Title: Chapter 2: Attitudes
1Chapter 2 Attitudes Ageism
- and how language is interwoven with both
2Attitudes
- 3 components behavioral, cognitive, affective
- These components color
- how young people feel toward old people
-
- how people feel and think about the aging process
-
- how people behave as they grow older
3Concerns young people have
For better or for worse, January 20, 2006
4Age norms you assign them well talk
- 1. Wearing a short skirt and high heels
- 2. Living alone
- 3. Getting married
- 4. Raising children
- 5. Being considered sexy
- 6. Drinking alcohol
- 7. Driving a sports car
- 8. Having others make decisions for you
- 9. Displaying affection in public
- 10. Running a marathon
- 11. Running for U.S. president
- 12. Retiring
- 13. Becoming pregnant
- 14. Enrolling in a 4 year college degree program
- 15. Receiving a heart transplant
5Age norms cultural reflections?
Ben http//www.comics.com
6Age normscultural reflections 2
What do these have in common?
Clips from http//www.biology.duke.edu/cunningham/
Villains.html
7Age norms language development
- Age 3 talk about ideas and feelings
- Age 7 milestones with abstractions
- Age 8 milestones jump in complexity
- Teen years social and linguistic complexity
8Psychological state terms by age 3
- As children approach their third birthday, their
talk about psychological states changes in
several ways. Children begin to refer to the
causes and consequences of feelings more often
and discuss a wider variety of feeling states.
Brown and Dunn (1991) suggested that these
developmental changes in childrens emotional
state language influence their ability to enter
into conversations about psychological states.
Through these conversations, children have the
opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the
mental states motivating human behavior. - A second important developmental change that
takes place around age 3 is that children begin
to make references to cognitive states and to use
words such as think and know.
Lee Rescorla (2002).The use of psychological
state terms by late talkers at age 3. Applied
Psycholinguistics 234
9Child language development age 7
- Should have mastered the consonants s-z, r,
voiceless th, ch, wh, and the soft g as in George - Should handle opposite analogies easily
girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-sharp
short-long, sweet-sour, etc - Understands such terms as alike, different,
beginning, end, etc - Should be able to tell time to quarter hour
- Should be able to do simple reading and to write
or print many words
http//www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/la
nguage_development.shtml
10Child language development age 8
- Can relate involved accounts of events, many from
a time in the past - Should be few lapses in grammar e.g. pronouns,
plurals - All speech sounds, including consonant blends,
established - Should read with ease and write simple
compositions - Social amenities should be present in appropriate
situations - Control of rate, pitch, and volume are
well/appropriately established - Can carry on conversation at rather adult
levelFollows fairly complex directions with
little repetitionHas well developed time and
number concepts
http//www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/la
nguage_development.shtml
11Advanced language stage over 12
- Adolescents essentially communicate in an adult
manner, with increasing maturity throughout high
school. Teens comprehend abstract language, such
as idioms, figurative language and metaphors.
Explanations may become more figurative and less
literal. Literacy and its relationship to
cognition, linguistic competency, reading,
writing and listening are the primary focus in
this age group. Teens should be able to process
texts and abstract meaning, relate word meanings
and contexts, understand punctuation, and form
complex syntactic structures.
http//www.medem.com/medlb/medlib_entry.cfm
12Language, stage, identity formation
- Its weird, I was so mad Developing
Discursive Identity Defenses in Conversational
Small Stories of Adolescent Boys - Luke Moissinac Michael Bamberg, Clark
University - Accepted for publication in the Texas Speech
Communication Journal Special Issue, Narratives
We Live By, October 2004 - Abstract
- We view identities (and masculinities) as
fluid and contextually sensitive, constantly
being accommodated to interlocutors through the
use of increasingly sophisticated discursive
skills, especially during adolescence. Based on
analysis of the interactions of one cohort group
of boys observed at the ages of 10 and13, we show
how the development of discourse abilities is
intertwined with the management of situated
identities. . . . Specifically, our data
demonstrate that 10-year-olds mount only
rudimentary defenses to threatened identities
whereas 13-year olds are able to construct more
elaborate devices against identity challenges
such as such as concessions, externalizations,
and normalizations
13Sampling advanced language (adapted from
Retherford 2004)
- Sample the changes Oral and written narratives
- Hadley (1998) Nippold(1998) Scott Stokes
(1995) - Semantics
- ??Cohesion Markers (Halliday Hasan, 1976) how
words are - connected within a sequence
- lexical cohesion-by selection of vocabulary,
using semantically close items repetition,
synonym, antonym,metonymy - reference personal (Sharon, her) demonstrative,
comparative - substitution These cookies are stale. Buy some
fresh ones. - ??Connectives
- Quirk et al (1985) Nippold, Schwarz,
Undlin(1992) Nippold(1998) - In English, cohesion is most simply
marked by connectives such as and, but, or so.
