身势学是有关动作与姿势的研究。对姿势、平衡与一般动作或位置变化来说，运动感（kinesthetic）都是必不可少的。动力学（kinetics）指由力引起的运动之科学，而活动艺术（kinetics art）则包括绘画与雕塑的某些部分或所有部分之间的运动。自体动作（autokinetc）指在环境中实为静止对象的变动属性。比如，自体运动的效果涉及在一间暗室里对某个固定光点产生的知觉。最后，身势学同视觉模式（the visual mode）的研究相关，而这种视觉模式同身体动作与非语言传播具有特别的关系。

Kinesics is the interpretation of body motion communication such as facial expressions and gestures, nonverbal behavior related to movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. The equivalent popular culture term is body language, a term Ray Birdwhistell, considered the founder of this area of study, neither used nor liked the term (on the grounds that what can be conveyed with the body does not meet the linguist's definition of language). Even so, many people use the term.