chapter 5 question 1

I remember dating this guy I really liked, we'll call him Andrew. I'm a verbal person; if I'm asked a question I'll respond to it thoroughly or I'll decline to answer but I'll verbalize that. When things were on the decline in our relationship his responses to any inquiries were either tepid or non-committal. Maybe because it was because I'm an optimist or maybe it was because at that point in my life I wasn't very good at reading people's non verbal communication but I didn't know that he was in the process of breaking up with me until I could no longer get in touch with him. I didn't recognize his unwillingness to verbalize certain feelings as a means of communication. I thought it cowardly of him to not simply say something which I guess he did but not verbally. It taught me a valuable lesson in regards to understanding non verbal communication of people when compared to their base line behavior. Andrew's evasiveness was marked by fidgeting which is one means of evaluating someone's message. Overall Andrew was communicative but when it came to making the decision to break up he used non verbal communication to communicate this.