Nonverbal Communication Observation Paper

On Sunday night at 8 o’clock, I observed these two girls at the Cup A Joe on Hillsborough Street to determine their nonverbal behaviors. Nonverbal communication is communication without words. More specifically, I am focusing on five nonverbal channels, including body, face, eyes, space, and artifacts to observe the behaviors. While I was observing the girls, it became obvious that they were friends catching up on the latest gossip. Nonetheless, the meeting was casual but relaxed. The two girls chose a medium sized round table with five chairs, but chose the chairs closest to each other with about two feet distance. This provided me with evidence in which the girls were friends having a casual conversation and it indicated that they had a healthy relationship with each other. The atmosphere around the girls consumed of others meeting with their group members or working silently on their computers while sipping on a cup of joe. The coffee shop itself was very artsy and outdated with mix matched tables and chairs, some …show more content…
Eye contact is an important aspect of communication, because it allows the other person to decipher if they are interested in the topic or not. I noticed while the blonde was doing most of the talking, the brunette would use eye contact for a short period then look down at her hair as she was playing with it. I can tell she is partially interested with the topic, but is beginning to show low interest. This can be referred to as visual dominance. When a person is wanting to signal dominance, they maintain eye contact while reducing her engagement when listening. In this instance, the blonde girl made consistent eye contact with the brunette while she was talking. When it was the brunette’s turn to talk, she would engage in eye contact, gaze around the room to observe other people, then resume back to the