Good morning dear participants and welcome to the first module of our course on Body

Language. As all of us are aware, body language is an integral part of our professional communication.

A positive body language helps us in projecting ourselves in a more successful manner. In

today’s module, we would try to understand the basic definitions of body language, the

scope and relevance.

The study of body language is important for us as it alerts us to the inconsistencies,

which exists between what one says and also what one conveys. Because it is with the help

of the micro and macro expressions of body language that we can comprehend the attitudes

and emotions of people in dietetic as well as in interpersonal situations.

We can make out whether a particular individual is humble or arrogant or is being condescending

or too demanding etcetera and at the same time, whether one is talking under certain

depression or is in angry mode whether one is impatient or indifferent etcetera. So,

these signals of body language help us to understand the true personality and the true

intention of a person. We can say that the body language alerts us to the possibilities

of reading an individual in the same manner in which we can read a book and decipher its

meaning. We can find out the inconsistencies, which exists between the verbally statements

and the nonverbal communication with the basis of the intonations, gestures, voice control

etcetera and therefore, we understand the truth and then we can also provide the necessary

feedback accordingly.

Nonverbal aspects of communication have macro as well as micro expressions. Now, what exactly

is the difference between the macro and micro expressions of body language? Macro expressions

are those expressions and aspects of body language which are visible to us. For example,

if I smile (this smile is visible), it is a macro expression.

On the other hand, micro expressions are those expressions which are very tiny almost fleeting

expressions, but it is the truth which is communicated through micro expressions in

particular. There have been several audio recordings when people have been asked to

describe their colleagues for example, or a particular movie. It has been noticed that

during these audio and also the video recordings, people were careful to use positive epithets

to depict their colleagues. However, in the micro expressions one could read their association

and their intentions towards the other people. For example, we could make out whether a person

likes the colleague whom he or she has been asked to describe or not or what type of animosity

or what level of friendship might exist between the two.

These, micro expressions may be very tiny for example, there may be a twitch in a muscle

just below the eye or there may be a twitch of a muscle over here (hemifacial) or my smile

may try to communicate something, but the eyes contradict that emotion.

Now, these micro expressions are significant aspect of body language much more significant

than the macro ones. The phrase micro expressions was used for the first time by Paul Ekman

in his book Telling Lies which had come out in 1985. These macro and micro expressions

are basically communicated through our touch, glance, eye contact, volume those aspects

which exactly are a part of our body and at the same time those aspects which are not

necessarily or strictly speaking a part of our body. For example, the dress we wear the

smell which we wear the accessories which we carry with us. But in today’s highly

competitive world we find that these aspects are also an extension of what we know in understand

as body language. And therefore, we find that because of the growing presence of media,

the growing competitiveness in the business world as well as in other professions a significant

understanding of body language is must. Media presence has also made our obsession

with this particular field of a study, heightened. Particularly our obsession with celebrity

has also enhanced our awareness of it. We find that magazines as well as video channels

TV channels carry endless stories on the body language of celebrities. Body language of

actress actresses political and social leaders are disseminated endlessly.

I would refer to a very interesting incident here where one FBI agent tried to analyze

the eyelid fluttering of Madonna to see whether she was lying about her pregnancy on NBC television

program. So, we can find that the enhanced media awareness as well as the continuous

growth in the technology today has made this particular aspect of a study a significant

one.

If we look at the definitions of body language or the nonverbal aspects of communication,

we find that different dictionaries have tried to define them in interesting manner. The

Twelfth Edition of Collins English Dictionary, which was published in 2012 has defined it

as the “nonverbal imparting of information by means of conscious or subconscious bodily

gestures and postures etc”. So, here we could find that this definition

has concentrated on the communication of information through conscious as well as unconscious aspects

of our micro and macro signals. These two aspects that is the conscious and unconscious

ones we would discuss after a couple of minutes. Webster’s New World College Dictionary in

it is Fifth Edition, which came out in 2012 defines it as “gestures unconscious bodily

movements facial expressions etcetera, which service nonverbal communication or as accompaniments

to a speech”. Hedwig Lewis has described body language as “the communication of personal

feelings, emotions, attitudes and thoughts through body movements; gestures, postures,

positions and distances either consciously or involuntarily, more often subconsciously

and accompanied or unaccompanied by the spoken language”.

