Lecture 18: Everyday life Flashcards
Discuss evolution and development of non-verbal communication in terms of sensory deprivation
If behaviour manifests itself in blind-deaf people then they can’t of learned it visually or auditorally so behaviour might be inherited and genetically transmitted. Blind-deaf children aged between 2 and 10 still produce similar facial expressions as normal children. FACS (facial action coding system) revealed a similar arrangement of action units and patterns of eye movements were similar. Blind athletes still show spontaneous expressions of pride and shame, Tracy found in 2008. This was expressed via arms raised in the air, fists and heads tilted backwards. Blind children showed less gestures in narrative and direction tasks but many more gestures in the conservation task.
Discuss evolution and development of non-verbal communication in terms of neonates
Neonate is behaviour expressed within minutes of birth and are most likely to be innate. Babies have all the required muscles to communicate from birth and after a few months, some emotions are consistent with prototypical expressions of joy, sadness etc. Babies can imitate facial expressions very early, between 7 hours and 21 days.
Discuss evolution and development of non-verbal communication in terms of infants
Infants show anticipatory postural adjustments when adults go to pick them up. They studied this with three conditions; during chat, mother approaches and mother contacts. They show the adjustments in the second two conditions and they last longer (longest when contact occurs) depending on the condition. They tend to widen and raise their arms and stiffen their legs. The children also gaze at the mother’s hand more, the older they get (4 months gazed for longest). They show these behaviours at all ages and recognise other people’s behaviours more if they’re directed at them, this allows active participation in joint actions in early life.
Discuss evolution and development of non-verbal communication in terms of twin studies
Identical twins raised in different environments often show striking similarities that can’t be explained via the environment. There are hereditary influences on job satisfaction, religion, attitudes, aggression, IQ and personality. There are some genetic influences on behaviour, but the strength depends on the behaviour, personality is 50% heritable. However, not many studies focus on non-verbal behaviour. There has been some evidence of genetic influences and links have been found between personality and communicative behaviour. Nervousness is somewhat heritable and is associated with non-verbal self-directed behaviours.
Discuss similarities between non-human primates and humans in terms of gestures
Behaviour might be similar in closely related species, this will reveal evolutionary continuity. Some expressions in non-human primates, like smiling and laughter, have homologous human counterparts (inherited through common descent). It’s also been found that they have similar fear and anger responses. Both humans and primates raise their eyebrows and retract their lips to reveal teeth when scared and when angry, they stare and tighten their lips. Also, when smiling, we both expose our teeth and when laughing, we open our mouths and make more sound. Both have intermediate forms of the behaviour. Smiles and laughter have different origins; smiles are homologous and signal submission whereas laughter is a play face and signals playful intentions. Both humans and primates also groom and hug each other.
Discuss evolution and development of non-verbal communication in terms of non-human primates
They rely heavily on non-verbal communication and the complexity of it correlates to the complexity of the social system. This is found with macaques in terms of social tolerance/affiliative behaviours. Despotic societies have clearer communication in order to avoid conflict, like baring teeth. More tolerant species have more facial expressions as they negotiate more and need more signals. They also follow each others’ gaze, macaques do this and it can be done subtly. It’s used to access resources and avoid threats. They also do this across species, follow the gazes of others. Chimps aren’t as sensitive to cues as humans. Apes have the most gestures during play, then aggression and food. They have more visual gestures than tactile ones.
Discuss evolution and development of non-verbal communication in terms of multicultural studies
If behaviour is similar in other cultures then it may have a genetic basis but it doesn’t prove the innateness as humans all over the world share biological and social functions. Functions of facial expressions can vary, an eyebrow flash usually signals friendliness but in Greece it means no and in Italy it means yes. Japanese suppress it. Similarities usually aren’t due to chance. The use of eyebrow flashes could be universal because of evolutionary origins, primates also eyebrow flash to signal to the other primate that they are being looked at, it’s also used to call attention. In papa new guinea there was a lot of agreement among facial expressions, fear and surprise were difficult to distinguish though perhaps because the two intertwine. Seeing negative facial expressions causes increased heart rate and more skin conductance, this is found with americans and indonesians. Matsumoto created 2 factors that involves cultural influences on emotion; power distances (cultural hierarchies) and individualism vs collectivism. High power distances results in more emotions that preserves the distances. Individualists have more differences in public emotional displays between in group and out groups compared to collectivists.
List the ways that we have evidence for the evolution of non-verbal gestures
Sensory deprivation studies, twin studies, cross cultural studies, infant studies and non-human primate studies
