luận văn nghiên cứu giao văn hoá việt nam – hoa kỳ về các biểu hiện phi ngôn từ thể hiện sự thất vọng

This preliminary study tries to feature out the most common nonverbal expressions for disappointment in order that a successful communication event can be achieved between American and V

However, there are now more and more researchers believing that communication without spoken and written words, termed “nonverbal communication” (NVC), is of vital role As Heraclitus states above, people tend to rely on NVC and to base the partners’ message on the nonverbal cues they receive One more important thing is that even nonverbal communication takes a big part in transferring meaning in communication; most people do not know how to read other’s behaviors Thus, the question is: what shape our behaviors and decision? For a successful communication event, one possible answer is emotion Therefore, the studies into nonverbal expressions for internal emotions have been paid much attention to The primary emotional states studied include: surprise, fear, disgust, anger, sadness and happiness Nevertheless, disappointment, one of two primary emotions (together with regret) that involve in decision-making — the success of a communication event, has not been much concerned

All of this leads the author to the research naming: “An American — Vietnamese cross- cultural study on non-verbal expressions of disappointment” This preliminary study tries to feature out the most common nonverbal expressions for disappointment in order that a successful communication event can be achieved between American and Vietnamese communicators

ti Aims of the study

This research aims to:

- investigate the most common nonverbal expressions for disappointment used by Americans and Vietnamese in cross-cultural communication

- What are the most common nonverbal expressions for disappointment used by Americans and/or Vietnamese?

- What are the similarities and differences between American and Vietnamese nonverbal expressions of disappointment?

iii Scope of the study

Nonverbal messages are widely transferred through many channels For the common consideration, it includes: paralanguage, body language, object language and environment language, of which object language and environment language do not have much contribution to express emotions which include disappointment It comes to our awareness that paralanguage (the vocal characteristics, types of vocal flow, vocal interferences, silence ) adds a high percentage to the process of communication However, due to the time constraint and lack of reliable equipment (voice recorder, voice analyzer ), this kind

of factor will be unavoidably out of the scope of the study

So, the study only focuses on body language That is, this study limits itself to facial expressions, gestures and postures only

iv Methods of the study

In order to set up a firm theoretical background for the study, relevant publications are critically reviewed Information from the Internet sites and previous studies are also referred to

The main method used in this study is quantitative with the illustration of tables and charts presenting statistic data The analysis is mainly based on the data collected through the survey questionnaires

Consultation with the supervisor, discussion with colleagues, as well as the author’s observation in daily life and his own experience in cross-cultural communication are also

of great help in finding out the answers to the research questions

v Organization of the study

The study will be organized into the following structure:

Part A: INTRODUCTION outlines the rationale, the methodology, the aims, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study

Part B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW reviews the theoretical issues It briefly presents and discusses the theory of communication, NVC with more detailed discussion on facial expressions, gestures and postures which are major parts of body language Disappointment as a human feeling and its nonverbal expressions are also discussed Chapter 2 METHODOLOGY describes the data collecting instrument, the informants and research procedures

Chapter 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF THE FINDINGS presents and discusses similarities and differences in how to express disappointment nonverbally by the American and the Vietnamese

Part C: CONCLUSION

Summary of major findings

Conclusion and Implications for cross-cultural communication

Limitations of the study and Suggestions for further study

1.1 CULTURE

As Harrison and Huntington noted, “the term ‘culture,’ of course, has had different meanings in different disciplines and different contexts” By stating “culture is the human- made part of the environment,” W.J.Lonner and R.S.Malpass (1994:7) contrast the culture and the nature In their ideas, things in environment will never become cultural without the

memos and evaluation forms - all of these are examples of communication We now come

to a conclusion that communication is very important in our lives, as Hybels (1992:5) claims “Communication, then, is vital to our lives To live is to communicate.”

