Lecture 11 - Nonverbal behaviours and emotions Flashcards
(18 cards)
Overview
Types of nonverbal behaviour
- the role of emotions
~ facial expressions
~ microexpresssions
- nonverbal behaviours beyond the face
People to know
Paul Ekman
- research on emotions and nonverbal behaviour
- focus on facial expressions and deception
~ developed facial coding system
~ expressions universal across cultures
In media
- Basis of TV show Lie to Me
- Consultant on Pixar’s Inside Out
Miles Patterson
- social psychologist specialising in nonverbal
- developed several models of nonverbal interaction
- emphasised cultural differences in microinteractions
- taught me all about nonverbal communication
What is not nonverbal behaviour?
Sign language
- from of verbal communication via gestures
- verbal meaning attached to each sign
Nonverbal behaviours are:
- automatic and largely unconscious
- difficult to control or inhibit
- seem to be innate and not explicility learned
Definitions
Non verbal behaviour
- any perceptible social behaviour that is extra linguistic and not primarily intended to manipulate the physical world
Paul Ekman’s categories
- emblems
- illustrators
- manipulators
- emotional expressions
Emblems
- gestures with precise meaning
- culturally dependent
- represent spoken workds
Illustrators
- talking with your hands
- illustrate what we are saying to provide emphasis or flow
- often decrease when someone is lying or nervous
Manipulators
- one body part interacts with another
~ rubbing
~ massaging
~ holds
~ taps
~ etc
Emotional expressions
Facial expressions of emotions:
- are universal and distinct
- are correlated with self-reports of emotional expeirnces
- are embedded in broader sets of emotional responses
- serve important functions in social situations
Six basic emotions
- anger, surprise, disgust, happiness, fear and sadness
Display rules:
- donate when it is appropriate to show facial expressions
- difference in facia expressions in America vs Japan
~ watching a film
~ athlete’s responding to failure
~ reciprocal expressions
Microexpressions (Ekman)
- breif flags of emotions that occurs before we can override that emotional disposition;ay into something more appropriate
Subconscious awareness of expressions
- the flash of emotions if fast, lasting fraction of a second
- we can subconsciously become aware of this micro expression and it may influence our interactions
Purpose of facial expressions
- quickly facilitate communication
- evolutionary purpose?
- disgust expressions represent:
~ active attempts to spit out bad food (e.g. tongue out)
~ close the system off from contamination
Beyond the face
Body orientation
Proximity
Touch
Gaze
Smell
Body orientation
Open body orientation
- trunk faces directly at the body of an interaction partner
- indicated an openness engage and interact with that person
Closed body orientation
- trunk turned away from interaction partner
- highlights less desire to interact with another person, a lack of time to engage with someone, or confidential nature of content
Proximity
Intimate zone
- closest of one’s interpersonal distances
- ranges from 0 inched (i.e. touch) to 18
- greater awareness of the other interactant
- role of trustworthiness
~ interactions overwhelming if untrustworthy people enter zone
~ typically revered for those we really just
Personal/casual zone
- 18 inches to about 4 feet
- reserved for close friends and family
- having some degree of trust
- a forward-facing egg-shaped bubble
~ shaped by presence of senses
~ gave forward, periphery limited
Social/consultative zone
- 4 to 8 feet (e.g. at arm’s length)
- interaction in professional contexts
- interactions occurring in the zone
Public zone
- Zone of no professional obligations
- in public, comfortable with stranger staying beyond 8 feet away
Violating proximity
Cultural Norms for personal space:
- in Western cultures, preference for larger proxemic distances
- in some African countries, people stand much closer together in tightly packed queues
Context matters
- Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing
- violating proximity was a big deal
Re-evalutation of relationship
- violations of proximity causes revalutation of relationship
- may also create additional feelings of closeness
~ depends on magnitude of difference
~ more of a deal if stranger violates
Measuring proximity
Liking of an object or person linked to proximity
- if we like something, we tend to place it closer towards us
- of we like someone, we tend to sit nearer to the person
Can be assessed via approach avoidance task
- assesses innate impulses to be close to things
- if we like something, we tend to place it near
- if we do not like something, we tend to place it further away
Approach avoidance task (AAT)
Approach and avoidance are basic
Pleasant stimuli produce approach stendecias, negative stimuli produce avoidance
Approach associate with pulling objects closer, while avoidance associated with pushing away
If someone is exhibiting impulsivity towards a pleasant or rewarding stimulus (e.g. drug), we would expect to place closer
How we do capture the approach vs avoidance?
