The Sounds of Social Life: Observing Humans in Their ... · PDA-based recording software Samples...
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The Sounds of Social Life:Observing Humans in Their
Natural Habitat
Matthias R. Mehl Department of PsychologyThe University of Arizona
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A Method Matrix
???Behavioral Observation
Self-Report
Natural Environment
In the Lab
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An “Acoustic Observation” Sampling Approach
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PDA-based recording software Samples snippets of ambient sounds e.g., 30 sec every 12.5 min (4% of the day)
≈ 70 sound files per day
The EAR** EAR = Electronically Activated Recorder (Mehl et al., 2001)
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The Evolution of a Method
Analog EAR (1997-2000)
Digital EAR (2000 - 2005)
PocketEAR (2005 - )
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EAR Obtrusiveness
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Time after receiving the EAR (in hours awake)
% o
f tim
e ta
lkin
g ab
out t
he E
AR
N = 97
Talking about the EARMehl & Holleran (2007)
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EAR Compliance
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Time after receiving the EAR (in hours awake)
% o
f tim
e no
t wea
ring
the
EA
R
N = 97
Not Wearing the EARMehl & Holleran (2007)
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EAR-Assessment of Daily Life
Person-Environment Interactions
Locations
Private vs. public places, inside vs. outside
Activities
TV, music, studying, church, going out
Interactions
dyadic vs. group, same vs. opposite sex settings
Topics
Relationships, Fashion, Sex, Sports, Politics, Health
Word Choice
Emotion words, cognitive words, swearing, “like”, pronouns
Social Environments
Environment Selection
NaturalConversations
Environment Interaction
Mehl & Robbins (in press)
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Naturalistic observation allows for the assessment of subtle social behaviors that evade self-reports. The “Venus = Mars?” Project
(Mehl, Vazire, Ramirez-Esparza, Slatcher, & Pennebaker, 2007)
The “Knowing Me, Knowing You” Project(Vazire & Mehl, 2008)
The US-Mexico Project(Ramirez, Mehl, Álvarez-Bermúdez & Pennebaker, 2009)
Naturalistic observation can provide ecological, behavioral criteria that are independent of self-report.
Mehl (2009)
What Is the Added Value of Naturalistic Observation?
The “Eavesdropping on Happiness” Project(Mehl, Vazire, Holleran, & Clark, in press)
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Naturalistic observation can provide ecological, behavioral criteria that are independent of self-report
Knowing me, knowing you:The relative accuracy and unique predictive
validity of self-ratings and other-ratings of daily behavior
Vazire & Mehl, JPSP, 2008
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Most people assume they know themselves better than anyone else knows them.
Reviewer C: “the best criterion for a target’s personality is his or her self-ratings … Otherwise, the whole enterprise of personality assessment seriously needs to re-think itself”
But how do you test the relative accuracy of self- and other knowledge?
Knowing Me, Knowing You
N = 80 college students wore the EAR for 4 days Participants and 3 informants rated the participants on how
much they engage in 20 daily behaviors. The EAR-assessed frequency with which participants actually
engaged in these behaviors was used as accuracy criterion.
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How Accurate Were Self- and Other-Ratings?
r = .26
r = .26 (.23)
Self-Ratings of Daily Behavior
EAR-Coded Frequencies of Daily Behavior
Other-Ratings of Daily Behaviors
(averaged across all behaviors)
β = .18, ∆ R2 = .04
β = .18, ∆ R2 = .04
Self and others are equally (in)accurate and possess unique insight into how a person typically behaves.
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Naturalistic observation can provide ecological, behavioral criteria that are independent of self-report
Are Mexicans More Or Less Sociable Than Americans?
Ramirez, Mehl, Álvarez-Bermúdez & Pennebaker, JRP, 2009
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Are Mexicans More or Less Sociable than Americans?
EAR Study with 46 students from Monterrey, Mexico and 52 students from Austin, Texas.
Self-reported extraversion, sociability, and talkativeness
EAR-observed time spent with others, socializing, and talking
Reference group effect? Differential response bias?
43%34% time spent talking p < .001
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Display of Interdependent Self
Display of Independent Self
Do Mexicans and Americans Differ in How They are Social?
