Considering Body Language: Hidden Communication
Many
fields are interested in body language. Psychologists want to know
about how bodies convey hidden truths. The best poker players in the
world are experts in projecting and observing body language as are spy
agents. Professional athletes are adept at reading body language as
well. Public figures are interested in learning of how to leverage body
language to become more engaging and effective in delivering speeches.On
a biological level, people are interested in discovering how others
perceive themselves.
Find
one article about body language. Beyond summarizing the content of the
source, you are also tasked with raising questions and analyzing the
article. Consider the journal the article is published in or who
sponsored the popular article. Consider the audiences the writers aimed
to influence and why those audiences are targeted. Explore why the
author conducted the study in a particular way. What does the article
accomplish, and to what extent did the writer accomplish his or her
goals? I want you to demonstrate rhetorical awareness!
Connect
some aspect from of one of the articles to your own personal
experiences. Does your experience reveal some nuance about claims
regarding body language?
This
posting is not a test of knowledge, but is a collective way to gather a
large swath of information about a common area of interest. We all care
about body language because it is a primary means of communication.
There are no right or wrong answers for this posting. This also isn't
meant to be published in The New Yorker. Deliver a bit of analysis, some
summary, and make a connection to your own personal experiences. In
other words, there are not penalties for being wrong here.
During class next time, we are going to explore this conversation about body language. We will look for gaps in the conversation, and we will think about ways that we might enter into the conversation.
Be
sure to reference the sources you use at the bottom of your posting.
For help with MLA, please follow this link to the Purdue Owl:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
Bonus points will be awarded for anyone who uses a scholarly, peer reviewed article. Points will be deducted for those who fail to properly reference the source using MLA.
If you have any questions, please send me an email.
Susan Bordo: "Material Girl": The Effacements of Postmodern Culture
ReplyDeleteSusan Bordo states we through trying to achieve the “fantasy” of the ideal human body have achieved a false truth. The “plasticity” Bordo talks about is the so called limitless improvement of the body. People tell us we should always be improving and making our bodies what is socially perfect by sculpting and modeling like an art piece. Using well known celebrities like Michel Jackson and Madonna, she shows the effect of trying to transform the self. Madonna shows how no images of “beautiful” people are just arbitrary and even Madonna, a sex symbol, bows down to this “plasticity.” Eventually, Bordo talks about the inequality of access to the “perfect” body. She talks about the imagery surrounded by us all the time and how instead of defining beauty as fun, Bordo says it is steeped in social class and racism. Finally, she talks about how the conversation of how “beauty is fun” is the postmodernist conversation that effaces the real problem: homogenializing images steeped in gender, race, and class.
Her main point of writing this is to change the “postmodernist conversation” of beauty into a legitimate problem of race, gender, and class. Bordo connects her abstract concepts with familiar faces of celebrities all too known to ordinary people. She is translating her thoughts into a vernacular that everyday people can comprehend. However, the odds of an ordinary person reading the Michigan Quarterly Review on a whim are low. So, since Bordo’s paper was put onto a peer reviewed, academic journal, Bordo is trying to add to the conversation by contributing to body studies. She is attempting to change how the conversation of body studies is conduced and the questions asked among fellow researchers, college students, and co-workers. After the next few articles she wrote, she helped push the feminist movement about gender and beauty seen in the 21st century.
No one never not checks themselves in the mirror, men or women, for a second before going outside. I’m personally not comfortable in my own skin. Although better than I used to be, I’m not. Not just women, but men experience these “homogenializing” images of the “ideal” body. On television, the news, on the street, we all see these images. Now if the “ideal” body is steeped in race, I don’t know. There are several “ideal” bodies for several races, genders, and stereotypes. So, I guess it is what the majority of what the population of the particular group prefers, or have been told to prefer. Bordo is too quick to assume the iconography is steeped in racism, class, and gender. However, this is a step in the right direction of subjectification of the body.
Works Cited:
Bordo, Susan. "‘Material Girl’: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture." Michigan Quarterly Review, vol. 29, no. 4, 1990 Fall, pp. 653-677.
Body language is a very important skill to have in order to gauge a conversation, or gain an insight into another person's psyche. An article from PsychologistWorld claims that that the eye may give more involuntary clues then any other part of the body.
ReplyDeleteThe pupils are a significant part of reading body language because you have no control over them. This offers significant tells if you know what you're looking for. A study by Eckhard Hess found that the pupils tend to dilate when interest is found in the person or object that they are looking at. Eye contact is also a thing to be keen about because it can shed some light on the amount of interest a person has towards the subject matter being covered. Overly persistent contact can mean an over-awareness of the message they are emitting, which may be a cue of them lying or being overzealous of a reaction. Avoiding eye contact tends to be connected with shame or submissiveness. Normally a comfortable amount of eye contact needs to be had in a conversation to be considered 'normal'.
