Language thought and communication

Introduction

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Language, thought and communication
Chapter content

Language and thought

Human and animal communication

Non-verbal communication

Explanations of Non-verbal behaviour

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Language, thought and communication

What came first? Language or thought?

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 Language, thought and communication

Outline schema

A schema is a mental structure or a cognitive framework of ideas that helps us organize

and categorize information, make predictions and decisions, and draw conclusions about
the world.

State the stage of development in Piaget’s theory

Sensorimotor stage, Pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational stage

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 Language and thought
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Piaget’s theory of Language and thought

Success criteria :-

I can outline the concepts of the theory

I can evaluate Piaget’s theory

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 Language and thought
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development concerns how our thinking develops.
He believes we learn by developing schemas about the world.

Piaget explained this theory through the following areas:

• Language depends on thought

• Young children
• The development of language
• Logical thinking

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 Language and thought
Language depends on thought

Children develop language by matching the correct word to their knowledge.

Thought and understanding comes first ie through the development of a schema and
then language develops after to express the same.

Young children

Children only understand words when they have reached the correct stage of
development and are ready. This means that the child had to be developmentally ready to
understand the true meaning of the concept. If they do learn the word before the stage
then it is mere repetition
They can have language without understanding but will not be able to use it effectively.

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 Language and thought

Activity – 5 min

1. Work in groups and come up with how Piaget

looked at the

- Development of language – through stages

- Logical thinking

Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support your
claim.

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Language and thought

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 Language and thought
The development of language

Sensorimotor stage: Children speak towards the end of their first year. Before this they
are learning to coordinate motor and sensory information. Here they understand the
concept/idea of language before they use it.
Pre-operational stage: From 2 years they talk about things not present or physical in
nature eg feelings. Language is egocentric in nature

Logical thinking

Concrete operational stage: By 7 children’s language becomes mature and logical as they
question things and create their own ideas.

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 Language and thought
Evaluation

 A strength is that early language is not random.

Cromer 1974 - When children start talking they use two-word phrases like ‘Mummy
sock’ which refers to “that is mummy’s sock”, which shows they can see how objects
relate to each other. This suggests that children only start to use language when they
have some understanding of it.

 Sapir–Whorf hypothesis challenges Piaget.

It states that language comes before thought as people need a word or phrase for an
object in order to think about it. This suggests that Piaget may have been wrong.

 Another weakness is that schema cannot be scientifically measured.

It is very difficult to know if schema exist in a child as we cannot directly measure
them. This shows that Piaget’s theory of language and thought is not based on solid
scientific evidence.
 Language and thought
1. Explain Piaget’s view on the relationship between cognitive development and
language acquisition.

2. Critically evaluate Piaget’s theory of language development, considering both

strengths and limitations.

3. Describe one example of how language might influence thought according to the
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

4. Evaluate the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, discussing both supporting evidence and

criticisms.
 Language and thought
Hi students! 
Since I'm on voice rest, today’s lesson will be student driven.

Today we will be looking into Shapir Whorfs hypothesis.

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 Language and thought
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Sapir-Whorf’s hypothesis

Success criteria :-

I can outline the concepts of the theory

I can evaluate the theory

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 Language and thought
Who will come up and read the slides to the class? 

Thinking depends on language

According to Sapir and Whorf, Language comes first and thought afterwards. Here words
influence thoughts/memories/perception.

There are two versions of the hypothesis:

The strong version - one which believes words determine our thoughts
The weak version - one which says they influence them.

Read the two versions in the textbook.

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 Language and thought
Pair Up!!
Form pairs with a classmate. Each pair will work together to explore and explain
different aspects of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Four students from a table will come
forward and present to class.

Pair A – The Strong Version:

One person will explain the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. What the
hypothesis says.

Another person will present the evidence for the strong version of hypothesis
provided by Franz.

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 Language and thought
Activity: Exploring the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Pair B – The Weak Version:

One person will explain the weak version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. What the
hypothesis was.

Another person will provide evidence for the weak version hypothesis.

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 Language and thought
Strong Version: Language determines thought

This version argues that - If there are no words for a thought, object or idea then you
can’t think about it.
This is why it is difficult to translate ideas from one language to another.

