Non-Verbal Behaviour (AQA GCSE Psychology): Flashcards

Newborn babies can use non-verbal communication from birth, e.g. crying and smiling, which supports evolutionary theory as newborns are unaffected by environmental and social factors.

Cultural differences in non-verbal communication exist, such as the use of personal space between contact and non-contact cultures, which limits the scope of Darwin’s theory.

Non-verbal communication cannot always be interpreted with 100% accuracy or consistency, as there are individual differences in both the sending and receiving of NVC messages.

Innate behaviours are those which an individual does not have to learn, i.e. they are with them from birth.

‘Neonate’ is another word for newborn baby.

False.

The startle reflex can be seen from culture to culture, as it is an inborn response to a loud noise or other alarming environmental stimuli, showing that innate behaviours are universal.

Social releasers are behaviours designed to elicit caregiving from adults, e.g. crying, gurgling, smiling, and facial features that make adults want to care for and nurture the infant.

Bowlby’s research into infant attachment.

The baby cannot learn to produce social releasers, as they are there from birth.

Even babies a few weeks old produce a ‘disgust’ facial expression, which they cannot have learned via observation of adults due to their extremely young age.

Being sensory deprived is lacking one of the senses, which in humans usually manifests as deafness or blindness.

They suggest it is part of an innate fear system, working as the baby’s non-verbal request to be picked up and made safe by an adult.

False.

Thompson found that facial expressions such as smiling, anger, fear and sulkiness were identical to those of sighted babies and children, appearing ‘without opportunity for learning or social mimicry’.

A blind person has had no opportunity to learn or practise visual non-verbal behaviours, so if they use the same non-verbal communication as a sighted person, it is strong evidence that behaviour is innate.

Babies are incapable of faking their behaviour, which means that research using young infants is valid.

They cannot give their consent (due to a lack of understanding) to be part of research, which brings ethical concerns.

Because the influence of the environment (e.g. upbringing, culture, peers) must also play a role.

Social learning is when a child observes adults (especially parents) performing non-verbal behaviours and imitates them, particularly if the child identifies with the adult.

Cross-cultural research.

Contact cultures (e.g. Mediterranean and Latin American countries) are comfortable with smaller personal space; non-contact cultures (e.g. the UK and USA) maintain greater distance.

False.

They found that people in warmer countries prefer closer distances to strangers, but greater distances from friends, compared to colder countries.

Because pointing a finger is seen as offensive in Hindu culture.

Using the ‘beckoning’ signal (to mean ‘come here’) is seen as an insult in the Philippines because it is used to summon animals.

Thailand.

Some Asian cultures find overt displays of emotion and extreme facial expressions embarrassing, whereas southern European, Latino or Arabic cultures may show more exaggerated forms of expression, particularly when communicating grief or sadness.

Real-world experience and interaction with different cultures (e.g. via overseas travel) demonstrates the validity of the idea that non-verbal behaviour is learned.

The concept of contact and non-contact cultures (Hall, 1966) has been supported by further research, such as Sorokowska et al.'s (2017) large cross-cultural survey, which adds credibility to the idea that personal space norms are culturally learned.

They may dislike or reject aspects of their culture, lack awareness of some behaviours, or want to align themselves with another culture.

Categorising entire nations as simply ‘contact’ or ‘non-contact’ cultures is a generalisation — individuals within any culture vary considerably, so these broad categories may not accurately predict any one person's behaviour.

Whether Japanese and American people interpret emoticons differently.

Yuki et al.’s (2007) study of emoticons involved 95 Japanese and 118 American participants.

A collectivist culture values harmony and social order above individual needs, as seen in Japanese culture.

False.

American people produced wider smiles than Japanese people, possibly because Japanese people prefer to hide their emotions.

Americans use :) and Japanese use (^_).

Japanese people suppress their mouths when smiling, but cannot suppress their eyes — the eyes ‘smile’ even when the mouth does not.

‘Very happy’ (a score of 1 meant ‘very sad’).

Japanese participants rated emoticon 3, which combined happy eyes and a sad mouth, as the happiest emoticon.

Emoticon 6, which showed sad eyes and a happy mouth.

False.

Japanese participants focused more on the eyes, while American participants focused more on the mouth, when judging happiness.

It used a standardised procedure in controlled conditions, making it high in reliability.

Interpreting emoticons is an artificial task — not something done every day — which lowers the validity of the research.

It found the same pattern of results as with emoticons, suggesting the findings have validity beyond just emoticons and are not simply an artefact of the artificial task.

Rating scales are a narrow way of measuring a complex variable such as emotion, which limits the usefulness of the findings.

The study only tested two emotions — happy and sad — so it's unclear whether the same eyes/mouth pattern would apply to other emotions such as fear, surprise or disgust, meaning the findings can't be generalised to how all emotions are interpreted cross-culturally.

Good application for cross-cultural understanding, e.g. in business, education, or politics.