Cultural Differences

Positive interviewer body language includes the following . These positive body language examples are based on mainstream cultural norms.

In practice, you will ?nd both individual and cultural variations on these behaviors:

• Leaning slightly toward the client.

• Maintaining a relaxed but attentive posture.

Basic Attending, Listening, and Action Skills 55? Placing your feet and legs in an unobtrusive position.

• Keeping your hand gestures unobtrusive and smooth.

• Minimizing the number of other movements.

• Making your facial expressions match your feelings or the client’s feelings.

• Seating yourself at approximately one arm’s length from the client.

• Arranging the furniture to draw you and the client together, not to erect a barrier.

Mirroring, as an aspect of body language, involves synchrony or consistency between interviewer and client. When mirroring occurs, the interviewer’s physical movements and verbal activity is “in sync with” the client. Mirroring is a relatively advanced nonverbal technique that potentially enhances rapport and empathy, but when done poorly, can be disastrous . Speci?cally, if mir56 Listening and Relationship Development

Cultural Background and Personal Space

You should be sensitive to cultural differences in eye contact, body language, vocal qualities, and verbal tracking. Although most Whites in North America interpret eye contact as a positive sign of interest, people from other cultures tend to prefer less direct eye contact and may view excessive eye contact as disrespectful or invasive.

During a visit to Europe and North Africa, we became acutely aware of cultural differences in body language. We had a limited ability to speak other languages, and therefore our multicultural experiences were based largely on nonverbal perception. Our trip began in central Germany and northern Switzerland, where we hardly noticed any body language differences among the German, Swiss, and our own dominant North American culture. However, as we proceeded south to southern Switzerland and Italy, the average personal space and distance between people shrank. We found ourselves observing much more nose to nose communication. In addition, hand gestures were more vigorous and emphatic.