Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships (Lea's Series on Personal Relationships) (Lea's Series on Personal Relationships)

318 Pages·2005·1.44 MB·English

by  Laura K. Guerrero

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
IN CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
LEA’s Series on Personal Relationships
Steve Duck, Series Editor
Bennett(cid:1)TimeandIntimacy:ANewScienceofPersonalRelationships
Canary/Dainton(cid:1)MaintainingRelationshipsThroughCommunication:Relational,
Contextual,andCulturalVariations
Christopher(cid:1)ToDancetheDance:ASymbolicInteractionExplorationof
PremaritalSexuality
Duncombe/Harrison/Allan/Marsden(cid:1)TheStateofAffairs:Explorationsin
InfidelityandCommitment
Emmers-Sommer/Allen(cid:1)SaferSexinPersonalRelationships:TheRoleofSexual
ScriptsinHIVInfectionandPrevention
Goodwin/Cramer(cid:1)InappropriateRelationships:TheUnconventional,The
Disapproved,andTheForbidden
Guerrero/Floyd(cid:1)NonverbalCommunicationinCloseRelationships
Honeycutt/Cantrill(cid:1)Cognition,Communication,andRomanticRelationships
Miller/Alberts/Hecht/Trost/Krizek(cid:1)AdolescentRelationshipsandDrugUse
Miller-Day(cid:1)CommunicationAmongGrandmothers,Mothers,andAdult
Daughters:AQualitativeStudyofMaternalRelationships
Monsour(cid:1)WomenandMenasFriends:RelationshipsAcrosstheLifeSpaninthe
21stCentury
Rogers/Escudero(cid:1)RelationalCommunication:AnInteractionalPerspectivetothe
StudyofProcessandForm
Yingling(cid:1)ALifetimeofCommunication:TransformationsThroughRelational
Dialogues
FormoreinformationonLEAtitles,pleasecontactLawrenceErlbaumAsso-
ciates, Publishers, at www.erlbaum.com
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
IN CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
Laura K. Guerrero
Kory Floyd
Arizona State University
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
2006 Mahwah, New Jersey London
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Copyright(cid:2)2006byLawrenceErlbaumAssociates,Inc.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedin
anyform,byphotostat,microform,retrievalsystem,oranyother
means,withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
LawrenceErlbaumAssociates,Inc.,Publishers
10IndustrialAvenue
Mahwah,NewJersey07430
www.erlbaum.com
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Guerrero,LauraK.
Nonverbalcommunicationincloserelationships/LauraK.Guerrero,KoryFloyd.
p. cm.—(LEA’sseriesonpersonalrelationships)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8058-4396-5(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN0-8058-4397-3(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Nonverbalcommunication. 2.Interpersonalrelations. I.Floyd,Kory. II.Title.
III.Series.
BF637.N66G84 2005
2005040135
CIP
ISBN 1-4106-1706-8 Master e-book ISBN
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Steve Duck
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
DefiningNonverbalCommunication 4
PerspectivesonWhatCountsasCommunication 9
AnOverviewoftheBook 15
2 Major Paradigms and Theories of Nonverbal Communication 17
TheBio-EvolutionaryParadigm 18
TheSocioculturalParadigm 27
SpecificTheories 35
Summary 54
3 Interpersonal Attraction 57
TheImportanceofAttractiveness 58
MarkersofPhysicalAttractiveness 62
FlirtingandCourtship 79
Summary 82
4 Communicating Affection 84
HowDoHumansConveyAffectionNonverbally? 85
PredictingtheUseofNonverbalAffectionBehaviors 95
Summary 105
v
vi CONTENTS
5 Nonverbal Expressions of Emotion 107
DefiningEmotion 108
NonverbalExpressionsofEmotionsinRelationships 109
EmotionalSkillinCloseRelationships 121
Summary 131
6 Nonverbal Correlates of Power and Interpersonal
Dominance 133
DefiningPower,Dominance,andStatus 134
RelativePowerandDominantCommunicationinRelationships 137
NonverbalCorrelatesofPower 140
SexDifferencesinPowerCues 145
ReducingPowerDifferentials 149
InterpersonalDominanceThroughSocialSkill 150
InterpersonalDominanceThroughIntimidationorThreat 157
Summary 160
7 Interpersonal Deception 162
WhatIsDeception? 163
WhatHappenstoPeopleWhenTheyDeceive? 166
NonverbalBehaviorsThatAccompanyDeception
(andSomeThatDoNot) 173
DetectingDeception 181
Summary 196
8 Conflict and Disengagement 198
DefiningConflictintheContextofRelationships 199
ConflictStrategies 202
NonverbalConflictBehaviors 206
CommunicationPatterns 214
RelationshipDisengagement 218
Summary 223
9 Afterthoughts 225
ImplicationsforEachContentArea 226
Conclusion 238
References 239
Author Index 281
Subject Index 295
Series Foreword
Steve Duck
University of Iowa
Since its inception the Personal Relationships series from Lawrence Erl-
baum Associates has sought to review the progress in the academic work
onrelationshipswithrespecttoabroadarrayofissuesandtodosoinan
accessiblemannerthatalsoillustratesitspracticalvalue.TheLEAseriesal-
ready includes books intended to pass on the accumulated scholarship to
thenextgenerationofstudentsandtothosewhodealwithrelationshipis-
