Posture (psychology)

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Young Girl Holding a Letter, circa 1665 Caspar Netscher - Young Girl Holding a Letter (detail) - WGA16521.jpg
Young Girl Holding a Letter, circa 1665

In humans, posture can provide a significant amount of important information through nonverbal communication. Psychological studies have also demonstrated the effects of body posture on emotions. This research can be traced back to Charles Darwin's studies of emotion and movement in humans and animals. [1] Currently, many studies have shown that certain patterns of body movements are indicative of specific emotions. [2] [3] Researchers studied sign language and found that even non-sign language users can determine emotions from only hand movements. [4] Another example is the fact that anger is characterized by forward whole body movement. [5] The theories that guide research in this field are the self-validation or perception theory and the embodied emotion theory. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Common methods

Physical posture and emotion have been studied using two similar techniques. The first method involves the participant viewing videotaped actors performing certain actions and the second method involves having the participant sit in a certain posture and then self-reporting their emotions. In the first method, actors portray and record certain body movements. Participants must view the video and decipher the emotion they believe is being portrayed. [8] In the second method, participants are told to assume a certain body posture and then must complete a survey on their current affective state. [7] Other methods include using neuroscience techniques, such as fMRI's to determine how posture and emotions expressions can affect brain imaging. [9] Another method that is growing in use involves using dancers as 'actors' and having participants observe and determine the emotion the dancer is conveying. [10]

Communication expressed

In humans, one of the means of communication is the posture of the body, in addition to facial expressions, personal distances, gestures and body movements. [11] Posture conveys information about:

Analysis

The graph visualizes the possible correlation between posture and personality. Posture and personality correlation.svg
The graph visualizes the possible correlation between posture and personality.
A portrait of Paul Cezanne exhibiting an example of closed posture. Paysan assis, par Paul Cezanne.jpg
A portrait of Paul Cézanne exhibiting an example of closed posture.

Posture can signal both the enduring characteristics of a person (character, temperament, etc.), and his or her current emotions and attitudes. Therefore, posture can be considered in the context of a given situation, and independently of it.

Changing factors

Posture as information about the current state of a person's emotions and attitudes should be analyzed in the context of other messages, both verbal and nonverbal as well as that person's cultural and social norms.

Open and closed

An example of open posture. RichardDysartPotsdamGermanyMay2006.jpg
An example of open posture.
  • Open posture is a posture in which the vulnerable parts of the body are exposed. The head is raised, the shirt may be unbuttoned at the neck, a bag is held on the shoulder or at the side. Open posture is often perceived as communicating a friendly and positive attitude. In an open posture the feet are spread and the head is straight. The palms are up and the hands and fingers are spread. [4] Due to this friendly demeanor, research suggests that participants view counselors who use an open posture as more capable of providing guidance. [12]
  • Closed posture is a posture in which parts of the body most susceptible to trauma are obscured. These body parts are: throat, abdomen and genitals. Damage to the genitals prevents the transfer of their genes to future generations and is sometimes seen as being synonymous with death. [13] Therefore, both humans and animals try to protect these vulnerable body parts from injury. In humans, certain behaviors may signal closed posture: Arms crossed on the chest or abdomen, hands clasped in front of the genitals, and crossing legs. Clothing may also signal closed posture: a buttoned suit, or a handbag or briefcase held in front of the person. Closed posture often gives the impression of detachment, disinterest, and hostility. Research has also shown that these behaviors usually convey unpleasant feelings. [4] These feelings were evident when the participant had to observe the closed posture and when he or she was told to assume the posture.

An important element of closed or open posture of the body are the hands. Showing the palms of the hands can be a signal of open posture, especially if the hand is relaxed. Showing the back of the hand or clenching hands into fists may represent a closed posture. Hands clasped behind the back may also signal closed posture even though the front is exposed because it can give the impression of hiding something or resistance to closer contact.

Closed and open posture also apply when seated. Crossed legs and arms can signal closed posture. As stated before, leaning forward or showing the palms of the hands can signal open posture.

