The Effects of Nonverbal Immediacy and Verbal Person Centeredness in the Emotional Support Process

Abstract

This study explores the combined influence of nonverbal immediacy and verbal person centeredness in the emotional support process. Three complementary models were tested in an experiment with 216 participants who disclosed an emotionally upsetting event to a confederate trained to display different levels of nonverbal immediacy and person centeredness. Participants subsequently completed a set of instruments measuring the perceived comforting quality of the confederate. Results suggested that nonverbal immediacy and person centeredness influence perceptions of what makes for good comforting. The data supported 2 of the advanced models but failed to provide support for a nonverbal primacy effect on perceived comforting quality.

Some Consequences for Helpers Who Deliver “Cold Comfort”: Why it's Worse for Women than Men to be Inept When Providing Emotional Support

“…In addition, the focus of Experiment 2 is specifically on the dependent variables of recipient's liking for the helper and the recipient's judgment of the effectiveness, supportiveness, and normativeness of the helper's behavior; previous reports have focused on the affective change reportedly experienced by participants or their overall judgments of the messages' "comforting quality." Additional findings regarding the effects of verbal and nonverbal variables on a variety of cognitive, affective, and social outcomes of comforting messages are detailed in several recent articles (Jones, 2004;Jones & Burleson, 2003;Jones & Guerrero, 2001). helpers. No differences due to helper sex were expected for men.…”

“…Three 7-point Likert-type 11 The general findings of the manipulation check are reported below; detailed findings are reported by Jones and Guerrero (2001).…”

“…A brief summary of the experimental set-up is provided here; the specifics can be obtained fromJones and Guerrero (2001).…”

Registered Nurses’ and nurse assistants’ responses to older persons’ expressions of emotional needs in home care

“…Person-centeredness comprises an awareness and understanding towards another person's needs and concerns (O'Hagan et al 2014) and can bring comfort to emotional distress (Jones & Guerrero 2001). Communication and relationships are of importance in person-centered care.…”

The Role of Perceived Similarity in Supportive Responses to Victims of Negative Life Events

“…Nonverbal cues such as smiling and expressiveness are frequently considered to be valid signals of interpersonal closeness and intimacy, and the communication of social support (Jones & Guerrero, 2001). A second set of raters of the videotapes, with the sound turned off, coded each 1-minute segment of the videotape of the interaction for amount of smiling and expressiveness on a scale from 1 ("not at all") to 5 ("very much").…”