Saturday, January 21, 2017

Body Language and Facial Expressions



 
 
Body Language and Facial Expressions
 
 
 
When I was growing up unfortunately we didn’t have cable. Therefore there is a long list of shows and movies that I did not get to see unless I went to the houses of family and friends. When I became older and we finally did get cable I remember a show coming on named Roseann. I used to always see it and never look at it but I was somewhat curious to see what it was about. So it was very interesting to actually catch the show on and be able to watch it was a rather good episode to.

When I first watch this particular episode of Roseann without the sound, it was really rather boring. If you have ever seen one of her shows you know that she is not one to show a lot of emotion, so it is very hard to tell how she is feeling based on her blank facial expression. Her children and her sister just seemed very busy moving around going about their daily routines. However there were time when she was talking to her husband that I could tell that she was sad about something. One particular seen she came in the house with a smile on her face and talked to her husband and sister. I could see that she was clearly frustrated in one of the scenes because of the way that her children had the house, there were clothes and other things all over the house. Meanwhile her husband sat back with an unbothered look on his face. I could tell that the relationship with her and her sister was good because she seemed pleased when she looked at her. However the relationship with her husband seemed kind of strained at times.

I honestly was kind of puzzled on what the show was about when it first came on watching it without sound of course. However once I watched the show with the sound one thing that I can say that I was right about is that I knew the show had something to do with getting a job, because Roseanne went to this warehouse looking office twice and talked to this lady. The first time she went she was smiling and seemed to be filling out paper work. The next time she went she was happy until the lady pointed to the computer. When I watched the show with sound I found out that in order for Roseann to do the job she had to be able to know how to use a computer, all of their inventory was done using the computer. As far as the relationship with her husband I was wrong about it when I looked at it without sound. Even though Roseanne was frustrated about getting a job and then not being able to keep it, her husband was very understanding. He didn’t care if she had a job or not and comforted her when she felt bad about not being able to keep the job. He was very supportive of her, as was her sister who helped her out around the house and with the children. If this had been a show that I knew well my assumptions would have been way more accurate because I would have been more familiar with the characters and the situations that they were more than likely known to be in. This experience taught me that communication can be misunderstood if one is not familiar with the ones that they are communicating with. Also this assignment taught me that sometimes facial expressions and body language can mean the total opposite of what they may come off as. When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive wordless signals. All of our nonverbal behaviors—the gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make—send strong messages. These messages don't stop when you stop speaking either. Even when you're silent, you're still communicating nonverbally (Segal, Smith, Boose, Jaffe 2016 p1). This assignment taught me that body language speaks volumes along with facial expressions when communicating, I am very good at picking up on a person’s body language sometimes better than I understand what they may be saying. Effective communicating reflects good understanding of both body language and facial expressions.
 
Image result for roseanne

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Reference
 

Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., Melinda Smith, M.A., Greg Boose, and Jaelline Jaffe, Ph.D. (2016) Nonverbal Communication Improving Your Nonverbal Skills and Reading Body Language retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships/nonverbal-communication.htm


 

2 comments:

  1. Leah-
    The power of nonverbal communication has been intriguing for me to learn about as well. These behaviors can follow what we are thinking or feeling, or be quite the opposite and deciphering them can be extremely difficult. I enjoyed reading your post, and as a fan of the Roseann show and thinking back to it (it has been a while since I have watched an episode!) I can see how it would have been difficult to figure out what was happening or how the characters were feeling, especially since Roseann can be quite sarcastic at times. It seems as though you did well though! Thank you for sharing!
    Julie Ringle

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  2. Leah,
    I remember watching Roseann episodes when I was younger. I think it would be interesting to watch the show with no sound since they are such a loud vocal family. That is great you are able to pick up on body language that someone is communicating. I think non-verbal cues give a better sign of how the person feels than verbal language gives sometimes.

    -Ruthanne

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