Interpersonal attitudes

Interpersonal attitudes are communicated through:

  • Inclination of the body. During conversation, a person may lean slightly toward another person or tilt slightly away from them. This behavior is usually unconscious. An inclination towards can be an expression of sympathy and acceptance. Inclining away can signal dislike, disapproval, or a desire to end the conversation. Different inclinations of the head may carry similar meanings.[ citation needed ]
  • Similarity. During the conversation, people have an unconscious tendency to imitate others' behavior. This happens when the conversation runs seamlessly and is enjoyable for both parties. This approximation of attitudes, gestures, and body movements can indicate the emergence of a bond and sympathy and is known as stereotyped behavior as defined by Edwin Ray Guthrie. [14] Lack of synchronous behavior may lead to a sense that the contact is artificial, forced, or unpleasant.
  • Orientation of the body. Usually people talk directed toward each other, but not squarely face to face, which can be indicative of a confrontational stance. In conversation, the participants' bodies are usually turned toward each other at an angle. When a person ignores someone else, they tend to ignore or avoid contact by showing the other person their side or back.
  • Closed or Open posture.
An example of a nonchalant posture USpatent165534.png
An example of a nonchalant posture

Posture communicating social standing

A man posing for camera Man posing for camera.JPG
A man posing for camera

Posture can signal an individual's position in social hierarchy.

A comparison of two different postures. On the left is an example of a more energized attitude; on the right is an example of a depressed attitude. Gutehaltung desKorbersSchlechteHaltung desKorpers.gif
A comparison of two different postures. On the left is an example of a more energized attitude; on the right is an example of a depressed attitude.
  • If two people of different social standings talk to each other, the person with a higher position usually takes a more relaxed attitude. Their posture may be unbalanced, relaxed, and may appear to be nonchalant. A person with a lower position often maintains symmetrical posture by placing both hands on their lap or at their sides.
  • Typically, a person with higher status sits down and talks while sitting. A person of lower status may stand or they may remain standing until they are asked to sit.

Erect Posture and impact on mood and activity performance

In a 2018 study, published in the journal NeuroRegulation, Dr Erik Peper and team found that good posture significantly helped in securing better scores on mathematics test. It was reasoned that slouched posture shuts down people and hampers brain processing not allowing clear thinking. They concluded that erect posture helps people to perform under varying conditions of stress. It was noted that the improvement in performance might also be seen for people doing other activities such as musicians and athletes. [15]

Wellbeing

Mood influences muscle tone, energy level, and one's internal sense of well-being. Thus, body posture can reveal a person's current state of mind. Anger, sadness, and disgust are by far the most recognized body postures that are indicative of emotions. [16]

  • Stress can affect posture subconsciously; a person under stress will often have a greater amount of muscle tension, and may also have shallow, clavicular breathing.
  • Well-being affects posture by giving it a sense of energy and balance. A person's spine will be straight and the head raised.
  • Malaise affects posture with a sense of tiredness. A person's shoulders may droop, and the head may be bowed down or tilted to the left or right.
  • Confidence affects posture by the uprightness (or not) of one's body. [5] [7]

Popular literature has come to interpret postures according to the assumptions of psychoanalysis, thinking that actions such as crossing arms over the breasts or crossing legs would be a symptom of a sexual complex. [17] These beliefs, however, have very limited support in systematic research and experimentation. It is more likely that this type of behavior reflects a certain style of self-presentation, [18] rather than unconscious conflicts and complexes.

Stable factors

The term posture is also used to refer to the appearance of the body. In psychology, there are several concepts involving the appearance of the permanent characteristics of individuals. Some habitual positions may also reflect stable characteristics of an individual.

Nature

Muscular anatomy of a male human. Encyclopedie de Diderot, plate 1-143.jpg
Muscular anatomy of a male human.

Wilhelm Reich, a student of Freud, first drew attention to the relationship between shallow breathing, blocked traffic, the difficulty in experiencing sexual pleasure, and emotional disorders, especially neuroses. This concept was developed by Alexander Lowen, founder of bioenergetics. He is also author of the concept of muscular block. Lowen noted that when people do not want to experience certain emotions, they tighten certain muscles. [19] For example, when someone does not want to cry, they can tighten the jaws, which suppresses tears. Stress and anger tighten the muscles along the spine and thighs, which can manifest itself in pain in those body parts, if the stress was prolonged. According to Lowen, some tensions become chronic: the muscular block always activated, regardless of the circumstances. This is called a chronic tension block. Muscular block affects posture and the way humans move. Certain experiences influence the formation of specific areas of muscle, and thus the body's appearance, structure, and attitude. [20]

