Nonverbal communication of pharmacists during counseling leading to patient satisfaction: evidence from Iranian retail market

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of nonverbal communication of community pharmacists on patients’ satisfaction throughout the counseling process. Eight dimensions of nonverbal communication have been taken into account: vocalics, kinesics, proxemics, haptics, oculesics, olfactics, chronemics, and atmospherics. To gather data relevant to the aim of this study, a survey was conducted among the pharmacies in the city of Tehran (Iran). A questionnaire was offered to patients waiting to receive their medicine asking them about the nonverbal communication of the pharmacists and the degree of their satisfaction of service encounters. Proposed hypotheses were tested with a structural equation modeling approach using the Smart PLS software package. The results strongly support the theoretical model and suggest that there is a significant correlation between all components of nonverbal communication (excluding proxemics and haptics) and consumers’ satisfaction. The originality of this article is that it is the first empirical research to evaluate all aspects of the nonverbal cues of pharmacists and their effects on patient satisfaction. Considering the relatively high growth rate of the Iran retail market, this study has profound implications for academia and the practice of pharmacy.     

Beyond words: Older people with dementia using and interpreting nonverbal behaviour

This article addresses a gap in research on nonverbal communication and dementia. It presents findings from a study that explored ways in which older people with dementia used and interpreted nonverbal behaviour within the context of social interactions. Two researchers, using an ethnographic approach, jointly observed nonverbal communicative behaviours occurring in a day-care centre. The findings show that older people with dementia used nonverbal behaviour in meaningful ways for others to interpret, and as a way of self-communication; and that they actively interpreted others' nonverbal behaviour. In specific situations, these people acted in the context of shared meanings, possessed a ‘self’, and took on the ‘role’ of others. This approach has implications for understanding the social experience of dementia and for the ways that care is organised. The role of nonverbal behaviour offers potential for carers to preserve older people's self-identity and improve their quality of life and care.     

Nonverbal Reactions to Conversational Interruption: A Test of Complementarity Theory and the Status/Gender Parallel

The present research examined nonverbal reactions to conversational interruption (a status-organizing cue). We predicted that the nonverbal reactions to interruption (versus a control condition) would show a different pattern of results than gender differences. Participants (N = 150) were paired with one of four confederates and randomly assigned to either an interruption or control condition. Nine nonverbal behavioral reactions were coded by independent raters. Participants responded to interruption with reciprocal interruptions and increased nodding, as compared to a control condition. Gender differences diverged from those associated with condition. Women smiled, agreed, nodded, and laughed more than men, showing evidence of a greater attempt to facilitate the flow of conversation. We discuss these findings with regard to the dimensions of affiliation and verticality.     

Explorations in immediacy: The nonverbal system and its relationship to affective and situational factors

Male college students interacted with a male confederate while the context of the interaction, gaze behaviors of the confederate and the perceived source of the subject's arousal were manipulated. The dependent variables included nonverbal behaviors, affective reactions and perceptions of and liking for the confederate. The study was conducted to provide more information about the relationship among the nonverbal immediacy behaviors and the relevance of several situational variables to each of these behaviors. In addition, there was an examination of Patterson's 1976 contention that the evaluation of the individual's state of arousal determines the reciprocation or compensation of nonverbal intimacy. The data analysis revealed a system of weakly related immediacy behaviors strongly related to the subjects' affective states. A general dominance factor emerged that was related to several nonverbal behaviors and it was confirmed that arousal was related to both nonverbal behavior and interpersonal attraction. It seemed doubtful, however, that this relationship was as straightforward as Patterson's model predicted. The results are discussed in light of problems specific to this area of research.This experiment was based on a portion of a doctoral dissertation carried out by the first author at the University of Maine at Orono.The authors would like to acknowledge the help of the following people who served as observers and/or confederates: Charlotte Bailey, Vicki Choate, Gail Deabay, Mark Himelfarb, Maryjo McAndrew, Brad Peters and Tom Waite.     

Social Work Education in the Urban Scene

This paper describes one possible approach of integrating the key areas of racism and sexism into the human behavior sequence. It is suggested that power relations among people has become a unifying concept of human behavior in modern society, replacing the Freudian libido. Under this conceptual umbrella the relationship between men and women, between races, between social classes, and between helping professionals and their clients can all be examined. General principles of human behavior, such as aggression theories, childhood socialization, defense mechanisms, role theory, verbal and nonverbal communication, and other themes can be introduced to support the basic framework.     

