Eye contact revisited
Mar. 27th, 2003 07:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonActually, that last post raised a point: at the best of times, I'm not too fond of people making what seems excessive eye contact. This is a relatively minor but frequently misunderstood cultural characteristic. Frequent eye contact with someone you don't know well is not considered a sign of general interest, but is more likely to be interpreted as an aggressive move or a come-on. I do consciously have to relax when dealing with people whose pattern is very different, because viewing it as potentially aggressive is ingrained; this goes both ways. I've discussed it with some other people, and they also reported having had local patterns of eye contact mistaken for an indication of everything from low self-esteem to evasiveness by members of subcultures with quite different patterns. I have experienced this, including from at least one psychologist (that's the one who told me about it; others may have made quieter observations), and it can be very frustrating.
This is just one example of the myriad of apparently small cultural differences, and of why people who choose to work in an area or among a certain subculture should become familiar with it. If you don't have a good understanding of your clients' body language, much less of cultural norms of expression, how effective any-sort-of-professional are you going to be? I can't find the URL at the moment, but I read an excellent article not too long ago on just this. Its emphasis was on mental health professionals' great competence in dealing with members of various Hispanic communities and the black community--just how many misdiagnoses have come out of plain lack of understanding of where people are coming from--but the premise is simple enough. If you're going to deal with people, don't be willing to dismiss them as delusional because you can't be bothered to understand a nuance or two. Asking for clarification is far better than that.
This is just one example of the myriad of apparently small cultural differences, and of why people who choose to work in an area or among a certain subculture should become familiar with it. If you don't have a good understanding of your clients' body language, much less of cultural norms of expression, how effective any-sort-of-professional are you going to be? I can't find the URL at the moment, but I read an excellent article not too long ago on just this. Its emphasis was on mental health professionals' great competence in dealing with members of various Hispanic communities and the black community--just how many misdiagnoses have come out of plain lack of understanding of where people are coming from--but the premise is simple enough. If you're going to deal with people, don't be willing to dismiss them as delusional because you can't be bothered to understand a nuance or two. Asking for clarification is far better than that.
