This week we were asked to watch a television show, once with the sound off and once with it on, to observe the use of nonverbal expressions. I chose an episode of "The Big Bang Theory". In this episode, the four male friends are gathered in the living room talking. One character, "Raj", is talking excitedly, smiling and gesturing with his hands. The others are leaning in listening to him. At one point one of the characters, "Sheldon", gets up and walks tot he kitchen. When he turns back to the group, his face is stoic and he is talking quickly and shaking his head. As the camera shows Raj again, his posture has changed and he is no longer smiling. Given the little I know about the show, I assumed that Sheldon had made a comment about what Raj was talking about that proved him wrong about some scientific fact. The other two characters, in looking on at the exchange, go from intently engaged with eye contact, smiles, and raised eyebrows, to looking down and no longer smiling. Raj gets up and leaves. The other characters look at Sheldon and begin speak emphatically, with furrowed eyebrows. Sheldon remains expressionless and shrugs his shoulders.
In watching it again, Raj was given recognition for discovering a new star and Sheldon downplayed the event as minor when there are other facets of science that are "more important". I was correct in my assumption about Sheldon's act of commenting on Raj's idea.
This exercise proved difficult because you could interpret the expressions in so many ways based on the knowledge you have of the individuals. Knowing that Sheldon often expresses such comments in his peer group, one watching might have been able to predict that this would happen. It shows that it is important to have an understanding of individual personalities in order to effectively interpret their communication styles.
Katherine, you are so correct in saying that it helps to understand someones personality in communication. I think that is true when you can hear what the people are saying. In real life, it is important to remember people's personality when communicating. For example, there are people with dry senses of humor that, unless you already knew that about them, would have a hard time "getting" it. The sa,e is true in written communication, which I am eager to cover in this class.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I agree personalities play a part in the communication, but the down side to understanding and knowing someone's personality is that we may make an assumption as to how they may act in a particular situation and it may not be true at all. But at least with understanding how a person may handle situation helps in preparing.
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