Features of temperament

Constitutional theories in psychology (e.g., Sheldon, Kretschmer) emphasize the relationship between body structure and temperament. These theories have been around since Hippocrates thought that body structure goes hand in hand with the temperament and susceptibility to certain diseases. Scientific research on relationship of body appearance and temperament traits was begun in the early twentieth century by German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer. He studied the relationship between body structure and the onset of psychosis. Presented here in brief is the theory of Phyllis Whitman, William Sheldon, and Charles Katz. [21] These researchers distinguished between different constitutional variations or physical nature of one's body, psychotic behavior reactions and temperament. The three constitutional variations are endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy. The three corresponding psychotic behavior reactions are affective, heboid, and paranoid.

Some researchers have argued that Sheldon's findings of a strong relationship between body structure and the type of temperament are due to methodological shortcomings within his studies, and that the relationship between the two is actually lower than he claims. [22]

Other factors

Posture can easily be impacted by poor health and other factors. Thus, anyone using posture to assess personality, character, or psychology must first rule out possible underlying medical conditions which may be affecting a person's posture. Moreover, there is data claiming that one maintains their posture worse if they listens to the sentences which describe actions of others. For example, if your task is to maintain your posture rigorously in a state you do it worse when you listen to sentences like these: "I get up, put on my slippers, go to the bathroom". [23]

Posture is highly affected by muscle length and tension patterns, such as tight hamstring muscles or pectoral muscles, as well as muscle strength (for example, abdominal, glutei, and trapezius strength). The posture of dancers and athletes often improves when they train for their sports. Additionally, breathing patterns affect posture. For example, breathing through the mouth causes the chin to tilt forward in order to open the airway, [24] exacerbating forward head posture, whereas breathing through the nose allows the neck to stay in alignment.

Implications in other domains

As stated, the study of postures can give a vast amount of information about emotions and self-perceptions. The study of posture has also proven beneficial in other fields. Professional counselors, who were the participants, had to view recorded interactions of counselors and clients and determine the emotions of the client. [25] Researchers found that relying only on verbal communication to determine the emotions of the client resulted in an accuracy of only 66%. High levels of empathy could be misconstrued without the matching positive nonverbal communication. In similar studies it was noted that the arms and legs were the most important bodily factors in signaling low levels of empathy. [26] Further, researchers suggested that counselors should not only be trained in verbal communication but also in nonverbal communication. [25] [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotion</span> Conscious subjective experience of humans

Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.

Facial expression is the motion and positioning of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers and are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Job satisfaction</span> Attitude of a person towards work

Job satisfaction, employee satisfaction or work satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentment with their job, whether they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. Job satisfaction can be measured in cognitive (evaluative), affective, and behavioral components. Researchers have also noted that job satisfaction measures vary in the extent to which they measure feelings about the job. or cognitions about the job.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attitude (psychology)</span> Concept in psychology and communication studies

An attitude "is a summary evaluation of an object of thought. An attitude object can be anything a person discriminates or holds in mind." Attitudes include beliefs (cognition), emotional responses (affect) and behavioral tendencies. In the classical definition an attitude is persistent, while in more contemporary conceptualizations, attitudes may vary depending upon situations, context, or moods.

Self-perception theory (SPT) is an account of attitude formation developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused it. The theory is counterintuitive in nature, as the conventional wisdom is that attitudes determine behaviors. Furthermore, the theory suggests that people induce attitudes without accessing internal cognition and mood states. The person interprets their own overt behaviors rationally in the same way they attempt to explain others' behaviors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body language</span> Type of nonverbal communication

Body language is a type of nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Although body language is an important part of communication, most of it happens without conscious awareness. In social communication, body language often complements verbal communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice, physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance noted. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social behavior</span> Behavior among two or more organisms within the same species

Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to an exchange of goods, with the expectation that when you give, you will receive the same. This behavior can be affected by both the qualities of the individual and the environmental (situational) factors. Therefore, social behavior arises as a result of an interaction between the two—the organism and its environment. This means that, in regards to humans, social behavior can be determined by both the individual characteristics of the person, and the situation they are in.