In all these definitions I think that the definition by Hedwig Lewis is by far more

complete than the other dictionary definitions.

Body language or nonverbal aspects of communication can be used either in addition to words or

even independent of words. For example, in a crowded room we can try to attract the attention

of a friend or a colleague by making certain gestures even though the voice is not audible.

At the same time we find that when we look at the communication in its totality that

is the words as well as the nonverbal aspects of communication we can imagine the totality

of the situation. The complete picture emerges before us only when we combine the two. It

also provides the immediate feedback, for example, we are talking to a person and then

looking at the expressions of that individual we can make out how much has been internalized

by that person or whether some more clarifications are required about a particular aspect.

These aspects make it very important in interpersonal and group interactions because more than half

of what we try to say is communicated not through words, but through the nonverbal aspects

of communication. Even though the codified studies of nonverbal aspects of communication

is started much later we find that mankind has always been aware of its significance.

In literature and in arts there have been in numerous references to it.

The literary and artistic awareness can be traced as early as Shakespeare. Shakespeare

has particularly alluded to the expression of eyes and he has often looked at eyes as

an expression of human character. For example, in Much Ado about Nothing he says “Let me

see his eyes, that when I note another man like him, I may avoid him” or in Henry IV

he says “I see a strange confession in thine eye” or in Henry VI, Part II, he says “look

not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding”. So, we can see that as early as the renaissance

time people were aware of the significance of body language and what exactly was their

role in communicating ideas, information and emotions to others.

In art also we find that various painters and artists have utilized richly the nonverbal

aspects of communication.

I particularly refer to this painting The Cardsharps by the famous Italian painter Caravaggio

who had painted this particular canvas in late 16th or early 17th century and he has

drawn on kinesics the body postures to paint a libelous scene from the low everyday life

of his contemporary society.

This particular fresco painting is an iconic painting by Michelangelo. It is a part of

the Sistine Chapels ceiling, which was painted during 1508-1512. It is an iconic representation

of humanity where god himself is extending his hand to humanity and we can look at the

expression, which has been presented here with the way the fingers have started to talk

to each other. So, simply by looking at the fingers we can try to make out the meaning

which the artist wants to convey.

However the painting which is closest to my heart is a painting by one of my countrymen.

This is a 19th century painting by Vishwanath Dhurandhar. In this particular painting he

has presented before us- a scene at a Hindu wedding. We can look at it and find that each

person has a distinct face, the outfit is also intricately detailed and the body language

of each person who has been painted here is dissimilar. So, you would find that each character

in this painting speaks a different language and we can make out the intentions, the sensitivities

and the social standings simply by looking at the body language painted so cleverly by

the artist here.

Even outside the domains of literature and fine arts we find that there has been a continuous

professional awareness of body language. It has been used continuously by roman orators

and rhetoricians and I particularly referred to Cicero and Quintillion in particular who

had emphasized on the harmony of a speech gesture and face and also recognize the significance

of the tone of the voice. It was particularly important in the contemporary

rudimentary democratic situations. In the 18th and 19th centuries we find that the European

elocution movement also emphasized on the body movements and vocalizations. The earliest

academic study can be credited to Charles Darwin, whose work The Expression of the Emotions

in Man and Animals was published in 1872. He studied facial expressions in the context

of evolutionary principles. Even though his finding was based on largely anecdotal data,

we find that most of the comments which Darwin had made in 1872 are still valid and they

have got further validation on the basis of more recent scientific investigation.

However the codified academic study into the science of body language has started only

in the 20th century. We find that it was in the 1940s rather late 1940s that at the university

of Pennsylvania professor Ray Birdwhistell is started looking at the nonverbal aspects

of communication. He was an anthropologist and very soon we find that several other people

were drawn to this research. Several terms which we still use to a study the field of

body language, but invented by professor Ray Birdwhistell and his fellow researchers. For

example, Birdwhistell use the term kinesics in 1952.

George L Trager use the term ‘paralinguistic’s, somewhere around 1950s E T Hall used the word

Proxemics in 1959. Professor Ray Birdwhistell was also joined by Albert Mehrabian was a

faculty at UCLA and as I have read somewhere though I do not recall the exit reference,

he was also perhaps a professionally trained ballet dancer. So, his insights into the art

form also provided a study material to Professor Ray Birdwhistell.

