Language, Thought And Communication Flashcards

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1
Q

How do children develop language?

A

Children develop language by matching the correct word to their knowledge.
Thought and understanding comes first, language develops after.

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2
Q

What are the evaluation points of Piagets theory in language?

A

A strength is that early language is not random.
When children start talking they use two-word phrases like ‘Mummy sock’, which shows they can see how objects relate to each other.
This suggests that children only start to use language when they have some understanding of it.

A weakness is the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis challenges Piaget.
It states that language comes before thought as people need a word or phrase for an object in order to think about it.
This suggests that Piaget may have been wrong.

Another weakness is that schema cannot be scientifically measured.
It is very difficult to know if schema exist as we cannot directly measure them.
This shows that Piaget’s theory of language and thought is not based on solid scientific evidence.

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3
Q

What was the Sapir and Whorf hypothesis?

A

Sapir and Whorf suggested it is not possible to think about something you don’t have words for.

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4
Q

What are the two versions of Sapir and Whorf’s hypothesis?

A

The stronger one: which believes that language determines our thoughts and

The weaker one: which says language influences thoughts.

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5
Q

How does the absence of words for a thought, object, or idea make it difficult to translate concepts from one language to another?

A

If there are no words for a thought, object or idea then you can’t think about it.
This is why it is difficult to translate ideas from one language to another.

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6
Q

Which of the two Sapir and Whorf hypothesis is preferred?

A

Weaker version preferred. If the words we have for a concept or idea are limited, our ability to notice or recall that idea will be limited.

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7
Q

What is are the evaluation points for the Sapir and Whorf’s hypothesis?

A

A weakness is that differences between cultures may have been exaggerated by Boas.
There are really only two words for snow in Inuit culture and actually English has other words for different types of snow.
This shows that the differences aren’t that great and challenges the conclusion that language may determine thought.

Another weakness is that having more words for snow doesn’t mean the words came first.
The Inuit language may have more words for snow because there is always lots of snow.
This suggests that language develops because of the way we perceive our environment, which supports Piaget’s view that thinking influences language.

A strength is that the hypothesis explains the link between language and intelligence.
Bernstein suggested that working-class children will always fall behind in school because their use of the restricted code will have a negative effect on their ability to think.
This shows that language influences a particular type of thinking (intelligence).

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8
Q

Why did Whorf study Native American cultures?

A

Whorf studied Native American cultures to investigate whether language influences the way people think.

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9
Q

How do Native Americans language influence the way they think about time?

A

Hopi language doesn’t distinguish between past, present and future.
Therefore this influences the way they think about time.

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10
Q

What was Carmichaels experiment?

A

Carmichael et al. gave two groups of participants the same pictures but each group heard different descriptions.
When they were asked to draw them, the pictures drawn reflected the labels they had heard.
This suggests that language influences memory.

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11
Q

What did Brown and Lenneberg find?

A

Brown and Lenneberg found that the Zuni people have only one word for shades of yellow and orange and had difficulty recognising and recalling these colours compared to English speakers.
This suggests that their lack of words for those two colours affected their ability to distinguish between them.

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12
Q

What did Roberson find?

A

Roberson et al. found that the Berinmo people of New Guinea had difficulty recalling and distinguishing between a variety of colours as they only have five words for different colours in their own language.
This is evidence for the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis as it suggested that specific cognitive processes are influenced by language.

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13
Q

What was the aim of Von Frisch’s bee study?

A

To describe the dances performed by honey bees to explain how they communicate information to each other.

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14
Q

What was the method of Von Frisch’s bee study?

A

Von Frisch put a food source close to the hive (within about 10–20 metres), as well as one further away (up to 300 metres).
He made over 6000 observations of honey bees over 20 years.

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15
Q

What were the results of Von Frisch’s bee study?

A

Worker bees tell the others where pollen is located by two types of dance:

Round dance: Moving in a circle to indicate food is less than 100 metres away.

Waggle dance: Moving in a figure of eight, waggling its abdomen in the ‘middle’ of the eight, with this straight line pointing at the source of pollen. Speed indicates distance.
60% of bees went to food sources at the distance indicated by the dances.

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16
Q

What was the conclusion of Von Frisch’s bee study?

A

Bees use a sophisticated form of animal communication.
The signalling system has evolutionary value as it helps their survival.