Larry A., Richard E Porter and Edwin R McDaniel (2006:12) select the all-encompassing definition of “human communication is the process through which symbols are transmitted jor the purpose of eliciting a response” Lustig (1996:29) defines communication as “a symbolic process in which people create shared meanings’ In the both definitions, the centre is “symbol” A symbol may be “a word, action or object”, containing thoughts, perception or feelings one wants to communicate with others

1.2.2 Forms of Communication

Communication as claimed by Lustig above is the process of exchange shared meanings And in order to create share meaning, people have to use code or symbol In reality, the two kinds of code or symbol are verbal (spoken and written) and nonverbal (unspoken) These are referred to as forms of communication

To get a better view, communication can be illustrated in the following diagram:

The followings are components of communication according to Hymes: 1972

- Situation: setting and sense

- Participants: speaker, presenter, hearer, receiver, narrator

- End: purpose, result or goal

- Act sequences: model or language content

- Key: Clues that establish the "tone, manner, or spirit" of the speech act

- Instrumentalities: channel, form or style

- Norms: norms of interpretation, norms of interaction

- Genres: kind of speech act or event

place, occupation When discussing different participants and situations, the underlying effect of power (P), social distance (D) and rank of imposition (R) have to be considered With combination of the three factors, the choice of message coder can be in diversity

Coming from different geographic locations and holding different values, beliefs, people

in cross-cultural communication face more problems than in intra-cultural and mter- cultural branches This is because people have different ways of interpreting social meanings conveyed in their interaction with the outside world

1.3 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

1.3.1 Definition of nonverbal communication

In the process of communication, people do not only send verbal messages but nonverbal ones as well NVC is understood as a way of communicating without the use of written or spoken language

According to Lustig (1996:187-188), “nonverbal communication is a multi-channeled process that is usually performed simultaneously; it typically involves a subtle set of nonlinguistic behaviors that are often enacted subconsciously Nonverbal behaviors can become part of the communication process when someone intentionally tries to convey a

message or when someone attributes meaning to the nonverbal behavior of another, whether or not the person intend to communicate a particular meaning.” As Lustig pointed out, when some meaning is attached to a nonlinguistic behavior, whether by message transmitter or perceiver, that behavior becomes part of communication process

The detailed description of NVC is presented by Nguyen Quang “all the components of the message that, when taken together, constitute the communication which is not verbally coded but both vocally and non-vocally channeled Nonverbal communication is composed

of paralinguistic factors (nonverbal - vocal channel), such as rate, volume, etc., and extra- linguistic factors (nonverbal - non-vocal channel), such as body language (gestures, postures, facial expressions, ) object language (including clothing, jewelry ) and environmental language (proxemics, settings )”

1.3.2 Importance of nonverbal communication

Most people believe the best way of communicating is verbal However, NVC is there, even when people do not speak a word Pease (1984:7) states “The miracle is that human hardly recognize his or her appearance, movements and gestures can tell one story while his or her voice is telling another story.” (Cited in Nguyen Quang)

A number of researches, with different approach and methods have pointed out the importance of NVC

Albert Mehrabian found that the total impact of a message is about 7 percent verbal (words only), 38 percent vocal (including tone of voice, inflection and other sounds) and 55 percent nonverbal (Pease, 1984:6)

Importance of nonverbal communication - Mehrabian

7%

Verbal

system

1.3.3 Differences between Nonverbal Communication and Verbal Communication First of all, NVC seems to be more ambiguous than verbal communication This is because nonverbal cues can be intentional or unintentional If an intentional behavior is perceived and interpreted correctly, this can help to maintain good communication Meanwhile, if an unintentional behavior is interpreted as conveying meaning, it can cause the social interaction to go wrongly or even stop Additionally, the nonverbal cues can carry various meanings A silence can be interpreted as: agreement, disagreement, wondering, waiting for other’s response, an indicator of surprise or happiness

Secondly, NVC is continuous Verbal communication only starts when people start to make sounds in an organized order and stops when the sound chunks stop However, NVC starts when someone appears in communicating partner’s sight, continues even when the two people keep silent, and only ends when one gets out of the other’s sight

