You will prepare and submit a term paper on Human Interaction with Other People. Your paper should be a minimum of 1500 words in length.

We all met in the entry area of the building where both their offices were. The couple wrote on a freelance basis and only one article per month, so they weren’t usually very busy. The lawyer couple was involved not only in helping the newspaper to succeed but also in running two or three businesses of their own, including their law practice. Although I was included in the general conversation, I hung back somewhat from the group, intending to observe as much as I could about the various dynamics involved.

All of these dynamics came into play in the kinesics, haptics, physical appearance, and the influence of the environment I observed during this interaction.Kinesics refers to the specific movements of the body that take place as an individual interacts with someone else. This can mean their facial expressions, stance, shifts in weight, arm positioning, or any number of movements. During this interaction, I could clearly see an entirely different conversation taking place among the four people I was watching as well as recognize in myself a purposeful hanging back from the conversation.

The reporter’s wife, an arts writer, was politely interested in the conversation taking place. Her eyes remained focused on each speaker as well as flitted among the other listeners and the environment around us. Other indications that she was interested in the conversation was the way she tended to lean forward into the center of the group so she could attend better to what everyone was saying and the way she flicked a brief disapproving glance at the lawyer’s wife every now and then when the lawyer’s wife interjected something not related to the political conversation taking place.

This language also gave the impression that she was intelligent, even though she didn’t add much to the conversation. When she did speak, though, with a calm, soft voice and languid drawl, everyone else immediately turned their attention to her. The lawyer’s wife was clearly used to being the most important woman in the room and wasn’t sure how to deal with this other woman.