The Character of Movement

Abstract

Perhaps that part of social psychology easiest to identify with research into the body is the field of nonverbal comunication. There is, by now, a considerable literature about people’s gestures, facial expressions, postures and vocal characteristics. As yet, there has not emerged from this mass of evidence an overall, explicit view of the body as a medium of communication or of expression. Instead, there are several different approaches that, taken together, make an incoherent statement about bodily conduct and communication. In keeping with the approach established in the book so far, this chapter examines the assumptions that underlie certain approaches to the study of nonverbal communication. The argument is made that, in general, this research effort has often proceeded on the basis of narrow and inadequate views of the body. As a consequence of this and the dominance of the experimental method, we now know much about the use of various parts of the anatomy in social situations but still have only a tentative grasp of the body as a social entity.