An emotional expression is a behavior that communicates an emotional state or attitude. It can be verbal or nonverbal, and can occur with or without self-awareness. Emotional expressions include facial movements like smiling or scowling, simple behaviors like crying, laughing, or saying "thank you," and more complex behaviors like writing a letter or giving a gift. Individuals have some conscious control of their emotional expressions; however, they need not have conscious awareness of their emotional or affective state in order to express emotion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affect (psychology)</span> Experience of feeling or emotion

Affect, in psychology, is the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood. It encompasses a wide range of emotional states and can be positive or negative. Affect is a fundamental aspect of human experience and plays a central role in many psychological theories and studies. It can be understood as a combination of three components: emotion, mood, and affectivity. In psychology, the term affect is often used interchangeably with several related terms and concepts, though each term may have slightly different nuances. These terms encompass: emotion, feeling, mood, emotional state, sentiment, affective state, emotional response, affective reactivity, disposition. Researchers and psychologists may employ specific terms based on their focus and the context of their work.

The facial feedback hypothesis, rooted in the conjectures of Charles Darwin and William James, is that one's facial expression directly affects their emotional experience. Specifically, physiological activation of the facial regions associated with certain emotions holds a direct effect on the elicitation of such emotional states, and the lack of or inhibition of facial activation will result in the suppression of corresponding emotional states.

Social perception is the study of how people form impressions of and make inferences about other people as sovereign personalities. Social perception refers to identifying and utilizing social cues to make judgments about social roles, rules, relationships, context, or the characteristics of others. This domain also includes social knowledge, which refers to one's knowledge of social roles, norms, and schemas surrounding social situations and interactions. People learn about others' feelings and emotions by picking up information they gather from physical appearance, verbal, and nonverbal communication. Facial expressions, tone of voice, hand gestures, and body position or movement are a few examples of ways people communicate without words. A real-world example of social perception is understanding that others disagree with what one said when one sees them roll their eyes. There are four main components of social perception: observation, attribution, integration, and confirmation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirroring</span> Subconscious imitative behaviour

Mirroring is the behavior in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family, often going unnoticed by both parties. The concept often affects other individuals' notions about the individual that is exhibiting mirroring behaviors, which can lead to the individual building rapport with others.

One way of thinking holds that the mental process of decision-making is rational: a formal process based on optimizing utility. Rational thinking and decision-making does not leave much room for strong emotions. In fact, emotions are often considered irrational occurrences that may distort reasoning.

Non-verbal leakage is a form of non-verbal behavior that occurs when a person verbalizes one thing, but their body language indicates another, common forms of which include facial movements and hand-to-face gestures. The term "non-verbal leakage" got its origin in literature in 1968, leading to many subsequent studies on the topic throughout the 1970s, with related studies continuing today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embodied cognition</span> Interdisciplinary theory

Embodied cognition is the concept suggesting that many features of cognition are shaped by the state and capacities of the organism. The cognitive features include a wide spectrum of cognitive functions, such as perception biases, memory recall, comprehension and high-level mental constructs and performance on various cognitive tasks. The bodily aspects involve the motor system, the perceptual system, the bodily interactions with the environment (situatedness), and the assumptions about the world built the functional structure of organism's brain and body.

Social cues are verbal or non-verbal signals expressed through the face, body, voice, motion and guide conversations as well as other social interactions by influencing our impressions of and responses to others. These percepts are important communicative tools as they convey important social and contextual information and therefore facilitate social understanding.

Affiliative conflict theory (ACT) is a social psychological approach that encompasses interpersonal communication and has a background in nonverbal communication. This theory postulates that "people have competing needs or desires for intimacy and autonomy". In any relationship, people will negotiate and try to rationalize why they are acting the way they are in order to maintain a comfortable level of intimacy.

Nonverbal influence is the act of affecting or inspiring change in others' behaviors and attitudes through tone of voice or body language and other nonverbal cues like facial expression. This act of getting others to embrace or resist new attitudes can be achieved with or without the use of spoken language. Many individuals instinctively associate persuasion with verbal messages. Nonverbal influence emphasizes the persuasive power and influence of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal influence includes appeals to attraction, similarity and intimacy.

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