Kinesics and Proxemics
Veronica Flores- Period 7
Kinesics
Kinesics is the study of body language and how it is used to communicate. When you roll your eyes at someone, you're probably annoyed at them or something they said. Without even knowing it we send a second message when talking to someone by using our body. Body language can be either subtle or completely obvious, and we all use both of those types.
Kinesics Example 1
In my first example, the women looks annoyed. It seems that someone's caught her during some of her rare leisure time. It appears that she's at an office, so she's probably getting a quick break that she wanted to spend all to herself. She has a slightly upturned eyebrow in one of the looks that says, "Why are you even talking to me right now?"
Kinesics Example 2
In my second example, the president looks a little mad and disappointed. You can see this by how his eyebrows are drawn together and his face is very tense. I think almost everyone has seen this look in their life before.
Kinesics Example 3
In my third example, the girl seems to be pleasantly surprised about something. Her eyes look very bright and her eyebrow aren't drawn together, which would be a sign of being disappointed or angry about something. Also, her hand is over her mouth and she shows many signs of being happy and/or pleasantly surprised.
Proxemics
Proxemics is the study of spatial communication. It sounds complicated, but really all it means is the study of how people act around each other and what their body language is saying. We probably think about this every now and then, for example when you see two people hugging each other you might wonder, "I wonder what kind of relationship they have if they hug each other."
Proxemics Example 1
My first example of proxemics was a picture of a man and women sitting close together on a bench. The woman seems to be in a short wedding dress and the man appears to be in a tuxedo, leading me to believe that they are getting married. But aside from their attire you see how close they are sitting together, and how they hold each others hands, and this will probably show you that they have a friendly relationship and are most definitely not strangers.
Proxemics Example 2
In this example you see four people standing in a line. Based off the picture, they are all standing with a bit of room in between them, and they keep their belongings rather close to their person then if they had been friends. I would have to infer that they are four random strangers that don't know each other at all and try to keep to themselves.
Proxemics Example 3
In the picture above you see two ladies that seem to have gone shopping together. Based off how close they're standing, how they let each other read off their phones, and how they are smiling together you can probably guess that they have a close friendship and know each other pretty well.
In Conclusion.....
In conclusion of this presentation I would like to tell you how often we use kinesics and proxemics in our everyday life. You may slump whenever you're tired, smile more often when you're happy, and be more relaxed around people you know. That's just how our bodies and minds react to our surroundings.