GCSE Psychology (AQA) 2024: Language, Thought & Communication

• we learn through developing schemas

• language depends on thought

• young children can have language without understanding but will not be able to use it effectively (parrot)

• language begins to develop: -at the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) children start to speak
  - at the pre operational stage (2-7 years) children can talk about abstract concepts and are still quite egocentric

• at the concrete operational stage (7-11 years) children get the ability to use language is a logical way and can develop own ideas

mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing

P- schemas cant be scientifically tested and measured
E- schemas are abstract concepts so there isn’t any proof that they exist
L- theory isn’t based on solid scientific evidence and lacks scientific rigour

P- Sapir Whorf hypothesis suggests the opposite of Piaget’s theory
E- Sapir and Whorf arguaed that language must come first as cultural research shows that if a word for an object for an object doesn’t exist we aren’t able to think about it
L-suggests that Piaget may have been about the relationship between language and thought (sometimes language may come first)

P- has supporting evidence
E- the order of children’s two word phrases (eg.mummy car) shows understanding of possession and the relationships between objects and people before they start to talk
L- shows that children start to use language once their schemas for people and objects develop

• —–strong version:

• language determines thought

• if there are no words for an object or idea then you can’t think about it

• language you learn–>determines what you think about

• inuits have many different words for snow, shows that language and culture are linked, Inuits are able to perceive snow in many different ways which is not available to English speakers

• —–weak version:

• language influences thought

• words help to “carve up” the world, you can still imagine things with no words for them

• English speakers can still imagine/think about the different type of snow such as “soft snow on the ground”

• although there aren’t any specific words for it we can still imagine what it looks like

• —–which is better?:

• the weaker version

• we have limited memory for things we haven no words for

• info is easily described=better remembered

P- explains the link between language and intelligence

E- working class children use restricted language which affects their ability to think explaining lower intelligence

L- supports the Sapir Whorf hypothesis that language influences thought

P- evidence from Boas may have exaggerated the difference in language between cultures
E- “Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax” may only be 2 words for snow in Eskimo culture
L- challenges the conclusion that language may determine thought

P- just because a culture has more words doesn’t mean that the words came first
E- the more likely explanation–>Inuit language reflects the environment within it’s population–>always lots of snow–>language develops, thinking did come first but there was a need for a wider range of words
L- thoughts (about environment) come before language, Piaget

-Hopi don’t distinguish past, present and future, this affects the way they think about time
P- limited sample
E- only one individual was studied
L- lacked firm basis, cant be generalised

-in a study where participants were asked to draw an image from memory after hearing a label (eyeglass or dumbell) memory for pictures was affected by the labels given
P- we aren’t always interpreting ambiguous information in everyday life
E- unambiguous situations would be less affected by labels
L- findings cant be generalised to every day life

-the Zuni people only have one word for shades of orange and yellow, in a research study they had difficulty distinguishing them
P- difficulties with cross cultural understanding
E- participants from other cultures may misunderstand the task or fail to communicate their answers correctly due to the language barrier
L- lacks validity

-Berinno people had difficulty recalling colours as they only has 5 words for colour
P- other study has found opposite results
E- Dani people had no problem matching colours despite having only 2 words for colour (light+dark)
L- suggests that their lack of colour words did not affect their ability to think about colour

A: to describe dances of honey bees to understand their communication
M: -observed bees in their natural habitat
-sometimes changed their environment–>put food close to hive (10-20 meters) and far away (up to 300 meters)
-observed bees 6,000 times over 20 years
R: -bees tell each other where sources of pollen are
-round dance: moving in circle to show pollen is less than 100 meters away
-waggle dance: figure of eight shows the direction
-60% of bees went to sources at the distance indicated by the dances
C: sophisticated communication system

P- important contribution to science
E- opened people’s eyes to the capabilities of animals
L- great scientific value

P- importance of sound was overlooked
E- when the bees performed dances in silence, other bees wouldn’t go and investigate the food sources
L- the communication system may be more complex and might include sound based signals

