Observation Nonverbal Communication

The focus of this paper was an exercise designed to observe and explore nonverbal communication. In order to observe nonverbal communication, my husband and I went to eat dinner on a Saturday night at a local Applebee’s restaurant. We chose this restaurant because our daughter works there as a waitress and we could ask to sit in her section. I was not sure how a waiter/waitress who was not known to me would react to my observing and taking notes about my fellow diners. If the waiter/waitress had questioned me or sent the manager over to find out what I was doing, I was afraid that I would be noticed and then my subjects would become aware that they were being observed. The people that I chose to observe were a group of three individuals sitting …show more content…
On the way home, I mentioned to my husband that I thought the man and woman on the same side of the table were a couple because she ate off his plate. My husband laughed and said she had eaten off the other man’s plate too. I had not observed this behavior taking place so I had not been able to factor it into my thinking process. This was one thing that I found to be difficult while observing nonverbal communication. Because of the setting and location, I was sitting less than 10 feet from the people I was observing. I tried to watch them surreptitiously as to not give myself away, but apparently I missed behaviors that were taking place while I was not watching that could, and should, have been factored into my decision making process. Knowing that she ate from both men’s plates would have added a level of complexity to the process of determining how this group of individuals was related. In my opinion, sharing food in this manner should be a signal that they were more than acquaintances. Reaching over the table to select and eat food from another’s plate is too intimate an act for anyone but a relative or extremely close