and powerful body-language is when a person crosses his or her arms across the chest. This can indicate that a person is putting up an unconscious barrier between themselves and others. It can also indicate that the person's arms are cold, which would be clarified by rubbing the arms or huddling. When the overall situation is amicable, it can mean that a person is thinking deeply about what is being discussed. But in a serious or confrontational situation, it can mean that a person is expressing opposition. This is especially so if the person is leaning away from the speaker. A harsh or blank facial expression often indicates outright hostility. Consistent eye contact can indicate that a person is thinking positively of what the speaker is saying. It can also mean that the other person doesn't understand the speaker enough to "take their eyes off". Lack of eye contact can indicate negativity. On the other hand, individuals with anxiety disorders are often unable to make eye contact without discomfort. Eye contact can also be a secondary and misleading gesture because cultural norms about it vary widely. If a person is looking at you, but is making the arms-across-chest signal, the eye contact could be indicative that something is bothering the person, and that he wants to talk about it. Or if while making direct eye contact, a person is fiddling with something, even while directly looking at you, it could indicate the attention is elsewhere. Also, there are three standard areas that a person will look which represent different states of being. If the person looks from one eye to the other, then to the forehead, it is a sign that they are taking an authoritative position. If they move from one eye to the other, then to the nose, that signals that they are engaging in what they consider to be a "level conversation" with neither party holding superiority. The last case is from one eye to the other and then down to the lips. This is a strong indication of romantic feelings. Disbelief is often indicated by averted gaze, or by touching the ear or scratching the chin. When a person is not being convinced by what someone is saying, the attention invariably wanders, and the eyes will stare away for an extended period. Boredom is indicated by the head tilting to one side, or by the eyes looking straight at the speaker but becoming slightly unfocused. A head tilt may also indicate a sore neck or Amblyopia, and unfocused eyes may indicate ocular problems in the listener. Interest can be indicated through posture or extended eye contact, such as standing and listening properly. Deceit or the act of withholding information can sometimes be indicated by touching the face during conversation. Excessive blinking is a well-known indicator of someone who is lying. Recently, evidence has surfaced that the absence of blinking can also represent lying as a more reliable factor than excessive blinking.

Some people use and understand body language differently, or not at all. Interpreting their gestures and facial expressions (or lack thereof) in the context of normal body language usually leads to misunderstandings and misinterpretations (especially if body language is given priority over spoken language). It should also be stated that people from different cultures can interpret body language in different ways.

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3. Body Language Signs: Hands and Legs Movement

When we talk about body language explained we can't omit hands and legs, undoubtedly two of the most used body parts in human anatomy. Various actions people carry out by their hands and legs can give a descriptive character sketch of those people.

Open palms reflect sincerity. Biting nails reflects nervousness. Rubbing of hands reflects anticipation. Walking to and fro reflects urgency or impatience. Keeping your hands and legs folded reflects disagreement or lack of attention.

These are the most frequent of the various actions we tend to do with our hands and legs, which indirectly reflect our state of mind.

4. Posture: An Eminent Body Language Tool

Our body posture is yet another important body language tool. Shrugged shoulders and slouching indicates fear or boredom, whereas broad shoulders and upright position indicates confidence. Hands on hips reflect authoritarian stance, while hands behind the head with legs spread wide gives a hint of relaxation. Leaning forward when you are taking to someone in person stresses on your interest towards the person (or what the person is talking). When standing, transferring your weight from one foot to another frequently speculates your indecisiveness and lack of trust.

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There are several instances wherein body language explained can be of great help. In fact, your observational skills can make reading body language a lot simple for you. Portraying some body language gestures, such as an eye to eye contact or leaning in front when talking to someone face to face, can send across the message that you are keen on conversing with him. On the other hand, if people with whom you talk are looking around or have their hands folded when talking to you, it displays their disinterest and boredom. Interpreting body language signs can help you in displaying a positive attitude, and at the same time judging other persons negative attitude. This shows why body language interpretation is gaining so much popularity today.

V. Conclusion Taking everything in consideration I firmily affirm that body language is a very important part of our lives, representing our main form of communication. Body language is universal, every people having his body language. It is expressed differently from culture to culture, but the innate use of it is common to all humans on the planet. This form of nonverbal communication is of paramount importance because it is the most pure of all human expressions. One must have awareness and be knowledgeable in understanding body language to successfully maneuver in todays complex digital society. In this era of so many forms of non-personal communication for example the wide spread use of like texting on cell phones, the human interaction is severely diminished. One spends an estimated ninety per cent of verbal communication texting, instead of standing face to face talking. With all of this actual human contact eliminated the importance of nonverbal communication and of understanding it is greatly increased. Communication between cultures can be difficult and confusing because of complexities in language; however, with the use of body language, messages become clearer and easily translated. Facial expressions are a primary example of the globalization of non-verbal communication, because humans primitively and inherently react to varying facial expressions. A smile in any language or corner of the world means happiness and is welcomed, while a frown in any context is more omniscient and troubling to an observer. Body posture also claims universal meaning; a tall posture with shoulders tilted back exudes confidence while slumped shoulders do not. Personal interactions between separate nations and cultures can become extremely frustrating; however, if the signs of body language are utilized, understandings can be reached without extensive study of any language other than the instinct we as humans are born with. The cultures of the world may contrast greatly, but it is the human form and primitive body language which connects the globe.

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VI. Bibliography

The definitive book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease

Body language by Julius Fast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language

http://www.essayxperts.com/essay-body-language/

http://www.lichaamstaal.com/english/

http://www.simplybodylanguage.com/facial-expressions.html

http://learn-body-language.blogspot.com/2007/02/introduction-to-body-language-weare.html

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