10.2　Facial expression and body gestures in confli...

10.2　Facial expression and body gestures in conflict

In my survey,the respondents were asked about what non-verbal behaviour they normally use in domestic conflict.However,in interviews,none of the individuals described this.My study cannot analyse this behaviour connecting both kinds of data,and there is a need for further investigation.

The respondents reported that facial expression,including 'glaring',body gestures such as 'threatening with fists' and 'stamping of foot' were used in conflict.Such non-verbal behaviours may be seen as forms of psychological violence.In respect to'glaring',perpetrators may use this to frighten victims,hinting that severe violence may occur between victims and perpetrators.With regard to 'threatening with fists',perpetrators may use this to their victims to indicate the potential of physical violence.Concerning 'stamping of foot',perpetrators may use this to threaten their victims and to express anger.Wives and husbands use these non-verbal behaviours to convey their attitudes and intentions to each other in conflict.However,how do they manifest such behaviours in their conflict at home? Is there a difference in the frequency of such behaviour between wives and husbands,and in both intellectual and non-intellectual families?

10.2.1　Use of glaring by survey respondents

Table 10.2.1 (a) examines the gender pattern of'glaring'in a conflict.

Table10.2.1 (a) 'When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,do you glare at your spouse? ' (Q23) by gender of respondents:

From Table 10.2.1 (a),we can see firstly that the vast majority of respondents saw themselves as using such behaviour,with more than two thirds answering'yes including sometimes' (68.6%).Only 31.4 per cent of the respondents did not practise such behaviour in their conflict.In relation to gender,there is a difference,with 63.4 per cent of females answering yes to 'glaring' and 75.3 per cent of males.The latter is 11.9 percentage points higher than the former.Such results suggest that both wives and husbands in my survey choose to practise such behaviour in their conflict,but that husbands in my survey were more likely to say that they use this behaviour.

Pie Charts 10.2.1 (a) and (b) looks at the gender pattern of this behaviour in detail.The results are similar to the above table.

Pie Chart 10.2.1 (a):When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,you glare at your spouse by female respondents

Pie Chart 10.2.1 (b):When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,you glare at your spouse by male respondents

From Pie Charts 10.2.1 (a) and (b),we can see that there appears to be a small difference in the practice of such behaviour between wives and husbands.In respect to'yes',the proportion of females is 17.9 per cent,while the proportion of males is 22.7 per cent.The latter is 4.8 percentage points higher than the former.In regard to 'sometimes',the proportion of females is 45.5 per cent,whereas the proportion of males is 52.6 per cent.The latter is 7.1 percentage points higher than the former.Accordingly,husbands in this survey say that they practise such behaviour more than their wives.

The picture becomes more complex when educational background is taken into account.Table 10.2.1 (b) indicates this.

Table10.2.1 (b) 'When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,do you glare at your spouse?' (Q23) by gender of respondents with different educational backgrounds:

Table10.2.1 (b) shows that no matter what educational backgrounds both female and male respondents have,the majority of them may be likely use 'glaring' against their partners because the proportions of the four groups are over 60 per cent,which are the similar to the results of gender pattern of this behaviour.This table also shows that there is a similarity in this non-behaviour between wives (68.4%,13/19) and husbands (70.6%,12/17) with 'School Education'.The latter is only 2.2 percentage points higher than the former.However,there is a significant difference in such non-verbal behaviour between wives and husbands with 'College Education'.64.5 per cent of the female respondents (60/93) reported that they used this behaviour to glare at their husbands in a conflict,while 80.3 per cent of the male respondents (61/76) reported that they did so.The latter is 15.8 percentage points higher than the former.

This table suggests that a difference in 'glaring',that it mainly occurs from husbands and in both educational groups.80.3 per cent of husbands (61/76) with 'College Education' said they used glaring at their wives in a conflict,while 70.6 per cent of husbands (12/17) with 'School Education' reported so.The proportion of the former is 9.3 percentage points higher than the latter.These findings suggest that a high proportion of intellectual husbands may be likely to use such non-verbal behaviour to abuse their wives in a conflict.Additionally,if we compare the group with 'College education' to the group with 'School education',ignoring gender,their results are very similar.71.6 per cent of the respondents (121/169) with the former said that they used this behaviour in a conflict,whereas 69.4 per cent of the respondents (25/36) with the latter said that they did so.Accordingly,the result in this survey shows that there may be almost no difference in this behaviour between the two groups if gender is not taken into account.

