Journal #2

This week I learned a lot about nonverbal communication.  The biggest thing I caught on to was the videos that were posted on the PowerPoint, where the girl’s were passing around the basketball and the gorilla walked in the middle of them.  I knew this before hand because I had seen the video.  The second video surprised me even more than the first one because I hadn’t seen that one.  I knew I was supposed to be focusing on at least two things at once.  I failed to realize a girl leaving on the black team as well as the curtain changing colors.

The videos truly showed me how hard it is to pick up every detail we encounter.  Even when we try to focus on multiple things, our eyes and brain can still only take in a limited amount of information.  This is a great example of the tings we miss out on in everyday life, especially since 60% of nonverbal communication is interpersonal.  I also never thought to establish a baseline of behaviors for people.  This was really good information because mot everyone is the same.  This helps to specifically identify differences in nonverbal cues.

Another interesting thing I learned was about the pacifying behaviors.   I knew the basics and how people touch their hair or neck when they are nervous, but I was surprised to learn that it involves much more than just satisfying stress.  It was really interesting that these nonverbal behaviors can actually stimulate nerve endings and release endorphins.