Thirdly, NVC is multi-channeled Units of verbal communication appear in a linear order

in accordance with rules of grammar, vocabulary Nonverbal cues appear at the same time, requesting us to receive by some, even all five of our senses There are not only cues but also cluster of cues and areas of cues

Fourthly, NVC reveals more about human’s emotion than verbal communication Verbal communication is often thought to be accurate in describing the various emotional states

In fact, it only describes either one aspect or one status of that emotional state

The fifth characteristic of NVC is that people tend to rely on NVC if there is contradiction between verbal messages and nonverbal messages

Last but not least, nonverbal cues can be perceived and interpreted differently in different societies The same meanings can be expressed by different nonverbal cues and the same cues can be interpreted as conveying different meanings in different cultures

1.3.4 Classification of nonverbal communication

Dwyer (2000) classifies NVC into: body movement, physical characteristics, touch, vocal

characteristics (paralanguage), space (proximity), artifacts, and environment

Hybels categorizes NVC into paralanguage, body movement/ kinesics, proxemics, chronemics, aesthetics, physical characteristics and artifacts

Lustig et al discusses six types of nonverbal codes including: body movement/ kinesics, touch, time/ chronemics, voice, and other nonverbal code systems, consisting of chemical, physical, dermal and artifactual systems

Of the various classifications, Nguyen Quang (2001:9) presents a detailed and easy-to- follow one in the diagram below

Nonverbal Communication

Paralanguage

Extralanguage

Body language/ Object language/ Environmental

characteristics - Facial - Jewelry - Conversational

+ Rate characteristics - Artifactual - Time/

- Types of vocal - Postures - Gifts - Lighting

nonverbal cues can be ambiguous even with people of the same culture With people from different cultures, this is obviously more problematic

A big amount of nonverbal cues are culture-specific This means these cues convey the messages that only members of that culture can interpret correctly

1.4 DISAPPOINTMENT AND ITS NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS

The size of your success is measured by the strength on your desire, the size of your dream,

and how you handle disappointment along the way

Robert Kiyosaki

Is there any one here who has not experienced disappointment in his or her life? It is one of the oldest human experiences Each of us could make a lot of our unfulfilled wishes or seeds we planted which never grew into plants Anyone who has hopes or dreams may be waited by some disappointment When their hopes or dreams can not become true Alexander Pope wrote “Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”

Disappointment is a problem which transcends economics We can be well-off financially and still have all kinds of disappointment We can be disappointed with our family members, disappointed with our friends, with our marriage, or jobs for not reaching whatever goals we have set for ourselves We can be disappointed because our life lacks meaning and direction

Let us consider a situation described by David E B (Jan-Feb 1985): your boss tells you

he is delighted with your performance over the past year and is giving you a $5000 bonus Are you pleased? If you were not expecting a bonus, you would be delighted If you were expecting a $10,000 bonus, you would be disappointed He (David E Bell) claims that

“Disappointment is, then, a psychological reaction to an outcome that does not match up

to expectations”

In a broader view, Loralea Michaelis states “Disappointment is a characteristic feature of our shared condition as mortal creatures subject to the experiences of failure and Jrustration: our plans may go awry, our actions may have unwanted consequences, our expectations may be frustrated and, in a more general sense, we are rarely the kind of people we would like to be.”

It is stated in a sermon in St Ansgar’s Lutheran Church that “in the simplest terms,

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disappointment is unmet positive expectation The word positive here is important There are some unmet expectation which bring us joy and satisfaction and not disappointment For example you might go to see a physician with the expectation that your symptoms will lead to a diagnosis of terminal cancer You will not be disappointed if that expectation proves to be false Disappointment occurs when we expect a certain good thing to take place and it doesn’t.”

