Non-verbal communication is an important part of everyone’s behavior. Information obtained from facial expressions, physical appearance, can help people make important decisions about the interlocutor. Observation of non-verbal cues helps, in addition to examining personal qualities, to see the psycho-emotional state, to assess the level of stress experienced. Numerous aspects of facial expressions, and physical behavior were first studied in the turtles of Lev Rubinstein in the mid-20th century (Sternberg and Kostić 64). Scientists were the first to conclude that gestures and facial expressions are not limited to external content, but are also a way of expressing the spiritual component of any personality. In communication, the data obtained in the analysis of physical appearance allows a person to talk about the level of self-protection and self-care. The level of neatness of appearance can quite often indicate a person’s quality of life.
This is especially evident in the examples of black community members, within which members of dysfunctional families often wear shabby clothes and worn-out shoes. Facial expressions can in most cases be used to determone such basic emotions, as fear, anger, anxiety, or frustration. In the long run, facial expressions can be indicative of depression or anxiety being experienced (Sternberg and Kostić 84). Similar expressions are also often seen in different communities, whose members, due to discrimination, are forced to experience long periods of stress. An important non-verbal indicator is the environment itself, since an unstable mental state, for example, can be stipulated by living in a crime neighborhood.
In my life, the above factors are important in the communication process. I often understand from the way a person’s facial expressions are organized within a neighbour in the the community whether the person really needs urgent help with something or whether the latter is in a state of anxiety caused by social issues. Often an understanding of one’s environment allows one to draw conclusions about one’s level of mental health, since living in poverty has a strong effect on one’s state of mind. When dealing with people from such a group, I can predict many of the difficulties in communication associated with being depressed for a long period of time. The main reason of my interest in the topic is connected with the fact that mental health in black and brown communities is often overlooked and criticized.
In my life, the most striking context for the manifestation of nonverbal signals was a repair situation during a pandemic. The contractor responsible for the result refused to speed up the process, because of which our family was infected with the coronavirus. This episode significantly affected the psychological health of me and my family. It became the very nonverbal factor determining my inner state and behavioral peculiarities.
Non-verbal factors often helped me to orient myself in building interpersonal communication. The gestures and facial expressions of one of my colleagues made me realize that despite a verbal promise to help, he was not ready to do so because he had been under considerable stress lately. The person looked unusually unkempt, his skin paler than usual and his facial muscle reactions sluggish. I decided not to ask for help, giving my acquaintance a chance to rest.
Of most interest to science in this field of knowledge is the relationship of human facial expressions to social conditions since, in balck communities, there is a lack in scientific data on this topic. My ethnography shows that there are numerous superstitions connected with the unfair interpretation of people’s actions. For instance, a poor looking black person can mostly be considered a marginal or a criminal rather that the one having financial difficulties. What is needed is a more in-depth study of what conclusions can be drawn about the level of vulnerability of population by the most typical facial expressions in communication. This requires the collection of data on the basis of several focus groups, the study of a large amount of statistical data, and iterviews with my fellow classmate of personal experiences of environmental factors. This researh will help to create a general awareness for all people.
Work Cited
Sternberg, Robert J., and Aleksandra Kostić. Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships: What Words Don’t Tell Us. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.