Chapter 9 - Vocalics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKldw3Wzx2Y&feature=related

            When you study how people express themselves through voices, you are analyzing and studying their vocalics. Its meaning is derived from how the voice is used which includes the inflection tone, the accent, rate and the pitch, and lastly the quality of the voice. When asked to analyze and examine a person’s characteristics of their voice, I thought what better then an interview of Miley Cyrus on the Ellen DeGeneres show. As some may already know, Miley is a young teen who is still growing into her body in addition to her voice. She is a famous singer, but before that she was famous for her pitchy voice on Hannah Montana. When she appeared on The Ellen show as she was first discussing how she was caught off guard when dancing in the back waiting to come out where she realized Ellen had a hidden wed cam. When she was talking she seemed to have a normal pitch, and her tone was natural. She didn’t seem like she was stressing her vocal folds, as if she would be doing when performing. As Miley was talking with Ellen, Ellen demonstrated a normal typical pitch of voice responding and listening to her with the famous “mm-hmm” which we learned in Chapter 9 as fundamental frequency.

            As the interview continued Miley discussed her experience being on American Idol, and being a mentor for the people on there. When she was talking about this her tone of pitch seemed to rise, because of the excitement to helping the idol members grow into their voice and personality of a singer as she has grown with her voice and personality  from her first record when she was 12. She used her voice to emphasize on the importance of finding out who you are first in order to make records or label yourself as a particular star singer. Miley displayed vocal variety, having a bunch of low pitches and then slowly becoming monotone when she began talking very fast. At this part of the clip, her rate of voice is being displayed; the speed of her voice is as if a thousand words are coming out of her mouth a minute. She seemed as if she had so much to say in just a little bit of time. As Ellen changed topic on the discussion of Miley deleting her twitter, she seemed to be much more relaxed in her voice, and paused more frequently. Ellen and Miley revealed a great example of turn-taking in a conversation while on the show, asking questions and going back and forth with the conversation leaving it to be very informal.

            One thing that we all know Miley very well for, is her nasality in the voice. When she talks, air is either trapped or too heavily contained in the nasal cavities which is resulting in the sir being pushed out or squeezed creating the whiny sound which she is famous for. Not everyone can be famous for talking through our noses, but for Miley Cyrus, it became part of her personal identity.

Spring Break

            I asked one of my good girlfriends how her spring break was, and what did she do over break. Immediately before I could get anything else out of my mouth, she quickly jumped and opened her eyes so big, raised her eyebrows and told me to sit down. I thought to myself, oh this has to be good. Like the book had mentioned, we can communicate a variety of messages by the use of your eyebrows and your forehead. For my girlfriend, she showed an example of an affect blend expression, expressing several emotions at the same time on the face. For her it was her eyes that lit up like fireworks were going off behind my head, and her eyebrows rising to the top of her hair line.

            She proceeded to tell her about her trip she took with a bunch of friends from school to Florida. She told me about the plane ride there, and how she meant this little old lady (scrunching her eyes as if she was old and could not see) and how extremely sweet she was with her little old body, and her nose and mouth. As we continued to discuss her trip, we talked about different things she did while she was down there, and the sadness of her eyes when she was saying that it flew by too fast.

            We started talking about the massive amount of school work she had to do when she got home, and how ridiculous that teachers would schedule papers and exams for the day we resume classes. As I was focusing on her mouth she had no signs of laughter, or excitement but her eyebrows and nose would constantly scrunch due to how anger she was about the amount of work teachers give their students over their break.  Her facial expressions where a mixture of anger and disgust, because clearly the last thing she wanted to do the final days before class started was sit inside and get everything done.

            Overall reading her facial expressions, I think I was more observable to her facial expressions instead of her body language for this particular assignment. I was able to really feel emotion by identifying it through her facial gestures while asking her questions about her break.

Observation of a Couple

            I was in the library the other day checking out some books, where I came across a group of people who looked to be studying for an exam. I had decided to observed the group of individuals, and analyze there posture and gestures.

            Instead of strictly observing the 3 members of the group working closely together I decided to monitor the young man and woman who seemed to be more interested in one another then worrying about an exam and their environment surroundings. They were very close to one another in an intimate space on the couch. There was clearly a sense of physical attractiveness towards one another. As they sat next to each other, one of the other members studying with them would occasionally look over her shoulder to see what they were doing, but finding them to be smiling, and laughing face to face position, gradually turning their body postures inward toward one another. Could it be possible that the couple may be dating, or just very flirtatious towards one another?