Professor ray Birdwhistell and Albert Mehrabian is started to record people’s reactions

under lab control situations to find out the significance and the true nature of nonverbal

aspects of communication, they primarily studied nonverbal aspects of communication which they

termed as NVC in order to comprehend the structures of human interaction as a whole but very soon

we find that this study started to have an overreaching influence over the contemporary

fields of a study. They had never use the word body language.

In fact, in all their writings they have used consistently nonverbal aspects of communication

or any of the terms which they had used earlier. However, ‘body language’ was a layman’s

term for ‘nonverbal’ aspects of communication which was popularized in 1970s with the publication

of a book by Julius Fast. Body language was a title of this book and as sometimes happens

the title becomes catchier than the book, it also has happened with another book the

title of which is I’m Ok You’re Ok. So, the same phenomena had happened with body

language also we do not remember much about the book itself; however, the title has remained

in our memory since then.

Now, what exactly is the significance of body language? These researchers, Professor Ray

Birdwhistell and Mehrabian noted and recorded almost a million nonverbal cues and signals.

Albert Mehrabian at one moment had suggested that the total impact of a message is a combination

of verbal content paralanguage and body language. He had put verbal content at 7% paralanguage

that is tone of the voice intonations inflections etcetera, at 35% and body language that is

gestures postures eye contact etcetera at 58%. Even though he has later on modified

it and said that it cannot be rigidly compartmentalized as it is. But the fact remains that in any

face to face communication particularly the verbal content is the least important, what

is more important is the body language, the kinesics aspects of it their facial features

and the paralanguage.

In this module I am listing 9 components of body language, which we are going to discuss

in detail later on. So, lets look at them one by one.

The first aspect of body language which we are going to study is Proxemics. Proxemics

is a study which analyzes the communicators sense of physical distance with the recipient

in terms of signals and codes; that means, how much distance we want to keep between

the two of us, if it is a dyadic situation between us and the other people if it is an

interpersonal group situation. Now, at the same time we find that Proxemics

does not only study the distance between the two or more interactants, it also looks at

the arrangement of the space in different socio cultural patterns.

The second aspect which we shall study is known as Oculesics or the study of eye movement.

Oculesics studies and analyzes the behavior of the eyes the language of the eyes the movements

of the eyes and whether it is different in a right handed person and in a left handed

person. So, these aspects are studied in Oculesics the different type of gazes and their interpretations

in a professional world are important to understand for all of us.

The third aspect, which we shall look at is known as Haptics which is the language of

touch or let us say it also studies the absence of touch in those situations, where it matters

it analyzes communication which is done through human touch and how this touch communicates

our feelings and emotions whether it is socially appropriate or not. In the visuals you can

look at how the same touch can convey different attitudes and emotions to people.

The fourth is Kinesics. Kinesics studies body gestures and postures in the movement of the

people particularly. There are three aspects of Kinesics, which we shall study and these

3 aspects are known as Emblems, Illustrators and Affect Displays. Emblems looks at the

codified meanings of fixed symbols. For example, the underwater swimmers coat has a particular

codified meaning or for example, or traffic signal persons actions. So, or the language

of the deaf and the dumb. So, these are emblems and therefore, because

it is a codified study of fixed symbols in their meanings we are not going to look at

this aspect of kinesics. We would focus on the next two aspects that is illustrators

and affect displays of kinesics. What exactly are illustrators?

These are those micro and macro signals which illustrate what we want to say. For example,

if I want to say yes I would not speak it out with a deadpan face and say ‘yes’,

I would rather say ‘yes’ or I would not say ‘no’ in a deadpan manner I would say

‘no’. So, you would find that these expressions are illustrators no human being can speak

without introducing some component of body language in one’s communication.

It is true that those of us who are extroverts use body language in a much more relaxed manner

our gestures and postures would be more expressive. On the other hand a person who is shy and

introvert would be using less gestures, but it is very strange to look at a person using

a speech without illustrating it with body language.

