When surfing through the net, you may find many topics on Body Language. It may contain information not only about human’s, but even about animal’s (dogs http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/diagrams.html or birds http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1795&articleid=3334) body language. However, for us (psychologists) the most important thing is to understand people’s behavior, so this blog will be concentrated on human’s body language.
It is really good when people can listen to each others carefully, but in many ways it is not quite enough only to listen or read somebody’s speech. Words may confuse, if we do not see the person who we are talking to. That is because of the fact that up to 93 % of communication is non-verbal. We are using body language which includes: tone of voice, eye movement, posture, hand gestures, facial expressions and more. It is interesting that more often than not, you do not consciously think about it.
Knowledge of body language is useful in many ways. Especially it is needed to know when going to the job interview, communicating with a person who has some influence on you (director, teacher, parents etc.). Actually it is not so difficult to spot the general emotions of a person you are talking to, but sometimes it is hidden deep inside and you may understand it only from the body language. There are some positions and meanings of them which may help to be more confident about yourself and being sure, that you understand the person you are talking to.
