Author: kaitlynstockk

A stereotype is a set idea about a person or a group of people, based on something that is well-known to represent this particular person or group. For instance, in my research study I assumed that teenagers were going to be the age group that ignored my greeting, which was correct. Even though my assumption was correct, it was still wrong of me to assume that all teenagers act or behave a certain way. As a teenager myself, I am aware of how older generations might perceive this age group due to the current state of society. For instance, adults believe that all teenagers are addicted to social media, and are lazy. Although this statement may apply to some teenagers, it definitely does not apply to this entire age group of people. Furthermore, I also unintentionally stereotyped people, particularly males, who were with a group of their friends and seemed to be threatening to me. This stereotype would be that this group of males were committing criminal activities, and so I felt intimated by them. Even though these groups gave me no reason to feel this way, I judged them based on their appearance and the prior knowledge that I have on teenage and adult males. 

Social behaviour can be described as a set of actions that are performed by people when they communicate with one another. Social behaviour can also involve observable responses to something that triggers another person or makes them react. For instance, if someone from a foreign country came to a Western country, they might decide to observe the people in their surroundings for clues about how they should behave, and what behaviour is socially acceptable. Family and media are also two examples of major influences on an individuals social behaviour. The influence that a person’s family and technology can have on their social behaviour is connected to my social experiment. If a parent or guardian had taught their child from a young age to act appropriately in public, such as by responding to others, the child could possibly respond to my greeting because of their family values. Media can also influence social behaviour because people are constantly using their technology to interact with people over electronics, instead of in person. 

In addition, while I was observing my participants I realized that the people who acknowledged my greeting, but ignored me, would typically walk past me with their head down, or be looking at their phone. This stood out to me because some of the participants that ignored me, knew that what they were doing was socially unacceptable. However, they attempted to defend themselves from breaking this social norm by pretending to be occupied, or that they had not noticed me.

Psychologist, Howard Gardner published a theory of what he believed to be eight separate intelligences. These types of intelligences range from bodily-kinesthetic intelligence to musical-rhythmic intelligence. However, throughout my social experiment I realized that a variety of individuals from different age groups would benefit from verbal-linguistic intelligence, particularly adolescents. Verbal-linguistic intelligence is the ability to express one’s thoughts, and to understand others orally and through literacy. Due to the increase of advanced technology, the ability to communicate orally with another person is significantly decreasing and is viewed as unnecessary to teenagers. Verbal-linguistic intelligence connects to my research study because I believe that if teenagers read, write and communicate more with others orally, it would help improve their communication skills. If more awareness was brought to the significance of strong communications skills, the outcome of my research could have been completely different. If teenagers were not brainwashed by their technology, I believe that the amount of teenagers who responded to my greeting would increase. Once teenagers become aware that they are not going to be able to live behind a screen for their entire life, they will need to practice their communications skills. Therefore resulting in this generation feeling more comfortable talking face-to-face with their friends, family, and people who they do not know, such as greeters.

The Asch conformity experiment was a series of psychological experiments conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. The goal of this experiment was to demonstrate the power that conformity has over groups. During this experiment, the researcher asked participants to choose the matching line from a group of three different line segments. Then the participants, alongside fake participants, who were informed about what to say during the experiment, were asked to individually select the line that they believed matched one of the three line segments. However, even if the participants knew what line segment was the correct one, their choice would be influenced by the line segment that other participants in the group said was correct. This shows that people will ignore their own opinions and beliefs in order to conform to the rest of the group.

The Asch experiment connected to my communication research study, because during my experiment I came to the conclusion that teenagers only responded to my greeting if they were in a group with their friends. If one teenager responded to my greeting, then other teenagers in the group felt obligated to also respond. The social influence that one responsive teenager had on the rest of the group, caused the other group members to also respond to my greeting, in order to fit in.

Please click here to watch the original Asch conformity experiment.

Cultural relativism is a theory that states that individuals, especially anthropologists, cannot compare two cultures because each has its own different beliefs, morals, and practices. According to modern anthropology pioneer, Franz Boas, anthropologists cannot judge a culture based on their personal standards of what is socially acceptable and what is not. Cultural relativism connects to my social experiment because throughout the research study I greeted many people from different cultures. However, some of these people from different cultural backgrounds, who acknowledged my greeting, did not respond back. In Western culture it is normal to greet someone by saying “Hello” or “Good morning/afternoon.” If people with different cultural backgrounds are not familiar with Western social norms, they could possibly not understand why I was greeting them by saying “Hello.” Also, they might not know that it is considered disrespectful or rude to not answer someone’s greeting with a friendly expression or gesture, thus explaining why they did not respond. While in the Western world people typically greet each other with expressions or gestures, in other countries worldwide, greetings are displayed differently. For instance, in Tibet it is common for people to greet each other by sticking out their tongue, and in countries such as Japan and India, it is common to bow. Therefore, while I felt that the people in the experiment who ignored my greeting were being disrespectful, they could of ignored me because their form of greeting someone, is different from the greeting that I believe is socially acceptable.

Noam Chomsky, the founder of modern structural linguistics, is best known for his theory of universal grammar, which can also be connected to my research study. Chomsky’s theory is that children are born with internal and universal rules for grammar, which are ultimately applied to the language that is spoken in their surroundings. The theory of universal grammar explains that children are capable of learning, and eventually fluently speaking a language, because of inborn structures of language in their brain. Chomsky’s theory connects to my research study because throughout my social experiment, I realized that very young children were responding to my greeting, when I in fact directed it at their parents. This confused me at first because I wondered if the children actually understood what I was saying, or they were just imitating their parents response. However, Chomsky’s theory proves that children, as young as toddlers, can indeed understand and give meaning to the words and language that I was speaking, while I was greeting.

To learn more about Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar Theory, please click here.