It is quite possible for many or most people to portray an emotion they do not
actually feel. Similarly, it is possible for many people to repress the expression of an
emotion they feel would be inappropriate for others to be aware of. However,
behaviors that reveal true emotional states are usually unintentional, even when we
are aware of them. For instance, when we feel our knees shaking and see our hands
trembling while experiencing fear or anxiety, we often cannot control them.
Adaptors
The fifth category of nonverbal behavior is the adaptor.
Adaptors
are highly
unintentional behaviors that are usually responses to boredom or stress or are
closely linked with negative feelings toward ourselves or others. These behaviors
are vestiges of coping behavior that we learn very early in life. According to several
writers, adaptors were once part of our efforts to cope with physical and emotional
needs and the need to learn instrumental behavior. They are, in essence, behaviors
that once allowed us to adapt to situational, social, and cultural influences. They
can be described as leftovers of goal-directed behavior that later became
automatic, habitual actions.
Quite often, behaviors that people use every day may actually be adaptors. Are you,
for instance, aware when you pick your nose, tap your pen or pencil on your desk,
pull at your earlobe, rub your arms, or fiddle with an object in your hand? Lip biting
and nail biting are not generally well-accepted behaviors, but we often see people
do them in front of total strangers. Chances are that such behaviors are adaptors.
Many researchers characterize adaptors as falling into three different types.
Self-
adaptors
are nonverbal acts in which an individual manipulates her or his own
body. Scratching, rubbing, and hair twisting are common self-adaptors.
Alter-
directed adaptors
are movements that are designed to protect the individual from
other interactants. Folding one’s arms may indicate protection against some sort of
verbal or nonverbal attack. Unconscious leg movements during interaction may
represent a thinly repressed desire to keep others away.
Finally, there are
object-focused adaptors
. These acts include the unconscious
manipulation of a particular object, such as tapping a pen, smoking, or twisting a
ring around your finger. Some speakers feel it necessary to have a piece of chalk in
hand while speaking.
While not contradicting the work of Ekman and his colleagues, Wachsmuth (
2006
)
has explained some new elements of gesture theory. This work has been taking
place in the area of neuroscience. Here the researchers believe that gestures are
coverbal. That is, they believe that gestures arrive along the same pathways as
verbal communication. Kelly, Kravitz, and Hopkins (
2004
) studied what happened
when their subjects were forced to create messages with consistent and
inconsistent verbal and nonverbal messages. They found that there were negative
peaks (called the
N400 effect
) when there were contradictions between the verbal
and the nonverbal. Similar N400 effects occurred when subjects made verbal
