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    15-Communication Accomodation

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    15-Communication Accomodation

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    15-Communication Accomodation

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    Communication Accommodation

    CMN 101Y
    Dr. Cuihua (Cindy) Shen
    Howard Giles

    Source: UCSB
    Defining Culture
     “Learned patterns of perception,
    values, and behaviors, shared by
    a group of people, that are
    dynamic and heterogeneous”
    Cultural Patterns: An Example
    Accomodation
     Accommodation: “The constant
    movement toward or away
    from others by changing your
    communicative behavior.”
    General Focus
     How we adjust our
    communication to one another
    to gain approval or maintain
    distinctiveness
    ◼ especially during intergroup,
    intercultural, interethnic, or
    intergenerational communication
    Convergence
    Overview
    Ways to
    Accommodate

    Convergence Divergence

    Maintenance Over-
    accommodation
    Convergence
     Adapt your communication
    behavior to become more similar
    to another person
     Mirror the other person’s speech
    patterns (vocabulary, accent, speech
    rate, grammar, voice, etc.)
     Match the other person’s
    appearance and nonverbal
    behavior (gestures, mannerisms, etc.)
    Convergence
    Divergence
    Divergence
     A strategy of accentuating the
    differences between yourself
    and another person
     Speaks and gestures
    differently from other person,
    or overaccomodate
    Divergence
     Special forms
     Maintenance: persisting in one’s
    original communication style
     Over-accommodation:
    demeaning or patronizing talk;
    excessive concern paid to vocal
    clarity, simplification, etc.
    Motivations to Converge/Diverge
    Social Identity Theory
     Pressure to evaluate one’s own
    group positively through in-
    group/out-group comparisons
    leads social groups to attempt to
    differentiate themselves from
    each other
    Motivations
     Personal identity salient: Desire
    for approval
     Convergence

     Social identity salient: Need for


    distinctiveness
     Divergence
    Motivations
     Initial Orientation: an individual’s
    predisposition toward focusing
    on either individual identity or
    distinctive group identity
    Factors that Influence Initial Orientation
     Collectivist cultural context
     Distressing history of interaction
     Negative stereotypes
     Norms for treating other groups
    of people
     High in-group solidarity
    Perception of Accommodation
    Accommodation
     Accommodation may be
    conscious or unconscious;
    mutual or non-mutual
    Perception of Accommodation
     Recipient’s evaluation of accommodation
     Objective vs. subjective accommodation
     Speaker’s perception of accommodation
     “one does not converge toward (or diverge from) the
    actual speech of the recipient, but toward (or from)
    one’s stereotype about the recipient’s speech.”
    Evaluation
    Critique of the Theory
     Enormous scope at the cost of
    clarity
    Critique of the Theory
     Conversations are too complex
    to be reduced to the dual
    processes of convergence and
    divergence

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