P- bees don’t always respond to the waggle dance
E- bees wouldn’t use the info from the waggle dance when food was placed on a boat in the middle of a lake (bees may know instinctively that food won’t be found in the middle of water/may prefer not to)
L- may be other factors that affect communication; these aren’t investigated so the research is limited

• survival

• reproduction

• territory

• food

• to increase the animal’s survival of itself and it’s offspring
  eg.
  vocal signals: vervet monkeys communicate danger with an alarm call (warns others to run/hide)
  visual signals: rabbits lift tail, pin ears back and leap forwards (signals danger to others when threatened)

-to attract a mate, may animals use mating displays to signal to other members that they want to reproduce
eg.
peacocks: stretch out their feathers to communicate genetic fitness

-many animals use scent marking to discourage other animals from invading their territory
eg.
rhinos: leave piles of dung to communicate territorial boundaries

-many animals use signals to draw attention to food sources
eg.
ants: leave pheromone trail to communicate food source

• displacement

• creativity

• multiple channels

• 
  humans can talk about things that aren’t present or haven’t happened yet, we can use language to discuss future events and plan ahead as well as talk about things that don’t exist (ghosts)

• animals focus on things that are present (food or predators) they cant use language to discuss the future

-animal communication is a closed system (very restricted):
gestures, sounds and movements that animals use only refer to specific events
-human language is an open system:
words can be combined together in completely new ways (new ideas and sentences)

• human language can be expressed using many channels (spoken, written, social media, sign language)

• animals tend to communicate with a single channel (pheromones)

communication without words (eg.facial expressions)

• eye contact

• body language

• personal space

when two people look at each other's eyes at the same time

• makes convos run smoothly by giving the other person feedback about the listener's level of interest and emotional state

• participants looked away when about to speak and gave a prolonged gaze when about to finish

• communicates our attraction

| - people who maintain eye contact are judged to be more attractive

-participants judged emotions as more intense if faces were looking straight at them
-we use eye contact in different ways to express how intense the emotion we are expressing is
joy, anger-->most intense with a direct gaze
fear, sadness-->most intense with an averted gaze

P- can explain an important feature of autism
E- people with autism tend to find it difficult to communicate with other people as they don't use eye contact
L- could be taught to increase eye contact to improve social skills

P- rating scales were used
E- they rely on people's opinions of what "attractive" is and "intensity of emotion" which is open to bias and interpretation
L- don't produce sufficient objective evidence

P- artificial tasks are used a lot in eye contact studies
E- may not be the same as real life
L- results could lack validity

communication through unspoken movements and gestures

way in which someone positions their body during a social situation

closed: crossing arms/legs--->shows disagreement
open: uncrossed and relaxed--->shows acceptance

• -->McGinley et al. arguments given by a person with open posture led to greater opinion change than closed posture

copying each other's body position (mirror)

participants rated new drink more highly when presented with postural echo
--->produced positive feelings towards the researchers and the drink during the interview

• includes high fives, slapping on the back, hand on shoulder ect

• can be used to flirt, express friendship or show dominance

• in research when a librarian touched the student's hand when returning library books the librarian was judged more positively

P- can be applied to real life situations
E- this info can be used by people (eg.therapists) who are trying to build good relationships
L- people can use body language to build good relationships (good value)

P- body language studies lack control (EVs)
E- could be other reasons why participants like or dislike confederates

• eg. no control over eye contact and smiling that could've influenced the participants's opinion of the confederate/librarian
  L- results lack validity

P- body language studies are unethical
E-participants may not be aware that the person they're interacting with is part of an experiment
-deception: participants might be misled or lied to
-lack of informed consent: people may not have given their permission
L-lowers trust in psychologists

distance we keep between ourselves and others

• different cultural norms for personal space

• Sommer: English people's personal space is 1-1.5 meters whereas Arabs' is less

• Collett: Arabs liked Englishmen better if they stood closer and gave more eye contact

• personal space distances vary with culture

• men and women use their personal space differently

• men prefer a larger social distance when interacting with males than women interacting with other women

• men prefer to sit opposite one another whereas women prefer sitting side by side

