Essay on Purpose of Non-Verbal Communication

Introduction

Communication is the trading of information by utterance, writing or using of another medium. Communication may be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal include using oral or written form while non-verbal uses the tone, facial expressions, touching others, use of personal space, and body actions and gesticulations. In this section am going to discuss the non-verbal communication which has its functions in our day to day activities.

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Involving in and detecting messages of emotion, influence, and trickery is one of the functions of the non-verbal communication. In an expression of emotion, this is how you feel when you are with others. For example, crying, glowering or hugging will be expressing sadness. In happiness, the non-verbal cues which show this are laughing shouting and jumping. However there is always a mixture of emotions, in some cases, one cannot express a single sentiment. The best instance when a romantic mate proposes to you, happiness and surprise to both parties are the likely outcomes as expressions.

Another way non-verbal communication used is by influencing people or a group especially in a promotion of a particular product. In advertisements, good-looking individuals used to represent the product. Non-verbal communication can also be used to cheat others, as well as to discover the trickery of others. There some behaviors that help one to detect deception these are like eye contact, pausing maybe before speaking or jiggling.

Biased language is language presenting feelings that lack fairness. A biased language uses offensive words towards a person or a group of people about their sex, age, illness, race or disability either deliberately or by mistake. Biased language impacts attitude, behaviors, and perception of people towards others. Prejudiced communication has a negative impact on feelings. It passes unconfirmed information that could be presumed to be real information thus take the lead to the enhancement of negative attitudes among the issue (Bevan and Sole, 2014). Negative feelings in this view are defining feelings of sorrow, frustration, and regret about person's outward show. Biased language forms within our minds a subjective perception of others which influence our relations, for example when one has a negative attitude towards a specific race when interacting he may tend to seclude himself or has some things which he cannot share with the individuals in that race. Or one develops hatred towards others and leads to always conflict in opinions and the way of dealing with issues.

Biased language impacts negatively on the behavior displayed by individuals too. The hatred created leads to lack or inadequacy of commitment towards ensuring the comfort of others which may lead to slow growth of an institution especially if they are the leaders of the department. It leads to the belief that others have an advantage over you due to their race, age or other traits thus may see some people resort to avoiding training some groups of people in their working environment. It also creates self-doubt in individuals in their activities and leads to lower productivity in the organization or slower rate of achieving their goals.

Biased language makes people see others either as being more capable or less capable in their everyday jobs (Skawinska, 2016) which may hinder a person being hired in a role because the owner has a negative perception maybe towards his or her race. On another side, a person may fear to ask for something from a person because they differ in race or age. In other case, people may see themselves as being less treasured due to a sense that they are of a less preferred race or color. Others as well may develop a negative perception about those who are hurt by the biases in the language. For example, an individual may be less trustworthy towards to an individual from a specific race because there is a belief that that particular race is full of thieves which is just a perception.

In general, the significance of understanding biased language is that it facilitates the understanding the effect set by subjectivity in the exchange of information. An understanding of prejudiced communication, as a result, stimulates that need to verify information before accepting it as knowledge which plays a fundamental role in cultivating a positive social relations experience among the people.

In the sex-inventory role the results were:

• The score of masculinity was 105
• The score for femininity was 75

In the graph, I fall into the masculine position.

The gender positioning is always related to the way all of us communicate. I fall into the masculine position the following are the ways which show the relationship in communication. Use communication to declare and defend myself and my opinions; use talk to achieve something. Use language to pull the audience towards you and maintain the audience. I use communication to battle with others for the "talk stage," so that they don't acquire more attention than me; learn to snatch the focus from others and onto myself.

In communication, I use both feminine and masculine styles according to the audience although I find the male traits being much dominant. The masculine characteristics I use are; use of speech to accomplish a contributory objective and conversational dominance. The feminine features I use are; support for others and responsiveness.

