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Reading People “The Unwritten Language of the Body”

This class is designed to give a basic understanding of how you can notice a person’s attitude towards their surroundings based on their body language. You need to be able to understand good and bad body language and notice if an incident is going to occur or if someone needs some type of attention. The Instructor will then tell a fictional or non-fictional story of when they were able to read someone’s body language and handle an issue before it occurred.

A. Body language and how it relates to the correctional setting.
The instructor will take each topic that was discussed in the video and ask the participants to apply it to everyday life in a correctional setting.

1. Kinesics – The study of facial expressions, gestures, posture, and eye behavior

a. Emblems – The most obvious signals
Some examples of emblems are a wave goodbye, applause, halt, ect… The instructor will ask participants to come up with some other examples of emblems that might be displayed in a correctional setting.

b. Illustrators – Small movements and postures that emphasize ideas such as head nods and shoulder shrugs. The instructor will again ask if the participants can come up with some other examples of illustrators.

c. Affect displays – Facial expressions that communicate feelings. The participants need to understand that facial expressions will be supported by body posture. The instructor can ask the participants if they have any good examples of facial expressions being displayed that were accompanied by body posture. The instructor can also give a personal example.

d. Facial expressions – Facial expressions are an important part of understanding how an individual is feeling. Ask the participants how many facial expressions they think they can show on their face. Tell them that some researchers concluded that there were eight (happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, contempt, and interest). When dealing with Inmates it is important to understand what expression is being displayed to effectively deal with a situation.

e. Feelings/Posture Relations – Instructor will ask the class if they think body posture affects feelings (such as a clenched fist might make a person angrier). This is very important in dealing with inmates that are upset or angry. To get an inmate to relax or calm down during a tense situation could determine if the outcome is favorable.

f. Regulators – Subconscious behaviors including eye movements, head nods, and postures that regulate conversations. Instructor will discuss how noticing subconscious behavior could be a pre-indicator of the inmates behavior. (Examples: Inmates may tap their foot if they are nervous or pace if they are anxious).

g. Eye Behavior – Eyes are used to communicate. You can give someone a dirty look or a cold stare down. You are able to let someone know exactly how you are feeling by looking at them with a look of concern or looking directly through them. You are trusted more and determined to be more sincere and truthful when you are speaking with someone and remain in eye contact with them. If someone will not look you in the eyes they are most likely not telling the whole truth. (Remember this is mainly true in our culture while other cultures believe it to be an insult to look into someone eyes).

2. Paralanguage – Paralanguage concerns your voice without emphasis on the words themselves. Things such as pitch, speed, and volume all relate to paralanguage. The way a message is delivered is just as important as the words themselves.

3. Haptics – Haptics is the study of touching (tactile communication). In a correctional setting when dealing with incarcerated offenders staff does not generally have physical contact with offenders. The reason Haptics is important is that it is one of the many parts to nonverbal communication. American culture does not emphasize touch when communicating. However, the French, Italians, southwest Asians, Russians, Spanish, and Latin Americans do use touch when communicating.

4. Proxemics – Territorial aspects of nonverbal communication is very important in a correctional setting. How many times have you heard an Inmate say “This is my cut” or “He was in my cut” (dealing with personal living areas). The instructor will ask the participants how territory in the prison can lead to problems when dealing with personal space. Everybody has a personal bubble that is different and individuals need to be aware of this when engaged in communication.

5. Chronemics – How an individual sees and uses time. This is another part of nonverbal communication that does not directly affect us in the correctional setting. We do have set schedules that we go by such as count, meals, medical, ect… Generally speaking, Inmates do not have the option in setting their own schedules.

6. Communication by Artifacts – These are identifiers such as clothes, body decorations, and the presence/absence of hair. When an individual is incarcerated they get the same thing that everyone else gets. Individuality is stripped and everyone is treated equal. Inmates use many tricks to become individualized. The instructor will ask the participants to give some examples of things that they have seen Inmates do to individualize themselves.

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