Spirit communicator

Formal Research Paper

2008-02-04T02:23:00.000-08:00

I. Title

The Effects of Eye Contact in the Communication of Freshmen of BA Communication Arts of University of the Philippines in Mindanao.

II. Introduction

There are many functions of communicating nonverbally. By this, we can express interpersonal attitudes and express our emotions. Nonverbal communication is a self-presentation of one’s personality. It also functions as greetings. It accompanies speech between speakers and listeners. It also functions as a contradiction and a replacement of any verbal message. It also has many forms.

Eye contact is one of its forms. It is said to be universally and unconsciously used. It plays an important role in our everyday conversation like chatting and negotiating. It is essential to building rapport to someone. It brings life the emotion, confidence, attraction and acknowledgment. It is used along with words when communicating. It emphasizes and totally supports the words that you are saying.

People seem to have many different interpretations about eye contact. Some of them have problems when communicating to someone, as to how long one should make eye contact and to what direction should they gaze. They find it difficult to look at someone in the eyes when they are talking.

However, some people think that one doesn't have to have eye contact in meeting or speaking with someone. Some say that it is not what you say that is important but how you say it that counts. This is why the importance of eye contact, itself, poses some problems upon people using this - whether it has a good effect in communicating or not.

III. Importance

Eye contact has many interpretations depending on how the person use it or what the person is intending to emphasize or show. It also depends upon the degree and direction of one's gaze. This study is to show explanation as to how freshmen of BA Communication Arts use eye contact in communicating and how long do they use this kind of nonverbal communication to other students.

IV. Purpose of the study

This study aims to know what are the effects of eye contact in the communication of the freshmen of BA Communication Arts students in U.P. Mindanao. This is to know what is the importance of eye contact in communicating. This study aims to prove whether one should have eye contact when communicating or not. This studies on how to make a good communication with the use of eye contact.

V. Methodology

-Survey at least 30 freshmen of BA Communication Arts

-Ask them their impressions about the impotratnce and effects of eye contact in communicating.

-Collect data in relation with this study.

VI. References

Burgoon Judee K. (1986) Communicative Effects of Gaze Behavior. A Test of Two Contrasting Explanations. Human Communication Research 12

http://www.bremercommunications.com/Eye_Contact.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_contact

http://www.matthewarnoldstern.com/tips/tipps16.html

Interactional View

2008-01-16T02:26:00.000-08:00

Dear unknown,

I know how you felt for your family. I could sometimes feel and experience the same way too but I think it's just normal for most of us teenagers. We just couldn't avoid these kind of problems because I think that most of the families commonly has this so-called dysfunctional relationship patterns. But these dysfunctional patterns can be solve by changing our way of communication into a better one. I suggest you and your family should do this.

Don't hate your family for what they have done or shown to you, especially your parents. They are just doing their best to take good care of and provide your special needs. It is only normal for your mother to worry about you. You can't blame them for doing it so, you should listen and obey to your parents. They are only doing and saying those things to you because, like every other parents do, they only want you to have a good and healthy life. They also want you to be a good and responsible person.

In the interactional view theory, Watzlawick's third axiom states that "Communication = content + relationship". According to Watzlawick, this meant that content is what is said, and relationship is how it is said. I think your family's problem is on how the communication is said to each other.

I suggest you talk to your parents in a respectful way. Don't be automatically defensive and angry when you respond to your parents. Talk in a nicely way so that your parents wouldn't scold you or respond in a negative tone of voice. Also talk to your sister. I think she's just a little bit jealous on you because of how your parents treat. She might think that your parents love you more than her so tell her that it isn't true.

-Dale

To Jim:

2008-01-16T01:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Jim,

I understand how you felt for Shelley. I know how much you wanted to know what's inside her diary just to satisfy your curiosity. I know you felt disappointed because she didn't show you her diary but, this doesn't mean that she doesn't trust you anymore. It's just that each of us has this secret little world in ourselves where we secretly express our emotions to. Each of us needs privacy and that is also what Shelley wants in order to satisfy her emotional needs. You just have to understand her. Maybe she has her own certain reasons why she didn't want to expose her diary. Maybe she's just too shy to express her emotions to someone that she used her diary as her instrument for expressing her feelings and kept them there as a secret.

Don't let this kind problem be the reason to lose your relationship. You have to understand that she needs privacy, like you do. Also remember that in every relationship, there should be a balance of expressing your emotions. You know Jim, I have a boyfriend too and there are some things that i don't feel like sharing it to him. It's because I'm not too expressive for what I feel and there are things that i don't want him to know and things that he don't need to know. In a relationship, you don't have to tell everything you know or feel just to assure the trust you need for each other. There is a balance of emotional values. It just depends upon the members on how to maintain a healthy relationship.

- Dale

Waving hello

2008-01-10T01:34:00.000-08:00

Communication has done a great part on our lives. Obviously, by this, we are able to understand each other. As what I have observed, we people always do many gestures when talking or communicating in order to be understood. Sometimes, we do these different kind of gestures maybe because we don't feel like talking and we just do these things to show or express something by which a person could easily understand. There are also some gestures that we do involuntarily, just like when we emphasize something to clearly state out what we intend to show or tell. Some of them are contagious that when someone showed us a gesture, we tend to respond at them by also doing certain gestures.
The communication act, waving of the hand, is what i have chosen. It is one of the examples of the different kinds of gestures that we usually do when we communicate.
The waving of the hand indicates a greeting to a person. Students in UP Mindanao commonly do this. They wave their hands with the palm facing outward to greet someone like friends, classmates and professors. This act also shows friendliness to people and this is commonto each of us when we pass by someone we knew.
By observing and conducting a survey to the people around me, i will be able to know why do people wave their hands and what do they intend to show when they are waving their hands to a person.

Planner:

Month of January
-3rd week:
I will first observe the people around me that are doing this communication act.

-4th week:
Search the web for informations about hand waving.

Month of February:
-1st week:
Make an outline for my research.

-2nd week:
Conduct a survey.

-3rd week:
Make a draft for my research paper.

-4th week:
Create and polish my research.

Sources:
http://www.answers.com/topic/gesture
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/body_language.php

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

2008-01-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Communicating is a way of expressing and sharing our ideas or emotions to a person. It can be done in many ways such as smiling, waving our hands to someone we knew, hugging, kissing, handshaking, and moving of the eyebrows up and down, or merely talking to a person. Even the winking of an eye shows communication. These acts have their own interpretation depending on what we have in mind to show. Any form of communication will do even without saying a single word as long as we understand one another. These acts also show interpersonal communication. It is a communication involving two people.
There are many things that communication does for us. It helps us to be able to understand what one wants to show or interpret us. We can gain friends, create a relationship, learn from it, and show what we want and intend to show.
An example of this is when we first meet a person. To show respect, it's good to initiate an introduction and introduce ourselves with a handshake and a smile. Just a simple handshake and a smile could flatter a person. He/she smiles back at us and that depicts communication. It indicates that we are delighted to meet that person and that we show politeness to him/her.
Another example is kissing. A kiss shows affection to someone we love - they can be our parents, our family, our friends, our boyfriend/girlfriend, or anyone close to our hearts. A kiss might also show respect or greetings. It might be a kiss on the forehead, the cheeks, the hands, or on the lips. That kind of kiss just depends on our relationship to someone and our range of closeness to that person.
The two examples above both show the acts of interpersonal communication. Even without talking, just a simple gesture emphasizes our own ideas or emotions to a person. But of course, talking too is essential in communicating. It is the most common form of communication. As long as a conversation involves two persons, it is called an interpersonal communication.