Words, Image Schemata and Individual Differences: A Survey Based on Bodily Communication

The form of words and concepts in mind is the subject of this paper. Among various methods, bodily communication has been used to show it in the mind of people with individual differences. Two hundred students participated in the first phase of the study, while ninety five of them participated in the second phase of it. In the first phase, a set of tests was given successively to determine the levels of certain personality variables. In the experimental setting, the participants were instructed to communicate certain words one by one nonverbally. These thirty words were selected according to Ricci Bitti and Poggi (1991)’s strategies. The image schemata used by them and then the association between using different schemata and psychological variables were investigated. The results showed that the association between them is significant in some words. This significance was seen more in more stable and innate psychological characteristics. In fact, Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.) and introversion/extroversion had a more effective role than self-esteem to make a significant difference when participants tried to show different words using various schemata; while anxiety had the least role.