http//www.thinkingpublications.com/LangConf04/Pos
terSessions/PostersessionsPDFs/Retherford.pdf
14Semantics of advanced language
- How Literate is the Lexicon (Nippold, 1998)
- Does the speaker produce/comprehend
- Nouns for technical and curriculum activities
- ??salutation, oppression, circumference, proton
- Verbs to refer to metacognitive activities
- doubt, infer, hypothesize, conclude, assume
- Verbs to refer to metalinguistic activities
- assert, concede, imply, predict, interpret,
confirm - Verbs with presuppositional aspects to their
meaning - Factitive truth assumed know, notice, forget,
regret - Nonfactitivetruth is uncertain think,
believe, figure, suppose
Retherford 2004, continued
15(what is a presupposition?)
- A presupposition is background belief, relating
to an utterance, that - must be mutually known or assumed by the speaker
and addressee for the utterance to be considered
appropriate in context - generally will remain a necessary assumption
whether the utterance is placed in the form of an
assertion, denial, or question, and - can generally be associated with a specific
lexical item or grammatical feature
(presupposition trigger) in the utterance. - Identify the presuppositions in Jane regretted
that she had stopped buying crystal before she
left Ireland.
http//www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisti
cTerms/WhatIsAPresupposition.htm
16Social expectations about language
- Value judgments about language are socially based
- People notice and evaluate ways of talking
that are different from their own - They hear words and accents and assign gender,
age, region, class, and even ethnicity - And attitudes arise . . .
17When reality intersects with attitude
- Female adult voices typically show a pitch
- that is 75 higher than the males
- different vocal cord length mass
- Male vocal tract length is 15 longer
- resulting in different resonance (and
- greater risk of choking on food)
- Vocal organs show sexual dimorphism
- Gender is something assigned or constructed
18Gender-cued language and attitudes
- Lexical and morphological differences
- morphology in some languages (Japanese)
- emotive words color terms
- Stylistic differences claimed
- go-aheads, hedges F
- interruptions, direct orders M
- Difference or dominance?
- rapport or informational?
19Generational differences in lexicon
Pickles. January 20, 2006.
20Preston on linguistic prejudice
- A primary linguistic myth, one nearly universally
attached to minorities, rural people and the less
well educated, extends in the United States even
to well-educated speakers of some regional
varieties. That myth, of course, is that some
varieties of a language are not as good as
others.
http//www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitude
s/
21Preston collected perceptions of correct speech
Mean scores for correct Lowest ratings South
and NYC 150 EuroAm, both sexes, all ages
classes, from Michigan
http//www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitude
s/
22Perceptions of pleasant speech
Mean scores for pleasant By Alabamians Again,
1low
http//www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitude
s/
23Just in case you didnt get it
Hand-drawn, from Michigan http//www.pbs.org/speak
/speech/prejudice/attitudes/
24You try it rate this speaker
- Use the rating form provided. Transcript goes
with the voice clip - Well listen to it three times.
- Now I was born in Charlotte in the Presbyterian
Hospital. And it was downtown on the corner of
Mint and Trade. Upstairs over the drugstore. - And um my father was afraid the doctor who lived
down the hill wouldn't get there in time so he
took my mother to the hospital on the streetcar
-- on a Saturday night and I was born Easter
Sunday morning. - Easter Sunday?
