Evidence that Non-Verbal Behaviour is Innate (AQA GCSE Psychology)

Neonate research

• Innate behaviours are those which an individual does not have to learn i.e. they are with them from birth

• The term ‘neonate’ is another word for newborn baby

• Innate behaviours are universal in that every human is born with them e.g. the startle reflex in newborn babies can be seen from culture to culture, it is an inborn response to a loud noise or other alarming environmental stimuli 

The startle reflex diagram

The startle reflex in neonates may have evolved to keep babies closer to their caregivers and to prevent them from falling.

• Bowlby’s research into infant attachment behaviours identified neonate behaviours which he termed ‘social releasers’ as evidence that some non-verbal behaviours are present from birth

  • Social releasers are behaviours which are designed to elicit caregiving from adults (usually the parents) e.g. crying, gurgling, smiling, and possessing facial features which tend to make adults want to care for and nurture the infant 

• The baby cannot learn to produce social releasers, they are there from birth and the theory is that the feelings they produce in adults ensure that the baby will be looked after and thus survival is ensured (which is relevant in terms of evolutionary theory as well) 

• Rosenstein & Oster (1988) found that even very young babies (a few weeks old) produce a ‘disgust facial expression when given sour or bitter flavours, which they cannot possibly have learned via observation of adults due to their extremely young age

• Research by Rousseau et al. (2017) suggests that the startle reflex in babies is part of an innate fear system:

  • they claim it works as the baby’s non-verbal request to be picked up and made safe by an adult (the crying and orientation of the body, head and eyes are communicative gestures according to the researchers)

Sensory deprived

• Being sensory deprived is lacking one of the senses, which in humans usually manifests as deafness or blindness

• Someone who is born blind would not be aware of visual non-verbal behaviours as they have had no opportunity to learn or practise them, ergo if a blind person (particularly a young child) uses the same non-verbal communication as a sighted person it is strong evidence that some non-verbal behaviours are innate

• Jane Thompson’s (1941) research using blind children from 7 weeks to 13 years old found that facial expressions such as smiling, anger, fear, sulkiness were identical to those of sighted babies and children (she stated that these expressions appeared in blind children ‘without opportunity for learning or social mimicry’) which supports the argument that some non-verbal behaviours are innate

Sulking: it’s not big and it’s not clever…

Evaluation of evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate

Strengths

• Babies are incapable of faking their behaviour which means that research using young infants is valid 

• Research such as Thompson’s above provides very compelling evidence that many non-verbal behaviours are innate 

Weaknesses

• It is overly simplistic to claim that ALL non-verbal behaviours are innate as the influence of the environment (e.g. upbringing, culture, peers) must also play a role here

• Young babies and children cannot give their consent (due to a lack of understanding) to be part of research so using them as participants brings with it some ethical concerns