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 Language and thought
Strong Version: Language determines thought

• Evidence: Franz Boas, an anthropologist, provided an example related to the Inuit

language to support this idea. He found that the Inuit language has multiple words for
snow, such as "qaniq" (snowfall) and "aput" (snow on the ground). In fact, Boas later
discovered that there were as many as 27 different words for snow in various Inuit
languages.
Explanation:
• The Inuit people have many different words for snow because snow is a significant and
varied part of their environment and culture. Each term describes different types or
conditions of snow, reflecting its importance in their daily lives and experiences.

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 Language and thought
Strong Version: Language determines thought

Implication:
• The presence of these numerous terms indicates that the Inuit people experience and
think about snow in a way that is detailed and nuanced, which might be challenging for
speakers of languages with only one or a few words for snow to fully grasp. This
supports the idea that language can shape and constrain thought by providing specific
categories and distinctions that influence perception and memory.

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 Language and thought
Linguistic Determinism Is an Extreme Version of the Hypothesis
Linguistic determinism, for example, is a more extreme version suggesting that a person’s
perception and thought are limited to the language they speak.

Whorf argued that the Hopi people in Arizona don’t conjugate verbs into past, present,
and future tenses as English speakers do and that their words for units of time (like “day”
or “hour”) were verbs rather than nouns.

From this, he concluded that the Hopi don’t view time as a physical object that can be
counted out in minutes and hours the way English speakers do. Instead, Whorf argued,
the Hopi view time as a formless process.

This was then taken by others to mean that the Hopi don’t have any concept of time—an
extreme view that has since been repeatedly disproven.
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 Language and thought
Weak version: Language influences thought

• This version says, language only influences the way one thinks but does not completely
determine what you think. Words help to ‘carve up’ the world. However, you can still
imagine something with no words for it.

While language provides frameworks and tools for thinking, it does not entirely confine
or restrict our cognitive abilities. We can still conceptualize and imagine ideas that may
not have direct linguistic representations.

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 Language and thought
Weak version: Language influences thought

For instance, Inuit languages have specific terms for different types of snow, such as “fine
snow carried by the wind” or “wet falling snow.” An English speaker might not have these
exact terms, but they can still imagine and understand these types of snow based on
context and description.

Explanation:
• Even though English does not have specific words for every type of snow that Inuit
languages do, English speakers can still conceptualize the different types of snow
through descriptive language and context. This shows that while language can facilitate
and shape thinking, it does not wholly limit it. People can imagine or understand
concepts without having a specific word for them.

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 Language and thought
Preferred version?

The researchers preferred the weaker version. If the words we have for a concept or idea
are limited, our ability to notice or recall that idea will be limited. This supports the
weaker version

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 Language and thought

Activity – 5 min

Research Pros and Cons about this experiment

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 Language and thought
Evaluation

The difference was exaggerated

A weakness is that differences between cultures may have been exaggerated by Boas.
There are really only two words for snow in Inuit culture and actually English has other words for different types of
snow eg slush, blizzard etc. This shows that the differences aren’t that great and challenges the conclusion that
language may determine thought.

Thoughts come before language

Another weakness is that having more words for snow doesn’t mean the words came first. The Inuit language may
have more words for snow because there is always lots of snow. This suggests that language develops because of
the way we perceive our environment, which supports Piaget’s view that thinking influences language.

Restricted and elaborated code

A strength is that the hypothesis explains the link between language and intelligence.
Bernstein suggested that working-class children will always fall behind in school because their use of the restricted
code will have a negative effect on their ability to think.
This shows that language influences a particular type of thinking (intelligence).
 Language and thought

How many colors do you think would be recognized universally?

