The Social Psychology of Communication
Reading 1 – Gossip as Cultural Learning
The authors propose that gossip serves to help people learn about how to live in their
cultural society.
Gossiping can have positive functions, such as softening others’ experience by
passing on anecdotes and making people aware of the risks and benefits of certain
behaviors or actions.
Traditionally, psychologists have viewed gossiping as an indirect form of aggression,
akin to teasing.
o It has been said to depict the target in an unflattering light.
It may well be that some people seek to harm someone by passing along information
about them, but that mustn’t always be the case.
o It is plausible that in many cases the defamation of another person is not the
primary goal of the gossiper – or it may be irrelevant altogether.
Dunbar holds that gossip is an important form of social communication that serves to
bond people together.
o The bond between the teller and the hearer may be strengthened as they spend
time together and talk about a mutual interest.
Gossip is observational learning of a cultural kind.
Effective participation in culture requires the individual to behave according to a vast
set of external guidelines.
Humans are capable of cultural life because they have a powerful innate capacity to
regulate their own behavior.
The process of socialization is a matter of learning all of the rules and guidelines for
how to live in a culture.
o Gossip is a potentially efficient means of transmitting information about social
rules and norms.
Gossip may serve the function of cultural learning even though people may be drawn
to gossip without being aware of any desire to promote cultural learning.
o The desire to gossip is a useful biological adaptation.
According to the cultural learning view, gossiping can be effective regardless of
whether it presents the target in a positive or negative light.
The principle that bad is stronger than good may be relevant.
o Bad events elicit stronger responses than good ones.
o E.g. stories about norm violation may be more informative than stories about
actions that conform to norms.
Men tend to organize in large social groups, whereas women focus on close and
dyadic relationships.
o Men gossip more about celebrities, sports figures, and mere acquaintances.
o Women gossip more about family members and close friends.
1
, Communicating principles by telling stories is apparently more effective than
describing the principles.
At some major corporations, gossip has been found to be the central source for new
employees to learn the rules of their new institution.
In some nonliterate cultures such as the Hopi Indian culture, gossip served a primary
role as information management.
Gossip can be seen as a method of social control.
o Gossip serves as a policing device that cultures employ as a low-cost method
of regulating members’ behaviors.
Complex cultures change rapidly, so using gossip is ideal to relay new or revised
rules.
o Using formal channels would be nearly impossible because the delay in
posting the new rules.
People are most interested in gossip which is about individuals who take up a similar
social structure as them – in terms of age and gender.
Gossip is not mere storytelling, such as a monologue; instead it is a collaborative
experience that encourages the hearer to contribute to the story.
Reading 2 – Human Communication; Action Assembly Theory
Humans are, above all, actors, and the ‘stuff’ of social interaction is behavior.
The cognitive system has developed to facilitate action.
Communicative behavior is at once novel and creative, yet patterned and repetitive.
o The social behavior of any individual stems from a repertoire of phrases and
actions.
Bregman argues that all behavior can be viewed as novel compositions of established
properties.
Cognitive approaches are different to neuropsychological ones because the inferred
structures are held to be theoretical entities, which need not correspond to the physical
structures of the brain.
The aim of cognitivism is not to develop the model of the mind, but to develop a
sufficient one.
The human mind is a repository of both conceptual and procedural knowledge.
o People store action-outcome contingencies in procedural memory.
Production systems are assumed to consist of independent productions activated by
appropriate initial conditions.
o A procedural record is formed when a given action results in a particular
outcome.
o An often-activated procedure which always results in the desired outcome
involves a stronger action-outcome relationship.
Strength of a memory element varies as a function of the recency and frequency of
activation of the element.
2
, It would be impossible to engage in skilled activity if It were necessary to specify
individual muscle commands.
The content of any representational level at any moment is due to
o Constraints imposed by higher-level representations
o Existing procedural records at that level of abstraction
o Activating conditions relevant to that level of abstraction
Action Assembly Theory: Axioms:
o 1. A procedural record is a modular entity containing a specification for action
and an outcome associated with that action.
o 2. Each procedural record is characterized by a level of strength reflecting the
status of the action-outcome contingency.
o 3. The output representation is a hierarchy if levels of increasing specificity.
o 4. At any moment a procedural record possesses some level of activation.
o 5. The activating conditions for any element of the procedural store are
defined as occurrence of a goal to which that record is relevant.
It is possible to specify 7 types of function relevant to human interaction:
o Interaction Functions: the ends that people attempt to accomplish by
communication with others.
o Content Formulation: the formulation of thematic dimensions of behavior.
o Management Functions: derive from demands for topic continuity
o Utterance Formulation: derive from lexical, syntactic, and articulatory
requirements for the formulation of sentences.
o Regulatory Functions: concern speaker-turn regulation
o Homeostatic Functions: concern the need to regulate physiological controlled
quantities
o Coordinative Functions: concern the functional integration of effector units
involved in articulation and nonverbal behavior.
Procedural records can be distinguished according to the nature of the outcome they
represent.
