Culture and Psychology

1. Culture and Psychology Language and Communication

2. Language and Communication • Introduction • Functions of Nonverbal Communication • Types of Nonverbal Communication • Language Attitudes • Communication Accommodation Theory • Linguistic Relativity

3. What is Communication? • Communication is a process during which source individuals initiate messages using conventionalized symbols, nonverbal signs, and contextual cues to express meanings by transmitting information in such a way that similar or parallel understandings are constructed by the receiving pry or parties toward whom the messages are directed. (Defleur et al., 1992, p. 11)

4. What is Language? • Language is a sign and symbol system. It involves a set of rules regarding the linking of symbols to referents and their meanings and the linking of symbols to each other.

5. What is Language? • Language includes several subsystems: • Phonological system • sounds • Morphological system • meaning units (e.g. words) • Syntactic system • grammar • Semantic system • meaning • Pragmatic system • use

6. What is Nonverbal Communication? • Nonverbal communication is defined as the way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words.

7. Nonverbal Communication • Functions of Nonverbal Communication (Ekman & Friesen, 1969) • Repeat what is said verbally • Complement or clarify verbal meaning • Contradict verbal meaning • Regulate verbal interaction • Substitute for verbal meaning

8. Discreteness Syntax rules Polysemy Arbitrariness Displacement Reflexivity Transformation Productivity Analogic coding Iconicity Universality vs. culture/context bound meaning Simultaneity Sensory directness Spontaneity Similarities and Differences in Verbal and Nonverbal Codes (Burgoon, Buller, & Woodall, 1996)

9. Nonverbal Communication • Types of Nonverbal Communication • Facial Expression • Kinesics - body movement and gesture • Proxemics - use of interpersonal space • Oculesics - eye gaze • Haptics - touch • Chronemics - time • Paralinguistics - vocal cues and silence

10. Nonverbal Communication • Kinesics is the study of body movement and gestures • Illustrators -- nonverbal gestures directly linked to language • Emblems – nonberbal substitutes for spoken language

11. Nonverbal Communication • Proxemics • Hall (1959, 1966) Zones of Spatial Distance • Intimate (18 inches) • Personal (18 inches to 4 feet) • Social (4 to 12 feet) • Public (12 to 15 feet)

12. Nonverbal Communication • Chronemics • Monchronic perspective: time is a scarce resource, which must be rationed and controlled. • Polychronic perspective: time is flexible, used for the maintenance of harmonious relationships.

13. Language Attitudes: Definition of Attitudes • An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related. (G.W. Allport, 1935)

14. Attitudes and Language Variation • “Persons have attitudes toward language which are especially salient and influential in initial interactions. Various linguistic features trigger in message recipients beliefs and evaluations regarding message senders and these beliefs and evaluations are most likely to affect recipient’s behaviours toward senders in contexts of low mutual familiarity” (Bradac, 1990, p. 388)

15. Standard and Non-Standard Speech Styles • A standard speech style is the prestige form of a language, associated with the higher status group in a society. • A nonstandard form is any variant from the standard form (e.g., another language, dialect, accent), usually associated with the lower status group.

16. Hypotheses about Standard and Non-Standard Speech Styles • Inherent value hypothesis • The standard dialect became the prestige form of the language because it evolved as the aesthetically ideal form of that language. • Imposed norm hypothesis • Standard and non-standard dialects are equally aesthetically pleasing, but the non-standard form is viewed negatively because of social norms which are biased against it.

17. Research Approaches • Content analyses • Survey research • Experimental research

18. Matched Guise Technique(Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner, & Fillenbaum 1960) • Independent Variable • 4 bilingual speakers read passage once in English and once in French = 8 passages • Dependent Variable • Height, good looks, leadership, sense of humour, intelligence, religiousness, self-confidence, dependability, entertaining, kindness, ambitious, sociable, character, likeablity

19. Evaluative Dimensions • Ryan et al. (1977) • Status • Educated-uneducated, wealthy-poor, intelligent-unintelligent • Solidarity • Trustworthy-untrustworthy, friendly-unfriendly, kind-cruel • Zahn & Hopper (1985) • Superiority • Literate-illiterate, educated-uneducated, upper class-lower class • Attractiveness • Nice-awful, kind-unkind, good natured-hostile • Dynamism • Active-passive, talkative-shy, enthusiastic-weak

20. Evaluative Dimensions:Status and Solidarity Respondents from Lower Status Group Respondents from Higher Status Group

21. Language Attitudes and Discrimination • Compliance • Workplace • Education • Law • Medicine

22. Language Attitudes and Discrimination in the Workplace (de la Zerda & Hopper, 1979) Probability of Employment

23. Other Speech Characteristics • Lexical Diversity • Vocabulary range, assessed through a type-token ratio (# of new words to total words) • Evaluative reactions: status, competence, control, persuasiveness • Speech Rate • The number of words or syllables that speakers utter per unit of time (per minute is the standard unit) • Evaluative reactions: competence, persuasiveness

24. Other Speech Characteristics, continued • Language Intensity • The quality of language which indicates the degree to which a speaker’s attitude toward a concept deviates from neutrality (Bowers, 1963, p. 345) • Evaluative reactions: complex, interacts with other variables.

25. Communication Accommodation Strategies • Convergence • Moderation of a speech style, whether in terms of lexical diversity, rate, accent, language, and/or some other linguistic feature, to become more similar to the interactant • Divergence • Accentuation of a difference between interlocutors on one or a number of linguistic features. • Maintenance • Refusal to alter communication style

26. Communication Accommodation Theory • Social Exchange Theory • Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis • Causal Attributions • Psychological Group Distinctiveness

27. Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) • Linguistic Determinism • The structure of a language strongly influences or fully determines the way its native speakers perceive the world. • Linguistic Relativity • Structural differences between languages will generally be paralleled by non-linguistic cognitive differences in the native speakers of the two languages.

28. Linguistic Relativity, cont. • “Languages differ not so much as to what can be said in them, but rather as to what is relatively easy to say” (Hockett, 1954, p. 122, original emphases)

29. Linguistic Relativity, cont. • Language and perception • Language and memory • Language and reasoning • Language and social inference