Observing Non-Verbal Interaction

In class, we discussed different forms of social interaction and public encounters. For this assignment, you are to discreetly observe people for one hour in a busy, public location-such as a shopping mall, park, street corner, train station, cafe, on public transportation, or the Reading Terminal Market-and take note of their non-verbal communication. Observe at least ten different pairs or groups of people. Rather than listen to the content of their conversations, I want you to observe all the different ways that people communicate with each other through gestures, facial expressions, body language, the use of personal space, and so on. Be as unobtrusive as possible.

Write a 500-600 word report about your observations.

• Where did you conduct your observation?

• Who did you observe?

• What forms of non-verbal communication did you observe? Were some pairs or groups more expressive than others?

• Could you figure out the nature of people's relationships with one another based on how they nonverbally interacted?

• What did you observe about people's moods, attitudes, or personalities by how they non-verbally interacted?

• Was it possible to determine any of the content of people's conversations by observing their nonverbal interactions?