The second cognitive structure relevant to the production of communicative behavior
is the output representation which is formed from the assembly of activated
procedural records.
Associative links may develop between procedural records relevant to different levels
of output representation.
The theory provides an account of how automaticity in social behavior develops.
o People do not act upon the raw stimulus inputs, but instead upon the meanings
they assign to those inputs.
Action assembly theory provides a conceptual framework for integrating a wide range
of phenomena including planning, speech errors, emotional reactions, and rule
following/deviation.
The theory is useful as a heuristic device.
3
, Reading 3 – Nurse-Patient Consultations
Most primary caregivers rely on their authoritative professional role to convince
people to change by providing information about behavior change.
o The effectiveness of these methods is ambiguous.
Health behavior change requires effort from both patients and healthcare providers.
o Patients often have variable motivation to change over the course of time.
Motivational interviewing (MI) is a more promising approach to changing unhealthy
behavior.
o It is a patient-centered directive approach
o It aims to enhance intrinsic motivation.
o It focuses on what patients can do to improve their own health rather than
healthcare professionals telling them what to do.
MI is seen as most effective when combined with the stages of change (SOC) model.
According to the SOC model, individuals are at different stages of motivational
readiness, and intervention methods should correspond to their current stage of
readiness.
There are 5 stages of change indicating people’s predispositions to change:
o Precontemplation – no intention to change within next 6 months
o Contemplation – intention to change, but no action to do so
o Preparation – intention to change within 30 days
o Action – changing from unhealthy to healthy behavior in past 6 months
o Maintenance – maintaining the change for more than 6 months
Progression between stages is not linear, and patients may move forwards and
backwards.
The factors hindering or facilitating change are assumed to differ in each stage.
Some studies show this method is ineffective.
Practiced nurses (PNs) are more likely to invite patients to talk about behavior change
in the precontemplation and contemplation stages, and even more so during the
preparation stage.
o This is described as consciousness raising.
Patients in the precontemplation stage benefit most from ‘dramatic relief’.
PNs tend to pay more attention to request for help with patients in the preparation
stage than with patients in other stages.
The item ‘structuring’ correlates highly with ‘empathy’.
Interventions that are tailored to a person’s SOC are better than generic approaches.
It still remains a question whether several unhealthy behaviors should be targeted
simultaneously or subsequently after one behavior has been changed.
Reading 4 – Linguistic Abstraction and Interpersonal Distance
Subtle prejudice can be expressed in a number of ways.
o Biased language.
4
Reading 1 – Gossip as Cultural Learning
The authors propose that gossip serves to help people learn about how to live in their
cultural society.
Gossiping can have positive functions, such as softening others’ experience by
passing on anecdotes and making people aware of the risks and benefits of certain
behaviors or actions.
Traditionally, psychologists have viewed gossiping as an indirect form of aggression,
akin to teasing.
o It has been said to depict the target in an unflattering light.
It may well be that some people seek to harm someone by passing along information
about them, but that mustn’t always be the case.
o It is plausible that in many cases the defamation of another person is not the
primary goal of the gossiper – or it may be irrelevant altogether.
Dunbar holds that gossip is an important form of social communication that serves to
bond people together.
o The bond between the teller and the hearer may be strengthened as they spend
time together and talk about a mutual interest.
Gossip is observational learning of a cultural kind.
Effective participation in culture requires the individual to behave according to a vast
set of external guidelines.
Humans are capable of cultural life because they have a powerful innate capacity to
regulate their own behavior.
The process of socialization is a matter of learning all of the rules and guidelines for
how to live in a culture.
o Gossip is a potentially efficient means of transmitting information about social
rules and norms.
Gossip may serve the function of cultural learning even though people may be drawn
to gossip without being aware of any desire to promote cultural learning.
o The desire to gossip is a useful biological adaptation.
According to the cultural learning view, gossiping can be effective regardless of
whether it presents the target in a positive or negative light.
The principle that bad is stronger than good may be relevant.
o Bad events elicit stronger responses than good ones.
o E.g. stories about norm violation may be more informative than stories about
actions that conform to norms.
Men tend to organize in large social groups, whereas women focus on close and
dyadic relationships.
o Men gossip more about celebrities, sports figures, and mere acquaintances.
o Women gossip more about family members and close friends.
1
, Communicating principles by telling stories is apparently more effective than
describing the principles.
At some major corporations, gossip has been found to be the central source for new
employees to learn the rules of their new institution.
In some nonliterate cultures such as the Hopi Indian culture, gossip served a primary
role as information management.
Gossip can be seen as a method of social control.
o Gossip serves as a policing device that cultures employ as a low-cost method
of regulating members’ behaviors.
Complex cultures change rapidly, so using gossip is ideal to relay new or revised
rules.
o Using formal channels would be nearly impossible because the delay in
posting the new rules.
People are most interested in gossip which is about individuals who take up a similar
social structure as them – in terms of age and gender.