Affect displays are also a type of an illustrator. The only difference is that illustrators,

illustrate the true intention of a person, but affect displays allow us to tell a lie.

Now there are certain social situations where a polite lie is perhaps expected. You might

have visited a friend and you have being served a pudding or a piece of cake or some cookies,

which are atrociously prepared. So, what do you say? “It’s tasty” no, you would

say “oh! It’s so yummy it’s so tasty” but you say it with a false smile in order

to communicate your happiness and at the same time in order to appreciate the true sentiments

over which it has been served to you. So, sometimes you would find that these polite

lies are the requirements of a society, these are affect displays. However, we cannot continuously

use these affect displays to hide the true intention of our heart. Very soon within a

couple of seconds, the true intention comes out and therefore, affect displays can serve

their purpose only for maybe a minute or two unless and until we are trained actors.

The fifth aspect of body language is known as paralanguage, it is everything which is

related with our voice except the meaning of the words. We can pronounce the same word

in order to convey different types of meanings. Those of us who are in teaching know how to

use it very effectively, if there is a late comer in the class we may allow the late comer,

but we would allow it with very effective paralanguage to convey what exactly we feel

about that particular person. We can say ‘yes come in’ or ‘yes come in’ or ‘yes

do come in’ (with different expressions). So, you would find that the anger, the irony

is being expressed over this variation of tone with a variations of inflections. Sometimes

it can be artificial, but most of the times it comes out naturally. Paralanguage is studies

the voice codes and at the same time it also studies the silences in those places, where

the words should have been spoken.

The sixth aspect which we shall is study is known as Chronemics, it analyzes the role

of time and communication. We keep time in different ways we keep time as an individual,

we keep time as a society we also have a cultural definition of time. So, these aspects of time

would be studied in Chronemics.

Chromatics is a study of colors particularly the social aspects and we find that color

is also used to communicate a particular type of message. So, these aspects we would study

under chromatics.

Olfactics is based on our sense of a smell. A smell can be positive as well as a negative

one. It can be a personal choice, but more often now we find that it has become a social

and cultural choice. There are certain cultures in which it is almost compulsory to wear some

type of a smell, there are certain cultures in which smells are particularly the smells

we wear on our body are frowned upon. So, it is a personal statement, but more so, it

is also a social and professional statement. So, we would study it is significance under

Olfactics.

The ninth aspect of body language which we shall study is about the Artifacts. Artifacts

analyzed communicator’s sense of dressing style of putting makeup accessories on body

etcetera which become a statement of personality and emotions. This is not exactly a part of

our body, but at the same time we study it is a part of body language because like our

body gestures and postures etcetera, it is an extension of what we want to say.

If we look at this particular slide, we would find that the meaning of body language becomes

clear to us. Every single person who is attending this meeting except the supervisor or the

boss is conveying a negative emotion, but this negativity has not been translated into

the words. So, we can either ignore words, but then we would only have 50% of the communication.

On the other hand, we find that the body language suggests something which is not being communicated

through the silence.

So, nonverbal aspects of communication involve those nonverbal stimuli in a situation, where

we not only look at the message which is being communicated through words, but we are also

looking at what type of nonverbal aspects have been used by the source that is the sender

as well as by the receiver or by the listener. So, we would find that it can be intentional

and it can also be unintentional though most of the time, it is unintentional. Most of

the times we find that a speakers are not even conscious of their own body language.

Sometimes when we want to use it with certain intention as we might do in our use of affect

displays this particular aspect of kinesics we find that we can control it in a very limited

manner, we cannot control it for more than 2 minutes or maximum 3 minutes. And that is

why in most of the spoken competitions the time which we said is at least 3 minutes.

At the same time our body language is also a product of our society and culture. The

inter-cultural aspects of body language are so important that if we ignore them it can

lead to certain misgivings and misunderstandings. These aspects of cultural variations and differences

would be a compulsory part of each of our discussion.

We would find that in our highly competitive professions body language has become more

and more important. As the nature and demands of different professions is growing, we find

that our understanding of body language would help us in understanding the intentions and

attitudes of the people and at the same time it would provide us a better orientation.