There are more subtle nuances to look for in the eyes when having a conversation, such as blinking and the direction their eyes go when they look away to think about something. Blinking more often than usual(6-10 times per minute) can be seen as somewhat flirty. While the person speaking looking to their left can signal remembering, and looking to their right can indicate more creative, or deceptive, thinking.
All in all, the eye is a great place to pick up clues into another person's state of mind during a conversation. It is especially useful as you're more than likely looking their anyways. This article is well written and easy to read, perhaps oversimplified for the sake of readability. The point of the article is to inform a nonscientific crowd about a scientific topic. I've used a couple of the points brought up in this article to read into a potential employer in a job interview and they hold merit in scenarios like that.
Works Cited:
What Someone's Eyes Can Tell You about What They're Thinking. "How To Read Anyone's Body Language Using Eye Signals." Body Language Reading - Psychologist World. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
Body language is a great way to show you are engaged in conversation and is a very good indicator on how a person is feeling about a particular topic. You can turn body language into a personal gain. While doing my research for an article i stumbled upon an article that tells you how to do so.
ReplyDeleteChristian Jarrett wrote an article titled "The 4 Ways You Can Use Body Language To Influence Success" on how a person can use body language to promote success in their lives wether it be professionally or personally. For instance, if someone were to walk into a room without a smile on their face and droopy shoulders, that is automatically an indicator of low self esteem. Christian promotes the idea that the slumped shoulders is a cause of the low self esteem, not the other way around like most of us believe.
Based off of this research, there are specific "Power Postures" that can directly influence your mood. The change in a person's feet positions, standing up straight, focusing on your facial expressions are all ways of improving your body language. This in the long run will once again change the way of your mood and the views you have on yourself. Christian also suggests that you do not hold any devices when you are trying to work on your posture and the way you are presenting yourself. The longer period of time you speak without these handheld devices, the more "open posture" you will provide to your audience.
To conclude all of the information stated in this article, the way your body language is does not only influence how others view you, but how you view yourself. The moods that you are in and the way you think about yourself are direct causes of your posture, your facial expressions, even the gestures you provide. So once you start to improve these areas of your everyday life, people will then pick up on them, leading to a successful professional and personal life.
I can personally relate this to my educational life when i am giving presentations. I will no longer use a handheld device, i would rather use a laptop or desktop to provide me with the information i need to give an "open postured" presentation. This will hopefully benefit me greatly.
A question that did come to mind is how credible Cristian Jarrett really is. He does quote several other researchers for support but i did not see any background information from himself and his studies to show much of his credibility. Since this information is less than a year old, or atleast it was published less than a year ago, i do still think this information would still be relevant to people.
Works Cited:
Jarrett, Christian. "The 4 Ways You Can Use Body Language To Influence Success." 99U by Behance. Team Culture, 08 Mar. 2016. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.
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ReplyDeleteIn the article “The Key to Understanding Body Language” by Joe Navarro, he states that our body language is expressed because of our limbic system, the emotional part of our brain that processes our needs, feelings, and thoughts and gives an immediate, and often involuntary, reaction. However, even if the reaction is involuntary, it is always an honest one that shows how we truly feel, and then reflects those feelings into our body language.
ReplyDeleteNavarro goes on to explain that due to these limbic reactions, we should be able to gauge how a person is feeling. For example, someone clenching their jaw in response to something is a sign that they are either angry or annoyed, and it shows because their feelings are being displayed by their own bodies. Navarro states that our brain has perfected the ability to display discomfort and comfort through our body language, and that while we think that our feelings may be masked by our facial expression, they can be expressed in other ways throughout our bodies. He goes on to say that the reason behind our feelings being displayed the way they are is due to the fact that nonverbal communication was our primary means of communication for millions of years before a language was formed. Due to this factor, often times, our verbal and nonverbal communication may not always correlate with one another, even if we believe that we are hiding our feelings well. Navarro, who is a former FBI agent, also claims that even trained spies have the ability to showcase their feelings, even with extensive training. I feel that is because while we can learn to control certain things, it is not entirely possible to re-wire our brains to respond and behave in a different way.
Personally, I find the claim of limbic reactions showing in our body language to be true. Often, we are not even aware that we are expressing a certain emotion or feeling in our posture or our stance until it is pointed out to us by someone. I have often found that while I think I am covering up the fact that I am annoyed quite well, my feelings show in other ways without me realizing it, and I am sure that many others can say the same. Of course, everyone has a different way of showing how they feel or concealing their feelings, but ultimately, we can not hide everything, despite how much we may want to.
