IndexIntroductionNonverbal differences in gender communicationSome types of nonverbal signals from men and womenConclusionIntroductionThinking back to the listening profile evaluation, I noticed that I got a score quite close to mine expectations for more than half of the questions asked during the assessment. Since my scores on the assessment were exactly where I thought I would be, I decided it would be fun and exciting to take the assessment again to see if I had any changes. After completing the assessment for the second time, I concluded that, indeed, I am in tune with myself and feel confident that I am a great listener, but I could still get better at hearing those who are speaking. All of my six components were graded the same as when I initially took the listening assessment in week one. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe top three components ranked in my assessment were remembering, evaluating, and understanding. When taking the assessment, both the first and second time, I answered everything truthfully and I don't understand why I ranked lower in the "responder" component. Maintaining good conversations has been easy for me and is something I love to do, but by this rating, I need to work on it more. Listening is such an important part of our daily lives, and while we'd like to think of it as something that comes naturally or easily, sadly that's not the case. Listening is absolutely a skill that we must learn and educate to become proficient and successful in the communication process. Before taking this course, if someone had asked me if listening and hearing were synonymous, I would have answered yes or I'm not sure. Listening and hearing are not synonymous and without listening messages during the communication process are misinterpreted. During this course I learned a lot about listening and the many distractions, internal and external, that impact our listening. Not only did I learn about the internal and external distractions that affect our listening, but I also studied how a speaker's speech can harm the listening process. Taking this listening course among other applied communication courses also convinced me that during the communication process, as a listener, we are responsible not only for listening to the speaker but also for “listening” to their nonverbal communication. If there was an opportunity to take a more advanced version of this course, I would definitely do so because of all the knowledge there is to gain that can promote a better quality of daily life. Nonverbal Differences in Gender Communication Nonverbal communication happens every day in the life of anyone who communicates with another individual. Whether in business, classroom, hospital or home, nonverbal communication is present and plays a significant role in the communication process. Nonverbal communication varies among the various personalities we encounter in our daily lives, but looking at the bigger picture, we notice that men and women tend to have opposite nonverbal behaviors when communicating. Many of our communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal, were learned during our childhood, and because of our culture, boys and girls are often taught different communication behaviors that they eventually consider the norm. For example, regarding nonverbal skills, girls are taught to maintain a small body posture, while boys are taught to appearbigger and more aggressive because in our culture men are dominant and women are beautiful and attractive. Nonverbal communication has as much if not more (depending on the situation) impact than verbal communication. When an individual is displaying nonverbal communication, he or she provides more meaning to words that are conveyed to people regardless of the environment or situation. Nonverbal communication can be viewed in many different ways, depending on who you are talking to, due to the many cultures we encounter every day. In many different cultures, we see that men and women behave depending on how they were raised in their lives. respective cultures. Although our cultural upbringing can influence how we behave during communication, it seems that men and women, regardless of their cultural background, tend to behave the same way (men behave the same / women behave the same way). Some types of nonverbal signals from both men and womenBody movementDuring the communication process, our body movements and gestures, whether positive or negative, send signals to the other individual. By examining the different types of body gestures, we find that there are three types of gestures: emblems, adapters and illustrators. During conversations where we feel nervous or anxious, we may begin to unconsciously make a series of different bodily gestures, this gesture is known as an adaptor. The second gesture is the illustrative gesture and is the most common gesture of the three. Illustrative gesture is the way we use our body to support the verbal message we are conveying. Some examples would be using hands to show the distance or size of something in our message. The third and final type of gesture uses emblems. Emblematic gestures are those that have universal meaning throughout a culture. If an individual were to argue with someone and fist bump, it would be a cynical gesture that would be understood by everyone in American culture. Regarding gender and nonverbal communication, both men and women tend to employ the emblematic gesture as well as the illustrative gesture. Nodding your head is also a frequent body movement that shows understanding while listening to someone speak. Men tend to nod with head movement, while women also nod, more frequently, using their smiles and facial expressions. Posture Body posture is crucial during the communication process and we can typically find ourselves in one of two different postures; standing or sitting. Posture is another non-verbal signal that can send a positive or negative signal and in most cases is developed by our culture. In American culture, many women assume a closed body posture, while men typically assume a more open and wide posture to appear more prominent and dominant. The open posture displayed by men can send the message that the individual is open, friendly and confident. When a woman or anyone assumes a closed posture, this position can lead people to interpret the individual as hostile or unwilling to communicate. Eye Contact Good eye contact helps those we are speaking/listening to feel sincere with every word that comes out. of our mouths and that we are giving them our full attention. With appropriate eye contact, we demonstrate our involvement and allow ourselves to monitor other individuals' nonverbal cues. When we look into people's eyes, we can see all different types of human emotions in them (if they are feeling any at that moment), happiness, fear, sadness, and anger, to name a few. The.