Chapter 8 Review

• Nonverbal communication includes all unspoken behavioral displays and generally carries more meaning than verbal communication.

• Both culture and gender shape people’s perceptions and use of nonverbal communication.

• Although seven different nonverbal communication codes exist, the behaviors that most people associate with nonverbal communication—such as facial expressions, gestures, and body posture—are kinesics. Four different forms of gestures are commonly used: emblems, illustrators, regulators, and adaptors.

• Something as seemingly simple as body posture can communicate substantial information regarding immediacy and power to others.

• Different features of the voice contribute to the nonverbal code of vocalics.

• People vary their duration, placement, and strength of touch (known as haptics) to communicate a range of meanings, including functional-professional touch, social-polite touch, friendship-warmth touch, love-intimacy touch, sexual-arousal touch, and aggressive-hostile touch.

• Forms of physical distance, or proxemics, include intimate, personal, social, and public space. All human beings experience territoriality and resent perceived invasions of personal domains.

• Like it or not, our physical appearance strongly molds others’ impressions of us.

• We use personal artifacts to portray who we are to others and to communicate information regarding our worth, status, and power.

• Features of our physical environment—such as furnishings—also send distinct messages about status and mood.

• Our nonverbal communication serves many purposes. One of the most common is affect displays, which function to show others how we are feeling.

• We can harness all of the nonverbal communication codes to send powerful messages of intimacy, dominance, and submissiveness to others.