XI. Communicating through the Environment

A. We communicate through our environment by shaping it in the way that presents us. Any environment has fixed (stable, unchanging elements) and semi-fixed features (changing elements).

DISCUSSION STARTER 7: Look around the room you’re in right now. How does this room make you feel? How do the size of the space, furniture, lighting, and color contribute to your impression? What kind of interpersonal communication would be most appropriate for this space— personal or professional? Why?

XI. Olfactory Communication

Richard Doty (Michael’s Sound Bite 7-12):

1. Smell is a major factor in creating attractiveness; people react to smells they can sense and process as well as those they can’t process;
   
   
2. Attitude to smellchanges from person to person and from culture to culture;
   
   
3. Smell influences the taste.
   
   
4. Business uses smells to anchor customers;
   
   
5. Aromatherapy assists in treatment of many diseases of somatic nature.

XII. Functions of Nonverbal Communication

1. Nonverbal communication conveys meanings: (a) we can convey them directly (gestures, distance), and (b) indirectly (as in support of verbal messages; (c) we can also use nonverbal messages to enhance meaning, and add to it; (d) sometimes we use nonverbals to replace verbal messages; (e) we also use nonverbal to spotlight certain parts of messages.
   
   
2. Nonverbal communication expresses emotions: (a) both true and feigned; (b) through face and voice; (c) intentionally and unintentionally; (d) through voice features, such as tone, volume and rate;
   
   
3. Nonverbal communication presents self: we use ALL nonverbal behaviors to make ourselves presentable to others.
   
   
4. Nonverbal communication manages interactions: (a) to augment the message; (b) to regulate talk, (c) to check level of interest; (d) to regulate others’ attention and behavior.
   
   
5. Nonverbal communication defines relationships: (a) creates intimacy through touch, voice, eye behavior, etc.; (b) signals dominance and submissiveness.

DISCUSSION STARTER 8: Call to mind three relational partners: a friend, a coworker, and a romantic interest. What aspects of your nonverbal communication (touch, gaze, space, voice, and so forth) are different across these relationships? What does this tell you about the role that nonverbal communication plays in conveying relationship intimacy?

XIII. Responsibly Managing Our Nonverbal Communication

1. Understand that your nonverbal signal as much as your words if not more;
   
   
2. Nonverbal behavior is in many ways cultural;
   
   
3. Each situation demands a totally different nonverbal setup;
   
   
4. Verbal and nonverbal communication go together.

Practice

I. Opening Story: Starting the Discussion

A. Michael’s Instructions: While not obligatory for reading, the opening story in each chapter sets the mood for the rest of the reading. Stephen chooses stories that relate to several concepts in the chapter and talks about these concepts in general terms.

B. Read the opening story and identify three concepts from the chapter that characterize the communication process in the situation.

C. Then: (a) think of similar examples in your life, (b) remember the actions that the hero of the story, you, and other people around you took when they faced the situation; (c) think of the ways these actions influenced everyone involved; (d) suggest the ways which your naïve knowledge of communication offered you as remedies for whatever did not work in communication in that particular instance; (e) discuss how your scientific knowledge of communication changes your perception, and list three things that you would do now if you faced a similar situation in the future

D. An essay on the opening story can be used as an extra credit opportunity. If you would like to get more points, write a six-paragraph essay answering the questions above in good paragraphs (1 opening sentence, 2-3 main idea sentences, 1 summary and transition sentence). Make note that although this assignment is long and fairly difficult, you will be given only 10 points for it. The reason for it is that the extra credit points must be extra hard to get.

STORY OF SMILING INDIANS

Look closely at this photograph. As you do, try to recall other images of Native Americans from the late 1800s or early 1900s that you’ve seen. What is different, unique, or interesting about this photo? How does the picture make you feel? What’s your impression of the people in it?

I first came upon this image in poster form in my son’s preschool classroom, and I was stunned. Intuitively, I found the picture perplexing and provocative, but I couldn’t put my finger on precisely why. Seeing me staring at it, the teacher approached me. “Pretty neat, isn’t it?” she said. “Yes,” I said, “but something about it strikes me as unusual. Do you know what it is?” “Of course,” she replied. “They’re smiling.”

By the late 1800s, stereotypical images of Native Americans were being sold as tourist postcards and magazine illustrations (Silversides, 1994). These images depicted Native peoples in full ceremonial dress, astride their horses or posed in front of teepees, scowling fearsomely.

As Cambridge University professor Maria Tippett (1994) notes, “The image one gets throughout this seventy year period is of a blank-faced, stiff, and unengaged people” (p. 2). When I surveyed more than 5,000 photos from this era, I found not a single image portraying Native Americans with smiles—except for this family photo.

In contrast, this rare portrait, taken by amateur photographer Mary Schaffer (1861–1939), shows people who, rather than staring blankly into the camera, “communicate with the eyes behind it” (Tippett, 1994). The image has an intriguing history. Schaffer, with her friend Mollie Adams and two guides, were exploring the headwaters of the Saskatchewan and Athabasca rivers in Canada, where they met a band of Stoney Indians who befriended them. Among them were Samson Beaver, his wife Leah, and their young daughter Frances, who invited Mary to dinner. After the meal, Mary asked them if she could take their picture, and they agreed.

The Beaver family photo provides a literal and metaphorical snapshot of an interpersonal encounter: the postures, faces, dress, and use of space during a family meeting with a new friend late one sunny afternoon. You can almost feel the fellowship that must have infused the conversation, communicated through Samson’s smile, his forward lean, and his direct gaze—all cues conveying intimacy and closeness. If you feel an immediate connection and empathy with Samson, you’re not alone. This is a typical human reaction to the sight of a smiling person. A scowling face has quite the opposite effect.

The Beaver family photo reminds us of the universal and transcendent nature of human nonverbal expression and of its powerful role in shaping our impressions of others. A hundred years ago, a family joined new friends to share a meal and something of themselves with each other. Although they’re all long since dead, the image of their encounter serves as an enduring reminder of the power of human nonverbal expression to shape our interpersonal communication and relationships.

II. Terms

In your essays for this course it is very important to use the terminology of communication science. Therefore, take time to learn the terms and their meanings in each chapter. In the face-to-face version of this course, various interactive techniques will be used to test your knowledge of the major terms. In the online version of the class you will review the terms independently. Make sure you use the terms referred to below in your essays.

Adaptors Affect displays Anthropomorphic characteristics Artifacts Artifacts Chronemics Emblems Environment Hall zone, intimate Hall zone, personal Hall zone, public Hall zone, social Haptics Illustrators Kinesics Monochronics Nonverbal communication

Oculesics Olfactorics Physical appearance Polychronics Posture Proxemics Regulators Territory, accessory Territory, home Territory, open Territory, parking Territory, personal Territory, queuing Territory, secondary Territory, useful Vocalics

III. Names

It is very important to remember the names of scholars who contributed to communication theory. Your essays will sound more professional if you make reference to the people mentioned in this brochure. In the face-to-face version of this course, and in the audio lectures that accompany the online version of this course the names of these scholars will be routinely used to refer to various concepts. Study the names of communication scholars and try to remember their contribution to the science.

Argyle, Michael Ausmus, Bill Burgoon, Judy Dahl, Stephen Doty, Richard Ekman, Paul

Friesen, Wallace Goffman, Erving Heslin, Richard Trager, George L. Wildermuth, Susan Yarborough, Elaine

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