The same idea can be seen from Levering Bas “The question is whether expectation is a sufficient condition for disappointment Do unfulfilled expectations by definition lead to disappointment? When a negative expectation is nourished, that is, when I expect something I would rather not see happen, and in fact it does not happen, then I feel relief instead of disappointment The question is whether relief can been seen as the opposite of disappointment in the sense that the former is about a cheerful feeling and the latter about

an unpleasant one If I pass an exam about which I have had the most anxious expectations

I am first relieved, then glad This means that when talking about disappointment, there are always desired expectations involved.”

According to Moyo-Angle Bamidele, “everyone that has expectations and desires in life will experience disappointment in one way or the other’ and we experience disappointment when:

- When we expect something to happen soon but it does not

- When input is not equal to output

- When things does not work out as plan

- When we believe too much in people

- When we expect things to happen in our own ways but they do not

According to David E Bell (Jan.1985), disappointment is similar to regret:

“Disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations to manifest Similar to regret, it differs in that the individual feeling regret focuses primarily

on personal choices contributing to a poor outcome, while the individual feeling disappointment focuses on outcome.”

Francesco Marcatto and Donatella Ferrante claim that regret and disappointment are different emotions They are both generated by comparing “What is” with “What might have been” However, “the emotion of regret results from a comparison between an actual outcome and a better outcome that might have occurred had another option been chosen

(choice- or —behavior-focused counterfactual) Conversely, disappointment stems from the comparison of an actual outcome with a better outcome that might have resulted had world events occurred differently (situation-focused counterfactuals) (van Djik, van der Pligt & Zeelenberg, 1999)”

Disappointment may be very short-lasting and easy to transfer to another emotional state, anger, frustration or the like This emotional state can also be very harmful because it may lead to the following in communication:

- Lack of trust

- Destruction of relationship

- Changing our perceptions to life, people and things we do

According to many researchers and the author’s personal observation, expressions of disappointment is highly-culture-controlled In most Oriental countries, people, especially women, are taught not to express their emotional states, especially ones like disappointment, in social interaction in order to maintain the harmony in the community However, at many points during the communication process, disappointment is intentionally expressed, not verbally but non-verbally, in order to let the partners to know our Own emotional state

From the author’s own observation and analysis of videos and photos searched on the Internet, the most popular expressions for disappointment are as follows:

Facial expressions:

When disappointed, people seem to have abnormal head positions which include: side- tilted (left or right side), head-down (tilted forward) or face-up (to the ceiling) The side- tilted position can be found mostly when people are sitting while head-down and face-up is often found with standing postures

The eyes of disappointed people tend to lower down or to aim at nothing Many cases are found with frowning eyes — eyebrows are pushed together Another popular cue is the curve-up of eyebrows with frowning forehead In addition, the disappointed gaze is not very often straight It is often down-looking with lowered eyelids, sometimes up-looking or side-looking, especially, when people try to control the disappointment, they tend to move eye sight from side to side, avoiding eye contact with communicating partners

With mouth, there are some popular cues including: contorted (pushed to one side), pouting (upper and/or lower lip pushed up) Sometimes, the stiff lips are also found with

Disappointed postures vary into categories: sitting and standing For sitting postures, the followings can be found: collapsed posture with slouching arms and head down, head resting on folded arms, whole body collapsed with chin resting on table, semi-lying posture (like ownership posture with feet on floor) and knees up head down For standing and walking postures, the most common are collapsed standing posture with head down or face

up, with slouching arms or hands resting on hips The following shift-of-postures are regularly met: from normal posture, especially sitting one, shifting to a collapsed one with back resting; from standing posture shifting to a sitting or lying one When people are trying to put their disappointment under control, they can shift the head from the normal state into a face-up (often found with middle open mouth), maintain some seconds and then back to the normal state

Followings are some illustrations of nonverbal expressions of disappointment

Head position: The head in this expression is little tilted to the left

or right Facial cues: The lower eyelids are a bit pulled down and the eye gaze fixes at a low or sided position Lips do not close completely and lip corners are a little pulled down

Posture: Standing or sitting posture, arms are folded in a standard

arm-cross

Head position: The head is often side-tilted

Facial cues: Both lower and upper eyelids fall down making the eye gaze a little down The lower lip is a bit pulled down and the mouth does not completely close

