As I watched an episode of My Wife and Kids, this week I was fascinated at how much one can tell without hearing any spoken words. Initially as I observed the show, without sound, I immediately was drawn to the facial expressions, with some being strongly exaggerated, and how they conveyed messages of a loving, close and intimate family. There were instances when emotion was shown through touches on the arm, pats, and even embraces. It was obvious through my silent observation that this family is affectionate and makes every effort to demonstrate these feelings.
Through the verbal examination I now was able to understand better the exaggerated facial expressions based on the words spoken, which included a high pitch from the mom causing the father to respond with a dumbfounded look. There was a time when the mom was on the phone, deep in conversation when the children were speaking to her about a serious matter. Her responses were shocking and unpredicted to all which caused the father to ask an outlandish question knowing he would get the answer he wanted because of the lack of attention. As I viewed this, I visualized myself in that same position, knowing that I too had done this at home with my children and also at school. Multitasking is a hard job and regardless of age or experience, our brain is limited to process only one thing at a time (Wallis, 2006).
I feel my assumptions would have been correct if I was watching a show I knew well, due to the delivery of the characters through their gestures, facial expressions, and the reaction of those receiving the message. My “aha” moment was that much is spoken through interactive nonverbal communication and that interpretation of your message is immense. We mush acknowledge that how we are delivering our message sometimes means more than what we are saying.
References:
O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M. (2009). Real Communication: An Introduction. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's
I agree with how much attention spent on facial expressions. I do not think we pay that much attention when we can hear the words. I think this is where our other senses can overcompensate for the one's not being used.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Moore you pick a very funny show. I could see how some of the characters were hard to read in this show. Some of the characters are major characters themselves. I hope you had as much fun as I did trying to read facial expression and gestures. It really gets you to thinking. I really enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDeleteI also was surprised by how much you can gather just by watching nonverbal communication. You are able to conclude almost exactly how a person is feeling at the time simply based on body positioning and facial expressions. This is essential to know especially when interacting with other individuals (even we do not know them - evidence from this exercise). Thanks for your insight!
ReplyDeleteI think that shows that have a lot of body language and over exaggerated facial expressions are easier to interpret without actually hearing the words. When we think about what we acttually take in with everything that goes on around us, the different sounds, how much do we really understand?
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