Unit 7: Language and Thought
Language
Objectives
1. What is language?
2. What are the major components of language?
3. How does language develop?
4. What are milestones in language development?
5. What is the linguistic relativity hypothesis?
6. Can animals develop language?
7. What are theories of language acquisition?
Thinking
Objectives
1. What is cognitive psychology?
2. What is thinking?
3. What are some common mistakes that thwart problem-solving efforts?
4. What can we do to solve problems more efficiently? (Useful strategies?)
5. What are algorithms and heuristics in problem solving?
6. How is culture related to cognitive style?
Vocabulary
Language
Grammar
Phonemes
Morphemes
Semantics
Syntax
Language Acquisition Device
Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
The Whorfian Hypothesis
Acculturation
Bilingualism
Linguistic Relativity
Intelligence
Problem Solving
IQ
Norms
Functional Fixedness
Standardization
Reliability
Validity
mental retardation
multiple intelligences
triarchic model of intelligence
mental set
problem space
trial and error
algorithm
heuristic
Unit 7: Language and Thought
Outline
Language and Thought (Cognition)
Cognitive Psych
Metacognition – thinking about thinking
o How do we think
Concepts – metal category that groups things
o Superordinate - Produce
o Basic – apples
o Subordinate – Granny Smith Apples
Prototypes – best example of a concept /category
o Apples (basic) – prototype (red delicious)
o Bird – robin
 Penguin – these help to make exceptions because it is abird but
doesn’t fly
Schema – mental framework, paradigm, model
o Get us into trouble with stereotypes or help us too
Problem solving
o Algorithm and heuristics
o Algorithm – step-by-step formulaic process that WILL yield a solution
 It might take a lot of time…locker combination, recipe
o Heuristic – a short cut or a rule of thumb – may give us a solution but
maybe not
 Looking both ways before crossing the street, power goes out,
answering the easy questions before the hard questions
o Representative heuristic – judge the likelihood of things based on how
well they represent particular prototypes
o Availability heuristic – est. the probability of an event on how easy it is to
think of examples of that event – airplane crashes vs. asthma
Obstacles to problem solving
o Mental set – solve a problem the same way we did last time – can trap us
or be efficient
o Functional fixedness – MacGyver – other uses for things (Apollo 13 clip)
o Confirmation bias
CREATIVITY – definition – novel and useful
o Divergent and convergent thinking
o IQ and creativity – weak positive correlation
LANGUAGE
Speech
Language
Phoneme
Morpheme
Syntax
Unit 7: Language and Thought
Semantics
Surface structure and deep structure – They were bouncing babies.
o Have multiple reads
Assignment of the participants
Acquiring language
Chomsky
o Babbling
o Year One – one word
o Year Two – two words – us telegraphic speech – consists of a noun and a
verb
o End Year Two – 50-100+ words
o By year 5 – most grammatical rules in place – overgeneralization
Whorf
o Linguistic determinism/linguistic relativity – language determines what
we think…influences
 Gender issues – words used to separate us in society
HE=everyone – ex. A nurse must answer his calls, man like
other mammals, nurses his young
1984 – newspeak and thought crime- good, ungood,
+good, ++good,
Political correctness, military PC
o Interesting cases
 Washoe (chimp), Koko (gorilla), and Nom Chimsky (chimp)
 ASL
 Feral children and the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
CPH – a window for learning language
o Genie (the wild child)
o Victor
PERSONALITY
Constant or change
Environmental or genetics
Psychoanalytic Explanations
Freud
o ID, ego, euperego
o Eros, thanatos
o Psychosexual stages (oral, anal **fixation**, phallic (penis envy,
castration complex, Oedipus complex, Electra complex, identification),
latency, genital)
o Defense mechanisms (denial, displacement, intellectualization,
identification, projection, rationalization formation, regression,
repression, sublimation)
o Levels of consciousness
Unit 7: Language and Thought
o Criticism of Freud (empirical issues, limited case study, population, no
children)
Jung
o NOT A NEOFreudian
o Collective unconscious
o Archetypes
o Anima/animus
Adler
o Superiority v. inferiority
o Inferiority complex
o Fictional finalisms
o
Horney
o Basic anxiety
o 3 ways we relate to others (move toward, away of agains)
o Womb envy
Chodrow
o Male and female identification with mother (real)
(Matina Horner) – women’s fear success
HUMANISTS
Maslow - hierarchy
Rogers – unconditional positive regard
BIOLOGICAL
Sheldon – somatotypes – shape of your body determines personality
o Endomorphs (social, amiable, SANTA)
o Mesomorphs (assertive, adventurous, dominating)
o Ectomorphs (emotionally restrained, apprehensive, secretive)
Genetics – may have a component in this
Trait Approach – have aparticular trait and will
o Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory – set of labels to describe a person:
 Central Traits – (reliable, silly, smart…)
 Secondary traits – contectual (“you can’t take him to a
restaurant!”
o Raymond Cattell
 Factor analysis – statistical technique
Used Allport’s adjectives, people rate themselves
16 PF – 16 personality factor questionnaire
o The BIG 5 Model
 Costa and McCrae – personality is organized around only 5 basic
factors (OCEAN)
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Unit 7: Language and Thought
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
o Eysenck and Eysenck Biological Trait Theory
o Introversion and extroversion
SOCIAL COGNITIVE APPROACH
Julian Rotter’s Expectancy Theory
o Internals (I control my end) or external (I can’t control)
Bandura and reciprocal determinism
o Personality is shaped by the interaction of thoughts, behavior and
environment (DUH)
Skinner – childhood – change the environment change the personality