Running head: BODY LANGUAGE

Body Language: How it Affect Our Daily Lives

Amos, Julie Ann. Body Language Across Culture. Body Language Across Cultures, 4 Dec.

2012, www.bodylanguageexpert.co.uk/bodylanguageacrosscultures.html.

You can find how body language differs between cultures and how its shown out of respect or
normality. For example, in Japan when you greet someone for the first time you bow and
depending how low you bow, the more respect you show to that person; also, how much distance
you put between you the person youre greeting shows respect. As for in Italy, its normal for
them to embrace each other more, even when meeting a new person. When you first meet them,
they hug you and give you a kiss on both your cheeks. Depending on your culture, that will have
determined how comfortable you are when letting in new people into your bubble.
Atkinson, Max. Our Masters Voice: The Language and Body Language of Politics. Routledge, 1984.

Being a politician, you need to know how to talk to people not only in an interview but mainly in
public. First off, they need to know who they are talking to and what they are talking about
because if not then theyll sound as if they dont know what they are talking about and no one
will listen to them. They need to be confident in everything they say and really persuade their
audience that they are better than their competitor; they need to prove that are better for the
people because of what they will do. Not everyone can master the techniques of public speaking
but we know when its affected or not, because we either trust that person speaking or we dont
believe a word they say.
Bishop, Lucy, et al. Understanding Non-Verbal Communication. Communication Skills Training

From MindTools.com, www.mindtools.com/pages/article/Body_Language.htm.

Body language can also translate into the working field whether its sitting through a meeting,
surviving an interview, being confident while you introduce yourself to your new boss, and just
how you carry yourself anywhere. For example, if youre in a meeting and you have that one
person that doesnt seem to agree with what the boss is saying, you can tell that they have
something to say just by their body language. They may not be saying anything but if you notice
them moving around in their chair constantly, not making eye contact with them, or even
messing with a pen, then you can sense that they have something to say but they dont want to
say anything. The same thing is considered when you go for an interview; if you walk into the
room looking scared then the interviewer will notice that you are scared. Also during the
interview if you dont sound confident when answering questions or youre fidgeting that comes
across when you dont think its noticeable.
Briton, N.J. & Hall, J.A. Sex Roles (1995) 32: 79. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01544758
Its said that women tend to be more emotional and caring compared to men they should be more
aggressive and dominant. This translate into how they talk with other people; women tend to be
more considerate towards other feelings in a conversation than men. Most of this is based off
BODY LANGUAGE

stereotypes, for instance, women will smile more than men and make more gestures in a
conversation. As for men, they were perceived to be louder and not as emotional but talk less
than women in a conversation. These studies have shown how often we use body language or
how we expressed our behaviour in any circumstance.

Fast, Julius. Body Language. M. Evans, 2002

Body language can be taught but its most commonly considered to be a gut feeling. There have
been studies that test when people sense a change in someone body language depending on their
environment; one study they did was how our pupils change size when we see something or
someone we like. This could be with a certain song, a person, a gesture, anything we find enjoyable
and our pupils with change depending what we see.

Furnham, Adrian. What Is Body Language? Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 10 Jan. 2015,

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sideways-view/201501/what-is-body-language.

The general definition of body language is nonverbal communication, either through a gesture,
facial expression, or even our tone when we do speak is considered body language. This kind of
language can be subtle, or it can be obvious; most people dont notice when people use small
gestures because either they are distracted so they didnt see it, or they are not trained to notice a
gesture that small. Compared to making it obvious there are still some people that are blind as to
notice any sort of body language. Now it can also be in our tone of voice, we can try to give
someone a hint that theyre not really into going out but doesnt want to say anything, so they try
to make it sound that they dont want to go through their tone.
Goman, Carol Kinsey. How Culture Controls Communication. Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 28 Nov.

2011, www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-controls-

communication/.

Body language can be considered universal language although it differs not only the U.S itself
but around the world. For instance, depending on our background and how we grew up, how we
deal with people coming into our bubble can be a very big deal. This happens with guys and
their territory; they will feel uncomfortable if someone challenges to come into their territory
without knowing them. Babies, on the other hand, learn this language by watching others, for
example making facial expressions connect to how they feel. As they grow older they will learn
how to act a certain way around certain people, they will learn what is socially acceptable to do
and what isnt in certain environments.
Haas, A. (1979). Male and female spoken language differences: Stereotypes and evidence.
Psychological Bulletin, 86(3), 616-626.
More about how men and women are different when it comes to how they act during a conversation.
Men tend to be all about sports, aggression, physical movements, and they have no structure of how
BODY LANGUAGE

to do things. As for women, they are more gentle, understandingly emotional, we like to talk about
our family, and do anything that signify an act of caring during any conversation.

KGoman, C. K. (2010). Ten Body Language Mistakes Women Make. Officepro, 70(7), 4
Women tend to come off as too nice or flirtation when it comes to body language. Whenever we
are nodding our head during a conversation it may look odd but its just our way of
understanding what it is that the person is saying or just letting them know that they continue
speaking. We also tend to be quite passionate when we are explaining something that we scare
our audience when we dont mean to. Most of us dont interrupt someone while they are talking,
and we use big gestures when explaining something, unlike men who start talking over one
another and try to take up as much space as they can. We also tend to have weaker hand shake
compared to men, which makes us seem less confident in ourselves and dont have the ability to
make decisions like men do.
Rubin, G. (2013). The Power of Pride. Health, 27(9), 14.
Posture is just one great example of body language. How we carry ourselves throughout our lives
shows a lot about who we are as a person. It shows exceedingly well when we must give a
speech during class, most of us try to stand up tall and speak up to everyone can hear us, but in
the end for most us we stare at our paper and read it to ourselves like were all alone while
standing there awkwardly throughout the whole thing. It shows that either we are confident in
our ability to publicly speak or were so used to not doing that when we are forced to us get
scared about everything that can go wrong. This also goes along with how we introduce
ourselves to a new person, if we are confident that may affect how they react towards us, same
goes for if we are shy and dont speak up then they may or may not continue to interact with us.