10.2.2　Threatening with fists

Table 10.2.2 (a) looks at the gender pattern in 'threatening with fists' in a conflict.

Table10.2.2 (a) 'When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,do you threaten your spouse with your fists?' (Q25) by gender of respondents:

From Table 10.2.2 (a),we can see firstly that the majority of respondents (83.2%,183/220) did not practise such behaviour in their conflict.Nevertheless,we can see that such a phenomenon does occur between wives and husbands because 16.8 per cent of the respondents chose 'yes including sometimes'.When we look at gender groups,we can see that the proportions of wives and husbands are quite different.The proportion of males (23.2%,22/95) is nearly twice than that of females (12%,15/125) indicating that husbands in my survey say that they practised this type of behaviour much more than their wives.

If we look at the two educational groups,ignoring gender,the result shows that there is no significant difference between them in using this behaviour.Nineteen point four per cent of the respondents (7/36) with 'School Education' reported that they used it to their partners,while 16.6 per cent of the respondents (28/169) with'College education' reported this,too.However,if we consider gender,the pattern is different.Table 10.2.2 (b) indicates this.

Table10.2.2 (b) 'When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,do you threaten with your fists to your spouse?' (Q23) by gender of respondents with different educational backgrounds:

Table 10.2.2 (b) shows that there is a slight difference in this behaviour between wives and husbands with 'School Education'.21.1 per cent of the female (4/19) respondents said that they used this behaviour in a conflict,while 17.6 per cent of the male respondents (3/17) said they did so.The proportion of the former is 3.5 percentage points higher than the latter.However,the table also shows that there is a significant difference in this behaviour between wives and husbands with 'College education'.10.5 per cent of the female respondents (10/95) reported that they used this behaviour,whereas 24.3 per cent of the male respondents (18/74) reported this,too.The proportion of the latter is 13.8 percentage points higher than the former.These results suggest that wives,among 'school education',may be slightly more likely to use 'threatening with fists' than their husbands,while husbands,among 'College Education',may be more likely to use this behaviour than their wives.

10.2.3　Stamping of foot

Table 10.2.3 (a) examines the gender pattern of a non-verbal behaviour 'stamping of foot' in a conflict.

Table10.2.3 (a) 'When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,do you stamp your foot to your spouse?' (Q27) by gender of respondents:

From Table 10.2.3 (a),we can see firstly that behaviour such as 'stamping of foot' also occurs between some wives and husbands.About one in five of all the respondents say that they use such behaviour (proportion of 'yes including sometimes' is 21.7 per cent).Then looking at gender groups,we can see that there is again a difference in such behaviour between wives and husbands,this time with more of the women saying that they use such behaviour.The proportion of females,in respect to 'yes including sometimes',is 23.8 per cent,whereas the proportion of males is 18.9 per cent.The former is 4.9 percentage points higher than the latter.

Looking at the educational groups,the result,ignoring gender,shows that the respondents with 'School and College Education' practised 'stamping of foot' similarly.The former reported that 20 per cent of them used this behaviour in a conflict,while 22.2 per cent of the latter reported this,too.But looking at gender,there is a difference between wives and husbands in both groups.Wives in both groups appeared more likely than husbands to stamp their foot.Table 12.2.3 (b) shows that 21.1 per cent of school educated women and 25 per cent of college educated women said they stamped their feet at their spouse,compared to 18.5 percent of men with 'School Education' and 18.7 percent of men with 'College Education'．

Table 10.2.3 (b) 'When there is a conflict between you and your spouse,do you stamp your foot to your spouse?' (Q23) by gender of respondents with different educational backgrounds:

10.2.4　Gender inequality in spousal facial expression and body gestures

Some psychologists state that verbal or non-verbal abuse can be used powerfully(Yi,2004).This section has looked at some non-verbal behaviours,specifically glaring,threatening with fists and stamping of foot,which may be seen as low-level aggression (Goldstein,2002) but may also be hurtful.Through the analysis,we can see that there is a difference in these three non-verbal abuse used by wives and husbands.

