Social Psychology of Language

Question 1

how are conversations characterised?

Answer 1

an orderly exchange of turns

Question 2

what situations may affect turn-taking

Answer 2

1. information conversations (not prearranged -> chats between friends)
2. interviews (Q-R pattern, typical expectation that Qs come from the employer) [can be information or formal]
3. ceremonies and rituals (speaking prearranged -> strict terms/rules arranged prior to the event)

Question 3

Walker (1982) focused on information 1-to-1 conversations, what did they find?

Answer 3

• finely-timed changeover between speakers
• transition pauses were less than 200 milliseconds
  competition of speaking turns was projectable

Question 4

what is a transitional pause?

Answer 4

the pause time between one individual finishing their sentence/speak and another individual speaking

Question 5

how do we know speech is projectable?

Answer 5

A set of signals someone gives off shows that they are coming to the end of their speaking turn

Question 6

Duncan & Fiske (1972, 1985) identified six different signals / turn-yielding cues which display someone is coming to the end of their speaking term. What are they?

Answer 6

• rise/fall in pitch at end of clause
• drawl on final syllable
• termination of hand gestures
• stereotyped expressions, e.g., “you know”
• drop in loudness
• completion of a grammatical clause

Question 7

how value are these cues?

Answer 7

studies suggesting that the display of cues is strongly associated with a finally tuned timed change over between speakers
* the more cues displayed, the smoother the speaker switch / transitional

Question 8

what does a hang gesture suggest?

Answer 8

attempt-suppressing signal
* hand up to supress and inject to take over the conversation

Question 9

De Ruiter, Mitterer and Enfield (2006) studied different environments to test whether participants could accurately predict the end of a speakers turn, what did they find?

Answer 9

1. Original Audio Recording: Participants were accurate
2. Intonation of OAR synthesised to produce flat pitch (words and syntax were intact): Participants were still accurate and even able to detect the end of a turn when there was no rise or fall in intonation
3. Speech content filtered (intonation unchanged but words cannot be heard): Performance deteriorates significantly

• overall content and syntax of speech are far more important than intonation

Question 10

What is an interruption?

Answer 10

simultaneous speech (typically)
* silent interruptions occur without simultaneous speech i.e. stops to think mid-sentence (clearly not finished from content) but the other takes over

Question 11

Is all simultaneous speech interruptive?

Answer 11

No, some listener responses can be termed ‘back-channels’ such as ‘yeah’, ‘uh huh’ and can be an important conversational element

Question 12

Roger, Bull & Smith (1988) looked at the typology of interruptions, finding two main dimensions of interruptions

Answer 12

• simple or complex
• successful or unsuccessful

Question 13

what is a successful interruption?

Answer 13

interrupter prevents the speaker from finishing their sentence

Question 14

what can happen with excessive interruption?

Answer 14

conversational breakdown
* not all interruptions are problematic though -> can perhaps exhibit enthusiasm

Question 15

Beliefs among doctors suggest patients spend too long talking if not interrupted by the doctor, Manz and Al-Roubaie (2008) studied Interruptions in medical consultations. Summarise what was found..

Answer 15

• non-supportive interruptions were used significant more by doctors than patients
• patients were significantly less likely to succeed in their interruptions compared to doctors
• patients failed significantly more in successful interruptions with senior doctors than student doctors [senior doctors more likely to ignore interruption cues)
• interviews take longer if the doctor interrupts more

Question 16

What is manterrupting?

Answer 16

unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man
* can result in frustration due to being ignored, silenced or sidelined in personal or professional conversation (Och, 2020)

Question 17

Och (2020) studied forms of resistance against women in the German Bundestag making can assessment of interruption (by gender), what did they find?

(Manterruption was understood as ‘any interruption that does not substantially add to the debate’ including personal insults)

Answer 17

• women were 17.7% more likely to interrupt than men -> women interrupted men more often than vice versa
• manterruptions were not systematic or frequent enough to be considered resistance against women -> interruptions were more regarding political opposition than gender

Question 18

what is the definition of equivocation?

Answer 18

the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself

Question 19

what are some definitions of equivocation as suggested by researchers?

Answer 19

• “the gentle art of saying nothing by saying something” (Watzlawick et al., 1967)
• “…nonstraightforward communication; it appears ambiguous, contradictory, tangential, obscure or even evasive” (Bavelas et al., 1990)
• “intentional use of imprecise language” (Hamilton & Mineo, 1998)
• “calculated ambivalence” (Wodak et al., 2009) - something that’s quite strategic

Question 20

What are the two main aspects of equivocation?

Answer 20

1. situational theory of communicative conflict (STCC)
2. multidimensional (4 dimensions)

Question 21

What is the situational theory of communicative conflict?