Quantized displays of human movement: A methodological alternative to the point-light display

In this paper, we describe a methodological alternative to the point-light display for the study of the impact of human movement on social perception. This quantization technique involves degrading standard videotapes via a special effects generator at the time of editing. As is the case with a point-light display, quantization disguises structural characteristics of videotaped stimulus persons, and highlights their patterns of movement. Because quantization requires no special procedures during videotaping, it is unobtrusive, and helps maintain the ecological validity of the original stimulus. We offer empirical support from two studies for our proposal that dynamic quantization is a valuable methodological approach to the study of nonverbal behavior.     

Nonverbal dominance in the communication of affect: A myth?

The claim that nonverbal signals are more important than verbal signals in the communication of affect is widely accepted and has had considerable impact on therapy, counselling, and education. In a typical experiment, subjects are presented with a long series of artificially constructed inconsistent messages (messages in which the verbal and nonverbal components are opposite in valence) and asked to judge the strength of the emotion felt by the encoder. In such studies little attempt is made to camouflage the nature of the stimuli or the intent of the experimenter. In this study, it is argued that the absence of camouflage (defined as naturally occurring consistent messages) may bias the results in favour of the nonverbal dominance effect, so that as the level of camouflage is increased, the size of the nonverbal dominance effect is decreased. Four groups of subjects (34 subjects per group) were required to rate a series of audiovisually presented messages. The level of camouflage varied between groups: 0% (all messages presented were inconsistent), 50% (half of the messages presented were consistent and half were inconsistent), 83% (the majority of messages presented were consistent), and 94%. The results clearly demonstrated that the nonverbal dominance effect was present when the level of camouflage was low, and disappeared when the level of camouflage was high. The implications of these findings for the nonverbal dominance hypothesis are discussed.This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme (Reference No. A78515618).     

Outspoken Objects and Unspoken Myths: The Semiotics of Object-Mediated Communication

This interactionist study draws on the semiotics of Peirce and Barthes to theorize object-mediated communication, a nonverbal interpersonal technique in which individuals signal new information by using and orienting themselves to symbolically endowed material objects. Examining the case of door-mediated communication, it proposes that objects lie symbolically dormant until their deeper collective significance is activated through their use in interaction. The article expands the scope of interactionist inquiry on human–nonhuman relations by moving beyond the dominant scholarly focus on identity. The semiotic approach foregrounds a distinct human–object phenomenon, a novel category of nonverbal communication, and important meaning-making dynamics.     

Urban tree cover: an ecological perspective

Analysis of urban tree cover is generally limited to inventories of tree structure and composition on public lands. This approach provided valuable information for resource management. However, it does not account for all tree cover within an urban landscape, thus providing insufficient information on ecological patterns and processes. We propose evaluating tree cover for an entire urban area that is based on patch dynamics. Treed patches are classified by their origin, structure, and management intensity. A patch approach enables ecologists to evaluate ecological patterns and processes for the entire urban landscape and to examine how social patterns influence these ecological patterns and processes.     

Patterns of Nonverbal Behavior Associated with Truth and Deception: Illustrations from Three Experiments

The digital age has brought with it new and powerful computer-based methods of analyzing heretofore elusive patterns of nonverbal behavior. C-BAS (Meservy 2010) is a computer-assisted behavioral observation tool for identifying and tracking nonverbal behaviors from video. THEME (Magnusson, The hidden structure of interaction: from neurons to culture patterns, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 4–22, 2005) is a software program that discovers patterns among discrete events in time-ordered data. Together, these tools enable more precise measurement and analysis of nonverbal behavioral dynamics. Applications to three corpora derived from interpersonal deception experiments reveal unique nonverbal patterns that distinguish deceptive from nondeceptive interactions. The first and second experiments produced serial, hierarchically related patterns of behaviors that differed in length and complexity between truthful and deceptive participants during interviews about a theft and cheating, respectively. The third experiment produced differential patterns by and among group members completing a task. Deceivers were inclined toward strategic initiations and interactional control, whereas suspicious group members adopted a more passive, possibly watchful stance. Discovery of these patterns challenges the prevailing view that nonverbal behaviors are too faint and inconsistent to identify deceptive communication. Results have numerous implications regarding the following: the development of new measurement tools locating significant effects of nonverbal behaviors, support for theory that coherent and repetitive relationships exist within and among interactants’ communication, demonstration of the role of nonverbal behaviors in deceptive communication and the dynamic and strategic nature of deception.     

