Nonverbal Communication Research Methods

The purpose of this report is to pose five empirical research questions centered on a single topic within the field of communication research. The topic area selected herein is nonverbal communication. Aguinis and Henle (2001) stated that nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact, facial expression, gesture, and body posture are important forms of communication. Nonverbal behavior is relevant to several interpersonal processes (e.g., deception, impression formation, attraction, social influence, emotional expression, and status identification). Nonverbal behavior also provides information, expresses intimacy, expresses social control, and facilitates task goals (Aguinis & Henle, 2001).

Presented below are five empirical research questions, discussed with respect to their underlying concepts, variables, research methods, ontology, and epistemology.

The first research question is: To what extent does the use of gesture benefit speech production, memory, and comprehension? Frick-Horbury (2002) argued that hand gestures are used primarily to aid the viewer or listener in the interpretation and comprehension of the message in a communicative interaction. At the same time, hand gestures are also recognized as benefiting the producer in a variety of cognitive tasks such as speech fluency, speech processing, verbal identification, and verbal recall.

The concept considered in this question is the sig

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s undergraduate student status or instructor/professorial status. The dependent variables measured in the study are the kinds of nonverbal behaviors exhibited by these two groups. It is assumed that filmed observations of undergraduate students and their instructors and professors will reveal behaviors associated with higher status or authority/power being exhibited by the higher ranking individuals. Observation of matched pairs of students and instructors will be used to provide an answer to the research question. Research Question 3 According to Cadesky, Mota, and Schachar (2000), children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often engage in ineffective or inappropriate social interactions. Epistemologically, it is assumed that appropriate behavior is the result of skillful processing in which nonverbal as well as other communication cues are encoded, interpreted, a goal is set, responses formulated, possible responses evaluated, and chosen behaviors are then enacted. Children with ADHD, according to Cadesky, Mota, and Schachar (2000), are often deficient in their ability to identify nonverbal cues and, subsequently, to identify emotions and respond appropriately. Ontologically, this speak
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Approximate Word count = 1497
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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