Introduction
Communication is evident in two forms, verbal communication and nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is the process used by any person to stimulate a specific meaning in the mind of another person by using nonverbal messages (Richmond, McCroskey, & Powell, 2013, p. 30). Although many people perceive verbal communication as being the most impactful, nonverbal communication is in fact more important. It has been calculated that two-thirds of messages in any form of communication is likely to be done so using nonverbal messages (Richmond et al., 2013, p. 30). Nonverbal messages include gestures, body movements, facial expressions, tone of voice, and many other factors. Often times, the first …show more content…
Style of dress can communicate a nonverbal message without anything else being evaluated other than the clothes, shoes, and accessories a person is carrying. For example, say a man is wearing a nice suit, dress shoes, and a fancy watch. One may assume he has a high status or good paying job solely based off of his style of dress. Gestures and body movements also send nonverbal messages, but they are dependent on many factors. Culture, age, gender, religion, and upbringing may affect the types of gestures and body movements a person uses. Vocal behavior also sends a nonverbal message, and this message may also be called vocalics. A more common vernacular term for this is tone of voice. If a person says that they are happy to see their friend, but they speak in a monotone, monotonous style of voice, they may perceive as sending a negative nonverbal message. Depending on one’s relationship with another person, the amount of space during the interaction will vary. Everyone knows a person who invades one’s “personal bubble” and gets too close for comfort. This is the nonverbal message of space, or proxemics. A nonverbal message that is hugely dependent on the intensity of the relationship and culture of …show more content…
The first paragraph uses information from the class textbook and provides many basic and fundamental concepts pertaining to nonverbal communication. One may consider nonverbal communication skills as common sense, but this could not be further from the truth. In fact, many people lack good communication skills simply because they are “nonverbally illiterate” (Richmond et al., 2013, p. 30). The updated research covers the three stages of communication. This begin with the well-known terms sender and receiver. The “complex interplay between the two” or what goes on from the moment the message is sent until the message is received is an idea many may not be familiar with (Knapp et al., 2014, p. 4). Impression formation, or person perception is a fairly new term which seeks to define the act when a person makes an impression of another person based on their appearance or behavior (Guerrero, 2014, p. 55). This research coincides with the information from Organizational Communication for Survival’s that dress and other nonverbal messages send a concrete message to individuals participating in a communication interaction, whether intentional or not. Although most previous research focused on the most well-known nonverbal cues such as facial expression, tone of voice, and other similar cues, more recent research shows other factors that are also relevant. These other factors include gender, relationship