Have you ever walked away from a conversation wondering, how did THAT happen? How didn't they understand what I was trying to say? What is going on!?!That happens to me often enough. But I know I'm not alone and I find solace in that. I was reading this article that discusses communication styles, the differences between men and women as well as how folks communicate from different cultures and parts of our own country. Those differences really affect the outcome of a conversation dramatically.
Just as much as anger can get in the way of affectively dealing with a conversation, so can all the other things that affect communication like non-verbal communication*. And that is really where things can go astray.
According to the very scientific Wikipedia:
*Nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. i.e., language is not the only source of communication, there are other means also. Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch (Haptic communication), by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact. Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress.
However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on face-to-face interaction, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, the physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.[1]
