Posted: September 16th, 2017

v1. Select an observation site. You need to find a place where you can watch the interactions of people over a one to two hour period,

mass media and communication

Nonverbal communication – observation studying
1. Select an observation site. You need to find a place where you can watch the interactions of people over a one to two hour period,

without being intrusive. Here are some suggestions for observation sites:

a. A large, complex event that occurs only occasionally–e.g., a political rally or street festival. Or a special-occasion ritual event that takes place regularly such as a religious celebration, a wedding, a graduation, etc.

b. Behavior typical of certain situations–e.g., mornings in a convenience store, riding public transportation, shopping in a grocery store, visiting a museum, touring typical tourist destinations, attending theater performances, etc.

2. Observe your chosen site, for at least one but no more than two hours, with your ears covered/plugged in some way. Earplugs, headphones, etc. are fine. The point is to limit your observations to nonverbal communication only. (Necessarily, you’ll have to ignore paralinguistic cues, too.)

3. As you are observing your site, take notes about the kinds of nonverbal communication you observe, and the context in which this communication occurs. Be sure to pay attention to:

a. The context. Describe the scene and occasion, paying attention to all sensory input (except sound!). If it seems useful, take a photo or draw a map of the setting, indicating the position and movement of persons.

b. The interactions between persons. For example: How do these people interact, if at all? If they seem to primarily be speaking to one another, how do they supplement their speech with nonverbal codes (e.g., kinesics, proxemics)? Do objects and artifacts play a role in their interactions? Do these people identify as social equals,

or do particular people seem to be in authority? How is this authority communicated?

c. The norms of interaction. What seem to be the unspoken rules that underlie this event or activity? How are these rules communicated? Is there any mechanism for correcting a distortion or mistake?

4. Organize your notes into a formal write-up. This should be five to six pages, double-spaced, in 12-point font, and should include:

a. An introduction. Tell me about your observation site, the occasion (if any), the physical layout of the site, and why you selected it.

b. A description of the interactions that you observed.

Describe at least three or four interactions in detail, using terms from the course. If your site had few nonverbal interactions due to a limited number of people present (e.g., a small coffee shop), you will be able to be very explicit about each interaction, and be able to spend more time talking about them. On the other hand, if your site is particularly active, with many people (e.g., a rock concert)

, you may have to use more general terms (for example, “People generally maintained a distance of X feet, and used negative affect displays to communicate when this distance was violated”), but also be sure to describe at least three or four specific interactions in detail.

c. An informed guess about how nonverbal communication is supposed to “work” in the context of your site. What can you surmise are your site’s “rules,” based on what you have observed? Try to restrict your conclusions to what you have observed, not what you know generally (e.g., what I saw at the coffee shop, not what I know about coffee shops in general).