- Yeah. (laughter)
25Auditor perception of discourse F1 of 3
- Factor 1 About the Tellers Competence including
Credibility - (Multiple Regression Relationship with Construct
of Auditors Rural--Urban Place - of Origin)
- Loading Item Response
- .67 5 The Teller is friendly
- .67 7 The Teller likes telling stories
- .62 17 The Teller knows other stories
- .59 21 I think the Interviewer, as a person,
is polite - .51 28 In everyday life, the Teller is polite
- .47 23 I believe that people said what the
Teller -
reported them as
saying - .41 12 The story the teller says is true
- .40 35 The Interviewer likes talking with the
Teller - .37 8 The Teller likes the Interviewer
- .37 43 The Teller tells stories superbly
- .36 33 The Teller knows more than she/he tells
- .35 38 The Interviewer thinks the Teller tells
stories well - .35 40 I know the Tellers story style
- .32 24 The Interviewer is interested in the
Teller
26Additional significant relationships in Factor 1
Evaluating competence of TELLER
- (Note Multiple Regression finds a Relationship
between Place of Origin and Factor Score 1, when
controlling for other demographics ,which
accounts for 12 of the variance. - As auditors construct of place of origin is more
rural, they assign greater competence to the
Teller) -
- Item Demographics
- Class Place of origin
M Educ F Educ -
w-lmc-mc- country-town-smcity- gr-hs
-some coll- gr-hs-some coll- - umc-u bigcity suburb-big
city full coll-profess ull
coll-profess - Teller is friendly .01436 . .00050
- 7. Teller likes telling stories
.00957 - 12. Tellers story is true 01357 .04700
- 17. Teller knows other stories .00248 .00275
- 21. Interviewer is polite .00007 .04879
- 24. Interviewer is interested in
Teller .04469 .00040
27 Factors affecting language in aging
- Each of these factors can affect language
production and cause social withdrawal, as people
age - hearing and vision impairment
- slower processing of information
- mild memory difficulties
- shrinking network of friends
28 What aging sounds like
- Voices are heard as hoarse, high pitched,
breathy, tremulous or shaky - Men are heard as hesitant
- Women are heard as passive
- Mulac Giles 1996
29 Stereotyped projections of elder speech
- Tangential speaker wanders off the topic
- Vacillating speaker cant make choices
- Repetitive speaker repeats same words
- Too wordy speaker gives too many details
30 Age-biased reactions Ryans research
- overly familiar talk
- shouting
- non-listening
- showing disapproval
- condescension
- dismissive comments
- avoidance
- impatience
- controlling talk
- baby talk or
- Elderspeak (simplified speech)
- Often, we dont realize that we have changed our
speech when we talk to an older person.
31 Overaccomodation
- Can be seen as patronizing wrong message!
- Overaccommodation - such as babytalk, Elderspeak,
or being overly familiar - means we are talking
to the stereotype of being old and not to the
individual. - Thats not the message we want to send.
- (Ryan Cole, 1990)
32 Underaccommodation
- Freezing people out sending the wrong message
- We under-accommodate a speakers needs when we
show that we are not listening, or use dismissive
comments, condescension, or controlling talk. We
move away from them. - Thats not the message we want to send.
- (Giles et al, 1990)
33 How we change our speech 1
- Conversation with adult 54 years old
- 1. I tended to display my interest by nodding
much more instead of interrupting
- Conversation with adult 94 years old
- I was much more likely to interrupt with
interjections and clarifying statements - Example from Batson 2003
34 How we change our speech 2
- With the person aged 54
- 2. I participated actively with my honest
opinions in this dialogue
- With the person aged 94
- I was much more likely to sugar-coat my
opinions and/or modify my more modern points of
view - Example from Batson 2003
35 How we change our speech 3
- With the person aged 54
- 3. I spoke more softly and more quickly
- With the person aged 94
- My voice was much louder, and I spoke slower than
usual - Example from Batson 2003
36 How we change our speech 4
- With the person aged 54
- 4. I was less unnecessarily pleasant, meaning,
I didnt use complimentary language unless very
appropriate
- With the person aged 94
- I consistently mentioned how nice the individual
looked, and how I enjoyed talking to him/her - Example from Batson 2003
-
37Age-associated differences in communication
expectations
- Ryan Butler (1996 192) comment that some
distinctions between young and old adults that
influence intergenerational relationships arise
from historical differences in socialization - This affects patient-provider roles. Haug
(1996252) reports less time given to
consultations for patients 60 and older, and that
doctors may speak more slowly, in a louder
voice, use simplified language, and take on a
patronizing air, blaming older patients, but not
younger, for forgetfulness
Special issue, Health Communications 8.3 (1996)
38Healthcare worker interactions
- Burda (20058) notes that older people either
have little experience with or feel questioning
professionals is inappropriate. Since many
interactions involve tasks (ADL), noncompliance
may ensue -- particularly if the older person
doesnt understand the healthcare workers
accent. - Hmmm. Were back _at_ attitudes
Burda, A. Hageman, C. Perception of accented
speech by residents in assisted-living
facilities, J Medical Speech-Language Pathology
13, 7-14
39Language issues for new nurses whats beneath
the surface?