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 Language and thought
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand variation in recall of events and recognition of colors

Success criteria :-

I can outline the researches

I can evaluate the researches

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 Language and thought
Here we explore some of the researches conducted by Sapir and Whorf. We will look at
two areas:

Variation in recall of events

Whorf studied Native American cultures to investigate whether language influences the
way people think. He was particularly interested in the Hopi Native Americans
This further lead to experiments that showed how language affects recall of events

Variation in recognition of colors

Here the Native American group Zuni were studies. Other studies is the one on Bermino
people had similar results

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 Language and thought
Activity – 5 min

1. In each table find information on each of the

experiments

• Whorf study on Hopi culture

• Leonard Carmicheal’s study
• Brown and Lenneberg study on Zuni culture
• Roberson study on Berinmo people

Now explain your research to your table

Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support your
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 Language and thought
Variation in recall of events

1. Native Americans: Hopi study

Whorf compared Hopi language to English, French and Italian. Hopi language doesn’t
distinguish between past, present and future and was described as a timeless language.
Eg instead of saying ‘I left after a week’ they would say ‘I left on the 7 th day’.
Whorf concluded saying this influences the way they think about time.

Evaluation: A weakness is that only one individual was studied (Naquayouma)

Others have argued that the way the Hopi language describes the passing of time is not
very different from European language.
This suggests that Whorf’s conclusions lacked a firm basis in fact.

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 Language and thought
2. Language affects recall of events: Leonard Carmichael’s study

Carmichael et al. gave two groups of participants the same pictures but each
group heard different descriptions. When they were asked to draw them from
memory, the pictures drawn reflected the labels they had heard.
This suggests that language influences memory.

Evaluation:A weakness is that the materials used were ambiguous.

In everyday life we would be less likely to encounter ambiguous information that
is influenced by labels.
So we may not be able to generalise the results to everyday life.

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Variation in recall of color

1. Native Americans: The Zuni

Brown and Lenneberg argued that is a basic color word was absent from a particular
language this would affect it is recognized and recalled. They found that the Zuni people
have only one word for shades of yellow and orange and had difficulty recognizing and
recalling these colours compared to English speakers..

Evaluation:A weakness with research on different cultures is that there are issues with
the interpretation of participants’ responses.
The language barrier could have affected how well the Zuni people communicated their
understanding of colour to the researchers or misinterpreted the task
This causes the research to lack validity.

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 Language and thought
2. Language affects recall of color: Roberson’s study

Debi 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.

Evaluation: A weakness is that some researchers have found the opposite.

The Dani people have only two words for colour (mola and mili ie Light and dark) but
were still as good as English-speaking participants on a colour-matching task (Heider and
Olivier). They had to select the matching color chip from an array of 40 colored chips
This suggests that their lack of colour words did not influence their ability to think about
colour.
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Language and thought

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 Human and animal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Von Frisch’s Bee experiment

Success criteria :-

I can outline aim, method, results and conclusion of the research

I can evaluate the research

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Human and animal communication

Activity – 5 min

Find out about the types of dance of bees use to communicate.

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 Human and animal communication
Von Frisch’s bee study

Aim: To describe the dances performed by honey bees to explain how they communicate
information to each other.

Method: In a controlled observation, Von Frisch put a food source close to the hive
(within about 10–20 metres), as well as one further away (up to 300 metres).
He made over 6000 observations of honey bees over 20 years.

Results: Worker bees tell the others where pollen is located by two types of dance:

Round dance: Moving in a circle sometimes changing direction to indicate food is less
than 100 metres away. Audience bee workers fly close to the hive to find the food source

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 Human and animal communication
Waggle dance: Moving in a figure of eight, waggling its abdomen in the ‘middle’ of the
eight, with this straight line pointing at the source of pollen. Speed indicates distance.
Slower the dance further is the food source

60% of bees went to food sources at the distance indicated by the dances.

Conclusion: Bees use a sophisticated form of animal communication.

The signaling system has evolutionary value as it helps their survival.

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 Human and animal communication
Evaluation

Scientific value
A strength is that Von Frisch’s work made an important contribution to science. It was a careful study of 20 years
with objective recording. People knew that bees danced but had no understanding of the meaning of the
movements. This shows how valuable his research was.

Sound matters too

A weakness is that the importance of sound was overlooked. When bees performed dances in silence, other bees
would not then go on and investigate food sources (Harald Esch). Most of the time the worker bees will make a
sound during the dance
This shows that sound-based signals also play a part in directing other bees – something that Von Frisch did not
consider.

