| Abstract: | It is plausible that certain observed similarities between individual orientations of peasants in developing countries and of the poor in developed nations may be traceable in part to their restricted utilization of language in organizing experience and communicating with others. Granting that there must be real opportunities in the environment (and assuming that there virtually always are), deficient encoding and decoding abilities may lessen the chances for both peasants and ghetto dwellers to respond effectively to such opportunities as a changing environment presents. Bernstein's hypothesis of code restrictedness may underlie problems of transforming traditional individuals by affecting the level of empathy which they exhibit when exposed to information about opportunities. Full utilization of language's potentials may be requisite to the perceptual flexibility and cognitive skill with hypotheticals; these in turn may be requisite to effective voluntary change. These considerations tie into more basic theories about the workings of the human mind. They hold promise of facilitating eventual unification of research on important aspects of communication in developing nations with important aspects of communication in the underdeveloped sectors of developed nations. Further, they promise synthesis with more general theories of communication and cognition. |
