As our group observed different people on campus, we recognized that most people are in a hurry, working on homework in groups, or headed home. As people walked together, they seemed to walk slower. This is most likely because they are focusing more on talking than on walking. We also discussed the probability that couples walking together walk slower because they want to prolong their time together.
Couples in groups seem to pay most attention to each other and ignore others in the group. As we observed people in the Crossroads, there was a group of three people sitting at a table. There were two girls and one boy. One of the girls was sitting in a chair to the boy’s left. The other girl was sitting two chairs to the boy’s right and there was a backpack on the chair in between them. The boy was flirting a lot with the girl sitting next to him, although she seemed to initiate the flirting by poking, teasing, and other methods of trying to keep the boy’s attention. The boy responded to the girl with flirting and teasing of his own. He did things like take her pen, and let her “attack” him to try and get it back. It was obviously flirtiing as both were smiling and touching each other, reciprocating the flirting. The “third wheel” girl seemed to feel a little awkward, and possibly was somewhat jealous of the other girl. She eventually left, and the flirting couple stayed at the table for a while longer.
Looking back to the groups and considering who may or may not be left out was a little hard to really perceive from a distance. If anyone seemed to be being excluded, it was most likely because they weren’t talking or actively participating in the conversation. We talked in our groups about observations in the past. The excluded person in a group is often a tag-along, and a person who the other members of the group really don’t care to be with. The group may permit the person to be there, but they don’t sincerely want the person to be with their group.
Physical appearance can tell a lot about a person, but may also be misleading. Big indications given by physical appearance are self-esteem, possibly how well-off a person is, and whether they are hungry or tired. Again, these things may be indicated by physical appearance, but their physical appearnce can be misleading.
When people are territorial, they will leave more space between themselves and other people. Territorial people will sit a few seats away from everyone else, they will mark “their” territory with personal items like backpacks, coats, and books. We noticed even in our little group that we did individual things like that ourselves. None of us sat right next to each other, and some of us put our stuff on the empty chairs next to us.
We found that girls are the ones who gesture most in a conversation. Guys often fidget with things around them or just fold their arms or put their hands in their pockets. Guys will gesture more if they are excited about what they are talking about. As we discussed reasons why girls gesture more, we came to the conclusion that girls are more connected to their emotions, so they feel that language is inadequate to express all that they are feeling. Also, when girls are talking to guys, they seem to have a harder time keeping the guy’s attention, so they will use hand gestures to keep attention.
Gestures people use when talking often emphasize what they are trying to say, help describe things they have a hard time using words to describe, and to reconfirm non-verbally what they are trying to say verbally. Hand movements include pointing in the direction of something they are talking about, showing size or shape, or just making big hand movements to make what they are saying stronger.
Eye contact was interesting to discuss and observe. People more comfortable in a situation will use more eye contact. One-sided flirters will glance away when eyes are met, which we thought was because they are afraid of the other person seeing their feelings in their eyes, and they are afraid of how the other person will react if they know the truth.
Our testing of invading personal space involved a mission we sent Sabrina on. She walked over to a table with a boy sitting and eating by himself. She sat down in the chair right next to him and was pretening to text on her phone, but didn’t say anything to him. Right when she first sat down, he offered her a cookie. When she wouldn’t take it, he just laughed and continued eating. After a couple of minutes she got up and walked away. She couldn’t help herself later and had to go tell him why she had done it. He claimed he knew about it because he had a friend who had to do the same thing.
Our experiments and observation verifed the fact that people communicate whether they are trying to or not. They communicate in different ways, such as how they are intending to communicate, they send messages to others watching them, and they may send misleading messages (such as how they dress) that give people wrong impressions. We also learned that people communicate differently, both verbally and non-verbally, depending on the situation they are in.