Other factors are important

Another weakness is that bees do not always respond to the waggle dance. Bees do not use the information from
the waggle dance to fly to nectar if it was placed in a boat in the middle of a lake (Gould) probably because they
instinctively know that food will not be found in the middle of the water/ they do not prefer water.
This shows that other factors also determine if bees respond to the dance
 Human and animal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Human vs animal communication

Success criteria :-

I can outline the functions of animal communication

I can outline the properties of human communication which is not present in animal
communication

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 Human and animal communication
Animal communication can be visual, sound based or smell. We will look at the following
areas:

• Survival
• Reproduction
• Territory
• Food

Human communication is different from animal communication in the following ways:

• Planning ahead and discuss future events

• Creativity
• Single vs multiple channels

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 Human and animal communication
Animal Communication

Survival:
Vervet monkeys use sounds to warn of danger (alarm calls). A specific sound warns other
monkeys close by. Rabbits use visual signals. They lift their tail high, pin ears back and
leap forward to communicate danger to other rabbits. These signals increase the survival
of members of the signaller’s species.

Reproduction:
Animals use mating displays. Peacocks stretch their feathers like an umbrella to attract
females. Mating displays communicate genetic fitness through brightly coloured and
plentiful feathers.

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 Human and animal communication
Territory:
Animals mark territory through spreading scents known as scent marking.
Rhinos produce 20–30 piles of dung to communicate that an area is occupied. It further
drags its hind feet in the dung so as to leave sent as it walks.
This has evolutionary value as it takes less energy than fighting.

Food:
Animals use signals to show location of food.
Ants leave a pheromone trail to communicate the location of a food source or like in the
Von Frisch’s bee experiment.

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 Human and animal communication
Human Communication differences

Plan ahead and discuss future events:

Humans can use their language to plan ahead and discuss future events (displacement).
In contrast, animal communication tends to focus on things that are physically present in
the environment, such as food sources or predators.
Therefore, displacement is not a part of animal communication in the same way as it is
part of human communication.

Creativity:
Animal communication involves a closed system as the gestures, sounds and movements
only refer to very specific events. Human language is an open system as words can be
combined together in an infinite number of ways.
This means that human communication has endless potential, i.e. it is creative.
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 Human and animal communication
Single vs multiple channels:
Human language can be expressed using a whole range of different channels such as
spoken, written or sign language and all of the different types of social media.
This is not a feature of animal communication which tends to use single channels such as
pheromones in ants

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 Non-Verbal communication
Outline Verbal and Non – verbal behavior

Verbal behavior - Verbal communication is any communication involving spoken or

written words.

Non – verbal behavior – Exchanging information without words. This includes eye –
contact, body language, tone of voice and facial expressions

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 Non-Verbal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Eye-contact

Success criteria :-

I can outline the functions of eye - contact

I can evaluate studies on eye - contact

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 Non-Verbal communication
Eye – Contact

It is when two people look at each others eyes at the same time.

We will look at the following role of eye-contact

• Regulating flow of conversation

• Signaling attraction
• Expressing emotion

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Regulating flow of conversation
Kendon’s experiment involved participants meeting for the first time. They were secretly
observed via a two-way mirror. He found that speakers looked away when they were
about to speak and gave prolonged eye contact when about to finish. This shows eye
contact encourages turn-taking in conversation. Incase when the prolonged eye contact
did not happen it lead to awkward pauses

• Signaling attraction
Eye-contact tends to increase when you are up close or talking to somebody you like.
Conway et al. found that people who use eye contact are judged as more attractive.
Participants were shown pictures of males and females looking straight at them or looking
slightly away even with a negative facial expression like disgust. It was concluded that eye
– contact is an evolutionary behavior that signals attraction to a potential mate

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Expressing emotion

People use eye-contact as a way of expressing intense emotions they are feeling
Adams and Kleck showed pictures of faces showing different emotions ie joy,
anger, fear and sadness. The eye were either of a direct gaze or that of an
averted gaze. They found that participants judged emotions of joy and anger as
more intense when shown a picture of someone gazing straight at them as
opposed to gazing away.
They judged emotions of fear and sadness as more intense when the gaze in the
picture was averted.

