あいづちの心的効果について

Abstract

Back-channels are the listener's responses in conversation, containing short utterance and nonverbal behavior. Back-channels have been studied for the past few decades, mainly in the field of linguistics. This paper has attended to clarify the psychological function of back-channels. First, each subject was instructed to listen to a story, which was narrated in this experiment. At this stage, the subjects were divided into two groups. One group was instructed not to express back-channels and the other instructed just to listen to the story. In the next stage, they measured some scales and then the subjects were interviewed on how they had felt and thought while they listened to the story. The dates of the two groups were compared with each other. Consequently, some functions of back-channels were discovered; Back-channels may help listeners to feel their feeling for themselves; there is a qualitative difference between the vocal utterances and nods and back-channels may contribute to the compatibility of listening behavior within the regulation of relationship between the participants of conversation. In this manner, this paper expands the comprehension of psychological functions of back-channels.