sues in the broader world beyond the academy. The series thus not only
comprises monographs and other academic resources exemplifying the
multidisciplinary nature of this area, but also books suitable for use in the
growingnumbersofcoursesonrelationshipsandinthegrowingnumberof
professions which deal with relationship issues.
The series has the goal of providing a comprehensive and current sur-
vey of theory and research in personal relationship through the careful
analysis of the problems encountered and solved in research, yet it also
considers the systematic application of that work in a practical context.
These resources not only are intended to be comprehensive assessments
of progress on particular “hot” and relevant topics, but also have already
shown that they are significant influences on the future directions and de-
velopment of the study of personal relationships and application of its in-
sights.Althougheachvolumeiswellcentered,authorsallattempttoplace
the respective topics in the broader context of other research on relation-
shipsandwithinarangeofwiderdisciplinarytraditions.Theseriesalready
offers incisive and forward-looking reviews and also demonstrates the
broadertheoreticalimplicationsofrelationshipsfortherangeofdisciplines
from which the research originates. Collectively the volumes include origi-
vii
viii SERIESFOREWORD
nalstudies, reviews of relevant theoryandresearch, andnewtheories ori-
ented toward the understanding of personal relationships both in them-
selves and within the context of broader theories of family process, social
psychology, and communication.
Reflecting the diverse composition of personal relationship study, read-
ers in numerous disciplines—social psychology, communication, sociology,
familystudies,developmentalpsychology,clinicalpsychology,personality,
counseling, women’s studies, gerontology, and others—will find valuable
and insightful perspectives in the series.
Apartfromtheacademicscholarswhoresearchthedynamicsandproc-
essesofrelationships,therearemanyotherpeoplewhoseworktakesthem
upagainsttheoperationofrelationshipsintherealworld.Forsuchpeople
asnurses,thepolice,teachers,therapists,lawyers,drugandalcoholcoun-
selors, marital counselors, the priesthood, and those who take care of the
elderly,anumberofissuesroutinelyariseconcerningthewaysinwhichre-
lationshipsaffectthepeoplewhomtheyserveandguide.Examplesarethe
role of loneliness in illness and the ways to circumvent it, the complex im-
pact of family and peer relationships upon a drug-dependent’s attempts to
giveupthedrug,theroleofplaygroundunpopularityonachild’slearning,
theissuesinvolvedindealingwiththerelationalsideofchronicillness,the
managementofconflictinmarriage,theestablishmentofgoodrapportbe-
tweenphysiciansandseriouslyillpatients,thesupportofthebereaved,the
correctionofviolentstylesofbehaviorindatingormarriage,andeventhe
relationships formed between jurors in extended trials as these may influ-
enceajury’sdecisions.Eachoftheseisaproblemthatmayconfrontsome
of the aforementioned professionals as part of their daily concerns and
eachdemonstratesthefar-reachinginfluencesofrelationshipprocesseson
much else in life that is presently theorized independently of relationship
considerations.
Thepresentvolumedealswiththebasicelementsofbehaviorthatinflu-
ence interpretation of the spoken word and also convey their own mes-
sages:nonverbalcommunication(NVC).Theauthorstakeaperspectiveon
NVC that places the exchange of messages at the heart of the communica-
tionprocess,definingNVCasnonlinguisticmessagesthatpeopleexchange
ininteractivecontexts.Suchmessagesincludebehaviorsthataredynamic
as well as those that are static parts of the communication process and
range from physical appearance to movement and gesture or vocal cues.
Thesefamiliarelementsofeveryinteractionhaveimportantconsequences
for interpretation of behavior and exert significant power on the under-
standing of what is occurring in relationships, including the mistakes and
misinterpretationsthatcreatedifficultyinrelationships.Thebookisimpor-
tant because it places NVC in the context of personal relationships and
looks at its effects and its roles in processes of attraction, affection, emo-
SERIESFOREWORD ix
tion,power,deception,andconflict.Notonlyarethesetopicsimportantin
relationships but the narrative of the book allows them to be discussed in
thecontextofrelationaldevelopmentoverallandhencetoshowthedevel-
opingroleofNVCinrelationshipsacrosstimeratherthan,atleastinsome
earlywork,confiningtheroleofNVCtotheearlieststagesofrelationships
with nonintimates. The book thus makes an important contribution to the
development of our understanding not only of relationship processes but
alsooftheworkingsofNVCasawhole.Finally,thepracticalapplicationsof
discussions about deception and conflict are all too necessary in under-
standing relationships in the real world and the book’s practical value in
this respect fulfills the overall mission of the series very adroitly.