Non-Verbal Communication

Nonverbal behavior is like a secret code that is understood but not talk about (Gonzalez-Mena, J., 2010). Watching a situational comedy without the sound seemed like an easy task to interpret the behaviors of the characters in the show; however, I was only able to successfully determine that a man and women were a couple based on their behaviors. When I turned on the sound they were actually arguing about a contract and I would have never guessed an argument was occurring. The behaviors that I saw was two people pointing to a page in a book, but they did not look angry so I did not interpret anger. I thought they were trying to show each other something in the book, but in all actuality it was a lawyer and a person arguing over contract language. The assumption I took away from this assignment is that for me without words I am not very good at interpreting body-language. I thought that I was good at reading people, but it seems that I need the verbal cues to go along with the actions. It really surprised me because I am a visual learner and always have to visualize things to remember them, but I am guessing that auditory learning is also important for me as well.

I think if this was a show that I was more familiar with it would have been easier because I would have known the roles of characters so then when I saw the lawyer looking at something I might have thought she was reviewing a contract. I am interesting in doing this again with a show that I am familiar with to see if there is a difference.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.