The role of postural change in dyadic conversations

Abstract

Videotapes of six dyadic conversations were analysed to test some hypotheses derived from observations of Scheflen (1964) relating changes in posture to important features in the structure of conversation. Speech was scored for the extent to which it introduced new information into the conversation, and the more informative speech categories were found to be associated with more changes in posture. It is argued that this provides quantitative evidence in support of Scheflen's notion of a ‘programme’, where new stages of a social interaction are indicated by postural markers. Significant changes in trunk and leg postures were found only in the most informative speech category, providing some evidence to support Scheflen's notion of the ‘position’ where gross postural shifts involving at least half the body are reckoned to indicate a shift in the point of view that an interactant takes in a conversation.