Body Language of Whining Voice or Whine
Cue: Whining Voice or Whine
Synonym(s): Nagging.
Description: Nagging can be sign-song-like, high pitched, grating, continuous, and meant to annoy.
In One Sentence: A whining voice is a form of punishment used to manipulate other people into doing something they’d rather not do.
How To Use it: Whining can only be used effectively when there is a sympathetic listener. Therefore, the cue is generally reserved for women and children. While men can sometimes use whining, it is likely to result in a poor reflection of him and also yield poor results overall. That is not to say that women and children do not receive negative judgment when whining, however, the negative impression is usually short-lived and the pay-out in terms of results, therefore, worth it. Whining works as a “negative reinforcement” as the whiner promises to eliminate her whine once she has received her currency.
Context: a) General b) Dating.
Verbal Translation: “I’m incapable of solving my own problems so I punish people around me with a shrill, continuous, and annoying voice, in hopes that someone else will pick up the slack for me and serve my needs.”
Variant: See Voice Pitch.
Cue In Action: a) She whined incessantly – through the entire car ride. She wanted mom and dad to stop for ice-cream. Finally, dad had enough, pulled the car over at the nearest chain restaurant and bought her a cone just to make it stop. b) She whined incessantly – daily. She wanted a diamond ring and she wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer. Finally he broke down, pulled her into the ring store and bought her a ring just to make it stop.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Whining is a childlike voice trait aimed specifically at manipulating other people without using forceful words. Whining is a form of punishment to those who hear it. The whiner assumes that their annoying speaking patterns will motivation someone to action on their behalf, with the reward being whine cessation. In other words, the whine pushes those around him or her into action “just to make the whining stop.” Often, this only encourages the whine to return in the future as whining has been rewarded. Whining is considered a passive aggressive form of non-physical violence.
Those who use whining voices are usually followers by nature and often prefer to complain rather than take action themselves. The whiner is hoping others will take care of them. When suggestions to take charge of their own fate are suggested they are quickly rejected, then the person will often withdraw and pout. Whiners often surround themselves with people who are sympathetic to their complaints and help them.
Those who whine are often infantile in their character traits when they aren’t actually infants themselves. Toddlers habitually manipulate adults through whining, but adults, frequently female, will maintain the trait in effort to coax men around them perform favours for them. When grown men whine, it is particularly off-putting.
Cue Cluster: Whining is often coupled with submissive postures and infantile or eratic behaviour such as flailing arms, pouting, downcast eyes, crying, holding the breath, kicking and screaming, flopping on the floor or self harm and breaking things.
Body Language Category: Amplifier, Aggressive body language, Audible signals, Disapproval cues, Hostile body language, Pseudo-infantile gestures.
Resources:
Bachorowski, J., & Owren, M. J. (1995). Vocal expression of emotion: Acoustic properties of speech are associated with emotional intensity and context. Psychological Science, 6, 219–224.
Chang, Rosemarie Sokol and Thompson, Nicholas S. Whines, cries, and motherese: Their relative power to distract. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology.2011. 5(2): 131-141.
Herold, Debora S. ; Nygaard, Lynne C. ; Namy, Laura L. Say It like You Mean It: Mothers’ Use of Prosody to Convey Word Meaning. Language and Speech. 2012. 55(3): 423-436.
Kowalski, Robin M. Whining, griping, and complaining: Positivity in the negativity. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2002. 58(9): 1023-1035.
Nygaard, L. C., & Queen, J. S. (2008). Communicating emotion: Linking affective prosody and word meaning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34, 1017–1030.
Scherer, K., Banse, R., Wallbott, H., & Goldbeck, T. (1991). Vocal cues in emotion encoding and decoding. Motivation and Emotion, 15, 123–148.
Singh, L., Morgan, J. L., & Best, C. T. (2002). Infants’ listening preferences: Baby talk or happy talk? Infancy, 3, 365–394.
Scherer, Klaus R. Personality inference from voice quality: The loud voice of extroversion. European Journal of Social Psychology. 1978 8(4): 467-487.
Trainor, L. J., Austin, C. M., & Desjardins, R. N. (2000). Is infant-directed speech prosody a result of the vocal expression of emotion? Psychological Science, 11, 188–195.
Siegman, Aron Wolfe ; Boyle and Stephen Mineka. Voices of Fear and Anxiety and Sadness and Depression: The Effects of Speech Rate and Loudness on Fear and Anxiety and Sadness and Depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 1993. 102(3): 430-437.
Sokol, Rosemarie I. ; Webster, Karen L. ; Thompson, Nicholas S. ; Stevens, David A. Whining as mother‐directed speech. Infant and Child Development. 2005. 14(5): 478-490.
Walker-Andrews, A., & Grolnick, W. (1983). Discrimination of vocal expressions by young infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 6, 491–498.