Friday, September 11, 2015

Nonverbal Communication

It is incredible to watch a pilot episode of a popular television show for the first time – without captions or voice. My son had suggested a popular TV show, How I Met Your Mother, to write about for this blog assignment. I had seen promotional advertisements and vignettes of the show, and it appeared to be a form of Friends ensemble. I literally had no idea what it was all about when I attempted to watch the pilot episode. And only a few of my assumptions had been correct! At the end of the post is a description of the pilot episode.

Without captions or voice, here’s a running assumption of the show episode and whether it was correct.


Character Assumption
Ted, the main character, seemed happy-go-lucky bachelor who was interested in meeting women and having sex but never did want to get married.
Actually: He is a lovable character who does not know social dating cue

Character Assumption
Ted’s best friend, Marshall, is not your usual male Lothario. He just proposed to his long-time girlfriend.
Actually:  My assumption about Marshall was correct.

Character Assumption
Lily appeared to be a school teacher. Cue was a handprint on her shirt.
Actually: My assumption about Lily was correct.

Character Assumption
Barney was a little too opinionated based on his physical mannerisms and facial expressions.
Actually: My assumption about Barney was correct


Event Assumption
Two narrators who appeared to be a female and a male in their early 20s looking bored.
Actually: Their uncle was telling them a story from off-screen.

Event Assumption

There was a male proposing to his male roommate.
Actually: He was practicing his proposal to Lily, his long-time girlfriend.

Event Assumption

Robin came with a group of girlfriends who appeared annoyed at her flirtation with Ted.
Actually: One of the girlfriends was dumped and she was mad at all guys.

Event Assumption

When Robin and Ted were at her apartment door, a TV news van came up to them looking for news.
Actually: Robin was actually a TV reporter; they told her they needed her to report on the breaking news.



 Nonverbal Behaviors: Tactile such as pats on the back or shoulder
Function: Barney pats Ted a lot on his back or shoulders.

Nonverbal Behaviors: Gestures
Function: Almost all characters gestured to encourage additional information. One extended his hand, and the female shook his hand. In that particular TV show episode, that was a lingering handshake that was supposed to be the signal to kiss.

Nonverbal Behaviors: Body Orientation
Function: All characters – mostly Barney – have certain body orientation to represent their characters and the actions of the episode.

Nonverbal Behaviors: Facial Expressions
Function: Again, all characters had facial expressions that represented the events in the episode. However, I misread most of those facial expressions.
Nonverbal Behaviors: Facial Expressions

It was really astonishing to see how we can assume more than we should about both people’s characters and incidents/events. O’Hair et al (2011) wrote, “Don’t assume that because you observe someone being happy, sad, or angry, and so on, you know the reason” (p.104)



How I Met Your Mother is a comedy about Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he fell in love. It all starts when Ted's best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel), drops the bombshell that he's going to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher. At that moment, Ted realizes that he had better get a move on if he too hopes to find true love. Helping him in his quest is Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), a friend with endless, sometimes outrageous opinions, a penchant for suits and a foolproof way to meet women. When Ted meets Robin (Cobie Smulders), he's sure it's love at first sight, but destiny may have something else in store (tv.com, n.d.).

References

How I Met Your Mother. (n.d.). TV.com. Retrieved from: http://www.tv.com/shows/how-i-met-your-mother/


O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L. D. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.


4 comments:

  1. Marla,

    I have never watched that television show, which is quite popular, but you gave great details about the show. I like that you chose to use the pilot episode which means that the show was fresh and you had a fair shot at guessing who all of the characters were. You spoke about making assumptions from observing someone's behavior and I immediately thought about a friend of mine. My friend said that one morning a neighbor stopped him and stated that he noticed that my friend was wearing a suit every morning and leaving his house. He asked him how long was his court case going to be. The man was implying that my friend was a defendant in a pending court case. My friend replied by stating that he was not in court and that he was a music teacher at a school. The man apologized and just walked away. I thought that the man judged my friend based on stereotypes that he has seen in the media. I was like to tell my friends that you never know what someone is going through unless you have a personal discussion with them. Some people have learned to mask their emotions and smile through their pain. Great post!

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  2. Marla, what a thorough breakdown of examples you observed of nonverbal communication! I appreciate how you brokedown the nonverbal gestures into their function for communication. I have seen and enjoyed watching this TV show before so it was beneficial to read how an outsider picked up on the storyline based on visual cues. My lesson was similiar to yours, never make assumptions, thanks for sharing :)

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  3. Marla, what a thorough breakdown of examples you observed of nonverbal communication! I appreciate how you broke down the nonverbal gestures into their function for communication. I have seen and enjoyed watching this TV show before so it was beneficial to read how an outsider picked up on the story line based on visual cues. My lesson was similar to yours, never make assumptions, thanks for sharing :)

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  4. Marla,
    what a thorough breakdown of the show and situations. I have watched this show and the visual cues can be very deceiving like you mention. It would be difficult to pick up on a story line if you did not know the first plot or listened to what was happening with the "two kids bored" situation.

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