Answer 21

Equivocation occurs in response to communicative conflict:
* All possible responses to a question may have negative consequences (undesirable)
* A response is still expected
* Equivocation a result of the communicative situation (you answer with an equivale response, everyday conversation tools)

Question 22

What is Multidimensional and the four dimensions?

Answer 22

There are four ways in which a response may be equivocal:
1. Sender – speaker’s own opinion?
2. Content – clarity? (how clear is this person’s response, more unclear, more difficult it is in this typical dimension)
3. Receiver – addressed to the other person in the situation?
4. Context – direct answer to the question? (what)

Question 23

In Bavelas et al., (1990) study, Participants were presented with a conflictual situation. What three kinds of equivocal responses were found?

Answer 23

Responses to communicative conflict was rated significantly more equivocal

1. Subtle changes in response
2. Deferred replies (say something like ‘lets meet over coffee and we’ll talk about it afterwards’)
3. Hints (‘well you could do with a little more prep’ -an unelicit hint)

Question 24

What is a criticism of Equivocation Theory?

Answer 24

The role of face & face management
* ‘face’ is not easy to define: prestige, honour or reputation -> it’s others thinking well about you

Bello & Edwards (2005) -> poor presentation in a public speaking class protects both their own face and the face of others

Bull et al. (1996) -> Communicative conflict in political interviews are created by threats to face

Question 25

What are consequences of equivocation?

Answer 25

It’s as important as the causes

i.e. analysis of interview with Princess Diana (Bull, 1997):
* Strategic advantages of implicit replies to questions; cf. non-replies (i.e. ‘well you couldn’t prepare for this’, no replies to the actual question but strong implication to the actual statement - got message across but couldn’t be viewed as being petty/in trouble for giving a direct answer)
* Both regarded as forms of equivocation in the original theory

Question 26

If Equivocation is seen as a form of communicative skill, is it deliberately deceitful?

Answer 26

• “Equivocation is not the deliberately deceitful ‘dirty old man’ of communication. It is subtle, often commendable and highly understandable” (Bavelas et al., 1990)

Question 27

What is Communication Accommodation Theory?

Answer 27

• Based on similarity-attraction theory (Byrne, 1969) - simple vary that we tend to like/have preference for people who are more like us
• Reducing dissimilarities – may lead to a more favourable evaluation (make ourselves sound similar to others so we are more liked, more favourable eval)
• CAT evolved out of an earlier theory – Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT)

Question 28

SAT is initially concerned with accent, affecting how people are perceived, what is an accent?

Answer 28

• refers to pronunciation and part of dialect

Question 29

what is a dialect?

Answer 29

distinct manner of speech that differs in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar (that fits with our location/environment etc. we change our dialect dependent on our environment)

Question 30

A meta-analysis of 20 studies comparing standard & non-standard accents by Fuertes et al. (2012) found..

Answer 30

Standard accents were rated significantly higher on all 3 dimensions: Status, Solidarity and Dynamism (likeness)

Question 31

Giles (1973) suggests that our accents can change, in either of two directions. What are these directions?

Answer 31

Divergence: making our accent less similar (dissimilar to the person you’re interacting with)

Convergence: making our accent more similar (similar to the person you’re interacting with)

Question 32

Convergence may take two directions, given that accents vary in social prestige. What are these directions?

Answer 32

• upwards (talking more posh)
• downwards (talking less posh/reverting more towards your original accent)

Question 33

Willemyn et al. (1997) studied Australian job interviews (4 males, 4 females) interviewers who were divided equally either having a broad or cultivated accent. What did they find?

Answer 33

• Applicants’ accents sig. broader with broader accent interviewers (convergence)
• They disagreed that their accents had become broader
• Women disagreed sig. more than men

Question 34

Bourhis & Giles looked at Welsh students studying Welsh in a language laboratory. Students were either integrative (learning to become more familiar with their heritage) or instrumental (learning for job prospects) learners. They listened to questions in English from an English-accented speaker who challenged their reasons for studying welsh i.e. “Why are you studying a dying language with a dismal future?”. What did they find in response to accents?

Answer 34

• Instrumental language learners – softened Welsh accents (convergence)
• Integrative learners broadened their Welsh accents (i.e., accent divergence)
• Three participants also introduced Welsh words and phrases when talking to the english accent speaker (content divergence)

Question 35

It is suggested that over-accommodating can possibly be seen as ingratiating or patronising and there’s an optimal level of convergence. Giles & Smith (1979) -> Canadian man describes education system to teachers from England; accommodates in 3 ways:
Speech rate (145 words per minute to only 100 words per minute), content and pronunciation. What did they find>

Answer 35

1. Most favourable when he converged on speech rate and either content or pronunciation
2. Less favourable when he converged on all 3 dimensions

Question 36

What is an example of communication that can be over-accommodating?

Answer 36

Elderly people

Question 37

What is a solution to over-accomodating communication?

Answer 37

Having an equal level of accommodation and language