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17
Q

What are the evaluation point’s of Von Frisch’s bee study?

A

A strength is that Von Frisch’s work made an important contribution to science.
People knew that bees danced but had no understanding of the meaning of the movements.
This shows how valuable his research was.

A weakness is that the importance of sound was overlooked.
When bees performed dances in silence, other bees would not then go on and investigate food sources (Esch).
This shows that sound-based signals also play a part in directing other bees – something that Von Frisch did not consider.

Another weakness is that bees do not always respond to the waggle dance.
Bees do not use the information from the waggle dance to fly to nectar if it was placed in a boat in the middle of a lake (Gould).
This shows that Von Frisch’s account was incomplete.

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18
Q

What are the four functions of animal communication?

A

Survival:
Ververt monkeys use sounds to warn of danger (alarm calls). A specific sound warns other monkeys close by.
Rabbits use visual signals. They lift their tail high, pin ears back and leap forward to communicate danger to other rabbits.
These signals increase the survival of members of the signaller’s species.

Reproduction:
Animals use mating displays.
Peacocks stretch their feathers like an umbrella to attract females.
Mating displays communicate genetic fitness through brightly coloured and plentiful feathers.

Territory:
Animals mark territory through spreading scents.
Rhinos produce 20–30 piles of dung to communicate that an area is occupied.
This has evolutionary value as it takes less energy than fighting.

Food:
Animals use signals to show location of food.
Ants leave a pheromone trail to communicate the location of a food source.

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19
Q

What features of human communication are not present in animal communication?

A

Plan ahead and discuss future events

Creativity

Multiple channels

20
Q

What is eye contact?

A

When two people look at each other’s eyes at the same time.

21
Q

How is eye contact used to communicate?

A

Regulating flow of conversation:
Kendon found that speakers looked away when they were about to speak and gave prolonged eye contact when about to finish.
Shows eye contact encourages turn-taking in conversation.

Signalling attraction:
Conway et al. found that people who use eye contact are judged as more attractive even with a negative facial expression.

Expressing emotion:
Adams and Kleck found that participants judged emotions of joy and anger as more intense when shown a picture of someone gazing straight at them as opposed to gazing away.
They judged emotions of fear and sadness as more intense when the gaze in the picture was averted.

22
Q

What are the evaluation points of eye contact in non-verbal communication?

A

A strength is that studies can explain an important feature of autism.
People with autism have difficulty communicating with others because they often do not use eye contact.
Knowing the importance of eye contact means that people with autism could be taught these skills.

A weakness is the use of rating scales to make judgements.
Studies in this area rely on people rating their views of ‘attractiveness’ and ‘intensity of emotion’, and these are open to bias and interpretation.
This suggests that studies of eye contact may produce biased evidence.

Another weakness is that studies of eye contact involve quite artificial tasks.
In Kendon’s study, participants were asked to get to know someone as part of the experiment.
This means the results may lack validity as they do not reflect what would happen in everyday life.

23
Q

What is body language?

A

Communication through unspoken movements and gestures.

24
Q

What is open and closed posture?

A

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

25
Q

What is postural echo?

A

Copying each other’s body position.
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.

26
Q

What is touch in body language?

A

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

27
Q

What is the evaluation of body language in non-verbal communication?

A

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.

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.

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.

28
Q

What is personal space?

A

The distance we keep between ourselves and others.
We feel uncomfortable when it is invaded and try to defend it by moving away.

29
Q

How does culture affect personal space?

A

Sommer found that English people’s personal space is 1–1.5 metres whereas Arabs is much less.
Collett found that Englishmen who stood closer and gave more eye contact were better liked by Arabs.

30
Q

How does gender affect personal space?

A

Men prefer a larger social distance when interacting with men than women talking to other women.
Fisher and Byrne found that women felt more uncomfortable when a confederate invaded their personal space from the side whereas with men it was from the front.

31
Q

How does status affect personal space?

A

Status is someone’s rank within society or the workplace.
Zahn found that people with a similar status maintain a closer personal space than those with unequal status.

32
Q

What are the evaluation points of personal space?

A

A strength is that this research has proved useful in everyday life.
For example, doctors could use knowledge about cultural differences.
Therefore it has a positive impact on the real world.

