Speech occupies an important place in human life. After all, with the help of it, people communicate, exchange information. But non-verbal communication also plays an important role. It is this area that kinesics studies.
What is this
Kinesics is a science that studies the signals of non-verbal communication. What does non-verbal communication mean? These are facial expressions, postures, gestures. If a person can control his speech, then with other signals it is not so simple. Often, it is from them that one can determine the true meaning of what the interlocutor wanted to say.
In psychology, everything is interconnected, and often facial expressions and gestures provide more information about the interlocutor than his speech. If non-verbal communication is studied by kinesics, then other methods of information are studied by more highly specialized psychological sciences. This type of communication is studied together with kinesics by proxemics - it explores spatial relationships.
Creator of this technique
Ray Birdwhistel, an American anthropologist, is the creator of the science of kinesics. It was he who decided to combine his research, as well as the research of colleagues, and, having analyzedthem, came to the conclusion that most of the gestures people use in certain situations. In 1952, his monograph "Introduction to Kinesics: An Annotated System for Recording Hand and Body Movements" was published.
This edition was the beginning of the formation of kinesics. In his research, the scientist tried to create something similar to a catalog of gestures, which would describe the meanings of gestures and facial expressions that are universal for all peoples. During his travels, Birdwhistel noticed that some peoples have gestures that are used only between them, and they communicate with guests in a completely different way. And it was then that the researcher wondered about the relationship between speech and non-verbal signs.
Ray Birdwhistel was one of the first to become interested in the question of the relationship between gestures and voice height. Thus, kinesics is not only a science of gestures, it covers a much larger area.
What information is gesticulation
Despite the fact that research on non-verbal communication has been going on for years, for most people the meaning of studying gestures remains unclear. Why study it?
- Gestures complement information received verbally. With the help of them, you can understand the emotional state of the interlocutor, his attitude towards the participants or the very topic of the conversation.
- Using gestures, you can determine how emotionally close the issues under discussion are for a person.
- Usually the gesture appears before the phrase, so you can predict what the person wants to say.
What is the place of gaze, posture and gait in non-verbal language
Kinesics is also the study of gaze, posture and gait, because this also applies to the field of non-verbal communication. And if a person’s gestures and postures are the easiest to control, then his gaze and gait are more difficult. Why?
Eye contact is considered very important when talking with an interlocutor. By its duration, you can always determine whether a person is telling the truth, whether the interlocutor or the topic of conversation is pleasant to him. If a person can try to control its duration, then the size of the pupils is not. Namely, they are a common reason for guessing the true relationship.
Poses that a person takes during a conversation can reveal interesting information about the interlocutor. If the gestures and facial expressions of a person are taught to control from an early age, then little attention is paid to the control of postures. By the position of a person's body, you can determine whether he is ready to make contact or not, whether he is prone to dominance and what his emotional state is.
A person's attitude to life, his physical and mental state is determined by gait. People who are self-confident and look at life with optimism have a light gait, a straight posture, and actively swing their arms when walking. People who are depressed, tired, have a "heavy" style of movement. Their shoulders are hunched and their hands are usually in their pockets.
Therefore, it is wrong to give preference tostudying only one thing - in kinesics everything is interconnected, everything complements each other, helping to draw up the correct psychological portrait of a person.
The most common gestures
Kinesics is a field that studies non-verbal communication in all its diversity. Therefore, non-verbal signals cannot always be interpreted from only one point of view. But there are gestures that in all cultures have the same meaning:
- if a person touches his ear, then he does not like what his interlocutor says;
- man props his chin when he gets bored;
- crossed arms and (or) legs indicate that the person does not want to communicate;
- if a person touches the neck, then he is embarrassed or unsure of himself;
- if a person covers his mouth with his hand, then he says false information;
- a person drumming his fingers on the table, looking at his watch or twitching his leg is a sign of impatience;
- rubbing glasses indicates that the interlocutor is thinking.
There are many meanings of non-verbal signals, they become even more when they are considered in combination with verbal information. Therefore, it is important not only to know what this or that non-verbal action means, but also how it can be explained in combination with other signals. This is what the science of kinesics is all about.