            The two students where not demonstrating the typical male and female sitting behavior in the library setting. Typically men assume open sitting in positions meaning that the legs are often extended and spread apart rather than close together; likely to cross his legs, while a woman is more likely to cross her legs at the knees. This young woman was sitting Indian style up against the arm rest turned inward towards the man, where the young man was sitting in a slouchy position with his arm up against the back of the chair. There was not a significant amount of space between the two, but the two had established an environment of nonverbal communication, and human perceptions. From observing such interaction, I concluded that there was definitely a significant interest and attraction.

            I examined amounts of body movement, gestures, and their posture. By doing this, I was able to understand movements of the body to convey information, emotions, and attitudes. There was an abundant amount of facial expressions, and eye expressions along with a slight amount of touching done on the shoulders.

            After completing this assignment I was able to not only understand more in depth the kinesics that take place during human interaction, but the way body expressions reveal nonverbally about a person.

My Environment

           My bedroom is characteristically designed from my personality and interests. As we discussed in class, the bedroom is our privacy room, in which we can control the boundary that allows us to pace and regulate interaction with others. Having your bedroom door slightly opened, completely opened or shut nonverbally communicates to the person who would like to inhabit the space.

            As for my bedroom, I enjoy having my door opened during the day having it feel welcoming to friends who come to visit or even my roommates. I find my bedroom to be the room that everyone comes to when we are just sitting around chatting. I like to have open space, but due to the amount of space that I have, I try to have it easy for myself and others to walk around without feeling crowded or on top of one another.

            When designing my bedroom at my apartment, I tried to incorporate as much as I could to help remind me of home and what I enjoy. As seen in the picture, my bedroom is filled with the colors of blue and green. My room is very earthy and relaxing with the amount of bamboo I have and flowers throughout my space. I also surround my territory with markers such as pictures of friends and family, and other personal items to show that this is my ownership and primary territory to my apartment.

            When someone has a first glance at my room, they can tell immediately l that I am very much so a neat freak because it looks like the room has never been touched. I have a tendency to always make my bed immediately when getting up and starting my day, and always making sure that my clothes and shoes are put away leaving the floors and chairs to be clear.

            As I continue analyzing other aspects of my room, my television is on my dresser directly in front of my bed, making it easy if others are in the room to watch television from all angles. My desk is tucked in the corner with two laptops, one that I use for school and personal use and the other for work. Normally a person can tell if I am in the middle of doing school work or not by the scattered papers or books on top of my desk. If I am in the middle of something I will leave them out, but if not they are always on the shelf put away neatly.

            I enjoy having others in my room, and being able to express what kind of person I am through nonverbal cues. I find it to be very interesting and correct that you can distinguish and understand what a person likes by the way they decorate their personal space or even public space through their apartment or home. 

Reflexive Cycle

Inventory Self- When analyzing my inventory self, I found multiple nonverbal cues that I really never noticed until now. I am a very sociable person and like two meet new people all the time. For example, my most intriguing nonverbal language when encountering a new group of people is my facial expressions, along with my body language of crossing my arms. Clearly having a snotty look on my face at times and crossing my arms is not giving a good first impression to new people, although at other various times I can be very energetic and very interested in conversations by smiling and nodding.

Change Self- When I meet new people in class or out at a event I would like to be able to work on changing my facial expressions to someone I am not interested by not giving a snotty look but by respectfully giving them my attention instead. I would also like to not always have my arms across my chest but down instead making the other person feel comfortable and not like I don’t want to talk to them.

Inventory Others- I would like to observe others nonverbal communication and be able to retain and improve mine. Encountering someone who seems to be very interested by asking questions, very outgoing is an improvement I would like to make. I have a tendency to notice others eye contact as well as their tone of voice in a conversation to distinguish the vibe of the conversation. I also have a predisposition to seeing if they are easily distracted by other things around them, for example their cell phones or even other people passing by.

Transact with Others- By interacting with others, not only will you have an effect on them but they will have one you resulting in a great way to experience social interaction of nonverbal communication. Being able to understand the awareness of others and your nonverbal cues will help improve your communicating skills. By simply asking either friends or family members to monitor your nonverbal cues, it will aid you in improving and practicing good nonverbal cues.

Reflect, Assess, and Re-Inventory Self- I find it to be very hard to observe myself and replicate on my nonverbal cues; however by learning and resolving bad nonverbal cues I hope to develop good nonverbal communication.

Before completing this assignment, I never really took a closer look into my nonverbal cues and how important it is to improve them before entering the work place. Although everyone has their blemishes I never assumed that people would look at my nonverbal cues and believe them over what it is I was saying. I would like to continue to reflect and assess my nonverbal language through conversations and interactions with other people.