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 Non-Verbal communication
Evaluation

Real world Application:

A strength is that studies can explain an important feature of autism. People with autism have
difficulty communicating with others because they often do not use eye contact (also a part of the
diagnostic criteria).

Use of Rating scales

A weakness is the use of rating scales to make judgements. Studies by Conway, Adams and Kleck rely
on people rating their views of ‘attractiveness’ and ‘intensity of emotion’, and these are open to bias
and interpretation. This suggests that studies of eye contact may produce biased evidence. Thus
these studies lack objective evidence

Artificial studies
Another weakness is that studies of eye contact involve quite artificial tasks.
In Kendon’s study, participants were asked to get to know someone as part of the experiment. This
means the results may lack validity as they do not reflect what would happen in everyday life. They
could have experienced pressure or embarrassment and hence affect eye-contact.
 Non-Verbal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Body-language

Success criteria :-

I can outline the functions of body language

I can evaluate studies on body language

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 Non-Verbal communication
Body language

Communication through unspoken movements (facial expressions, postures) and

gestures

We will look at the following studies of body language

• Open and closed posture

• Postural echo
• Touch

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 Language and thought
Activity – 5 min

1. In each table find information on each of following

areas

Open and closed postures

Postural echo
Touch

Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support or go
against studies conducted on body language.

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Open and closed posture

Closed posture = crossing your arms and/or legs, communicates rejection or

disagreement.
Open posture = arms and legs not crossed, communicates approval and acceptance.

McGinley et al. Participants were shown slides of a female discussing her views of
various topics. participants were asked their views before and after the presentation. It
was found that participants were more likely to change their opinions in line with a
female confederate’s if she had adopted an open posture when discussing her views, as
opposed to a closed posture.

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Postural Echo

People who are friends or getting on well in a conversation tend to copy each
other’s body position.

Tanner and Chartrand made participants give feedback about a new drink
‘Vigor’. With one group, researchers used postural echo and copied the gesture
and posture of the participants. There was no attempt for this in the other
group. They found that participants had more positive feelings towards a new
drink if the researcher had used postural echo during the interview, than if there
was no postural echo.

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Touch

Touching’ in a social interaction includes high fives, slapping, putting hand on a

shoulder. Can show friendship or dominance

Fisher et al. Female students in a library were handed books by the librarian
(confederate). Half were lightly touched on the hand and the other was not.
They found that students handed books by a librarian who touched them on the
hand were more positive about the librarian than those who were not touched.

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 Non-Verbal communication
Evaluation

Real world Application:

A strength is that the research can be applied to real-world situations. People who are trying to
create a good relationship with others should use an open posture, postural echo and touch.
This shows that the research can be useful in everyday life. Eg therapists

Body Language studies lack control

A weakness is that the studies are not always well controlled. For example, in the library study
(Fisher et al.) there may have been other reasons why the participants liked or disliked the librarian
aside from the presence or absence of touch. Eg smile/ eye contact
This is a problem for the validity of the results.

Ethical Issues
Another weakness is that research in this area raises ethical issues. For example, field experiments on
postural echo and touch involved a lack of informed consent and it is unclear whether participants
were debriefed afterwards.
This could affect the trust people have in psychologists.
 Non-Verbal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Personal space

Success criteria :-

I can outline the factors that affect personal space

I can evaluate studies on personal space

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 Non-Verbal communication
Personal Space

The distance we keep between ourselves and others.

We feel uncomfortable when it is invaded and try to defend it by moving away.

Factors that affect personal space

• Cultural differences
• Gender differences
• Status differences

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 Language and thought
Activity – 5 min

1. In each table find information on each of following

areas

Culture Differences
Gender differences
Status differences

Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support or go
against studies conducted on personal space.

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Culture differences

Sorokowska et al researched on preferred distance when in conversation with a

friend, stranger or acquaintance. They found that people form Saudi Arabia gave
a mean figure of about 125 cm for strangers and 95 cm for friends where as
people from England gave 100 cm for strangers and 55 cm for friends

Researchers have suggested that climate has an influence. Overall in warmer

climates, people preferred to maintain closer distances with strangers but
further distances towards friends.