• men feel uncomfortable when their personal space is invaded from the front whereas women feel uncomfortable if their personal space is invaded from the side

status: rank or position in society or workplace

| - people with similar status stand closer than those of unequal status

P- can help us know how to interact in everyday life
E- understanding this info can help us avoid offending people in every day life which can put others ay ease
L- reduces misunderstandings and has real world application

P- only looks into one factor at a time
E- several factors affect personal space differences (age, personality),research only investigates them individually and not the interaction between them
L- conclusions are oversimplistic

P- studies may involve unrepresentative sample
E- its not possible to use a sample that represents all cultures or all males and females
L- must be cautious when generalising findings as conclusions may not be applicable to everyone

Darwin and Evolution:
-natural selection-->genes for behaviours that promote survival are passed to the next generation
NVC as Evolved and Adaptive:
-NVC evolved in animals to express emotion
-eg. barring teeth is adaptive as it reduces death in a conflict and protects survival
Comparisons with Human Behaviour:
-all animals are linked through evolution
-adaptive behaviours continue to be in the gene pool which was passed to humans from animal ancestors
-eg.in our distant ancestors opening eyes widely was adaptive because they could see the route to safety more easily-->passed down to humans and still expresses surprise
Serviceable Habits:
-adaptive behaviours used by ancestors to promote survival are still used by humans but may not serve the same purpose--->help us express emotion
-eg. barring teeth=angry

P- supported by research into facial expressions
E- Elkman found that 6 emotions in all cultures are associated with the same facial expressions
L- behaviours are universal/innate

P- supported by studies of newborn babies
E- babies are born with the ability to use eye contacts and smile which suggests that NVCs are innate and evolved
L- strengthens the idea that NVC is innate

P- Darwin's theory can't explain cultural differences in NVC
E- many differences, especially in personal space and the way we interpret gestures
L- cant explain all NVC, limited

if NVCs are displayed by newborn babies it suggests that their behaviour is innate as they're too young to have learnt them

• certain neonate behaviour such as smiling make others want to provide care

• they're adaptive as it means that the baby will be cared for (rather than ignored and end up taking care of itself)

• babies show emotions through facial expressions very soon after birth

• neonates showed an expression of disgust (lips curled, wrinkled nose) when given sour tastes-->innate

• people who are blind or deaf from birth cannot imitate some forms of NVC

• if they show similar NV behaviour to sighted/hearing people it's good evidence that NV behaviour is innate

• Thompson found that blind children show similar expressions to sighted children

comparing research from different cultures shows if they're learned

• product of cultural norms

• contact countries-->Mediterranean and Latin America prefer smaller personal space

• non contact countries-->UK and USA prefer larger personal space

• people from NC countries see people from C countries as overbearing

• people from C countries see people from NC countries as rude/snobby

gestures can be interpreted differently by people in different countries
eg. okay gesture, in Japan it means money whereas in Germany it's very offensive

social learning theory-->people learn by observing how others in their culture behave and then imitate this behaviour

A: to find out if there's a difference in interpretation of emoticons in Japan and America
M: -95 Japanese students and 118 American students
-participants were presented with a set of six emoticons with different combinations of eyes and mouths (happy, sad, neutral)
-participants were then asked to rate the faces in terms of happiness expressed (9 point likert scale), average was then worked out
R: -Japanese: higher happiness rating for happy eyes than Americans
-American: higher happiness rating for happy mouths even with sad eyes
C: -suggests that Japanese and American people interpret facial expressions differently (may be due to social norms and expectations)
-Americans: brought up to express emotion openly--->look at mouths
-Japanese: brought up to hide emotions--->eyes may be a better way of telling how they're feeling

P- emoticons may not represent human faces
E- emoticons leave out features such as wrinkle lines which may be important when judging emotion
L- study may lack relevance to everyday life

P- the study only investigated 2 types of emotion (happy or sad)
E- in everyday life we express a range of emotions so the results/conclusions may not be true for all other emotions
L- doesn't give us insight into how the full range of emotional expressions are interpreted by people of different cultures

P- rating scales were used
E- emotions are very complex and ratings scales reduce emotion to a single score
L- may have measured the interpretation of emotions in too simple a way