You can tell a lot from Nonverbal Communication

This was a fun assignment and very interesting to say the least. I always felt that body language and non-spoken communication can give us a very clear indication of peoples emotions and feelings. I have a colleague that I work with and although she is very friendly and smiles a lot I could tell from the moment that I met her that there was a lot going on in her in life and that she great burdens. I later found out that that was true to say the least.         

I choose to watch a Dutch day time soap opera, I had a good excuse now! When I first watched the episode and having the sound turned off I was far more focused on the body language and gestures between the actors and actresses. The series is called “Goede tijden, slechten tijden” (translated as “good times, bad times)

Non-verbal communication has the ability to give a powerful message without the need for words (O'Hair & Wieman tell us, 2012). On the flip side of this non-verbal communication can be misinterpreted. 

What do you think the characters' relationships are based on the ways in which they are communicating?

What are they feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior you are observing?

The scene that I watched had a female and male in a hospital room with a woman lying in the bed. I watched closely and felt that the two were very concerned and seemed to be arguing, the female seemed angry and frustrated and the male much calmer and not as worked up. The person in the bed just slept so there was no communication or emotion there. The female touched the man’s shoulder and gazed into his eyes, he did not touch her back and looked down to the ground, almost in shame. I felt that they were lovers and she was sad and angry about something. He looked remorseful and ashamed. I could not work out what the link to the person in the hospital bed was.

I then watched the scene with the volume on, I was able to put the pieces together and see where I had misinterpreted things that I had observed without dialogue.

What assumptions did you make about the characters and plot based on the ways in which you interpreted the communication you observed?

Would your assumptions have been more correct if you had been watching a show you know well?

I was right that there was a romantic connection between the two but I was wrong to assume that she was angry and he was remorseful. In fact they were talking about the person in the hospital bed and she was very emotional and he was as sad but showed it very differently. It was not clear in the one episode but I think that they were somehow involved in the accident that caused the persons hospitalization. There were of course more scenes that I watched and some I interrupted more correctly than others.

I realized that because I was not familiar with the show, characters and storyline it was challenging to read their body language and make predictions on their body language and behavior.

I think if I had done the same exercise with a show that I was familiar with that I would have been far better in interpreting what the storyline and interactions were about. I would have been able to use previous information and recall my memory about the show to link to my predictions on the scenes I watched (O'Hair & Wiemann,  2012). 

This exercise made me realize how much I depend on people’s dialogue and also how things are said as appose to text messages where you can also very easily misunderstand messages. I feel that body language and gestures convey a strong message and one needs to keep this in mind when dealing with families and especially families that may not have English as their first language.  I will remain dedicated to open communication and effective listening when it comes to parents, keeping in mind that parents have their family and children and the core of their interest (O'Hair& Wiemann, 2012).     

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.