Altered resources, disturbance, and heterogeneity: A framework for comparing urban and non-urban soils

We propose a framework of key concepts useful in understanding how urban soils can contribute to general ecological theory. The major factors that can cause urban soils to be different from soils in non-urban ecosystems are identified and related to the familiar state factor approach. We evaluate directly altered resource availability, and the role of stress in mediating resource availability in urban ecosystems. Modified groundwater and stream flow, and atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and base cations are particularly important resource fluxes to soils in urban ecosystems. Disturbance can be conceptualized in the same way in urban as in non-urban ecosystems. However, in addition to biophysical disturbances familiar to ecologists studying wild lands, demographically and socially mediated changes in ecosystem structure must also be considered. These changes include human migration and population structure, institutional shifts, and the effects of human health. Finally, spatial heterogeneity, including fragmentation and differential connectivity, integrates the effects of resources and disturbance, and has an effect on subsequent resource availability and susceptibility to disturbance. Layers of heterogeneity include not only the geomorphic template, but urban climate, biotic composition, buildings and infrastructure, and demographic-social patterns. The complex layering of natural and social factors that constitute urban heterogeneity permit the continuation of important ecological processes, as well as modify ecological fluxes involving soils. We present a modification of the state factor approach as an expanded framework for the study of urban soils. The understanding of urban soils can contribute to general ecological theory by testing the generality of important ecosystem drivers and their linkage with social processes in an under investigated ecosystem type that is increasing in extent and impact worldwide.     

Ecological risk and resilience perspective: a theoretical framework supporting evidence-based practice in schools

Multidisciplinary school practitioners are clearly being called to use evidence-based practices from reputable sources such as their own professional organizations and federal agencies. In spite of this encouragement, most schools are not regularly employing empirically supported interventions. This paper further promotes the use of this approach by describing the theoretical support for evidence-based practice in schools. The ecological risk and resilience theoretical framework presented fills a gap in the literature and advocates for evidence-based practice in schools by illustrating how it can assist practitioners such as school social workers to better address problems associated with school failure.     

The last ten turns: Behavior and sequencing in friends' and strangers' conversational findings

This study examined the verbal and nonverbal behaviors which characterize the ends of two-person face-to-face interactions. It was hypothesized that sequences of both verbal and nonverbal behavior would be present in conversational endings and that nonverbal behaviors would occur with different frequency in the middle and at the end of conversations. It was also predicted that both verbal and nonverbal behavior in conversational endings between friends and between strangers would differ. Ten dyads of friends and ten dyads of strangers, all female, were videotaped while in relatively unconstrained conversation. The content of verbal statements and the occurrence or nonoccurrence of 13 nonverbal behaviors in the ten middlemost and the ten last turns were analyzed. Results indicated that the seven verbal statement types formed a sequence of information, summary, question, verbalization, justification, continuity, and well-wishing. Six clusters of nonverbal behavior distinguished the ending phase from the middle phase; these behaviors were organized into a general sequential pattern, but the positions of several behaviors within the sequence were subject to variation. Finally, three clusters of nonverbal behaviors (more looking away, more grooming, less head nodding) distinguished conversation endings between friends from those between strangers.We are grateful to Helen McKenna and Peter Pamment for their help. We also appreciate the comments given by Dr. Judee, K. Burgoon, and an anonymous reviewer.     

An Evaluation of Two Tact-Training Procedures on Acquired Tacts and Tacting During Play

A common practice in tact training is to include a supplemental verbal stimulus (e.g., “What is it?”) in addition to the presentation of a nonverbal discriminative stimulus. Previous literature has suggested that this supplemental verbal stimulus can impede acquisition and generalization relative to the presentation of the object alone, as it may establish faulty stimulus control or decrease spontaneous tacting. Research has yet to compare these 2 training methods on the generalization of learned tacts to more naturalistic, play-based environments. The present study evaluated the use of “What is it?” compared to the presentation of only the nonverbal discriminative stimulus on tact acquisition among 3 children with autism spectrum disorder and the extent to which these training procedures led to tacting in a play-based setting following discrete-trial training. Overall, participants learned to tact stimuli under both conditions, and all participants demonstrated generalization of tacts in a play-based setting. Recommendations for the development and evaluation of naturalistic posttraining assessment are discussed.     

