Perfect Sense

What Happens when people start losing  their sense? How can someone fall in the middle of a lost of feelings? Well that is the movie Perfect Sense  is all about. Starring Eva Green and Ewan McGregor.

Then mainly  line for this story is an n epidemic begins to spread throughout the globe, causing humankind to lose their sensory perceptions one by one. The story focuses on two people: Susan, one of a team of epidemiologists who are trying to find the causes of the disease, and Michael, a chef who works at a busy restaurant located next to Susan’s flat. The two meet and get to know each other as the epidemic progresses, a relationship which soon turns to love.

Humans begin to lose their senses one at a time. Each loss is preceded by an outburst of an intense feeling or urge. First, people begin suffering uncontrollable bouts of crying and this is soon followed by the loss of their sense of smell. An outbreak of irrational panic and anxiety, closely followed by a bout of frenzied gluttony, precedes the loss of the sense of taste. The film depicts people trying to adapt to each loss and trying to carry on living as best they can, rediscovering their remaining senses as they do so. Michael and his co-workers do their best to cook food for people who cannot smell nor taste.

The loss of hearing comes next and is accompanied by an outbreak of extreme anger and rage. Michael experiences it first and is verbally abusive at Susan who flees in fear, losing her own hearing shortly afterwards. Despite her knowledge that it was the disease that caused the outburst, Susan cannot face Michael again. People struggle to adjust and to go on living. One day, every person on Earth suddenly experiences a feeling of joyful euphoria. Susan realizes she both forgives and still loves Michael and rushes to his job. The two find each other and embrace just as they, and the rest of the world, become blind.

The reviews by Rotten Tomatoes were mix having an 52% on positive raking. The cast’s performances are not only authentic, they are illuminating; particularly Ewan McGregor’s and Eva Green’s central couple. Were they mere victims, their story would be hopeless tragedy. Instead, theirs is the account of an ordinary and vulnerable man and woman with extraordinary resilience, who attack, then embrace each other, stumbling over their circumstances as they learn to transcend them.

**A Brief Response to ArizWldcat’s One-star Review**

Perfect Sense is an amazing movie where tells us what really maters “Love”. Its purpose is to portray authentic human experience in an impossible situation. It did so admirably. It is one of the most hopeful films I have ever seen. Is one of my favorites, I watched over  and over again. I really like it because beyond being and romantic movie it was not a hopeless and catastrophic story, at the end it was a way we love healed situation that humans were going trough.  I totally recommend it and if you had not watch it yet, is a must watch.

There’s a Science

Talking about body language, and all the information that I have shared on this blog; is time to talk about the science that started this field. As I mentioned before, all the non-verbal communication is primarily relate to the psychological field, but as long as this topic has grow up with the pass of the decades it has been assigned an specific science for the non-verbal communication.

Kinesics is the interpretation of body motion communication such as facial expressions and gestures — that is, nonverbal behavior related to movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. The equivalent popular culture term is body language, a term Ray Birdwhistell—considered the founder of this area of study—never used.

Drawing heavily on descriptive linguistics, Birdwhistell argued that all movements of the body have meaning (i.e. are not accidental), and that non-verbal behavior has a grammar that can be analyzed in similar terms to spoken language. Thus, a “kineme” is “similar to a phoneme because it consists of a group of movements which are not identical, but which may be used interchangeably without affecting social meaning”.

Birdwhistell estimated that no more than 30 to 35 percent of the social meaning of a conversation or an interaction is carried by the words.He also concluded that there were no universals in these kinesic displays – a claim disputed by Paul Ekman, who was interested in analysis of universals, especially in facial expression.

It is Along with the kinesics, paralinguistic and proxemics are part of the three most important aspects of nonverbal communication.

Body movements that provide special meanings to the spoken word, for a communicative event, can sometimes have an intention or not having it. These movements are studied by the kinesthetic or quinésica.Sometimes we use a text instead of a word or a sentence, or draw something with your hands to complement orally what we say.

References for this post were taken from the book:  Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication by Ray L. Birdwhistell.

A children’s book about dogs’ body language

Along my blog I had only talk about human body language, of course that is my focus one, but as we know animals and pets have their own way to communicate with humans. And since we do not speak the same language, noting better than body language to communicate with them.

A  littler while ago, on one of my research I found this interesting book about dogs’ body language. it was referred as a book for kids, even though I am not a child, i found myself reading this book, here is a review about it:

A children’s book about body language of dogs with Images: Help Keep Kids Safe Amber Richards.It is an educational book that not only helps prevent dog bites possible but also help children how to treat dogs so they can have a good relationship with them.