Gesture: The arms are straight down along the body in standing posture or put on thighs in sitting one

Head position: The head is often in straight position

Facial cues: Both upper and lower eyelids fall down while inner corners of eyebrows are raised making a frowning forehead The eye gaze is often a little down The lips are in normal state

Gesture: Both hands are straight, holding cheeks

Head position: The head is often bent forward and/or little tilted

Facial cues: The lower eyelids are pulled down with eyebrows curving up making the forehead frowning The eye gaze is often fixed at a low position

Gesture: One hand supports the chin and covers the mouth with fingers close

Posture: This is a sitting posture with bending-down back, one elbow putting on the thighs

Head position: The head is straight or little forward-leaning

Facial cues: This face seems to have nothing “abnormal” except a little frown on the forehead made by the little raise and drawing- together of the inner corners of eyebrows The eyes are expressive with low eye gaze which does not focus Lips, chin and nose are in neutral states

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Head position: The head is often straight or little tilted

Facial cues: Both upper and lower eyelids are pulled down while the inner corners of eyebrows are raised, making the curving lines on the forehead The lower lip is raised whereas the lips corners are pulled down shaping the mouth into a reversed “u” The muscles below lip corners are pulled down while the area between lower lip and chin is pulled up

Facial cues: Every part on the face is neutral except the eye The upper eyelids are little drawn back making the eyes open but the eye gaze is at nothing — a blank look

Posture: This is sitting posture with knee up, head down The chin rests on the knees and arms are put around the legs

Head position: The head is often straight or little forward

Facial cues: The face here is mostly covered by the hand but normally it is neutral with close eyes

Gesture: One hand with spreading fingers cover most of the face, with fingers touching the face skin Mouth and nose are often covered up

Head position: The head is side-tilted with the support from one

hand over the ear

Facial cues: The face is often blank, with just some frown over the forehead

Posture: This is a sitting posture with knees raised to support arms (elbow position)

Posture: This is a sitting posture in which knees are up, head is down The back is bent forward and arms folded on the knees for the forehead to rest on

of eyebrows and a curving-lined forehead accompanied with an open mouth

Posture: This is a standing posture in which the knees are in a little lower position so legs are not straight Legs are also straight in other variations

Gesture: Both arms are raised high to face Hands are holding the head

Posture: It is a standing posture with knees in lower position so the whole body is lowered

Gesture: Both hands are in fists, putting in front of the chest

Facial cues: The face is upward with mouth opening

Posture: This is a standing posture with hands resting on hips

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 COMMENTS ON THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES AND DATA

COLLECTION METHOD:

This research use data collected from various sources

Firstly, the most common expressions of disappointment have been found from video- sharing services, photo-sharing services on the Internet

Then, questionnaires are distributed to Americans who have lived or worked with Vietnamese, and Vietnamese who have lived or worked with the Americans Hybels claims

“Often we do not recognize our own nonverbal behavior” (Hybels, 1992:109) This is a study on cross-cultural communication, so the author decided to investigate one’s nonverbal expressions of disappointment through the observation, perception and interpretation of their communicating partners That is, the American informants were asked to give their comments on their Vietnamese communicating partners’ nonverbal expressions of disappointment, and the Vietnamese informants were asked to comment on the way their American communicating partners express their disappointment nonverbally The questionnaire has three parts:

Part 1 is designed for getting personal information of the informants including the length of stay or work with Vietnamese/American people and the informants’ understanding about host cultures or culture of their communicating partners

Part 2 investigates the most common nonverbal expressions of disappointment used by American and Vietnamese people Here are some of the expressions believed to express disappointment and informants were asked to choose the frequency at which each expression is used by American and Vietnamese people

Question 1: From your personal observation, how often do Vietnamese people use the following nonverbal behaviors to express their disappointment? Please choose from | to 3 (1 = Never, 2 = Sometimes and 3 = Always)