Language thought and communication (NOT IN ORDER)

What is Piaget's theory of language and thought

-Language depends on thought

- A child's understanding of a concept comes first and they they learn how to express their understanding

- Children only understand concepts when they have reached the right stage of cognitive development (language can exist first but won't be understood)

What is a strength of Piaget's theory of language development

Cromer's study showed that children use phrases suck as 'mummy sock' which shows that the children already have an understanding of the relationship between people and objects

What is a weakness of Piaget's theory of language development

Opposing theory - The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests the opposite, yuo cant understand something that is not available to them

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

-Thinking depends on language and that words influence our thoughts, memories ,and perception

Strong version for the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Language determines thought - If a language has no words for a thought, the people that speak the language will have no way of expressing themselves for it. Inuit people have 23 words for snow so they can think about it in more detail than languages with less words for it

Weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (the better one)

•Argues that language influences the way that we think - for example, English speakers do not have as many words for different types of snow as Inuit speakers, but this does not prevent English speakers from thinking of different types of snow, it is just harder for them than the Inuits.

•However, having the words makes it easier to distinguish between the different types of snow

What is a strength of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

It explains the link between language and intelligence - A study showed that a child's intelligence could depend on the language they hear and speak

What is a weakness of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Thoughts come before language - js because a culture has more words does not mean that they came first.

- Maybe the Inuits have more words for snow because the come across it more often

What was Whorf's conclusions from the Hopi

The Hopi language is 'timeless' because they do not refer to past present and future in their speech

Carmichael (1932) aim & method

-The way that something is described can effect recall

-Both groups were told to draw the pictures from memory with different meanings to the pictures

Carmichael (1932) results & evaluation

-The memory of the picture is effected by the verbal label

- A weakness of this is that we do not do that in real life and we are not always interpreting ambiguous information

Language affects on recall of colour

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.

Evaluate Language affects on recall of colour

A weakness is that different researcher found a different result - People that only knew colours as 'light' and 'dark' did the same on a colour test as English-speaking people

What is non-verbal communication

communication without words e.g. body language

How is eye contact used

1) Regulating flow of conversation - It gives the other person feedback on the listener's interest. Eye contact was important when 'turn taking' in conversation

2) Signalling attraction - One of the first signals that we use to communicate is to look at them. A study suggested that people that maintain eye contact are more attractive.

3) Expressing emotion - particularly how intense they are. Joy and anger were most intense when there was direct gaze, and sadness and fear with an averted gaze

What is a weakness of eye contact studies

Not reliable - they used scales for participants to make judgements. these sorts of things are subjective to the person, meaning that they could not produce sufficient evidence

[EXTRA] What is a weakness of eye contact studies

Artificial studies - in one of the studies, they were asked to get to know somebody in an artificial environment so it would not be the same as real life`

What is body language

non-verbal communication such as facial expressions, gestures,and posture

What is open and closed posture

Open posture - More relaxed and shows approval/acceptance - It has an effect on communicaiton

Closed posture - Crossing arms/legs, showing disagreement with what is said

What is postural echo

mirroring someone's body positions/posture in a social interaction - Postural echo makes a person more likely to agree with somebody

Touch

Touch can affect attitudes towards people

What is a strength of body language studies

Can be applied to real-world situations - To create a good relationship with a person, you would use postural echo and an open posture

What is a weakness of body language studies

Ethical issues - In the studies of posture and touch, they were not told that they were in a study - they need informed consent

What is personal space

The distance that we keep ourselves from others in everyday life, like a bubble

How would cultural differences affect personal space

In some cultures, such as Saudi Arabia, personal space is much less than in countries like the UK - In warmer countries, people kept a closer distance to strangers but a further distance for friends

How does gender differences affect personal space

Men generally have a larger social distance than women with the same gender. Men sit opposite to each other whereas women sit side by side

How does status affect personal space

Status might be defined as someone's rank in society

- Zahn found people who have a similar status maintain a closer personal space by observing 45 workers from a manufacturing firm.

What is a strength of personal space research

Real world application - understanding cultural and gender differences helps to not offend people in everyday life

What is a weakness of personal space research

Unrepresentative samples - The studies were only done on a small number of people, meaning that they cannot be generalised to the whole population

What was the aim of Von Frisch's bee study

To carefully describe the dances performed by bees and explain how these enabled bees to communicate with each other

What was the method of Von Frisch's bee study

-He was and ethologist so he studied animals

-He would change aspects of the bees' environment to study how this changed their behaviour e.g. put food close to the hive and some further away

-He made more than 6000 controlled observations of honey bees over 20 years

What were the results of Von Frisch's bee study

-The bees made different movements depending on the distance of the food source.

-If the food was less than 100m away the bees moved around in a circle, sometimes changing direction, telling other bees the food source is close. This was called the round dance.

-He found another dance called the waggled dance, in which they moved in a figure of 8 pattern. The direction of the straight section indicates the direction of the food source and the speed indicates the distance. (slower = further away).

What were the conclusions from Von Frisch's bee study

Bees have a sophisticated form of communication

The dance gave the other bees valuable information

What is a strength of Von Frisch's bee study

-A strength of this study is that it made contributions to science

-His studies were based on careful observations, and he opened people's eyes to the capabilities of animals, and won a Nobel prize

What is a weakness if Von Frisch's bee study

-He overlooked other factors

- A study by Harald Esch found that when bees did the dance is silence, other bees would not go and investigate for sources

What are the four functions of animal communication

-Survival

-Reproduction

-Territory

-Food

[Animal Communication] Survival

Vocal signals: Vervet monkeys communicate danger with an alarm signal

Visual signal: Rabbits lift tail, pin ears back and leap forward

-Enhances survival of the individual (and group.)