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Gender differences

Men prefer a larger social distance when interacting with men but women prefer
smaller social distance when talking to other women.
Bryne found that when talking to friends, men prefer to sit opposite one another
whilst women prefer to sit side by side.
Fisher and Byrne set up a study where a confederate would invade the personal
space of men and women in a library. This was done by either face to face or
from the side. They found that women felt more uncomfortable when a
confederate invaded their personal space from the side whereas with men it was
from the front.

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 Non-Verbal communication
• Status differences

Status is someone’s rank within society or the workplace.

Zahn found that people with a similar status maintain a closer personal space
than those with unequal status. 45 workers from a manufacturing firm were
observed that people from a lower status did not approach those with higher
status as closely as they did with people of a similar rank.

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 Non-Verbal communication
Evaluation

Real world Application:

A strength is that this research has proved useful in everyday life. For example, doctors could use
knowledge about cultural differences to build trust and establish a positive relationship with patients.
Therefore it has a positive impact on the real world.

Oversimplistic
A weakness is that research into personal space only looks at one factor at a time. In reality, several
factors may be affecting personal space distances at the same time such as culture, gender,
personality, age and status. This makes research in this area too simplistic.

Unrepresentative samples
Another weakness is studies may use unrepresentative samples. It is difficult to use a sample of
people in a personal space experiment that reflects all people within a culture, or all males and all
females.
This means we should be cautious in generalizing the results to everyone. Eg All men maintain a
larger distance from strangers
 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Darwin’s Evolutionary theory

Success criteria :-

I can outline the different aspects of Darwin’s theory

I can evaluate the theory

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Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Darwin and Evolution

Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection:

The genes for any behaviour that improves an animal’s chances of survival and
reproduction are more likely to be passed to the next generation.
Therefore the genes have been naturally selected.

Thus characteristics and behaviours that promote survival and reproduction are
adaptive in nature as gives the individuals a genetic advantage

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 Explanations of Language and thought
Activity – 5 min

Find out how non-verbal behaviors were adaptive in

Humans

Find out what are Serviceable habits and examples

Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support or go
against Darwins explanation

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Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Non – verbal communication as evolved and adaptive

Non-verbal behaviour has evolved in animals as a way to express emotion.

Eg. Baring teeth in a fight causes an animal to get scared and leave, and
therefore both animals in the fight are more likely to survive.
Therefore the behaviour is adaptive – it helps protect survival of species.

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Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Comparisons with Human behavior

Eg 1 - Opening your eyes wide indicates surprise because it has evolved from
animal behaviour – animals under threat would open their eyes wide to see an
escape route to avoid danger.
This behaviour passed down to humans and continues to express surprise.

Eg 2 – wrinkling nose when you see or smell something disgusting. In animals

this behavior is seen when smelling something potential dangerous

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Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Servicable behaviours

Servicable behaviours were those that were adaptive to our distant ancestors
(such as wrinkling the nose and baring teeth).
These behaviours continue to be in use to show how we feel but may not serve
the original adaptive purpose for survival.

Eg Baring teeth - humans do not do it to bite but it does express aggression

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Evaluation

Research into facial expressions

A strength is that the theory is supported by research. Ekman et al. identified six primary emotions:
surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness that are found in all people. If a behaviour is universal
this suggests that it is in our genes and therefore Ekman’s evidence supports Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

Research into newborns

Another strength is that there is further support from studies of newborn babies. Babies are born with the
ability to smile or maintain eye contact which suggests that, because these behaviours are present at birth,
they are innate. If these behaviours are innate this supports the idea that they have been selected by
evolution to help the child’s survival.

Cultural differences in non-verbal communication

A weakness is that Darwin’s theory struggles to explain cultural differences in non-verbal communication.
Personal space and gestures are expressed in different ways in different cultures which suggests we are not
biologically the same. This suggests the theory doesn’t explain all non-verbal communication.
 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand if non-verbal behaviour is innate or learned

Success criteria :-

I can outline the researches in both areas

I can evaluate the theory

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 Explanations of Language and thought
Activity – 15 min

Each table to split in two groups. One to explore NVB

is innate and the other to explore NVB is learned.

