Interpreting Non-Verbal Behaviour
Over the course of the day, one has several dozen interactions with others. No doubt a large chunk of these come under the category of verbal communications. However, there is also a significant portion of communication that happens without words, communication that occurs through gestures, expressions, and other non-verbal forms. How does the human mind parse and understand this kind of communication?
To begin with let’s break down the different forms of nonverbal communication. NVC can be either haptic (through gesture and touch), through body language, or through facial expressions and eye contact. All of these forms of nonverbal communication rely on a combination of different parts of the brain to decipher and respond to. For example, studies have shown that people suffering from depression, heroin addicts, and people using phencyclidine all have decreased ability to read non-verbal cues.
On the other hand, is the ability to use nonverbal communication. To better understand this we first need to know why NVC is used in the first place. Argyle (1970) put forward the idea that while verbal communication is used to relay information about the external world, non-verbal communication is usually reserved for inter-personal matters. For this reason, having trouble with interpersonal communication is closely tied to non-verbal communication (such as people who are on the autism spectrum).
Non-verbal communication is an important part of overall communication between human beings. People who struggle with either understanding or relaying information non verbally can find it very difficult to coexist with others in society. This can either be due to different cultural and social backgrounds or other reasons. Therefore, this is among the primary concerns of social psychologists around the world. Further, recent developments in the field have made it possible to pinpoint the ways in which nonverbal communication interacts with communication of the verbal kind. This is particularly useful when we analyse the problems faced by the developmentally challenged because it allows us to both understand their behaviour better and suggest alternative means of communication for them. In the future, it may be possible for everyone in society to communicate and understand regardless of background or mental determinants.