Smith JONAS Healthc Law Ethics Regul, Volume
6(1).March 2004.15-16
40Workforce demographics, NC
www.nursenc.org/research/Trends2001/workforce_demo
s.pdf
41Ageism in general
- In North America and Europe, Older adults are
often marginalized, given low social status, and
either ignored in the media or portrayed in roles
reinforcing negative stereotypes (Nelson, 2002). - Unfavorable stereotypes characterize older people
as forgetful, sick, unattractive, useless,
lonely, and dependent (Hess Blanchard-Fields,
1999 Nelson, 2002 Palmore, 1999). - Trait sorting studies have identified several
negative prototypes of older persons such as
shrew-curmudgeon, despondent, and severely
impaired (Ryan et al 2004 344)
Nussbaum, J., Pitts, M., Huber, F., Krieger, J.,
Ohs, J. 2005. Ageism and ageist language across
the life span. Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 61,
pp. 287--305
42Jigsaw Ageism, news stories
- http//www.csmonitor.com/2004/1018/p07s01-woap.htm
l Japanese homeless - http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4041713.stm
Ageism UK - http//jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/13141.htm
Australia - http//www.graypanthersmetrodetroit.org/Ageism.htm
l Gray Panthers in Chicago - http//www.trentu.ca/news/view/aging.html Canada
- http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4411937.stm
BBC on US legislation - http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2975754.stm
Generation X UK - http//www.suzanne.tv/show.asp?sid410 Ageism -
boomers - http//www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid12815371
BRD1817PAG461dept_id222087rfi6 Ageism -
boomers
43Intergenerational communication 3 models
- CAT communication accommodation
- Convergent X divergent strategies
- CPA communicative predicament
- Problematic talk lt negative stereotypes
- CEM communication enhancement
- Tailor speech to individual needs and thereby
reduce stereotypes
Nussbaum, J., Pitts, M., Huber, F., Krieger, J.,
Ohs, J. 2005. Ageism and ageist language across
the life span. Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 61,
pp. 287--305
44Youth X old age in Asia X Canada
- Views of the old in the East often resemble the
Wests. - Expectations about declining personal vitality
increasing benevolence in old age were found
among young and old respondents in the East
(Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong, Korea,
Philippines and Thailand) and West (U.S.A.,
Australia, New Zealand Harwood et al., 1996,
2001). - Accepting public norms of filial obligation and
honor need not conflict with negative inner
beliefs about aging and older people
Ryan, E., Jin, Y., Anas, A., Luh, J. (2004
)Communication beliefs about youth and old age in
Asia Canada. J Cross-Cultural Gerontology 19
343360,.
45Ryans cross-cultural work suggests
- Educational interventions the CEM model - to
improve intergenerational communication between
young and old may be more likely to succeed if
they target - fostering of positive attitudes toward empathic,
socially skilled, story-telling aspects of
communication in later life - rather than the reduction of negative attitudes.
Ryan, E., Jin, Y., Anas, A., Luh, J. (2004
)Communication beliefs about youth and old age in
Asia Canada. J Cross-Cultural Gerontology 19
343360.
46Ageism, language and marketing What are the
appeals? What are the stereotypes? While well
discuss aging and the media later in the
semester, here, we pause to preview some
pervasive features of ageism --
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