Gossip is not mere storytelling, such as a monologue; instead it is a collaborative
experience that encourages the hearer to contribute to the story.
Reading 2 – Human Communication; Action Assembly Theory
Humans are, above all, actors, and the ‘stuff’ of social interaction is behavior.
The cognitive system has developed to facilitate action.
Communicative behavior is at once novel and creative, yet patterned and repetitive.
o The social behavior of any individual stems from a repertoire of phrases and
actions.
Bregman argues that all behavior can be viewed as novel compositions of established
properties.
Cognitive approaches are different to neuropsychological ones because the inferred
structures are held to be theoretical entities, which need not correspond to the physical
structures of the brain.
The aim of cognitivism is not to develop the model of the mind, but to develop a
sufficient one.
The human mind is a repository of both conceptual and procedural knowledge.
o People store action-outcome contingencies in procedural memory.
Production systems are assumed to consist of independent productions activated by
appropriate initial conditions.
o A procedural record is formed when a given action results in a particular
outcome.
o An often-activated procedure which always results in the desired outcome
involves a stronger action-outcome relationship.
Strength of a memory element varies as a function of the recency and frequency of
activation of the element.
2
, It would be impossible to engage in skilled activity if It were necessary to specify
individual muscle commands.
The content of any representational level at any moment is due to
o Constraints imposed by higher-level representations
o Existing procedural records at that level of abstraction
o Activating conditions relevant to that level of abstraction
Action Assembly Theory: Axioms:
o 1. A procedural record is a modular entity containing a specification for action
and an outcome associated with that action.
o 2. Each procedural record is characterized by a level of strength reflecting the
status of the action-outcome contingency.
o 3. The output representation is a hierarchy if levels of increasing specificity.
o 4. At any moment a procedural record possesses some level of activation.
o 5. The activating conditions for any element of the procedural store are
defined as occurrence of a goal to which that record is relevant.
It is possible to specify 7 types of function relevant to human interaction:
o Interaction Functions: the ends that people attempt to accomplish by
communication with others.
o Content Formulation: the formulation of thematic dimensions of behavior.
o Management Functions: derive from demands for topic continuity
o Utterance Formulation: derive from lexical, syntactic, and articulatory
requirements for the formulation of sentences.
o Regulatory Functions: concern speaker-turn regulation
o Homeostatic Functions: concern the need to regulate physiological controlled
quantities
o Coordinative Functions: concern the functional integration of effector units
involved in articulation and nonverbal behavior.
Procedural records can be distinguished according to the nature of the outcome they
represent.
The second cognitive structure relevant to the production of communicative behavior
is the output representation which is formed from the assembly of activated
procedural records.
Associative links may develop between procedural records relevant to different levels
of output representation.
The theory provides an account of how automaticity in social behavior develops.
o People do not act upon the raw stimulus inputs, but instead upon the meanings
they assign to those inputs.
Action assembly theory provides a conceptual framework for integrating a wide range
of phenomena including planning, speech errors, emotional reactions, and rule
following/deviation.
The theory is useful as a heuristic device.
3
, Reading 3 – Nurse-Patient Consultations
Most primary caregivers rely on their authoritative professional role to convince
people to change by providing information about behavior change.
o The effectiveness of these methods is ambiguous.
Health behavior change requires effort from both patients and healthcare providers.
o Patients often have variable motivation to change over the course of time.
Motivational interviewing (MI) is a more promising approach to changing unhealthy
behavior.
o It is a patient-centered directive approach
o It aims to enhance intrinsic motivation.
o It focuses on what patients can do to improve their own health rather than
healthcare professionals telling them what to do.
MI is seen as most effective when combined with the stages of change (SOC) model.
According to the SOC model, individuals are at different stages of motivational
readiness, and intervention methods should correspond to their current stage of
readiness.
There are 5 stages of change indicating people’s predispositions to change:
o Precontemplation – no intention to change within next 6 months
o Contemplation – intention to change, but no action to do so
o Preparation – intention to change within 30 days
o Action – changing from unhealthy to healthy behavior in past 6 months
o Maintenance – maintaining the change for more than 6 months
Progression between stages is not linear, and patients may move forwards and
backwards.
The factors hindering or facilitating change are assumed to differ in each stage.
Some studies show this method is ineffective.
Practiced nurses (PNs) are more likely to invite patients to talk about behavior change
in the precontemplation and contemplation stages, and even more so during the
preparation stage.
o This is described as consciousness raising.
Patients in the precontemplation stage benefit most from ‘dramatic relief’.
PNs tend to pay more attention to request for help with patients in the preparation
stage than with patients in other stages.
The item ‘structuring’ correlates highly with ‘empathy’.
Interventions that are tailored to a person’s SOC are better than generic approaches.
It still remains a question whether several unhealthy behaviors should be targeted
simultaneously or subsequently after one behavior has been changed.
Reading 4 – Linguistic Abstraction and Interpersonal Distance
Subtle prejudice can be expressed in a number of ways.
o Biased language.
4
