Psychology

Psychology
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Psychology
The development of human cultures is perceived to being aligned with the development of the ability to adequately communicate verbally and thus language becoming a universal psychological skill among human beings. Another significant notion about human beings is that they operate as intentional agents due to their ability to interpret intentions and share their intentions among themselves. Language comes into perspective as it guides the capacity of human beings to share their intentions and beliefs concerning the intentions. It is perceived that abilities play a big part in the development of human cultures. Jokes are common in various cultures and play part in communicating one’s intentions. However, they become relevant when one is knowledgeable about a particular culture such that the teller of the joke does not have to explain the meaning of a joke once it is understood.
The Joke
An interesting joke that illuminates one aspect of the French culture is:
Q: What is the Guillotine?
A: A French chopping center.
The cultural knowledge that is assumed in the joke
The key terms in the joke are “guillotine” and “chopping”. The guillotine refers to one of the ancient methods used to carry out capital punishment. It consists of two erect posts that are held linked using a crossbeam that also directs the falling of an oblique-edged knife such that it forcefully and quickly lands on the neck of the individual being executed.

The cultural knowledge regarding the joke is that the Guillotine was developed by the French in the year 1972. The creator of the device was Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a physician, who supported the idea of capital punishment being carried out using a machine and thus the name guillotine. The machine was a common tool during the occurrence of the French Revolution whereby thousands of people were executed using the machine. The use of the machine was later banned in 1981 as a strategy for capital punishment. With reference to the joke, the basic assumption is that the recipient is familiar with the history of the machine and its association with the French or else it will be difficult to enjoy it when one is unable to comprehend what the teller of the joke is implying. This puts into view the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that presents the view that people from diverse cultures tend to exhibit different thinking in terms of structure, function and the nature of their languages. The associated view is that the manner in which they interpret the world, their affiliations and thought processes differ due to the differences in language. The basic idea is that language plays part in shaping the thought process (Chapter 10). The difficulty in decoding the joke can also be associated with the process associated with intercultural communication. In such construct, the individuals engaged in an interaction are not abided by similar ground rules. This makes it difficult for them to focus on the information being exchanged due to the differences when it comes to encoding and decoding of messages. When such situation takes place, the chances that there will be misunderstandings in addition to making implicit assumptions or judgments such as the receiver of a message being “backward”, “less informed” or “not good” (Chapter 10).
Questions
The questions that I would ask an individual from a different culture in order to comprehend the parallel cultural contexts with respect to the joke are;
What was the common device used in capital punishment in the past?
How did the device work?
Revise the joke.
Assuming that the person being told the joke is familiar with the Roman culture, a Roman version of the joke would be:
Q: Do you know Catherine?
A: A Roman death.
Reference
Chapter 10: Co-Evolution of Language and Human Culture.