Whether it is related with patient counseling or physiotherapies or rehabilitation courses

on nurses etcetera or whether it is the job of a caregiver of children with special needs

or it is the job of a school teacher or people who are working as information analyst or

criminologists or FBI of police interrogators etcetera or practicing lawyers managers or

even, us, simple university teachers. So, you would find that an understanding of body

language helps us in avoiding the misinterpretations and conflicts and antagonists in different

situations. We would be able to pass on our ideas with

better confidence and with better effectiveness in any situation if we understand the significance

of our own body language and at the same time we would emerge as a better listener also,

because we would be looking at not only the meaning which is conveyed through words, but

also the meaning which is conveyed through the nonverbal aspects of our communication.

So, in different work situations we would find that an understanding of our body language

is very important.

Whereas it is important to understand body language, we find that contextualizing our

body language is equally important. The individual differences do exist. Our body language is

not a duplicate of anyone else’s body language normally and at the same time there are cultural

differences also as we have referred to. For example, in Japan listeners particularly women

are taught to focus on a speaker’s neck in order to avoid eye contact. In China as

well as in Middle East a one has to pay respect to the other person, the eye contact is normally

avoided. On the other hand in the USA listeners are encouraged to have a direct eye contact

and to gaze into the speakers eyes. At the same time we would find that there

are certain cultural stereotypes which are based on gender differences. In those cultures,

when the gender equality is practically nonexistent we find that these stereotypes have a greater

hold on people and in different situations a particularly in intercultural and interracial

situations, these signals can often be misread. It is therefore, particularly important for

us to focus on the cultural differences, the gender stereotypes and the use of body language

and the necessity of contextualizing our body language.

A language is made up of words, sentences and paragraphs. Body language is also made

up of similarly words, sentences and paragraphs. Each gesture is like a single word and as

we know a word may have different meaning. Here I have quoted an example, which have

been used by Allan Pease. He has referred to an English word dressing which has at least

ten different meanings including the act of putting on clothing, a sauce for food, stuffing

for a fowl etcetera. Even a simple word like ‘wood’ may have different meanings and

connotations. So, if we are using a single word the meaning does not become clear. In

the same way we find a gesture is like a single word. A frown on our face is like a single

word, which can have different meanings. If you put the same word in a sentence then it

has a better clarity and a sentence in body language has an equivalence in a clusters

of gestures and or postures. For example, we may say wood and it may have

some different meanings. In the same way, a single smile or a single frown may have

different possible meanings. We put the word in a sentence. I need a piece of wood. So,

the idea becomes clear we look at this smile, we look at the movement of a person we listen

to the paralanguage and then it becomes a sentence to us. Then we put a sentence into

a para and try to contextualize it- “I need a piece of wood it is so hot”, “let us

have some fire in the garden”. So, now, it has become a properly worded paragraph

which conveys a contextual meaning, which cannot be debated easily.

The paragraph has it is equivalents in nonverbal aspects of communication with the introduction

of cultural variations, gender stereotypes as well as certain time gap. If we keep on

looking at a person and look at the cultural differences, look at the gender stereotypes

and learn to avoid them and also have a significant couple of minutes to watch the body language

of a person it becomes an equivalent of paragraph. So, that is why we find that the need to contextualize

body language is very important. It is tempting to decipher the body language of a person

after listening to a talk after having gone through an article or a popular book, but

let us not hurry into looking at a fixed meaning simply by looking at a particular idea or

a particular gesture. For example, I may rub my nose, it is known as a difference of gesture

as we would discuss later on, but right now maybe I am suffering from a bad cold and I

have an a itching. So, you would find that jumping into conclusion on the basis of a

single isolated gesture is never helpful.

So, now we can see that contextualizing body language is important, if you overlook the

context we run into the danger of miss ratings and nonverbal aspects of communication.

The five common mistakes which have been referred to by Carol Goman can be listed over here,

which we tend to make in interpreting body language of other people. We may forget to

consider the context or associate the meaning with a single gesture, we focus too much on

what is being said with the help of words we do not know what has been the starting

point of a person and we just the body language of another person through the bias of one’s

own culture. So, in this lecture we have discussed the

basic definitions of body language, the emergence of body language as a field of a study over

the passage of time, it is significance in the scope and different aspects of body language,

which we would study. In our next lecture we would begin our discussion of these different

aspects gradually. Thank you.