Body language

Body language is a type of a nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey the information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Body language exists in both animals and humans, but this article focuses on interpretations of human body language. It is also known as kinesics.the body also has a massive effect on our breathing pattern which in turn has a massive effect on the way the words are spoken.Human communication is extremely complex and one must look at the whole in order to make any determination as to the attitudes being expressed.Birdwhistell pointed out that 'human gestures differ from those of other animals in that they are polysemic, that they can be interpreted to have many different meanings depending on the communicative context in which they are produced'. And, he 'resisted the idea that 'body language' could be deciphered in some absolute fashion'. He also indicated that 'every body movement must be interpreted broadly and in conjunction with every other element in communication'. Body language is a type of a nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey the information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Body language exists in both animals and humans, but this article focuses on interpretations of human body language. It is also known as kinesics. Body language must not be confused with sign language, as sign languages are full languages like spoken languages and have their own complex grammar systems, as well as being able to exhibit the fundamental properties that exist in all languages. Body language, on the other hand, does not have a grammar system and must be interpreted broadly, instead of having an absolute meaning corresponding with a certain movement, so it is not a language like sign language, and is simply termed as a 'language' due to popular culture. In a society, there are agreed-upon interpretations of particular behavior. Interpretations may vary from country to country, or culture to culture. On this note, there is controversy on whether body language is universal. Body language, a subset of nonverbal communication, complements verbal communication in social interaction. In fact some researchers conclude that nonverbal communication accounts for the majority of information transmitted during interpersonal interactions. It helps to establish the relationship between two people and regulates interaction, but can be ambiguous. Facial expression is integral when expressing emotions through the body. Combinations of eyes, eyebrow, lips, nose, and cheek movements help form different moods of an individual (example happy, sad, depressed, angry, etc.). A few studies show that facial expression and bodily expression (body language) are congruent when interpreting emotions. Behavioural experiments have also shown that recognition of facial expression is influenced by perceived bodily expression. This means that the brain processes the other's facial and bodily expressions simultaneously.Subjects in these studies showed accuracy in judging emotions based on facial expression. This is because the face and the body are normally seen together in their natural proportions and the emotional signals from the face and body are well integrated. For example, a lack of crinkles around the eyes suggests a potentially fake smile. At one point, researchers believed that making a genuine smile was nearly impossible to do on command. When you're smiling joyfully, they crinkle. When you're faking it, they don't. If someone's trying to look happy but really isn't, you won't see the wrinkles. More recently, a study from Northeastern University researchers found that people could do a pretty good job of faking a Duchenne smile, even when they weren't feeling especially happy. Besides, the body language of the eye has several implications. For instance, the research approved that, the person has no control over of his pupils, and the pupils expanded when someone interested in the other person, or looking at something. “ As an indicator, check a friend's pupil size when you're talking to them about something interesting, then change the subject to something less interesting and watch their pupils contract!” Normally, one's eyes need to instinctively blink at around 6-10 times per minute, but merely looking at a person or object the viewer finds 'attractive' can slow this rate down. “can be a good indicator that a person is attracted to the person they're talking to, and is for this reason used as a sign of flirting.” Emotions can also be detected through body postures. Research has shown that body postures are more accurately recognised when an emotion is compared with a different or neutral emotion. For example, a person feeling angry would portray dominance over the other, and their posture would display approach tendencies. Comparing this to a person feeling fearful: they would feel weak, submissive and their posture would display avoidance tendencies, the opposite of an angry person.