BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES - Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie

Metacommunication and Cultural Differences
5.1. Metacommunication as Interpretation
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Chapter 5
Messages we send through our posture,
gestures, facial expression,
and spatial distance account for 55% of what
is perceived and understood by others. In fact,
through our body language we are always
communicating, whether we want to or not!
Albert Mehrabian
According to etymological meaning of word Meta-communication
is "communicating about communication”. In the early 1970s, Gregory
Bateson coined the term to describe the underlying messages in what we
say and do. In other words meta-communication can be define as a
process of interpretation and understanding of communication and
consequently as a tool for developing one's interpersonal relationships.
People communicate all the time. It’s not possible to avoid it. We
are always sending out signals that others read, interpret, and respond to
while we are reading, interpreting and responding to theirs. Our
communication occurs not flatly, but on different levels and via various
processes. Could be mentioned conventionally even four levels on which
communication take place:
- Verbal level: communication by words;
- Para-verbal level: loudness of speaking, manner of speaking,
when keeping silent, meaning of interrupting or interfering the
conversation;
- Non-verbal level: body language (facial expression, eye
contact, gestures), messages without words;
- Extra-verbal level: time, place, context, orientation towards
target groups, tactile (feeling by touching) and olfactory
(smelling) aspects.