Kinesics Essay

Learning kinesics takes place since childhood and is a product of the society and culture one has grown in. In interacting with people, understanding kinesics is vital to the quality of our interactions, in business, and personal relationships. This paper will explore kinesics, their basis, types and how they impact- and are impacted- by culture. Before the twentieth century, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, a book by Charles Darwin had already been printed, a work that has bred the modern study of expressions and kinesics. The total impact of a message had already been deciphered, not to be in verbal ability, but in kinesics (Calero, 2005, p 24). The kinesics of an individual therefore, should not correspond to another person from a different system.

However, humans, even those who can’t speak any similar language can interact non-verbally. While this may indicate that there is a larger human system, despite our cultures, it delineates the importance of kinesics, even in sign language. Second, appearance of motion in kinesics is significant to the study of that kinesics system, even if the problem can be rationalized without it (Padula, 2012, p 583). Relatedly, meaningful body language is regarded as learned socially. As a culture, business persons and politicians are especially cognizant of this fact, and often are in top speck. First impressions, as they have been referred to, are commonly the result of observation of one’s kinesics, which can be read even from a distance. For the person decoding the message, the meaning may be lost, or construed.

Ekman & Friesen (2003, p 87) advanced an all-inclusive system for categorizing and coding kinesics nonverbal communication. Three fundamental issues are raised in their work; the usage of a behavior, its coding and its origin. As an intent to do harm, punching a person on the face is a clear message. There is a visual relationship between the meaning and the action. This meaning is depicted based on the usage of the act and the culture it is used in (Hadar & Butterworth, 1997, p 148). Pictorial relationships are iconically coded and the non-verbal movement directly illustrates the object, person or act. Spatial relationships utilize movement indicate distances between objects. It constitutes the whole person, with a smile and positive outlook. The face value, how, at first glance one is, is a critical reference to everyone met.

Through physical appearance, beauty is defined, and such can get their way into modelling and other ‘beauty careers’. Proper grooming is part of physical appearance, as it is the key to the bigger inner house that is the person. Women are better groomed than men, generally, and take care of their appearance way more than men. Beyond the choice of dressing, the neatness of clothing influences appearance and perceived status of a person. In most offices, the executives are often in crisp suits, as are politicians during press briefings and campaign trails. Dressing can therefore be subjective as a non-verbal cue, as it can be readily abused and disused (McNeill & Duncan, 2000, 146). Anyone who can acquire police uniform, for example and put it on, would command an amount of respect due to the clothing.

• Posture Posture is the beauty of how we stand, sit or move. Various motions may take on differing degrees of importance, based on whether speech is analyzed based on emotion or communication. Gestures are rather not only products of the thought process, but also, inputs into this thought process. As he continues to argue, languages shape the thought process, forming a habit that indicates what an individual is capable of thinking. Speakers in any forum will therefore encode their message based on the audience, so as to capture their thought process in a relatable, common environment. Gestures therefore materialize the thoughts in the brain. Prolonged and increased eye contact- the hard stare- is taken in most cultures to mean a hostility (McNeill & Duncan, 2000, p 152).

Touching is often regarded as part of kinesics, under haptics. It is also in close context with personal distance between parties-proxemics. Touching is often done to signify a moment of basic intimacy, and is used as an interpersonal way to build a connection between two humans. Women are very likely to engage in touching between each other and with men, more than men are apt to do. As seen in Ekman & Friesen (2003, p 56), this is a problem in encoding and decoding of the message. In daily life, interacting with people from different cultures is inevitable, as the world is becoming a global village. As population becomes more diverse, even their progeny is as diversely cultured, as the younger generation is becoming more common in the office world.

Learning diverse cultural practices requires that we interact with many people, read and travel well to know what people want. While that was completely true a few decades ago, the digital age has brought in unparalleled access to information (McNeill & Duncan, 2000, p 156). In interactions with different individuals, understanding their culture is a sure way to improve communication and pass the right message. With the range of culture and dynamism of the body movements we can use, kinesics truly is as colorful as any verbal language is beautiful. References Birdwhistell, R. Kinesics and context: Essays on body motion communication. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. , & Butterworth, B. Iconic gestures, imagery, and word retrieval in speech. Semiotica, 115(1-2), 147-172. Jackson, J. Introducing language and intercultural communication.