Immediate, public vs. remote, private expression of sociability
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Naturalistic observation allows for the assessment of subtle social behaviors that evade self-reports. The “Venus = Mars?” Project
(Mehl, Vazire, Ramirez-Esparza, Slatcher, & Pennebaker, 2007)
The “Knowing Me, Knowing You” Project(Vazire & Mehl, 2008)
The US-Mexico Project(Ramirez, Mehl, Álvarez-Bermúdez & Pennebaker, 2009)
Naturalistic observation can provide ecological, behavioral criteria that are independent of self-report.
Mehl (2009)
What Is the Added Value of Naturalistic Observation?
The “Eavesdropping on Happiness” Project(Mehl, Vazire, Holleran, & Clark, in press)
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Naturalistic Observation allows for the assessment of subtle social behaviors that evade self-reports
Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?
Mehl, Vazire, Ramirez-Esparza, Slatcher, & Pennebaker, Science, 2007
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“A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000”*
The Female Brain
“All of this is hardwired into the brains of women. These are the talents women are born with that many men, frankly, are not”
* The numbers have been taken out in the second print
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The “Language Mythbuster”
Mark Liberman
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We Had Been Counting Words For Years …
202717–234 daysUSA199864718–2610 daysUSA20015
494717–222 daysUSA20014203117–254 daysMexico20033374217–234 daysUSA20032565618–297 daysUSA20041
Menn
Womenn
range(years)
Sample sizeAgeDurationLocationYearSample
111,040 valid waking recordings; 851,276 recorded words
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Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?
16,215(7,301)
15,669(8,663)
Cohen’s d = 0.07, p = .248
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Responses to the Study
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A Funny Take on It …
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Or Closer to the Truth …
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Naturalistic observation allows for the assessment of subtle social behaviors that evade self-reports
Eavesdropping on Happiness
Mehl, Vazire, Holleran, & Clark, Psych Science, 2010
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Is the happy (daily) life full of superficial, happy-go-lucky moments or full of profound social encounters (“happy ignoramus” vs. “fulfilled deep thinker”)?
Eavesdropping on Happiness
96 participants wore the EAR for 4 days Well-being was assessed with self-reports of life-
satisfaction and self- and informant reports of happiness EAR codings
Time spent alone, time spent with others Small-talk (uninvolved conversation of a banal nature; only trivial
information gets exchanged) Substantive conversations (involved conversation of a substantive
nature; meaningful information gets exchanged)
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Eavesdropping on Happiness
The happy daily life is social rather than solitary and conversationally deep rather than superficial.
r = -.35 & r = .31, ps < .01 r = -.33 & r = .28, ps < .01
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Summary
It allows us to study actual, real-world behavior in addition to (global, retrospective, or momentary) perceptions of such behavior.
This is important because only that way can we learn about what causes
convergence of and discrepancies between the two. ultimately, actual, real-world behavior tends to be
the (explicit or implied) end-point of our theories.
In essence, what is the added value of naturalistic observation with a method such as the EAR?
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“We wish to suggest, gently and respectfully,that social and personality psychology try toput a bit more behavior back into the scienceof behavior (…). We advocate a renewedcommitment to including direct observation ofbehavior whenever possible and in at least ahealthy minority of research projects.”
(Baumeister,Vohs, & Funder,2007)
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Day-to-DaySocial Lives
Personality
Relationships
Health
Culture
The Broader Context of this Research
SighingSwearing
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the participants for sharing the sounds of their personal daily lives. the research assistants for coding and transcribing the EAR sound files.
James Pennebaker, Sam Gosling, Simine Vazire, Jason Rentfrow, Nairan Ramirez, Andrea Garcia, Shannon Holleran, Megan Robbins, and all the other people who directly or indirectly contributed to the projects. The NIH (R03CA137975) and ACS (IRG-74–001–28) for their support.
Thanks to …
Allison Lake Cecilia Boyed Jordan Lopuszanski Lizzette Enriquez Sean Randall
Alyssa Fu Chelsea Joseph Josh Lewis Margaret Jarvis Shannon Finley
Amanda Grossman Erin Armstrong Kaitlin Groch Baroi Mary Arbuthnot Shelby Clarke
Andres O'Donnell Gina Myers Katherine Calkins Monica Berumen Stephanie Carlson
Annette Enriquez Jamie Johns Kristin Donneley Monica Miller Stephanie Levitt
Ariel Anderson Jaz Miller Kyle Keller Rachel Tasky Zach Smith
Ashley Godfrey Jessica Corl Lauren Carmichal Rose Estes
Ashley Lau Jilletta Begay Lindsay Keefer Ruben Lespron
Aubrey Arrington John Putz Lindsey Ishikawa Sara Ziebell