Next share your information

Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support your idea

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Evidence that NVB is innate
Researches in neonates

Neonates refer to newborn babies

Social releasers: John Bowlby suggested that babies are born with non-verbal behaviours like smiling
or giving eye-contact which make others want to look after babies.
This is adaptive because it means that a young baby will be looked after and the genes passed on

Facial expressions: Rosenstein and Oster found that young babies’ faces showed disgust with novel
foods like citric acid (found in lemons) ie their lips curled up and noses wrinkled.
This suggests such facial expressions as a way of communicating emotions are innate

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Sensory deprived

An animal or human without a sensory ability, such as hearing or sight. If they

show the same non-verbal behaviour as people with normal hearing or vision
this suggests the behaviours are innate.
Thompson studied children aged 7 weeks and 13 years. Here 11 children were
blind by birth (congenitally blind) and was compared to a control group with
normal vision. They found similarity in blind children and children with normal
vision in terms of facial expressions such as surprise, anger or sulking.

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Evidence that NVB is learned

If behaviours are different this suggests that they are learned rather than innate.

Contact vs non-contact cultures

One cultural difference in non-verbal behaviours is in terms of personal space.

Edward hall distinguished between contact and non-contact cultures.

People from contact cultures (the Mediterranean and Latin America) are comfortable with
smaller personal space. They see people from non-contact cultures as rude
People from non-contact cultures (the UK and the US) maintain a larger distance between
themselves and others. They see people from contact cultures as over-bearing
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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Gestures

Roxie Black describes how pointing one’s index finger is acceptable in Western culture to
emphasise what is being said but offensive in Hindu culture where people tend to point
with their thumbs.

Explaining cultural differences

Social learning theory can explain cultural differences (observing and imitating others
especially from people you identify with).
People observe what other people in their culture are doing (e.g. personal space – greet,
touch etc) and copy those behaviours.

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Learning Objective :-

We are learning to understand Yuki’s study of emotions

Success criteria :-

I can outline the experiment

I can evaluate the experiment

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 Explanations of Language and thought
Activity – 15 min

Each Student to create the following table and fill in

information regarding the experiment:

Aim:
Method:
Results:
Conclusion:
Challenge:
• Use your Ipad to find researches that support your
possible evaluation points

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Yuki’s study of emotions

The study compares cultural understanding of non-verbal behaviours to show

whether it is universal or learned.

Aim

To find out if there is a difference in how emoticons are understood by people in

the East (Japan) and the West (America).

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Method

95 students from Japan and 118 students from America – an independent

groups design.
Six emoticons were shown with different combinations of eyes and mouths (sad,
happy or neutral).
Participants rated them for happiness using a 9-point scale. (9-very happy, 1 –
very sad)

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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Results

The Japanese gave higher ratings to faces with happy eyes than the Americans, even
when the mouth was sad. (emoticon 3)
Americans gave higher ratings when mouths were happy even when the eyes were sad.
(emoticon 6)

Conclusion
This suggests that cultural groups interpret facial expressions differently which may be
due to cultural norms and expectations.
Japanese people tend to focus on the eyes as they are taught to hide emotions and thus
focus on the eyes for cues where as Americans focus on the mouth as they express
emotions openly using both eyes and mouth
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 Explanations of Non-Verbal communication
Evaluation

Artificial materials
A weakness is that emoticons may not represent human faces. Emoticons do not include those tell-tale
lines on people’s faces which give us further information of how to interpret their eyes and mouth. This
means the results of the study may lack relevance to everyday life.

Only tested two types emotion

Another weakness is the study only investigated two types of emotion. In everyday life, faces express a
whole range of emotions – fear, surprise, disgust, etc.
Therefore the study does not give us insight into how the full range of emotional expressions are
interpreted by people of different cultures.

Using rating scales

A final weakness is that rating scales may not be the best method of measurement.
Emotions are very complex and rating scales reduce emotion to a single score.
Therefore Yuki et al. may have measured the interpretation of emotions in too simple a way.
Hi students,

I’ve uploaded the PPT. Please refer to it as well!! 