Psychology 1 - NVC

Question 1

What is paralinguistics?

Answer 1

Vocal features that accompany speech

Question 2

What is emphasis?

Answer 2

Giving some words more prominence than others

Question 3

What is the difference between tone of voice and intonation?

Answer 3

Intonation is inflection in the voice when speaking

Tone of voice is the way words are spoken to convey emotion

Question 4

Give a study about paralinguistics

Answer 4

Davitz & Davitz (1961)

To see the effect of paralinguistics on the assessment of emotion

Participants were asked to listen to tape recordings and assess the speakers’ emotions from the paralinguistic cues: tone of voice, intonation and emphasis

There was a very high level of accuracy in recognising these emotions: affection, amusement, disgust and fear

Paralinguistics has a great importance when judging emotion

Question 5

Evaluate the paralinguistics study

Answer 5

Lacks ecological validity since we don’t only listen to speech, we see the people too
The tape recording could have the speech unclear meaning that the paralinguistics might be heard differently

Question 6

What is eye contact?

Answer 6

When 2 people in conversation are looking at each other’s eyes at the same time

Question 7

What is pupil dilation?

Answer 7

When the pupils expand to look large

Question 8

Give a study about eyes

Answer 8

Hess (1963)

To see the effect of pupil dilation on emotion

Participants were shown 2 nearly identical pictures of the same girl and asked which picture was more attractive, one picture had dilated pupils and one didn’t

They said the picture with the dilation was more attractive but didn’t know why

Pupil dilation has an unconcious but powerful effect on emotion

Question 9

Evaluate the eyes study

Answer 9

They could have not seen any difference and guessed

Lacks ecological validity because we usually get a view of someone’s entire face instead of just their eyes

Question 10

Give a study about the hemispheres of the brain

Answer 10

Sackeim (1978)

To look at the relationship between facial expressions and the brain’s hemispheres

Pictures of people’s faces showing different emotions were cut down the middle, new pictures were created with each half face and its mirror image, then each pair of new faces was shown to participants, they were asked which picture they liked better

The majority of participants said they preferred the picture of the left half face and its reflection, they said it looked warmer

The left side of the face seems to express emotion must more than the right side

Question 11

Evaluate the hemispheres of the brain study

Answer 11

The participants can easily see that the pictures are mirrored, this may not apply to real faces
Photos do not convey micro-expressions that could be showing emotion, we are not made to read photos

Question 12

What is posture?

Answer 12

The positioning of the body which is often regarded as a non-verbal communication signal

Question 13

What is postural echo?

Answer 13

Mirroring another person’s body position

Question 14

What is the difference between what open and closed posture convey?

Answer 14

Open posture suggests that you are happy to hear someone’s ideas and agree with them
Closed posture suggests that you aren’t happy about what someone is saying

Question 15

Give a study about posture

Answer 15

McGinley (1975)

To see the effect of postural echo when having a conversation

A confederate approached individuals in a social settings, in half of the conversations, postural echo was used, in the other half, it wasn’t used, the experimenter asked them afterwards what they thought of the confederate

Postural echo causes people to like the confederate more than when it wasn’t used

Postural echo gives an unconcious message of friendliness

Question 16

Evaluate the posture study

Answer 16

Subjects did not know they were being filmed and recorded which is an ethical issue
Has ecological validity because they thought it was a real world conversation

Question 17

What is gesture?

Answer 17

The conveying of information through deliberate or unconcious movement of parts of the body

Question 18

What is touch?

Answer 18

The conveying of information through physical contact

Question 19

What is communication?

Answer 19

Passing information from one person to another

Question 20

What is the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication?

Answer 20

Verbal uses words and vocal sounds

Non-verbal is conveying messages in ways that don’t require words (often unconcious)

Question 20

Give a study about touch

Answer 20

Fisher et al. (1976)

To see the effect of touch on people’s attitudes

Female students in a library were handed books by the librarian who was a confederate of the experimenter, half of the students were touched on the hand when handed books, the others weren’t

When questioned later, the student who were touched liked the library and librarian more than those who weren’t, they weren’t aware that they were touched

Touch will have an unconcious and positive effect on attitudes

Question 21

Evaluate the touch study

Answer 21

Participants were female so the results can’t be generalises to males
Could be an ethical issue to touch the students without their consent

Question 22

What is personal space?

Answer 22

The distance that we keep between ourselves and other people in everyday life

Question 24

Give a study about personal space

Answer 24

Willis (1966)

To see if age has an effect on personal space

Willis observed almost 800 individals in one-to-one conversations

People of the same age stood closer together than those of different age

Age difference affects how close people stand to one another

Question 25

Evaluate the personal space study

Answer 25

Has ecological validity because he observed real world situations
The results are subjective so he might unconciously change the results to suit his hypothesis