Personal Statement Describe the Communication

Personal Statement Describe the communication theories, philosophies, and research areas you find compelling. What is it about these ideas that you find most interesting? Imagine this scenario: a competent, intelligent and forcefully speaking woman stands in the hallway, engaged in a professional debate with a male colleague. This woman has learned, through the process of her undergraduate education and from various assertiveness training courses, how to comport herself in an articulate fashion, using direct statements of address, and never apologizing for her expressed opinions.

She speaks, she hopes, not like a man but to a man in a way that he will take her opinions seriously. She hopes she still retains her identity as a woman without compromising her professional ethics. Yet she is filled with a creeping awareness that her colleague is not listening to her and does not take her seriously in this interpersonal scenario -- but she does not know why? Imagine another situation.

A Japanese and a Lebanese businessman are engaged in a discussion over the boardroom table during a complex series of negotiations. Their translators are competent, and the Lebanese man has been warned beforehand that quite often a Japanese 'maybe' is an emphatic 'no,' and the Japanese man has been told that quite often his Arab friend will say 'no' when he means 'yes,' as a way of traditional bargaining common to Middle Eastern and Mediterranean society.

In fact, the Lebanese man may argue, even in agreement, simply as a cultural style and method of expression. Yet despite their mutual awareness of their cultural differences, both men walk away from the table feeling dissatisfied with what has just transpired. The Lebanese man feels as if the discussion was circuitous, the Japanese man feels bombarded and imposed upon by the way that his colleague expressed himself during this round of negotiations.

He was prepared to be disappointed, but not quite this bruised and battered, in terms of his ego. These puzzles in communication show that current research regarding gender and cultural differences in communication, including different gender styles and cultural styles of expression, while compelling, leaves out a fundamental element. That element is nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is often giving a passing reference in texts, perhaps because it is so difficult to quantify and address in print.

But in modern life, conversationally and professionally, much takes place on a sub-textual level, rather than an overt, denotative, level, and what gives modern dialogue its most profound subtext is body language. Because body language is so little regarded in academic settings and writings, and even in many verbal 'empowerment' courses, an individual can be well versed in talking the talk of the other gender or culture he or she is interacting with, but not walking the walk, so to speak.

The woman cited above might speak with force, but cross her arms in front of her chest, or unconsciously refer to her sensuality rather than her intellect by absentmindedly touching an earring.

The Japanese man may fail to make eye contact, mumble his responses, and stand far away from his negotiating opposite, while, in frustration with this apparent diffidence, the Lebanese man may raise his voice, lean across the table, nod vigorously, do anything to raise the energy level of the room, potentially intimidate his opponent, but simply look weak because of his force and high level of animation.

The plethora of courses in cross cultural communications show there is a need for future original study and analysis in this area, but it is an area that has not been addressed, except in passing, or in brackets, as of yet. Describe what you envision as your own contributions to knowledge in these areas.

The use of body language, I believe, must be studied more not only in terms of how it is deployed, but also the question of how mutable it is, once these unconscious physical skills have be learned from a young age.

Also, there is the personal question for those in real rather than academic life of what one should do in a period of professional or personal conflict -- should one amend one's own physical style, and face using a manner that may not be comfortable for one's body? How much do preexisting bodily types and norms influence communication styles, given that body language may be read differently on different bodies, differently on the body of a petite blonde than a brutish linebacker to make one example? Today, with the.