Week 3: Abele & Bruckmuller agency & communion article

Question 1

What is communion in language and communication?

Answer 1

Communication refers to basic human needs for forming and maintaining social connections (warmth)

Question 2

What is agency in language and communication?

Answer 2

Basic human need to pursue goals and manifest skills & accomplishments (competence)

Question 3

What is the preferential processing hypothesis and what is the evidence?

Answer 3

1. Information about communion (warmth) is processed first.
2. In language tasks; people recognize warmth/communion words more quickly than competence/agency words

Question 4

What does the dual perspective model entail?

Answer 4

When we perceive ourselves, agent content plays a more important role than in the observer perspective (then it is warmth)

So ourselves = competence the other = warmt

Question 5

What is more important for the observer and what is more important for the actor?

Answer 5

1. observer = communion (warmth)
2. Actor = agency (competence) –> because of usual wish to meet a certain goal

Question 6

When judging the self; what is true about own-description and friend-description

Answer 6

1. Own description = more agency, less communion
2. Friend description = more communion, less agency