Thoroughly describe your own
experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment. Did you find
this assignment easy or difficult and why? Did your partners alter the way they
communicated with you because of your absence of communication? Describe. (5
pts)
I found this experiment to be
very entertaining. In speaking to my partner I found it to be very difficult to
express my answers outside of yes and no answers. We found ourselves using that
as a way as our primary means of question and answer. Not being able to answer
questions in the same fashion as they were asked seemed impossible. When we
both were not allowed to speak, there was a complete communication breakdown.
We had no idea what the other was saying most of the time and found it
difficult to convey ideas or get anything done.
Ø Who was
in control of the conversation, you or your partner? Who initiated or changed
topics? Who asked and who answered questions? If you conducted this experiment
with more than one person, were you ever excluded from the conversation? If you
think of a conversation as a balance of power between two (or more) individuals,
who had the power in this conversation, you or your partner? Explain your
answer. (5 pts)
When my partner was allowed to
speak she was in control of the conversation. She asked questions as I gestured
to respond as best I could. When we both could not speak, there was complete
chaos. We did not know who was asking questions or who was responding. The
constant topic was, what are you trying to say?
Ø Imagine
that you and your partners in the conversation represent two different
cultures, one that uses spoken language and one that doesn’t. Which culture has
the advantage in communicating complex ideas within their population? What
attitudes might the speaking culture have toward the culture that does not use
symbolic language? Can you identify any modern situations that mirror or
resemble this relationship between a culture that can speak and culture that
can’t? (10 pts)
I believe that both cultures
have an equal opportunity to communicate complex ideas whether spoken or
unspoken. Based on my experiment, I would have to concur that the spoken
language has the advantage but I understand that if we were given time to
develop an unspoken language as a means of communication, we would perfect the
way we communicate in the same manner we have with spoken language. The only
relationship that I can think of that would mirror this situation is the relations
with humans and pets. We speak to them and use verbal communication and they
communicate back with actions and gestures.
Thoroughly describe your own
experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment. Did you find
this assignment easy or difficult and why? How did your partner(s) respond to
your lack of body language? Did they have any difficulty understanding you?
Describe. (5 pts)
This experience though weird,
was not as hard as the latter experiment. We were able to articulate what we
meant and what we wanted. We found words that cleared up misunderstandings and
expressed our true fellings.
Ø What
does this experiment say about our use of “signs” in our language, i.e., how
important is non-speech language techniques in our ability to communicate
effectively? What type of information do humans receive about the words a
person is speaking when they “read” a person’s body language? (5 pts)
Use of signs convey the emotion
behind the words. Words alone can be a bit ambiguous and signs/body language
convey the sentiment behind the words.
Ø Describe
the adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language. How might
the ability to read body language help a person survive, obtain resources, and
reproduce successfully? (5 pts)
Body language helps to convey
messages just as words do. Being that reproduction is a physical act, body
language and gestures express it much better than words can.
Ø Are
there people who have difficulty reading body language and can you identify
them? Can you describe a situation where there might be a benefit to not reading
someone’s body language, i.e., a situation where perhaps body language does not
give you reliable information? (5 pts)
Yes, there are definitely
people who struggle reading body language and it’s apparent. Those people
usually miss social ques and suggestions. I don’t know if this qualifies but
sports are one of the situations where body language is used to deceive the
opponent. Misdirection is the basis of sports and body language is how it is manufactured.
I suspect you misunderstood the parameters of the experiment. Only you were limited in your ability to communicate for both experiments. Your partner wasn't limited at all. This likely altered your results and your conclusions.
ReplyDelete"When we both were not allowed to speak, there was a complete communication breakdown."
Yes, I can't imagine carrying on a conversation at all under these circumstances, which was why only one of you was to be limited in the guidelines. Okay on your description here.
"When my partner was allowed to speak she was in control of the conversation"
Now I'm very confused. So was your partner speaking normally during these experiments or was she limited? I agree with your conclusions regarding the issue of power, however. The person using symbolic language would have had more control over the conversation than the person limited to body language.
"I believe that both cultures have an equal opportunity to communicate complex ideas whether spoken or unspoken."
Really? You go on to say that the speaking culture has the advantage, which contradicts this initial statement. You need to pick a position and go with it! Can you communicate complex ideas fully without symbolic language? Could you explain Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection without symbolic language, by body language alone? And even if you managed it, would the level of communication be as efficient and effective? Could you disseminate the information to a large number of people quickly, as you can with speech and writing? Think a little more deeply on this.
What would be the general attitude of the speaking to the non-speaking culture?
Since this is an anthropology course, let's stick with human-human interactions and examples. To find a real life example of this experiment, we need to find a situation where you have a speaking population and another group that doesn't speak that language. We see that in the interaction between English speakers and non-English speaking immigrant populations. Think about how non-English speaking immigrants are treated in Southern California? Are they treated as equals?
Okay on your description for part 2, but often the most interesting part of this experiment is the response of the partner. How did he/she respond to your lack of body language? Did they struggle to understand you or not? Was this harder or easier for them than the first experiment? Expand.
Body language goes far beyond communicating emotion and sentiment. You are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
(Continued...)
(Continued as Google limited my comment length)
DeleteOkay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
Like all human traits, there is normal variation in expression, and the ability to read body language is no different. But beyond that, there are groups of people who have great difficulty or an outright inability to read body language due to physical or mental disability, such as those who are in the autism spectrum or those who are blind (though they can read vocal intonation).
Yes, body language can be used to deceive but it is also much more difficult to "fake" than spoken language. An example is the "tell" of a poker player who is trying to mislead other players. I'm not sure if the possibility that a player is trying to mislead with body language is a good reason not to read body language... just be careful about how you interpret it and how you respond.
But you are on the right track of looking for a situation where body language might mislead you, but think about a situation where there is no intent to mislead, but you don't know how to read the body language in the first place and can misinterpret it. Do all cultures use the same system of body language? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?
Hi Dedrick,
ReplyDeleteI too found part one to be incredibly difficult. I felt so limited in the way I could communicate, and like you I felt as if I could only respond using yes or no. In my experiment, I had conversations with a group of people so the result was a bit different. I found that my partners, the majority, had the power in the conversations; they posed questions and came to resolutions without much of my say so. I enjoyed your example of the importance of body language in sports.