Implementing the ecological approach in tobacco control programs: results of a case study

The ‘new public health’ has stimulated calls to adopt an ecological approach for action aimed at improving population health. However, the implementation of ecological programs has often remained a challenge. The objective of this study was to identify factors facilitating the implementation of ecological tobacco control programming in two Public Health Departments in Québec (Canada) using Scheirer's model of program implementation as a conceptual framework and an exemplary case study design. Analysis revealed two distinct configurations of environmental, organizational and professional characteristics that were related to equally successful implementations of the framework. Key roles for factors such as provincial ministerial guidelines and financial resources, human resources, and relationships and alliances with other organizations, were highlighted. These results replicate findings from quantitative surveys and allow better understanding of the conditions required for planning ecological programming.     

Nonverbal Social Sensing in Action: Unobtrusive Recording and Extracting of Nonverbal Behavior in Social Interactions Illustrated with a Research Example

Nonverbal behavior coding is typically conducted by “hand”. To remedy this time and resource intensive undertaking, we illustrate how nonverbal social sensing, defined as the automated recording and extracting of nonverbal behavior via ubiquitous social sensing platforms, can be achieved. More precisely, we show how and what kind of nonverbal cues can be extracted and to what extent automated extracted nonverbal cues can be validly obtained with an illustrative research example. In a job interview, the applicant’s vocal and visual nonverbal immediacy behavior was automatically sensed and extracted. Results show that the applicant’s nonverbal behavior can be validly extracted. Moreover, both visual and vocal applicant nonverbal behavior predict recruiter hiring decision, which is in line with previous findings on manually coded applicant nonverbal behavior. Finally, applicant average turn duration, tempo variation, and gazing best predict recruiter hiring decision. Results and implications of such a nonverbal social sensing for future research are discussed.     

Analysing Competence: Gender and Identity at Work

Competence approaches are among the techniques that claim to measure the behaviour, skills, knowledge and understanding crucial to effective managerial performance. It is claimed that competence approaches empower and develop managers while enabling them to meet organizational objectives. Since the bases for the techniques are avowedly scientific, they are said to provide organizations with a gender neutral form of assessment. In this paper we construct a theoretical framework in terms of which these claims can be analysed and assessed. Using this framework, we examine the competence approach as it has been implemented in six organizations in relation to the claim to objectivity.     

In a Flash: Thin Slice Judgment Accuracy of Leading and Trailing in Sports

Humans can detect whether athletes are leading or trailing based on thin slices of athletes’ nonverbal behavior, presumably because communicating and interpreting status has evolved to be highly beneficial for humans. The goal of the present research was to examine this evolutionary perspective on nonverbal behavior in sports. First, in Experiment 1 (N = 40), we investigated if leading athletes are rated higher on dimensions related to social status than are trailing athletes. Experiment 1 showed that perceivers rated leading athletes as more dominant, more proud, and more confident than trailing athletes, without being aware of the actual score. Second, we were interested in the role of head-related versus body-related information and in the role of dynamic versus static information. In Experiment 2, 120 participants watched short videos from basketball matches and rated whether athletes were leading or trailing. We occluded either athletes’ faces, athletes’ bodies, or showed both faces and bodies. Experiments 2 and 3 (N = 160) showed that very scarce information was sufficient for differentiating between leading and trailing athletes, even when faces or bodies were occluded. These findings are in line with ecological approaches to person perception and evolutionary accounts of nonverbal behavior.     

An ecological perspective on family policy: A conceptual and philosophical framework

This article develops a conceptual framework that places family policy within an ecological perspective. The ecological perspective is particularly useful in providing a means both to understand why diversity exists among families and to analyze how human-created rules disparately affect the environments faced by families within and across different societies. Examples are provided of how family policy is conceptualized by organizations and groups that are concerned with family issues, and these examples are critiqued from the ecological perspective. Finally, the article suggests that the values on which an ecological perspective of family policy are grounded can serve as a beginning point to develop a philosophical basis for the development of family policy. Her research interests include family policy and research at the national and international levels. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work and Economics from the University of Michigan.     

A multidimensional and contextual framework for understanding diverse family members' roles in long-term care facilities

Very few studies have explicitly examined the roles of family members in institutionalized settings and how these roles are developed. The most widely used theoretical framework employed in the studies that do exist is Litwak's structural-functionalist framework—the theory of shared functions and balanced coordination. Although Litwak's theory emphasizes the importance of both formal organizations (e.g., long-term care facilities) and primary groups (e.g., family) to optimal care, the framework provides a limited understanding of the roles of family members in long-term care facilities. The first section of this article describes Litwak's framework and then outlines the limitations of this task-assignment approach. By adopting a symbolic interactionist approach and integrating concepts from an ecological perspective and Hughes' concept of career, an alternative, more dynamic, contextual framework for understanding the roles of family members in long-term care settings is presented.