Non-verbal Observation free essay sample

Have you ever sat back and observed the world around you with no sound? Watching people in their natural habitats, examining their every move. Today I went to the beach and observed a group of people through non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is the act of communicating through wordless messages. Body language and other non-verbal cues are a larger portion of communication than most people assume. (pg. 78) I watched a group of people from afar and was not able to listen to their conversations, but I observed their body language. There was an elderly couple that appeared to be the head of the family. The woman was wearing a sunhat, a polo, and capris, while the man was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with board shorts, and a baseball cap. Sitting next to them was a woman in her thirties wearing a sundress with and extravagant sunhat, and a man in his late thirties, wearing a bathing suit with a baseball cap. Two children sat beside them playing in the sand. One of the children was a little girl who had strawberry blonde hair, freckles and pale skin, resembling the mother, and the other was a little boy with dark brown hair and olive colored skin, resembling the father. The girl looked to be about 5 years old and the boy about 8 years old. They all seemed to be enjoying the beautiful Rhode Island weather. The family that I was observing appeared to be of the Irish and Italian decent. I came to this assumption based on their physical characteristics. The little girl and her mother looked to be very Irish. They both had pale skin and many freckles with strawberry blonde hair. The father and son; on the other hand, appeared to be very Italian. They both had dark hair and tan skin. Both grandparents showed prominently Italian heritage, from their tan skin and hairy arms to their abundance of food that they brought in two large coolers. They had a wide variety of food, ranging from cold pizza to leftover lasagna. From observing this family I came to the assumption that they were a financially well off family. All of their beach chairs seemed brand new and well taken care of. They all had on high-end clothing and looked very put together. Both of the children had on Ralph Lauren bathing suits and numerous sand toys in heaping piles surrounding them. The first type of nonverbal communication I observed was called kinesics. Kinesics is communication that is sent by the body, such as gestures, posture, facial expressions and eye behavior. (pg. 82) The elderly couple seemed to be content with their day at the beach. They both sat up straight in their beach chairs and held hands. They seemed madly in love and kept glancing back at one another, keeping their gaze for a while and smiling. This is a sign of immediacy because they seemed madly in love and involved with each other. They leaned in towards each other while talking and kept eye contact. The little girl was sitting in the sand very focused on building a sand castle. She raised her arms in the air to her grandparents illustrating how tall the sand castle was going to be, until it started to fall over. The little boy ran eagerly back and forth to the water with his boogey board in hand, oblivious to the world around him. It was like he was one with the ocean, fully immersed in the waves. With the little boy acting so carefree, the mother was sitting on the edge of her chair watching him like a bald eagle mother watching over her young. Every now and then she would yell to her son, and point her finger as if she was gesturing to him not go out too far in the water. Unlike the mother, the father seemed very relaxed. He was lying back in his chair, taking in the warm sun, with not a care in the world. Everyone was looking around at the beautiful beach scenery and watching the world pass by. (pg. 83) The family sat in a circle, each with a beach chair and one huge rainbow umbrella. They were illustrating proxemics, which is defined as the space between each person. The grandmother and grandfather were displaying intimate distance. They were holding hands and openly portraying their affection towards one another. The little girl was building her sandcastle within social distance of her family. She did not want anyone to step on her masterpiece; therefor, she kept her distance but remained in earshot of the adults. The little boy, playing with his boogey board in the waves, was within public distance to his family. He was the farthest from them and was just out of earshot. The family as a whole was within personal distance. This means that they were all in vicinity where verbal or non-verbal interaction was possible. (pg. 86) Throughout the day the family used various haptics, which are ways that communication can be made through touch. While the little boy was running back to his mother, he tripped over his boogey board and fell, scraping his knee on a seashell. The lifeguard came running to the rescue with his First-Aid kit when he saw the little boy clutching his leg and what appeared to be crying out for help. The lifeguard cleaned and bandaged the little boy’s leg, using professional touch. This type of touch is used by professional in their place of work. As soon as the lifeguard was finished caring for the boy, the father approached him and shook his hand. The father was showing an example of social-polite touch by openly expressing his gratitude and shaking the lifeguard’s hand. After the little boy calmed down, the mother made sure to apply more sunblock to both of her children, and as she finished she gave each of them a kiss on the forehead before sending them back to play. As both children scurried off, their proud parents stood embracing one another. Both of these interactions displayed love-intimate touch, which is something that is often used in families and with romantic partners to portray their affection for one another. (pg. 89) By spending time together on the beach the family was demonstrating chronemics. This time seemed really important and valuable to them, which sent me a subliminal message that they were a loving and close-knit family. (pg. 85) Laughter and smiles were constantly being exchanged throughout the day. They were a polychronic family, in the way that they were always engaging in multiple activities simultaneously. (pg. 86) The children built sand castles and road the waves in the ocean. They were constantly running back and forth from the ocean to the sand castle, waving their arms in the air and looked as though they were screeching at the top of their lungs. In between running back and forth from the ocean, the children and adults ate their lunch. While the children were eating, a seagull flew down and tried to snatch the little boys pizza. Out of fear, the little boy tossed it at the seagull. While the seagull was aggressively attacking the food, another group of these birds flocked towards the food in an attempt to steal it away. Immediately the father jumped to the rescue and shooed away the seagulls by flailing his arms. They all found this attack to be very amusing, because as soon as the seagulls flew away they gathered together and were throwing their heads back, appearing to be laughing at the misfortunate situation. In conclusion, observing people through non-verbal communication was really interesting. I learned a lot about the non-verbal communications that occur between families and people in general. I observed kinesics between the families, the loving gaze of the two grandparents, the kids were busy focused on their play, and the parents were there relaxing. I also observed the non-verbal use of space in proxemics. The family sat closely and in close proximity, in a very intimate fashion. The final aspect I witnessed was that of haptics, communication through touch. The family acted in loving touching way, the mother was applying sunscreen and the mother and father shared a warm embrace. I saw the full spectrum of non-verbal communication on the beach that day. I found this interesting because I’ve never sat back and watched the interactions between people from afar or focused solely on the non-verbal communication instead of their verbal communication between a group of people. I learned a lot about non-verbal communication from watching this particular family enjoying their day at the beach. It was intriguing because there were a lot of similarities between the non-verbal communication that I saw and what I had originally anticipated. I am a nineteen-year-old girl and observing this family was perfect because I was able to see a variety of age groups and both genders all interacting with one another. From this experience I learned that non-verbal communication does differ depending on the age and gender of a person; however, there were also many similarities between how they communicated non-verbally and how I would have in this same environment.