[Animal Communication] Reproduction

-To attract a mate, many animals use mating signals e.g. peacocks stretches out its plumage

-Such mating displays have been developed to communicate the genetic fitness of an individual

[Animal Communication] Territory

Rhinos leave big piles of dung to communicate territorial boundaries

[Animal Communication] Food

Ants leave pheromone trail to communicate food source

What are the 3 main differences between human and animal communication

-Planning ahead and discussing future events

-Creativity

-Single vs multiple channels

[Human vs. Animal Communication] Planning ahead and discussing future events

-Humans are able to talk about things that are not present or that haven't happened yet - called displacement

-Animals tend to focus on things that are physically present

[Human vs. Animal Communication] Creativity

-Animal communication is a closed system, which means that their gestures,sounds and movements can only refer to specific events

-Humans have an open system, meaning words can be combined in many new ways

[Human vs. Animal Communication] Single vs multiple channels

-Humans can express things by speaking, writing and many other systems.

-Animals tend to only be able to use single channels e.g. ants us pheromones

Darwin and evolution

-Evolutionary theory of natural selection

-Survival is not important, but reproduction is

- Darwin said characteristics and behaviours that promote survival and reproduction are adaptive

Darwin's evolutionary theory

-Animals non verbal communications are evolved and adaptive e.g animals baring their teeth

-Humans and animals have comparisons in evolutionary expressions e.g. wrinkling your nose

-Serviceable habits - some traits that we had before are not as useful nowadays like baring teeth

What is a strength of Darwin's evolutionary theory

-Supportive research

-Paul Ekman et al. identified six primary emotions, which were associated with the same facial expressions in every culture, which suggests that evolution is the same for all

What is a weakness of Darwin's evolutionary theory

it has difficulty explaining the cultural differences in non verbal communication,. so all non verbal communication should be the same all around the world

What is neonate research and why is it used

Neonate refers to newborn babies, and neonate research is used because the younger a child is, the more likely the behaviour is to be innate

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate]What are social releasers and what do they do

-Social releasers are non-verbal behaviours like smiling and eye contact

-They have an effect on others and make people want to look after the baby

-Without them, the baby would be ignored and could not be able to look after itself, so social releasers are adaptive

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate] What do studies of neonates show about their emotional expressions?

Babies show emotions through facial expressions very soon after birth.

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate] What did Rosenstein and Oster (1988) find regarding babies' reactions to sour tastes and what does it suggest

-Babies showed a disgust reaction to sour tastes like lemons, similar to adults.

-It suggests that facial expressions to communicate emotions are likely to be innate.

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate] What does "sensory deprived" mean in the context of non-verbal communication?

children who have been blind or deaf from birth and cannot imitate some forms of non-verbal communication, such as visual gestures.

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate] What was the key finding of Jane Thompson's (1941) study on blind children?

blind children displayed similar facial expressions and non-verbal behaviors as sighted children, suggesting that these behaviors are innate.

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate] What conclusion did Thompson draw from the study on congenitally blind children?

since blind children could not learn non-verbal behaviors by watching others, these behaviors must be innate.

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is learned] Contact vs non-contact cultures

Hall(1966) distinguished between contact and non-contact cultures

-According to Hall, people from contact cultures are more comfortable with a small personal space and people from non contact culture vice versa

-This shows that non verbal behaviour may nor be innate, but a product of cultural norms

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is learned] Gestures

-Black(2011) described how pointing a finger may mean different things depending on where you are

-In western culture, you point with your index finger but in Hindu culture, yuo point with your thumb

[Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is learned] Explaining cultural differences

-Differences between cultures can be explained by the social leaning theory- people learn by observing and imitating the behaviour of people around them

-People observe observe how people in their culture interact, and they imitate this behaviour

What was the aim of Yuki et al's study?

To investigate how Japanese and American ppts interpret emotions through emoticons

What was the method of Yuki's study

-It used 95 Japanese students and 118 USA students (independent groups)

-The participants were given a set of 6 emoticons, with different combinations of eyes and mouths. some were happy, sad or neutral

-The participants had to rate each emoticon on a scale of 1-9 on how happy they thought it was

What were the results of Yuki et al's study

- The average Japanese ppts gave higher ratings to faces with happy eyes than the American ppts (particularly true when the mouth was sad)

- The American ppts gave higher ratings when the mouths were happy, even when the eyes were sad

What were the conclusions from Yuki et al's study

-Japanese and american people interpret facial expressions differently. Japanese people are more likely to focus on eyes whereas Americans focus on the mouth

-This may be due to cultural norms and expectations. Americans express emotion with their eyes and mouths whereas Japanese people express more with their eyes

What is a strength of Yuki's study

-High validity.

- A follow-up study was conducted using real human faces. Since the follow-up study produced similar results, this supports the validity of the findings, making it more generalizable to real-world facial interpretation.

What is a weakness of Yuki's study

-One weakness is that the study only focused on two emotions—happiness and sadness.

-In real life, people express a wide range of emotions, including fear, surprise, and disgust.

-This means the study does not provide a full understanding of how different cultures interpret all emotions, making its conclusions somewhat limited.