Very often as parents just do not think about security issues we teach the dogs until a situation occurs. Usually this is not the time to teach but to operate. Prevention can go a long way.This book can be used by both a child who may be fearful of dogs and a child who is brave but you should learn more respect. There is a note to parents at the beginning of the book especially parents asking that the book be read completely before reading to children.

Parents know their children’s stages as well as temperament and history that they have lived with dogs. All these factors play an important role when it comes to teaching children about dogs and security.

I tried hard to make it possible and least fearful that encourages healthy relationships between dogs / children. The book ends with some comic pictures and a small note. I think  that some parents should encourage their childs to read this comic book that will help to build a good communication between them and their dogs

Corporal Expression in Early Childhood

Everything starts with us as Child, today I’m sharing how people as a child starts to develops its own body language.

Body and sign language includes all manifestations that the child does with his body: gestures, movements, smiles, looks, etc.The most effective language that the child will use to communicate with each other and with their environment, at least until age 2, will be his own body, that is, the body language.

In the early years, the child’s relationships are initially linked to the satisfaction of basic needs. Gestures, looks, movements, sounds, they acquire meaning, modified through the experiences. They provide children interacting with people around them. Thus, by exploring the expressive resources themselves and imitation of others, they will discover and expanding forms of expression, their repertoire of gestures and movements as well as the possibility of organizing significantly, using all its expressive possibilities to communicate needs, moods, desires and influencing the behavior of others.

The interactive response of adults to these early communicative attempts will be decisive not only for the development of body language, but to the integral development of children. It will be the most natural language, since part of the premise of spontaneity.

The pitch of the words gestures and movements performed by the adult reference will be important for the child to perceive sensations, internalize and learn. At the same time, the child, through movements and gestures, in a totally reflection and increasingly endowed with intentional first must get through his body to find a way of self-expression, and thus help to create a system valid to communicate with others and with their environment.

Talking Body

How to talk with your body without using words

Reading Body Language

Did you know that humans communicate or express only half of what we said? And that people only listen half of it. So what happen with the other 50 percent? How we can truly understand what other are really trying to say? According to studies the 55 percent of what we communicate come from your body language. Is been a century since physiology science started to study body language and find out thousands of meaning for those expressions. Today I am sharing some of the most general non-verbal gestures and expressions that has been discover and that everyone should know:

1. Shrinking shoulders is a universal sign of not knowing what is going on. Everyone does this.
2. Open palms are an ancient sign of honesty.
3. Point the finger with the closed hand is an attempt to demonstrate mastery.
4. Look for the lack of wrinkles around the eyes to detect a fake smile. It is almost impossible to smile when ordering and it looks authentic.
5. Raised eyebrows are often a signal of discomfort, surprise or fear can cause people to raise their eyebrows.
6. If your voice rises or falls, they may be more interested. Believe it or not, your tone of voice shows your interest.
7. If your body language is mimicked the conversation can go well. When two people get along, their postures and movements resemble those of the other. When your best friend crosses the leg you will too. If you’re on a date that goes well the two will make the same gestures.
8. Eye contact shows interest …. positive and negative. When you look someone in the eye usually provoke some reaction. if a strange look you in the eye it may seem as a threat and provoke fear, but the look of your girlfriend can get nervous and interpreted positively.
9. If they look at you long time they may be lying. To avoid being false, some hold their gaze on purpose to make it a little uncomfortable. They can also stand very still and not blink.
10. A closed jaw, stiff neck or frown shows stress.
11. An authoritarian position can show leadership. Whether innate or learned, there are a number of signs and behaviors that people use when they feel they are leaders or at least they try to convince you that they are.
12. One leg that is trembling show a state of instability. A leg in motion anxiety, irritation or both.
13. Crossed arms indicate that you are on the defensive, depending on the context. Also arms crossed typically indicate that someone does not want to talk.

There is much more to be describe. All these gestures will help you to read body language or at least understand it better It is easy to detect signs of body language, but it is important to consider the context. Be aware of the environment before making a decision or change strategy based on this type of behavior.

Seven Basic Emotions

According to Dr. Paul Ekman (an American psychologist expert in the study of emotions and was professor of Psychology at the University of California) there are seven universal emotions, he “found out” and defined the existence oh these emotions. He has some books written by him. One of my favorites is called: Emotion in the Human Face: Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction. This book describes this emotion in a detailed way and I am going t give you guys a brief explanation of the basic emotions describe by Dr. Ekman.