Overall, this article is straightforward and makes a variety of good points without being overly repetitive. The author succeeded in simplifying the reasoning behind how or feelings are expressed through our body language, all while being informative and including scientific research and facts.
Works Cited:
Navarro, Joe. “The Key to Understanding Body Language”. 2009. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spycatcher/200910/the-key-understanding-body-language
Body language is definitely a major component people look for when they are watching or talking to others. Like the saying, “actions speak louder than words.” The article i chose talks about how we communicate through body language.
ReplyDelete“How We Communicate Through Body Language” -Leonard Mlodinow. This article explains how non verbal language affects others and how much richer it is than communicating by talking. The Author talks about how people adjust how long they look at someone in the eyes. When you’re talking to someone or/and when you’re listening to them. I realize I stare or look people more in the eyes when I’m listening to them and rarely look at someone when I’m speaking to them. Body language is a way for people to understand others. For example, I always seem to cross my arms because i simply think its comfortable but to others it may seem as a sig of not wanting to be there or feeling insecure.
The article accomplishes the understanding of how the body language can affect people around you. At the end of the article there’s an experiment performed where kindergartners where asked which kids they like to sit with during activities. The researchers found a strong correlation between popularity and the ability in reading others body language. It’s crazy to read this and know kids choose who they want to hangout with based on body language.
Mlodinow, Leonard. “How We Communicate Through Body Language,” Psychology Today, https:// www.psychologytoday.com/blog/subliminal/201205/how-we-communicate- through-body- language. Accessed 17 January 2017.
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ReplyDeleteBody language is the universal primary language. People from every walk of life and every corner of the globe can all understand body language. I read an excerpt from a book written on body language. According to the excerpt, body language has actually been renamed "kinesics." The article talks about clinical studies that have been done to prove that body language sometimes contradicts verbal communication and this is how you can tell when people are not being truthful about how they feel. Someone shy may fake confidence with verbal communication but secretly be very shy. This is shown in how far she stands from others, eye contact, and tone/pitch of voice. Things like this are also used in interrogations and in interviews. When I went to my first interview for my first job i was so nervous it was obvious. I played with my watch i sat uneasily which caused me to fidget and I was obviously not confident I would get the job. Which i did not. The second interview I went to I knew what I had done wrong the first time and I corrected it. I got hired at my interview. Body language can make or break a person.
ReplyDeleteWork Cited:
Fast, Julius. Body language. Simon and Schuster, 1988.
In an article titled “5 Ways That Body Language Can Signal Trouble” provided on Psychology Today, author Joe Navarro describes five types of body language behavior, in which he calls “reserved behaviors,” that humans (and sometimes animals) commonly use. These reserved behaviors include the “freeze response,” “rocking back and forth,” “assuming the fetal position,” “teepee hands,” and the “lips sucked in” response. Navarro states that these types of observed behaviors are often simulated when a person is in an overwhelming or stressful situation.
ReplyDeleteI find it fitting that a website and journal like Psychology Today would publish and article like this one. Psychology Today’s main audiences are typically people who are interested in different aspects of psychology and those who do research on these aspects. Also, the concept of body language is heavily talked about and researched in the school of behavioral psychology, so this article appears to be on the appropriate site.
Instead of talking about the basics of body language, why did Joe Navarro decide to take the topic with a different hand and discuss a negative aspect of body language? His byline says it all: “when you can spot the signs, you can be ready to help.” Because these five instances of body language appear when a person is in distress, it is easy for another individual to assess them, even without having to verbally communicate. Navarro provides a somewhat helpful, yet highly informative stance on some common “reserved behaviors.”
For me, it is easy to tell when someone is in a good mood versus when someone has just had an internal battle. Not only was this article informative in a “wow, did not know that existed!” aspect, it also helped me to determine what certain behaviors really mean from an evolutionary standpoint. Now, when trying to guess what could be wrong with another person, if they ever submit themselves to one of these behaviors, assessing their situation can become easy.
Navarro, Joe. "5 Ways That Body Language Can Signal Trouble." Psychology Today. N.p., 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.
