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From: mistersquashy
Date: Mon Dec 23, 2002 9:42pm
Subject: Reading Body Language
Anti Essays : Psychology : Body Language
Sometimes it\'s easy to tell what is on a person\'s mind by the way
they position their body. Facial expressions also give clues as to
what other people are thinking. The way a person stands, positions
their arms, and smiles can tell a lot about them. Men and women
typically have different movements, which mean different things.
People position their bodies in many different ways when standing.
The most intimate of them being, face to face, hip to hip (Fenney
102). This is something that usually only men do when they\'re mad.
When conducting an experiment, in which she acted like a man for a
day, Susan Fenney stood this way towards a male coworker. He would
keep inching away from her. Within five minutes he had done two
complete circles (Fenney 102).
Men usually take up more space while sitting down. It is not
necessarily because they are bigger; men were raised believing that
they have more power then women (Fenney 102). They are also more
likely to take an armrest, and least likely to give up a subway seat
to a pregnant lady (Fenney 102).
The way men and women greet people is very different. Contrary to
popular beliefs, men are more likely to touch women when they greet
them, then women are to touch men. Men usually touch people on their
upper body, for instance, back-slapping. When Susan Fenney tried this
on her boss on her day as a man, he was startled and took a moment to
answer her. It is more like women to touch people on the shoulder or
arm (Fenney 102).
Facial expressions are great indicators of what is on people\'s
minds. The face has 44 muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, which can
twist into 5,000 different expressions (Blum 34). Facial expressions
are not always easy to read though. As Dr. Paul Ekman said, \"In a
sense, the face is equipped to lie the most and leak the most, and
thus can be a very confusing source of information\" (Blum 34). The
face is able to signal emotions in a second, and it is also able to
hide emotions just as well (Blum 32). Researchers have come up with 6
basic and different expressions that are usually the most easy to
read and make. Those are: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise,
and happiness (Blum 34).
Smiles are the most easily recognized way of showing happiness. We
can see when someone is smiling more clearly when away from them 300
feet (the length of a football field) then any other expression (Blum
34). Smiling can mean a lot of different things. Usually it means \"I
like you and I hope you like me\" (Fenney 105). Other times it can
mean things like \"I\'m embarrassed\", \"I\'m shy\", or \"get away
from me because I\'m feeling uptight\" (Gay 15). There are many
different kinds of smiles. A grocery store clerk gives a customer a
smile that is a lot different then the smiles on the faces of a
person that just won the lottery. A polite smile (like a bank teller
would smile) is slightly turned up at the edges of the lips, but has
no effect on the eyes. There is also the felt smile, which is when
your lips pull upward and your eyes crinkle (Blum 34). Women tend to
give friendly, nonthreatening smiles while they look at people,
unlike men who generally don\'t change their facial expression
(Fenney 105).
A lot of body language is learned while we are young. It is easy for
babies to learn that a nod means \"yes\" and a shake of the head
means \"no\" (Gay 13). Young kids tend to learn by copying their
older brothers and sisters. This is where some learn things like
grooming, dressing, walking and sitting. Children without siblings
learn from other people, like their parents (Gay 13).
Some body language is instinct. Before young children can even talk,
they bite when they are mad. The naturalist, Charles Darwin, explains
that this is like young crocodiles that \"snap their little jaws as
soon as they emerge from the egg\" (Gay 15). It is also understood
that when someone has their arms open towards you, it means to \"come
here\" (Gay 13). George Rotter, Ph.D., said, \"The abilities to
express and recognize emotion are inborn, genetic, and evolutionary\"
(Blum 34). Some things that can affect our ability to recognize
emotions are culture, parenting, and experience. Some studies suggest
that abused children are likely to not be able to correctly identify
other\'s facial expressions, and therefore are more likely to get in
trouble (Blum 34).
Facial expressions and body language can help give clues as to what
people are thinking. We make constant movements every second of the
day without realizing it. Trying to read facial expressions can be
very hard, because they are so quick. Body language, on the other
hand, is more easily read. We are taught some very obvious types of
body language, like that someone is lying when they won\'t look you
in the eye, but there are many more than that. Watching people from a
distance, you can usually determine how they feel about each other,
whether they are friends, family, or just plain strangers. Body
language is something we see everyday that helps us to communicate
without words.
Works Cited
Blum, Deborah, \"Face It!,\" Psychology Today Oct 98: 32-66.
Fenney, Susan, \"What I Got When I Acted Like a Guy,\" Redbook April
95: 102-105.
Gay, Kathlyn. Body Talk. New York: Charles Scriber\'s Sons, 1974
| Replies | Author | Yahoo! ID | Date | Size |
| 2033: Re: Reading Body Language | happany | happany | Tue 24/12/2002 | 7 KB |
| 2056: Re: Reading Body Language | killerb_0187 | killerb_0187 | Thu 26/12/2002 | 7 KB |
