Language, Thought and Communication Flashcards
Describe von Frisch’s aim for his 1967 Bee Study:
To describe the dances performed by bees and explain how these dances enabled bees to communicate
Describe von Frisch’s method (Bee study, 1967)
He put food sources close to the hive as well as far away. If a bee visited a food source, he would mark it with paint. He then observed their behaviour at the hive.
Describe von Frisch’s findings:
Worker honey bees tell other bees where the pollen is by displaying one of two dances.
Round dances – for food less than 100 metres away, the bees moves around in a circle.
Waggle dances – for food more than 100 metres away, the bee moves around in a figure of 8 shape. It waggles on the ‘straight’ section. The slower the dance, the further away the pollen is.
After watching a dancing bee, 60% of the bees watching went to find the food sources
Evaluate von Frisch’s Bee Study, 1967
+ Made an important contribution to science
- Missed aspects of their communication: sound
- Bees don’t always respond to the waggle dance
- There may be other factors that affect if the bees respond to the dances or not that von Frisch overlooked.
What are the four reasons why animals communicate?
- Territory
- Food
- Survival
- Reproduction
What can humans do that animals can’t?
- Plan ahead and discuss future events
- Creativity
- Single vs multiple channels
What are the functions of eye contact (3)
- Conversation flow (it gives the other person feedback about how interested you are in the conversation)
- Signalling attraction (evolutionary behaviour: Our level of eye contact might increase when we are talking to someone we like)
- Expressing emotion (shows intensity)
Evaluate the functions of eye contact
+ Real-world application: helps explain how people with autism struggle with eye contact and find it difficult to read emotions because people with autism might not use eye contact when interacting
- Research into eye contact often uses rating scales to make judgements. Asking someone to rate attractiveness isn’t an accurate measurement as everyone sees attractiveness differently
- Research into eye contact makes generalisations about how we use it in everyday life based on research. This is a weakness because not everyone uses eye contact in the same way as there are individual differences
What is body language?
The way in which attitudes and feelings are communicated to others through unspoken movements and gestures
Describe Open & Closed posture
Posture is the way someone positions their body during social interaction. An open posture is relaxed and shows approval or acceptance whereas a closed posture shows rejection or disagreement.
Describe Postural Echo
Postural echo is when you copy or ‘mirror’ someone’s body position whilst talking to them.
Describe the use of touch in non-verbal communication
- Flirt
- Express friendship
- Show dominance
Evaluate research into body language
- Research into body language is often conducted without the participant’s consent. This is a weakness as it breaks many ethical guidelines such as informed consent or the right to withdraw.
- Research into body language makes generalisations about how we use it in everyday life. This is a weakness because not everyone uses body language in the same way as there are individual differences. Someone might like being touched whereas others don’t
Define personal space
An invisible ‘bubble’ that surrounds each individual. The size of the bubble depends on gender, culture and status differences. If our bubble is invaded, we can feel uncomfortable
Outline the gender differences surrounding personal space:
- Men prefer a large distance when interacting with other men while women prefer a shorter distance when interacting with other women.
- Men prefer to sit opposite while women prefer to sit side by side.
Outline the status differences surrounding personal space
People who have an equal/similar status stand closer than people who have a different status.
Outline the cultural differences surrounding personal space
English people prefer a personal space of 1- 1.5m whereas Arab people prefer to be closer.
Evaluate research surrounding personal space
+ Real-world application: interacting with people from different cultures effectively
- PS can be affected by many different factors all at the same time.
- Unrepresentative samples: you can’t generalise an entire culture based on one sample
Describe Darwin’s theory of evolution:
The theory that animals have adapted to their environment over millions of years. These adaptations increase the chances of survival and are therefore passed on to the next generation
Define serviceable habits
Traits that would have been adaptive to our animal ancestors because they promote survival
Describe the theory of natural selection
Genes that improve an animal’s chance of survival are passed on to the next generation so genes that lead to successful reproduction will be selected
Evaluate Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory
+ Darwin’s theory is supported by research into facial expressions. Surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness are recognised in every culture
+ Darwin’s theory is supported by research on newborn babies. Babies do not need to learn facial expressions or eye contact when interacting. This is a strength because it suggests NVC is present at birth and therefore in our biology
- Darwin’s theory doesn’t explain cultural differences. Some parts of non-verbal communication aren’t universal, such as personal space rules.
Define verbal communication
The use of words to pass information between people, including speaking, reading and writing.
Define non-verbal communication
Methods of passing information between people that excludes verbal communication. E.g, body language, tone and facial expressions
Describe evidence proving NVC is innate: (2)
- Sensory deprived children have been found to show the same facial expressions as children who can hear/see
- Babies are born with social releasers such as smiling
Describe evidence proving that NVC is learned:
- There are contact and non-contact cultures, who prefer different amounts of personal space
- Different gestures mean different things depending on the country
Describe Yuki’s aim (2007):
To find out if there is a difference in how emoticons are understood by people in the East (Japan) and the West (America).
Describe Yuki’s method (2007):
95 students from Japan and 118 students from America – an independent groups design.
Six emoticons were shown with different combinations of eyes and mouths (sad, happy or neutral).
Participants rated them for happiness using a 9-point scale
What were Yuki’s results?
Japanese gave higher ratings to faces with happy eyes than the Americans, even when the mouth was sad.
Americans gave higher ratings when mouths were happy even when the eyes were sad
This suggests that cultural groups interpret facial expressions differently which may be due to cultural norms and expectations.
Evaluate Yuki’s study
- May not represent human facial expressions.
- The study only investigated two types of emotion (happy and sad). The study does not give us insight into how the full range of emotional expressions are interpreted by people of different cultures.
- Rating scales may not be the best method of measurement. Emotions are complex. Rating scales are too simple
