Question 1

Students are to observe two or more adults unknown to the observer. The student must not be able to hear the subjects being observed and those being observed must not be wearing a uniform of any kind as this would provide information about their occupation to the observer. Students must describe the environment and the people being observed, i.e., age, gender, dress, etc. Discuss the nonverbal communication, i.e. eye contact, body position and any other nonverbal behavior. Provide your interpretation of the relationship between those being observed. Be very discrete and do not have a conversation with those being observed.

Requirements (please read)

For each discussion, you are required to write an initial post (300 words) and one secondary post (200 words).  The discussion forums will be worth 40 points apiece—25 points for the initial post and 15 points for the secondary post.  For your initial 

Reply to-

Basically nonverbal communication is needed to understand an individual’s interpersonal skills, as it tries to interpret the meaning of behavior, exhibited and analyze the personality of the individual and interaction styles. The observation of non- verbal cues are highly essential before selecting a candidate eligible to serve in the military as experts believe that life- or- death decisions are sometimes confined to the subtle nonverbal signals, especially the gestures and facial expressions. Experts believe that emoted expressions speak a thousand words, as Prickett, Gada-Jain, and Bernieri (2000) recognized that judgments about an individual made within the first 10 seconds of his/her job interview defined the outcome.

           To perform the class assignment, I walked to the Whole Food Market down the road, bought a slice of pizza and sat by the food station observing a non- verbal conversation of two individuals- a male (X) and a female (Y). It was around 7:00 P.M., X wore business casual (with no suit), aged 50+ with visible grey hair; Y was 35+ (She might have looked younger in appearance, I am extremely bad at predicting women’s age) and was wearing casuals. Although Y smiled confidently with ease, she appeared to be less comfortable as she denied making direct eye contact with X. X had a chilled out personality as his gestures were pleasing and looked like he was trying to make Y feel comfortable, his eye contact was fixated upon Y and he did most of the speaking. I made the observation for nearly 10 minutes and I felt like they were friends or were colleagues in the past as their body language was more jovial types and their conversation leaned more toward personal rather than professional. Although Y spoke less, I believe she is more of a listener and a keen observer. Her expressions were repetitive and complementing. It looked like they were frequent shoppers at whole foods and set the meetup this evening.

References

Help guide. (2018, June). Nonverbal Communication. Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/nonverbal-communication.htm.

Cole, A. (2016). Does body language communicate personality? Observable behavioral patterns of Berens Interactions Styles. Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://www.grin.com/document/342939.

Prickett, T. J., Gada- Jain, N., & Bernieri, F. J. (2000). The Importance of First Impressions in a Job Interview. ResearchGate, 2–21. Retrieved from file:///Users/Ajay/Downloads/PrickettGada-JainBernieri2000.pdf

Question 2

discusses four types of perceptual distortions: stereotyping, halo effects, selective perception, and projection. Define each of these and provide an example.

Requirements (please read)

For each discussion, you are required to write an initial post (300 words) and one secondary post (200 words).  The discussion forums will be worth 40 points apiece—25 points for the initial post and 15 points for the secondary post. 

Reply to

Shylesh Annam – Wednesday, November 6, 2019, 9:55 PM

Stereotyping
Stereotyping refers to the pejorative or oversimplified attitude that people hold towards one another, particularly those people that have experience which is different from theirs. Stereotyping results from the distorted or incomplete information that is accepted as the fact without questioning. Stereotypes persist because they are functional, selective in the social perception, and prejudice. For instance, the stereotype that ladies are lousy drivers. People who stereotype often judge other people wrongly.

Halo effects
Experts define halo effects as cognitive biases that are consistent with the existing impression. Halo effects result when impressions which are created in one dimension of life are used to evaluate a person in another dimension of life. For instance, consider a sales person who is specialized or proficient in bringing new accounts and creating revenue being promoted to hold the position of sales’ vice president yet he or she does not have an idea about being the executive of the company.

Selective perception
Selective perception refers to the process of perceiving what is right and absolutely ignoring the opposing points of view. It involves a person observing the situation as he or she wants and not the actual state of the situation (Corsini & Wedding, 2007). For instance, consider a man who exercises regularly. Also, this man is a cigarette smoker. This man knows the adverse effects of smoking cigarette, but because of the belief that regular exercising eliminates the effects of cigarette smoking, he continues to smoke.   

Projection
Projection refers to the mechanism of psychological defense used by people to attribute the traits that they find unacceptable or unnecessary in them to other people. For instance, consider a man with a hostile nature. This man can attribute his nature of unfriendliness to his wife. He can say that his wife has anger management predicament.   

References

Corsini, R. J., & Wedding, D. (Eds.). (2007). Current Psychotherapies (Eighth ed.). Brooks

          Cole.

Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M., Minton, J. W., Roy, J., & Lewicki, N. (2011). Essentials of

negotiation. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M., & Barry, B. (2015). Negotiation: McGraw-Hill, 7th Edition, ISBN

           978-0-07-802944-8.