I use speech to achieve instrumental objectives. Men are aware of how to do things, attain goals (Bellinger &Gleason, f 982). In a discussion, this puts across through problem-solving attempts that concentrate on obtaining information, finding out facts, and recommending solutions. I assert myself and position myself firmly. Although I have this trait, I always give others a room to express themselves. Secondly, conversational dominance is the other trait. Despite jokes about women talking too much, research points out that in most circumstances, males not only hold their own but control the conversation. This trend, although not portrayed in childhood, is evident in a preschool child (Austin, Salehi, & Leffler, 1987). In this, I talk more frequently and for a period and engage in verbal behaviors that sustain conversational control especially in discussions. I control in the sense of interrupting when a point in my topic skips. I also challenge other speakers on the stage.

I support for others in what they are right. To show support, I often express understanding and empathy with a situation which a friend is in or feelings. "Oh, they must feel awful," "I tend to feel what you are feeling," or, "I think you didn't have an option" are communicative pointers that we understand and support how that other individual feels. In this, I tend to deviate from the main topic and concentrate on the relationship and feelings of who we are communicating. I often do this when talking to women or ladies because at times this is what they expect, dealing with the topic but not with much seriousness.

The second feminine trait is the responsiveness to communication. I usually respond in some fashion to what others say. I use statements like; "Tell me more" or" That's motivating "; when engaged I nod use eye contact or another facial expression to show you. Responsiveness show learned norms to care about other individuals and to make them feel appreciated and involved (Kemper, 1984; Lakoff, I975). It raises the self-esteem of that other person and encourages amplification by showing interest in what was said.

"Androgynous" communication is much about flexing the exchange of information between the two different genders or paying attention to gender in communication which has a positive effect in effective communication and helps us become effective communicators. It increases our self-esteem to a level." Androgynous" communication helps create confidence to individuals mainly in people of different gender in an organization. It also builds elasticity to move in and out of feminine and masculine styles which is crucial to an adaptive communication. According to whom you are talking at a specific time whether feminine or masculine. In this our communication becomes effective.

"Androgynous" communication helps in people not to appear as a stranger to the opposite sex. When the communication is not flexible, and one is in the middle of individuals of the opposite gender, one may feel uncomfortable or view those people as strangers, and this helps one to communicate more effectively in the sense that the individual is comfortable. "Androgynous" communication helps to close the gap one feels when that specific individual is interaction with the opposite sex. Androgynous communication expands the range of communication in the people. It gives one someone more choices when communicating, a choice of getting in and out of feminine and masculine styles. One doesn't need to be so much feminine or masculine when communicating. In the organizational point of view "androgynous" communication helps improve the workplace. People in the organization work freely without feeling strange or misplaced when placed together with the opposite sex. It also aids in achieving the goals of the organization faster because they are working beyond settling communication disputes due to poor communication.

The video 'digital communication skills', teaches us on dos and don'ts in communication. In computer-mediated transfer, there are those things that are or should observe in this communication. In this exchange, one should only communicate when necessary which should happen especially in an organization, which use cell phones and emails. In this communication, one should be brief and clear. Choose the words well to prevent ambiguity in the statements which are a form of verbal communication so non-verbal cues are not in to clear the exchange, and this leads to increased miscommunication.

Conclusion

In the social life, the computer-mediated communication should also be observed keenly to avoid hurting who one is communicating. In this, one should check and assess the communication partner. One should know what the partner is going through at that specific time so that one can avoid questions that might affect the communication partner. For example, one may be heartbroken by the lover, so when communicating you should avoid talking or putting so much emphasis on relationships or else without your knowledge might hurt that individual.

When communicating with someone you should actively listen to your partner if it is oral. In computer-mediated communication, one should concentrate to avoid being repetitive or asking an answered question. Concentration reduces the chances of time wastage and boring your partner.

References

Sex-role inventory test. Retrieved from

HYPERLINK "https://personality-testing.info/test/OSRI/" https://personality-testing.info/test/OSRI/

Kathleen, S. 1995. Voices. Belmont: Wadsworth Publisher.

Bevan, J., & Sole, K. 2014. Understanding Interpersonal Communication, 2nd edition. San Diego: Bridgepoint education.