ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the nature and purpose of nonverbal messages. It begins by offering a definition of nonverbal communication and discussing the characteristics that make the nonverbal system unique. It then describes how silent messages create initial impressions, convey relational information, demonstrate emotional states, and modify verbal messages. The chapter then looks at eight major nonverbal codes: kinesics (body movement and gesture), facial display, eye behavior and gaze, paralinguistics, chronemics, proxemics, physical appearance, and object language. The section on kinesics includes a description of nonverbal emblems, illustrators, regulators, affect displays, and adaptors. In the discussion of proxemics, attention is given to public, home, interaction and body territories and the ways these territories can be encroached. Spatial arrangements, personal space zones, and touch are also considered. Psychological, biological, and cultural time orientations are described in the section on chronemics. The chapter ends with a description of ways to increase nonverbal skills. Nonverbal messages are subtle and easily misinterpreted, yet they are powerful modes of communication, and complete communicators are as aware of their own nonverbal messages as they are of their spoken words.