Happiness: an authentic smile is characterized “by the inadvertent activation of two muscle groups,” there is an elevation in both corners of the mouth, symmetrically and the second group, brand wrinkles at the corners of the eyes (crow’s feet).

Anger: the stress is concentrated on the eyebrows symmetrically approaching. You can also see tension on the lips, the pressure of one over another draws a horizontal straight line in the mouth.

Fear: evolutionary speaking, our eyes are prepared to identify any threat, it is why both eyes become large extending upward. Lips, like anger, draw a horizontal line but this microexpression, the mouth is slightly open.

Sadness: the corners of his mouth go down and eyebrows are slightly up but only in its internal limits.

Depression: is unilateral, the corners of the mouth extending to one side of the face. Contempt by its English name has to do with the repression of emotions, arrogance or a feeling of moral superiority (depending on context).

Repugnance: the feelings of this microexpression are related to disgust, so the tension of the face can be seen on the nose (it’s like trying to hold back a smell), upper lip accompanied by an upward movement of the nose. Disgust is very close to hatred.

Surprise: The microexpressions of surprise and fear are easily confused because both raised our eyebrows, but the reasons are very different, we put ourselves in fear alert to a potential threat and surprise we prepare to receive unexpected information. a clear tension on the fear in the pit, while the surprise we open our mouths in a relaxed manner.

If you are interested in knowing more about emotions, I totally recommend you to Read the book  that is available in many book stores in the physiology section.

References:

References taken from “Emotion in the Human Face: Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction” writen by  Dr. Paul Ekman.

Micro Expressions: The Non-verbal Communication

 

Since I start my blog I have been talking about microexpressions. On my last Post I talked about one of my favorite television show: Lie to Me that is based on microexpressions and body language. In the show, this terminology is used principally for discovering when someone is lying, but it can be useful for too many different things.

But what are they really? How do they manifest?

Microexpressions are involuntary movements of the face’s muscles, particularly on emotive moments and that are related to situations that may provoke anxiety; either for positive or negative reasons. They are known some basic emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, contempt, fear and disgust) can not be “faked”, because the muscles of the face move, in most cases, automatically, and there is no way we can reproduce these movements perfectly consciously.

Microexpressions are so called not because they are very small, but because its duration on the human face is incredibly short (about one-twentieth of a second), what makes almost impossible for us to catch up a person immediately expression. That’s why in the study of the science it is necessary the recording of the person that is being evaluated, so, later on, is reproduce in slow motion and the expression can be noticed by the experts.

There is not a define science that study microexpression, but since the beginning is something that is being study .The study of facial micro-expressions has proven its worth many times over in such diverse fields as criminology, psychology, medicine and even 3D character animation.

Here is a video with a brief explanation of the micro expressions:

Would you lie to Him?

Have you ever saw the series “Lie to me”? Is an American TV drama show released on January 21, 2009. In the show, Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) and some colleagues accept assignments commonly from local and federal law enforcement, and assist in investigations, reaching the truth through applied psychology: interpreting micro expressions, through the Facial Action Coding System, and body language.

I have always being interesting in the physiology field, it is actually my major degrees .This television show was actually what awake my interesting in body language and micro expressions, I found all this facial coding system and nonverbal expression super exiting. Which lead me to improve my knowledge on the field by reading a good amount of articles and books about body language. The reason why I decide to create this blog, so I can share my passion and knowledge about the things that we do not say with our mouths, but our bodies can let us know.

Coming back to the show, this television series is about this scientist Dr. Call Lightman, who develop this scientific subject about facial micro-expression; after the tragic suicide of his mom, who apparently was in a good mental state when actually she was depressed or agony. This led Dr. Lightman to investigate and define some certain expression that us human being cannot say, but in some part of our inner self that by those micro expressions, that cannot be seen at first or by inexpert eye.

Basically, each episode on the series is about Dr. Lightman discovering the truth from all those who could be lying under any circumstance, by asking them questions. Primarily from some law or criminal purpose. Also, when He is detecting deception in subjects they interview, Lightman and his team also use various interviewing and interrogation tactics to elicit useful information. Rather than by force, they use careful lines of questioning, provocative statements, theatrics and healthy doses of deception on their own part.

All this caught my attention, this is a subject that fascinate me, how by paying attention to this micro expression that must of the time are unperceived, you can discover if someone is lying to you. This is an awesome science that maybe in a close future will help humans to stop hitting the truth .This show is one of my favorite and I totally recommend it to you. You should watch the series and then ask yourself: Would you lie to him?

 

Men vs. Women’s Body Language