L,T&C - Body Language

Question 1

What is body language

Answer 1

Communication through unspoken movements and gestures.

Question 2

What’s open and closed posture

Answer 2

Closed posture = crossing your arms and/or legs, communicates rejection or disagreement.
Open posture = arms and legs not crossed, communicates approval and acceptance.

Question 3

Explain the results of the body language study

Answer 3

McGinley et al. found that participants were more likely to change their opinions in line with a female confederate’s if she had adopted an open posture when discussing her views, as opposed to a closed posture.

Question 4

What is postural echo

Answer 4

Copying each other’s body position.

Question 5

Explain the results of the postural echo study

Answer 5

Tanner and Chartrand found that participants had more positive feelings towards a new drink if the researcher had used postural echo during the interview, than if there was no postural echo.

Question 6

What does touch mean

Answer 6

‘Touching’ in a social interaction includes high fives, slapping, putting hand on a shoulder.

Question 7

Explain the results of the touch study

Answer 7

Fisher et al. found that students handed books by a librarian who touched them on the hand were more positive about the librarian than those who were not touched.

Question 8

Evaluate body language (real world)

Answer 8

A strength is that the research can be applied to real-world situations.
People who are trying to create a good relationship with others should use an open posture, postural echo and touch.
This shows that the research can be useful in everyday life.

Question 9

Evaluate body language (control)

Answer 9

A weakness is that the studies are not always well controlled.
For example, in the library study (Fisher et al.) there may have been other reasons why the participants liked or disliked the librarian aside from the presence or absence of touch.
This is a problem for the validity of the results.

Question 10

Evaluate body language (unethical)

Answer 10

Another weakness is that research in this area raises ethical issues.
For example, field experiments on postural echo and touch involved a lack of informed consent and it is unclear whether participants were debriefed afterwards.
This could affect the trust people have in psychologists.