- joystick type machine
Ppts are told to pull or push joystick in response to stimulus (RInck & Becker, 2007)
- avoidance has tendency to push joystick away
- approach has tendency to pull joystick towards them
Assessing “living” via proximity
- ppts first sort neutral blocks to train them
~ landscape block = push away
- portrait block = pull toward
Replace neutral blocks with emotional vs neutral stimuli
- alcohol
- cigarettes
- guitars/trading cards/my cat
If ppts like a stimulus presented during the task
- accidentally pull rewarding stimuli towards them when they are meant to push it away based on the orientation of image
- they will also be quicker to pull the joystick towards them (and slower to push it away) when sorting rewarding stimuli
Physical contact and touch
Touch
- earliest messages that we receive
- within the first few moments of life, we are swaddled and cuddled close to our parents
Role in development
- touch has an important influence on our early developmental experiences, which influence our lifelong attitudes toward touch
Lack of touch
- indicated emotional detachment
- wanting to be touched seems to be innate
- releases oxytocin
Harlow monkey experiment
- infant monkeys given two surrogate mothers
- wire mother provided food
- soft mother provided touch and warmth
Attachment theory and touch
Touch and self-wroth
-during our earliest experiences with touch, we receive early signals about our self-worth and ability of others to help us
For example
- a hungry, crying infant is fed and held develops a sense of self-wroth and trust in others; behave securely in adult relationships
- a child who does not receive the necessary care and attention approached adult relationships with hesitation or dismissiveness
Secure attachments
- confidence in one’s self and one’s attachment partner
Avoidant attachments
- belief hat one’s attachment partner may not be able to meet one’s needs
Gaze
Gazing
- easy way to quickly obtain information
- we quickly sort and categorise information like age, gender, race, attractiveness and social class
Communicative function
- game can be interpreted as a messy of attention or interest
Prolonged staring and discomfort
- promotes discomfort for the person being viewed
- particularly if expression of interest is not desired
Male gaze
- the objectification of women’s bodies through prolonged staring
- power and social differences cause an individual to feel demeaned
Returning the gaze
- not all gaze Is one-sided; interaction partners often return their gaze
Gaze and emotions
Locking of eyes and romance
- couple more likely to describe romantic love after locking eyes
- eye contact is an easy way to let someone know that you have romantic feelings for them
Gaze can convey threat
- the ‘evil eye’
- narrowed eyes
The pupil
Pupil dialtion
- the widening of the centre of one’s eyes
- may send unintentional messages of romantic interest
Function of pupil dilation
- pupils widen when looking at something sexually appealing or attractive
- attraction toward larger pupils, as it indicates interest
Smell
Activation of memory through scent
- personal experience often determines whether a positive memory is associated with a particular smell
Evaluative continuum
- the positive or negative destruction of a smell
- limited if microsmatic (having a poor sense of smell)
~ humans typically microsmatic, but varies
Functions of scents
May indicate features of an interaction partner
- health
- activity
Reproductive synchrony (por mensual synchrony):
- empirically weak phenomenon
- women living together often sync menstrual cycles
- can smell influence basis biological functions?
Pheromones
- substance secreted by body to communicate with another individual of the same species
- evidence in animals, but impact on humans is unclear
Vomeronasal organ (VNO)
- found in many animals, processes pheromones
- humans do not have functioning VNO