A weakness is that research into personal space only looks at one factor at a time.
In reality, several factors may be affecting personal space distances at the same time such as culture, gender and status.
This makes research in this area too simplistic.

Another weakness is studies may use unrepresentative samples.
It is difficult to use a sample of people in a personal space experiment that reflects all people within a culture, or all males and all females.
This means we should be cautious in generalising the results to everyone.

33
Q

What is Darwins evolutionary theory?

A

Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection:
The genes for any behaviour that improves an animal’s chances of survival and reproduction are more likely to be passed to the next generation.
Therefore the genes have been naturally selected.

34
Q

How has non-verbal behavior evolved in animals to express emotion and contribute to the survival of species?

A

Non-verbal behaviour has evolved in animals as a way to express emotion.
Baring teeth in a fight causes an animal to get scared and leave, and therefore both animals in the fight are more likely to survive.
Therefore the behaviour is adaptive – it helps protect survival of species.

35
Q

How has the behaviour of opening your eyes wide evolved?

A

Opening your eyes wide indicates surprise because it has evolved from animal behaviour – animals under threat would open their eyes wide to see an escape route to avoid danger.
This behaviour passed down to humans and continues to express surprise.

36
Q

What are the evaluation points of Darwins evolutionary theory?

A

A strength is that the theory is supported by research.
Ekman et al. identified six primary emotions: surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness that are found in all people.
If a behaviour is universal this suggests that it is in our genes and therefore Ekman’s evidence supports Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

Another strength is that there is further support from studies of newborn babies.
Babies are born with the ability to smile or maintain eye contact which suggests that, because these behaviours are present at birth, they are innate.
If these behaviours are innate this supports the idea that they have been selected by evolution to help the child’s survival.

A weakness is that Darwin’s theory struggles to explain cultural differences in non-verbal communication.
Personal space and gestures are expressed in different ways in different cultures which suggests we are not biologically the same.
This suggests the theory doesn’t explain all non-verbal communication.

37
Q

What does neonate mean?

A

Neonate = a newborn baby.
If a non-verbal behaviour is shown at birth it is likely to be innate.

38
Q

What are social releasers?

A

These are non-verbal behaviours like smiling which make others want to look after babies (Bowlby).
This is adaptive because it means that a young baby will be looked after and the genes passed on.

39
Q

What study shows that facial expressions are innate?

A

Rosenstein and Oster found that young babies’ faces showed disgust with novel foods like citric acid (found in lemons).
This suggests such facial expressions as a way of communicating emotions are innate.

40
Q

What is contact vs non contact cultures?

A

One cultural difference in non-verbal behaviours is in terms of personal space.
People from contact cultures (the Mediterranean and Latin America) are comfortable with smaller personal space.
People from non-contact cultures (the UK and the US) maintain a larger distance between themselves and others.

41
Q

What are gestures?

A

Pointing one’s index finger is acceptable in Western culture to emphasise what is being said but offensive in Hindu culture where people tend to point with their thumbs (Black).

42
Q

How can social learning theory explain cultural differences?

A

Social learning theory can explain cultural differences (observing and imitating others).
People observe what other people in their culture are doing (e.g. personal space) and copy those behaviours.

43
Q

What was the aim of Yuki’s study?

A

To find out if there is a difference in how emoticons are understood by people in the East (Japan) and the West (America).

44
Q

What method did Yuki use in his study?

A

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.

45
Q

What were the results of Yuki’s study?

A

The 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.

46
Q

What was the conclusion of Yuki’s study?

A

This suggests that cultural groups interpret facial expressions differently which may be due to cultural norms and expectations.

47
Q

What are the evaluation points of Yuki’s study?

A

A weakness is that emoticons may not represent human faces.
Emoticons do not include those tell-tale lines on people’s faces which give us further information of how to interpret their eyes and mouth.
This means the results of the study may lack relevance to everyday life.

Another weakness is the study only investigated two types of emotion.
In everyday life, faces express a whole range of emotions – fear, surprise, disgust, etc.
Therefore the study does not give us insight into how the full range of emotional expressions are interpreted by people of different cultures.

A final weakness is that rating scales may not be the best method of measurement.
Emotions are very complex and rating scales reduce emotion to a single score.
Therefore Yuki et al. may have measured the interpretation of emotions in too simple a way.