For example, bankers spend more time with clients who have large accounts, brokers spend more time with clients who have big investment portfolios, architects meet more often and for longer periods with companies that are building a series of large structures than with individuals who want to build a single home, and fund-raisers invest greater amounts of time in generous donors than in moderate contributors.ĭawna Ballard and David Seibold (2000) observed the reciprocal relationship between time and communication. In work settings more time is spent with people with high status than those with lower status.

In Western culture, it is normative to spend more time with people we like than with those we don’t like or who bore us. The length of time we spend with different people reflects our interpersonal priorities. Similarly, being on time, waiting for a late partner, sharing conversation time, and devoting time to work on the relationship all play a role in the level of emotional closeness partners feel for one another. Egland, Stelzner, Andersen, and Spitzberg (1997) found that the best way to signal relational closeness is to spend time with one’s partner. Spending time with another person sends the message that the person is important and reflects a desire to develop or maintain a close relationship. Think about many everyday American phrases that reflect the cultural view that time is very valuable (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980): “Don’t waste time,” “Save time,” “Spend time,” “Can’t spare time,” “Invest time,” Run out of time,” “Budget time,” “Borrowed time,” “Lose time,” “Use time profitably.” The way time is structured may in itself sends messages related to immediacy and closeness (Andersen, 1984). In so many ways, time acts as a fundamental organizing principle for social interaction. The very concept of communication as a process implies that it is a time-bound activity. Chronemics help us to understand how people perceive and structure time in their dialogue and relationships with others. The Faking Approach to Interpreting Body LanguageĬhronemics is a discipline concerned with the study of a person’s use of time.

The Inconsistency Approach to Interpreting Body Language.The Over-congruence Approach to Interpreting Body Language.The Congruence Approach to Interpreting Body Language.The Context Approach to Interpreting Body Language.The Negative Aspect to Interpreting Body Language.The Positive Aspect to Interpreting Body Language.Five Interrelated Concepts in Proxemics.

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