Body language is one of the most complex forms of communication amongst people. Body language can either be negative, positive, or neutral. It has even been said that body language speaks louder than words. Body language can say a lot about how the people that you speak to feel about your approaches. In the broad world of mingling and dating, body language when speaking to someone can either tell you that who you are speaking to is “into you” or not. Body language from two people that doesn’t seem to reciprocate each other can be a sign that those two people aren’t meshing as one or that they aren’t “vibing”. Body language sometimes can show that two people are very much engaged in a conversation and or are attracted to each other. The confusion of body language in dating also comes from the ambiguity of some signs and movements. In this article by Jeremy Nicholson, Reading Basic Body Language for Dating and Persuasion Success, he analyzes the connotations behind different types of body language and then applies them to the dating world. He separates body language into positive and negative categories. He then approaches body language in dating from a physiological approach. He says that when people who want to know about how their partners feel about them should cluster their behaviors together and determine if the behaviors are positive or negative. With this information, it can be concluded that this person either likes or does not like you. He uses a process called the red/green light process to classify negative and positive body language behaviors as cues to either continue to pursue a relationship with said person or not. My question that wasn’t addressed in this article was what if body language behaviors that cannot be distinguished as either good or bad are presented, what should one do if confronted with that. The author of this article has a Ph.D. so he is an accredited source and the website itself is Psychology Today, which is a website I have often used for my previous AP Psychology class so I believe his analysis to be popular. This article ended up accomplishing the authors probable task of informing people about the types of body language in dating and how to possibly read these different signs. Ultimately I can say that this article has relatable and accurate information in it. In the paragraph when he explains what positive body language is, I can say that individuals who aimed to “make a move” on me or pursue something with me would move closer to me and leaned in physically when talking to me privately or in a social gathering. Also on the other side of the spectrum, I’ve had people who weren’t interested in me move away to me. I think overall this was a great article and source.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited:
Nicholson, Jeremy. "Reading Basic Body Language for Dating and Persuasion Success." Psychology Today. N.p., 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.
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ReplyDeleteThrough the UCF online library research base I was able to find an article discussing the correlations between facial expressions and body language. Body language comes hand and hand with facial expressions, “a particularly intriguing aspect of emotional communication relates to differences between emotional channels (face vs. body) in the recognizability of specific expressive cues.” (Martinez 2016) In the article an experiment was done to prove their argument. The experiment consisted of people who viewed intact vides with faces and bodies, videos with masked bodies and videos with masked faces. In doing this, it allows the viewing process to include both face and body and then one or the other. In the end, scientists concluded that there was a lot of confusion when masking the face or the body. For example, disgust was confused with sadness in both the face and body conditions.
ReplyDeleteThe article was written in the Cognition and Emotion journal Volume 30, 2016 by Laura Martinez and other contributors. Martinez address the conversation of body language and eventually found a gap which led to the masking of expressing emotion from the other. Though her experiments and arguments she was able to contribute to the conversation about body language. I find it interesting that there is confusion when the face or body is masked. Although, when thinking about it many people have come up to me and have said, “you look tired” when I don't feel tired. I now realize that this may be because my face may say I’m tired even if my body language says I’m awake.
Reference:
Martinez, Laura, et al. "Contributions Of Facial Expressions And Body Language To The Rapid Perception Of Dynamic Emotions." Cognition And Emotion 30.5 (2016): 939-952. PsycINFO. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.
Body language is a form of expression one can send without even saying a word, and it is one of the most identifiable and distinct ways of determining one’s engagement, if they’re lying, and how they’re feeling. Some people may even master this as an art and use it to personal advantage while talking to there boss, or while trying to convince or sell something to another person directly.
ReplyDeleteKris Rugsaken wrote an article, Body Speaks: Body Language Around the World, focused on how the different parts of the world ‘speak’ differently with their body languages, how a signal in one culture may mean a totally different gesture in another culture. He goes on to explain body language as “all communication through the non-verbal channel.” That includes how we would typically greet others, sit, stand, look, give gestures and much more. He went on to describe even potential dangers one could encounter with the misuse of body language with a story of two men who walked into a bar in LA in 1988 while an Asian singer had been performing. The singer followed them out over an argument concerning one of the men pointing their feet at the singer while she was performing. Unfortunately, the argument went out of proportion and the singer had shot and killed one of the men. Better communication and awareness in this instance would’ve prevented this whole incident and would’ve even saved a man’s life from being tragically taken. Rugsaken concludes that becoming sensitive to the clues of body language can help us communicate more effectively with people from other countries, mostly students and scholars.
Personally, I can relate to the importance of this issue as I have been around all different types of cultures myself and witnessed the type of difficulties some of them have to face. Some of them will surprisingly be bothered by things people in other cultures aren’t even aware of or are accustomed to. There will always be a discrepancy amongst different cultures and there will be disparity, but at the end of the day I believe the best we can do is make an attempt to adjust or even better realize the importance that our body language plays on communicating with everybody.
Works Cited:
Rugsaken, Kris. “Body Speaks: Body Language Around the World.” 2006. NACADA Clearinghouse. http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/body-speaks.aspx