Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Psychology - Social Psychology, grade: 1,3, University of Cologne (Department Psychologie), course: Theorien der Kommunikations- und Medienpsychologie, language: English, abstract: This essay, accompanying a presentation that we held during the seminar Nonverbal Communication at the University of Cologne, deals with the topic of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is the overall term for all forms of (human) communication which function without spoken words. Instead, carriers of meanings and messages may consist of gestures, postures, body movements, mimics, eye contact, touch, interpersonal distance, or other nonverbal expressions, e.g. laughing. The functions of nonverbal forms of communication may be the expression of emotions, the transmission of attitudes (e.g. a contemptuous facial expression may be used to express antipathy), the presentation of ones personal characteristics, or the complementation of a verbal message.