My survey showed that husbands may be likely to choose more 'active' nonverbal behaviour to threaten their wives.For example,the proportions of the male respondents in 'glaring' and 'threatening with fists' (75.3%,73/97;23.2%,22/95) were higher than those of wives (63.4%,78/123;12%,15/125).These results are also reflected in the data that the respondents in the two educational groups reported.But there may be a difference in these two 'active' non-verbal behaviours.In respect to 'glaring',the male respondents (70.6%,12/17;80.3%,61/76) with 'School and College Education' reported that they might be more likely to use this behaviour to their wives in a conflict.By contrast,with regard to 'threatening with fi sts',the female respondents (21.1%,4/19) with 'School Education' and the male respondents(24.3%,18/74) with 'College Education' reported that they used this behaviour more than their partners within their own groups respectively.

According to gender pattern,wives in my survey may be likely to choose more'passive' non-verbal behaviour to threaten their husbands,such as 'stamping of foot' For example,the proportion of the female respondents (23.8%,29/122) was slightly higher than that of the male respondents (18.9%,18/95) with regard to this non-verbal behaviour.Looking at to educational pattern,the result is similar to the gender pattern.Among 'School and College Education',the proportions of the female respondents (21.1%,4/19;25%,23/92) was slightly higher than that of the males respondents (18.7%,3/16;18.7%,14/75) respectively.Why might the respondents be likely to use these non-verbal behaviours? Why is there a difference in these behaviours between wives and husbands,and in both intellectual and nonintellectual families?

Use of 'glaring' expresses power because 'glaring' directly conveys emotions such as 'dislike','hate','anger',and so on.It is generally said that eyes can be seen as a window of one's heart (Pi,2006;Yi,2006;Zhi,2007).'Glaring' may directly impact on victims and make them worry about the possibility of physical violence.With regard to 'threatening with fists' and 'stamping of foot',the former is behaviour that conveys perpetrators' attitudes of 'dislike','dominance','threat','anger',etc.This behaviour may develop into severe physical violence.However,the latter is passive threatening behaviour to convey perpetrators' attitudes of 'dislike','anger','rebellion','helplessness',and so on.This behaviour may develop into tolerance.According to the data results,these non-verbal behaviours may be seen to represent the concept:men/husbands as dominant but women/wives as subordinate,linked to gender differences that have developed historically.

As discussed in the previous and current chapters,the concept 'men outside but women inside' has been inherited from generation to generation.Half of both sexes still consider this concept as correct in China (Li,2001).Although the Confucian idea was produced a thousand years ago,it still impacts on people's minds:women should do household tasks and look after the husband and children,while men are breadwinners,which shows unequal position between women and men with men being superior to women and having more power than women.History and society empower the special power or privilege of men/husbands (Jackson,2002).As Knapp and Hall (2002) suggest,a gesture may forecast the verbalisation of a special idea.Husbands may be likely to use active non-verbal behaviour such as 'glaring' and 'threatening with fi st' to control their wives,which indicates that they have more power than their wives.

However,the data at the 'School Educated' level shows that the female respondents might use 'threatening with fists' slightly more than their husbands.This may suggest that non-intellectual wives did not mind that they were women who should be 'nice women' according to the traditional culture.They perhaps therefore dare to struggle for their right with their husbands in the home.Since their husbands could use this behaviour,they may think why they cannot use this,too.By contrast,intellectual wives may try to save their face and they might want to be good wives for their husbands.They therefore use this behaviour less than their husbands and their husbands held more power over them.As shown in Chapter 9,W6^[11] and F4^[12] who were intellectual said that when their husbands abused them they feared neighbours' hearing so that they quickly shut the windows and doors and were silent.

This data also suggests that wives may be likely to use passive non-verbal behaviour such as 'stamping of foot' to their husbands in a conflict,which may convey their anger or helplessness and to threaten or to protest.The power of such behaviour is weaker than 'glaring' and 'threatening with fi sts'.Through the analysis,we can see that there may be a difference in choice of non-verbal abuse between women and men.This difference reflects that women are inferior to men in the home.