Language, Thought and Communication Flashcards
Describe eye contact.
Regulating flow of conversation:
Participants looked away when about to speak and gave prolonged gaze when about to finish (Kendon).
Signaling attraction:
People who use eye contact are judged as more attractive (Conway et al.).
Expressing emotion:
Participants judged emotions as more intense if faces looking straight at them (Adams and Kleck).
Evaluate eye contact.
Real-world application:
People with autism find eye contact difficult, so we should all be more understanding of those who don’t use this form of NVC.
Use of rating scales:
Rating ‘attractiveness’ can lack objectivity.
Artificial studies:
Studies of eye contact involve artificial tasks which lack validity.
Describe body language.
Open and closed posture
Closed = crossing arms/legs, shows disagreement.
Open = uncrossed, shows acceptance.
McGinley et al.: Arguments given by person with open posture led to greater opinion change than closed posture.
Postural echo
Copying each other’s body position.
Tanner and Chartrand: Participants rated new drink more highly when presented with postural echo.
Touch
Includes high fives, slapping, etc.
Fisher: If librarian touched student on hand when returning library books the librarian was judged more positively.
Evaluate body language.
Real-world application:
People can use body language to build good relationships.
Body language studies lack control:
Could be other reasons (EVs) why participants like or dislike confederates.
Body language studies are unethical:
Lack of informed consent for being in field experiments, lowers trust in psychologists.
Describe personal space.
Cultural differences
Sorokowska et al.: Large cultural differences in preferred distances. Saudi Arabia larger distances than England.
May be explained by climate (warmer climate closer to strangers, farther from friends).
Gender differences
Fisher and Bryne: Women feel most uncomfortable when personal space invaded from the side, for men it is from the front.
Status differences
Zahn: People with similar status stand closer than those of unequal status.
Evaluate personal space.
Real-world application:
Useful in everyday life such as doctors using knowledge about cultural differences.
Over simplistic:
Research investigates one factor at a time and not the interaction between them.
Unrepresentative samples:
Experiments use samples of people who may not represent all men or all people within a culture.
Describe Von Frisch’s bee study.
Aim:
To describe dances of honey bees to understand their communication.
Method:
Put food close to hive (10-20 metres) and far away (up to 300 metres).
Observed bees 6000 times over 20 years.
Results:
Round dance: Moving in a circle to show pollen less than 100 metres away.
Waggle dance: Figure-of-eight shape points direction.
60% of bees went to sources at the distance indicated by the dances.
Conclusion:
Sophisticated communication system.
Evaluate Von Frisch’s bee study.
Scientific value
Opened eyes to capabilities of animals.
Sounds matters too
Dances performed in silence ignored (Esch).
Extra: Other factors are important
Bees don’t respond to waggle dance if they have to fly over water (Gould).
Describe the functions of animal communication.
Survival
Vocal signals: Vervet monkeys communicate danger with an alarm call.
Visual signals: Rabbits lift tail, pin ears back and leap forward.
Enhances survival of the individual (and group).
Reproduction
Peacocks stretch out their feathers like an umbrella to communicate genetic fitness.
Territory
Rhinos leave piles of dung to communicate territoritorial boundaries.
Food
Ants leave pheromone trail to communicate food source.
Describe the properties of human communications not present in animal communication.
Plan ahead and discuss future events:
Humans can discuss things that aren’t present or haven’t happened yet (displacement).
Animals are focused on present, e.g. food sources and predators.
Creativity:
Humans have an open system combining many words together.
Animals have closed system using communication for specific events.
Single versus multiple channels:
Human language expressed using many channels - spoken, written, sign language, social media.
Animals tend to communicate with a single channel, e.g. pheromones.
Describe the evolutionary theory of non-verbal behaviour.
Darwin and evolution:
The theory of natural selection: Genes for behaviours that promote survival are passed to the next generation.
NVC as evolved and adaptive:
NVC evolved in animals to express emotion.
For example, baring teeth is adaptive because it reduces death in a conflict and therefore protects survival of the individual (and group).
Comparisons with human behaviour:
In our distant ancestors opening eyes widely was adaptive because they could see route to safety more easily.
This behaviour passed down to humans and continues to express surprise.
Serviceable habits:
Behaviours used by ancestors to promote survival.
Still used by humans but may not serve same purpose.
Evaluate the evolutionary theory of non-verbal behaviour.
Research into facial expressions:
Ekman found six emotions in all cultures, so must be innate.
Research into newborns:
Babies are born with ability to use eye contact and smile which suggests these NVCs are innate and evolved.
Cultural differences in NVC:
Cultural differences in NVC, such as personal space, mean evolutionary theory cannot explain all NVC.
Describe the evidence that NVC is innate.
Neonate research:
If NVCs displayed by newborn babies this suggests the behaviour is innate.
Social releasers:
Certain neonate behaviours (e.g. smiling) make others want to provide care.
Therefore they are adaptive (Bowlby).
Facial expressions:
Neonates display an expression of disgust when given sour tastes (citric acid), suggesting it’s innate (Rosenstein and Oster).
Sensory deprived:
An animal or human without a sensory ability.
Thompson found blind children show similar facial expressions to sighted children.
Describe the evidence that NVC is learned.
Cross-cultural research:
Comparing behaviours from different cultures shows if they are learned.
Contact versus non-contact cultures:
Contact countries: Mediterranean and Latin American prefer smaller personal space.
Non-contact countries: UK and USA prefer larger space.
Gestures:
Pointing index finger is offensive in Hindu culture (Black).
Explaining cultural differences:
Social learning theory: Observe other people in your culture and imitate, e.g. learn what gestures are OK.
Describe Yuki’s study of emoticons.
Aims:
To find out if there is a difference in interpretation of emoticons in Japan and America.
Method
Six emoticons shown with different combinations of eyes and mouths (sad, happy, neutral).
Participants rated faces in terms of happiness expressed (9-point scale).
Results
Japanese: Higher happiness rating for happy eyes than Americans.
Americans: Higher happiness rating when mouths were happy even with sad eyes.
Conclusions
Cultural differences in the way emotion is interpreted in facial expressions. Japanese may use eyes because cultural norms lead to hiding emotions but hard to control the expression from the eyes.
