Nonverbal communication in terms of the Social Exchange Theory and the Theory of Social Impact

Joanna Puppel

Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu

Abstract

This article presents the main assumptions of the Social Exchange Theory and the Theory of Social Impact. Both theories allow us to analyze the impact of communication acts on both the benefits and costs as well as on the intensity of the impact of a given human communicator on another member of an interaction setup in different social contexts. The discussion presented here allows us to formulate the rules governing nonverbal communication in terms of both of these theories. These rules, called here the principles of nonverbal communication, are graded in relation to the Principles of Interaction discussed in this article.

Keywords:

Nonverbal Communication, Social Exchange Theory, Social Impact Theory