Demonstrative Communication

From the first look or gesture between the first two humans on Earth to today’s modern twelve year old eye roll to an angry mother, demonstrative communication is our primary form of idea transference. Albert Mehrabian found that only 7% of our communication is transmitted through the actual words we speak to one another (Cheeseboro, O’Connor, Rios, 2010). Understanding the power of or nonverbal communication carries 93% of what we are transmitting; one begins to understand the influence our looks, movements, tone, gestures and touch have on our messages. There are numerous types of demonstrative, or nonverbal, communication that have impact on both the individual sending a communication message the person or person’s receiving the message. This paper will focus on three of these types and discuss both positive and negative impacts of each. These are kinesics, or body movements; haptics, the use of touch and vocalics, or voice inflection or variation. Each type of nonverbal communication has multiple elements, in as much; examples will be on a single element of each.

Kinesics is the use or study of language through body motions such as hand gestures, head nodding, eye movement or any number of functional movements of a body part or whole body. One of the smallest transmitters on the human body is the eyes. Many say the eyes are the windows to the soul; however, they can also be the windows to subconscious thought. Every day a supervisor calls a subordinate to an office to explain an objective for the day. As the supervisor begins the daily rhetoric which has been heard ten times before, the subordinate roles his or her eyes in a reactionary movement as to say, “Yes, I know what we need to do and I can do.” Unfortunately, the supervisor sees the eye roll and mentally hears, “I don’t care what you are saying. I am bored and think you are a buffoon.” In this case, the body language was understood in a negative connotation and surely did not have the impact desired....