Body Language (AQA GCSE Psychology)

Body language & communication

• Body language is a form of non-verbal communication (NVC) which involves how body posture, touch, gestures, and proximity can communicate a range of meanings e.g. ‘I’m bored/I like you/I’m angry/I’m confused’ etc.

• Body language takes many different forms, one of which is open and closed body posture

• Open postures signal friendliness, being on the ‘same side’ as the other person whereas closed postures signal unfriendliness and feelings of dislike towards the other person 

  • Open body language

    • If someone stands with their arms out, palms up and with their legs planted at about hip distance then this is an example of an open posture

    • It signals honesty and, literally, openness i.e. ‘I have nothing to hide’

  • Closed body language

    • If someone stands (or sits) with their arms and/or legs crossed then this is an example of a closed posture

    • It signals hostility and defensiveness i.e. ‘I have something to hide/I’m not in agreement with you/leave me alone’ 

Research

• 12 female and 12 male university students were shown photographs of 3 open and 3 closed postures and copied each of these postures

• Each participant then completed an emotions checklist

• The findings of which showed that the closed postures increased unpleasant emotions in the participants (Rossberg-Gempton & Poole, 1993)

• McGinley et al. (1975) found that participants were more likely to agree with the opinions of a woman if she expressed those opinions using open postures rather than closed postures

Open and closed body language diagram

Body posture can communicate more than you might think.

• Another form of body language is postural echo:

  • Postural echo refers to the tendency for people to ‘mirror’ those to whom they agree with/find attractive/are friends with

  • One way of signalling a positive attitude towards another person is to adopt the same pose as them

    • e.g. foot pointing outwards, head-tilt, hand on hip (but performed with the opposite foot, hand, hip etc. to create a mirror image)

• Examples 

  • Salespeople are very aware of postural echo and will use it to their advantage 

  • Givens’ (1978) review article found that non-verbal behaviours play a hugely important role in ‘courtship’ rituals

    • i.e. flirting, starting a romantic relationship, particularly with regards to how postural echo can signal the willingness to ‘bond’ with the other person

  • Tanner & Chartrand (2006) used postural echo on half of their participants whom they interviewed about a new drink (the other half of the participants did not experience postural echo):

    • They found that the postural echo group expressed more liking for the drink and its potential success than the non-postural echo group

Postural echo diagram

Postural echo is a form of body language

• Another form of body language is touch:

  • Touch can go from friendly e.g. a handshake, a soft touch on the arm, to threatening/aggressive e.g. a prod to the chest, two hands pressing down onto the back of someone’s shoulders

  • How a touch is received by the person being touched will depend on an array of factors:

    • who is doing the touching

    • where the interaction takes place (e.g. at home, at work, in a club, at the gym)

    • the relationship between the two people

    • the type of touch (e.g. a poke, a prod, a stroke, a pinch, a slap!)

    • whether the touch is anticipated or comes as a surprise

  • One study on the effects of touch used two conditions:

    • Waitresses briefly touched customers either on the hand or the shoulder (condition 1) when giving change from the bill

    • Or did not touch the customers at all (control condition):

    • The waitresses in the touch condition received larger tips than those in the no-touch condition thus certain types of touch can result in positive responses from those who have been touched (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984)

  • Fisher et al. (1976) found that female students who had been touched lightly on the hand by a librarian when being given a book rated the librarian more highly than students who had not been touched by her

Physical touch diagram

One touch on the arm could be enough to ensure that someone likes and trusts you.

Evaluation of body language

Strengths

• There are some good applications for the use of body language in the real world: in teaching, in business, in counselling therapy, in the police force, which gives the theory credibility

• Being able to ‘read’ another person’s body language is a very useful skill for life: it can help someone to detect when another person is lying to them, is in love with them or is trying to manipulate them

Weaknesses

• Studies which use very small samples (such as Rossberg-Gempton & Poole’s) cannot generalise their findings extensively as the sample only represents a narrow group of people (in the case of the above study - university students)

• Research on touch may raise ethical concerns as it involves a person’s private space being intruded upon plus some people may dislike being touched as it may trigger a specific trauma (additionally, people with autistic spectrum disorder may react very negatively to a stranger touching them and show signs of distress)