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The role of pre‐speech posture change in dyadic interaction
Author(s) -
Thomas Andrew P.,
Bull Peter
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1981.tb00482.x
Subject(s) - psychology , head (geology) , movement (music) , social psychology , raising (metalworking) , cognitive psychology , mechanism (biology) , communication , epistemology , aesthetics , mathematics , geometry , geomorphology , philosophy , geology
Eight dyadic interactions were videotaped in order to examine the possible relationship between changes in body posture and verbal behaviour. It was predicted that, prior to a person speaking, he or she would make a characteristic movement, moving perhaps the head or some other part of the body; the movement being specific to the type of speech it preceeded (e.g. question, answer, etc.). The hypothesis was supported. Raising and turning the head to the listener were associated with asking a question and turning the head away from the listener with giving an answer. It is suggested that changes in head posture associated with questions and answers (which ‘oner’ and ‘accept’ the floor respectively) are components of the floor apportionment mechanism.