Language thought communication Flashcards
What is Piaget’s theory of language and thought?
Piaget thought that children develop language by matching correct words to their existing knowledge. This means that understanding comes first and then language. Language can only be used at a level that marches our cognitive development.
Sensorimotor stage (0-2)
Babies just simply copy sounds they hear others making
Pre-operational stage (2-7)
Children use language to voice their internal thoughts, rather than communicate with others
Concrete stage
The ability to use language has developed a lot, but can still only be used to talk about actual concrete things
Formal operational stage
Language can be used to talk about abstract, theoretical ideas
Strength of piagets theory
:) I explains how language development is not random. When children start talking they often use two-word phrases e.g ‘Mummy sock’ This shows that children understand the relationship between people and objects before they can talk properly.
Limitation of piagets theory.
Piaget’s theory has been criticized because of the way he collected data. He used his own children and small samples that are representative of most children. This reduces the generalizability of the results gathered from the research.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
This suggests the exact opposite of Piaget’s theory. It suggests that our thoughts and behaviors are affected and formed by the language we speak. This means that cultures with different languages also have different ways of thinking and understanding things.
Strength of sapir whorf hypothesis
Many languages in Native America dont have separate words for blue and green, and research has found that English speakers perceive bigger differences in shades of blue and green (e.g the russian language has different words for igniter and darker blues and they are quicker at spotting this difference)
Weakness of sapir whorf hypothesis
People who grow up not able to talk or who lose the ability to talk are still able to think. This suggests that language doesn’t determine thought and that understanding comes first as piaget suggested.
Variation in recognition of colour
The language we speak can lead us to focus on certain ways of seeing things and make some ways of thinking more likely than others
Variation in recall of events
Researches studied how English speakers and Spanish speakers described intended and accidental actions. Participants were asked about seeing someone accidentally bump into and knock a vase to the floor. When the action was intended all participants identified the person doing it. But when it was accidental, the English speakers identified the person more than spanish speakers.
4 main functions of animal communication
Survival
Reproduction
Territory
Food
Survival
The vervet monkey sound a specific alarm call to warn other monkeys that a particular predator is around. This means the alarm call increases survival as other monkeys will run or hide.
Reproduction
To attract a mate, male peacocks use a mating display to signal to female peacocks that they want to reproduce. This communicates the male’s genetic fitness- bright feathers represent good health.
Territory
Many animals mark their territory using the signal of scent marking. using their urine, they discourage other animals from invading their territory. This is a better way to show dominance that having to fight to defend territory.
Food
Many animals use signals to draw attention to found sources. Bee’s use dance like movements to communicate how far away food is to the rest of the hive. When close, bee’s fly in a round dance, when further away they perform a waggle dance.
Von frisch’s bee study (1950)
Aim: To investigate how bees communicate the location of a food source to each other.
Method: Gas’s containers filled with sugar water were placed at different locations. A hive with glass sides was used to enlist observe the bee’s behavior. When the bees visited the containers of sugar water to feed they were marked with a tiny spot of different colored paint. The researchers recorded the movements that the bees made
Results: The bees made different movements depending on how far away the food source was from the hive. When the food was no further than 100 meters the bees did a dance by turning in rapid circles. When the food was moved further away, the bees performed a waggle dance. Von frisch found that the number of turns a bee makes in a 15 seconds waggle dancing is actually communication how far away the food source is.
Conclusion: Von Frisch concluded that bees use a variety of different movements to communicate to each other the distance and direction of food sources
Strength of Von Frisch
His research was some of the earliest into animal communication and encouraged others to carry out research in this area. A number of other researchers have replicated the study and found the same results. This increases the reliability.
Limitation of Von frisch
Criticized as he overlooked the importance of sound. Other researchers have found that sometimes the bees do this dance in silence. When this a happens, other bees don’t follow. But when its done with sounds, then others will follow.
Body language
A general term to describe aspects of non-verbal communication
Eye contact
When two people in conversation are looking at each others eyes at the same time
Non-verbal communication
Conveying messages without the use of words
Verbal communication
Conveying messages using words
Functions of eye contact
Flow of conversation
Expressing emotion
Flow of conversation
Eye movements are used to signal turn taking in a conversation. When someone is about to finish speaking they give the other person a prolonged look. So when we cant see the others persons eyes we are unsure when their turn to speak is finishing.
Flow of conversation: research
Pairs of participants were observed having a conversation. In some conversations, a participant was given sunglasses. The results showed that there were more pauses and interruptions when dark glasses were worn. This shows that a function of eye contact is the smooth flow of conversation
Expressing emotion
Pupil dilation can express emotion. When young men were shown almost identical pictures of the same woman and asked which picture is more attractive, the majority picked the picture of the woman who’s pupils had been altered to look dilated.
Eval of studies into eye contact
:) People with autism have problems with social communication and reading others emotions. This is because autistic people often find it hard to make eye contact when interacting with others. Studies have shows how important it is to make eye contact to interpret and express emotion. this suggests we should teach autistic people to make more eye contact to help them manage social situations better
:( A lot of the studies into eye contact lack ecological validity. Therefore the behavior produced in the research may not be accurate to real life, therefore bringing the reliability of the research down
Open posture
Having your arms uncrossed and relaxed
Closed posture
Crossing your arms whilst in conversation
Postural echo
People who like eachother tend to copy or mirror each other’s posture. Research has found that when someone mirrors your posture and shows postural echo its an unconscious sign of friendliness and people are more liked because of it
Touch
Touch is a very powerful signal that can produce unconscious emotional reactions. There are huge cultural differences in the amount o permitted touch between individuals. British society seems to be more restricted than other western societies, and there are big differences in between genders too
Research about touch
Conducted in a library, librarian was told to briefly touch the hand of some of the students when they returned a book, showed that even though they were not aware that they had been touched, those that had. had a much more positive attitude towards the library and librarian.
Evaluation of body language studies
:) Real world applications
Findings from studies can be applied to the real world e.g people who are trying to create a good relationship with others should use an open posture, postural echo and touch. This could be used by doctors etc. to improve trust in their relationships
:( Body language studies are unethical. Most of them lack informed consent.
Personal space: gender
Men tend to have bigger personal space than women and both genders prefer to have a greater amount of personal space between themselves and members of the opposite sex
Personal space: cultural differences
Research has found that cultural norms also affect personal space. Groups of white english people and groups of Arab people were observed having conversations. results showed that the comfortable conversation distance for white English people was 1-1.5 m but for the arabs it was much less than that
Personal space: status
Status is defined as someone’s rank or position. Research has shown that people of lower status stand close to people alike but further from people of higher status. Also people of higher status feel freer than people of lower status to choose how close they get to someone
Eval of personal space
:) Real world applications. Understanding cultural and gender differences in personal space can help us avoid offending people in real life. Eg, knowing that some people prefer larger amounts of personal space, we know to keep our distance.
:( Over simplistic. Research only considers one factor at a time. In reality, several factors may be affecting personal space at any one time: gender, culture and status.
