Communication accommodation theory

Communication accommodation theory (CAT) is a theory of communication developed by Howard Giles. This theory concerns '(1) the behavioral changes that people make to attune their communication to their partner, and (2) the extent to which people perceive their partner as appropriately attuning to them.' This theory is concerned with the links between language, context, and identity. It focuses on both the intergroup and interpersonal factors that lead to accommodation, as well as the ways that power, macro and micro-context concerns affect communication behaviors. Communication accommodation theory (CAT) is a theory of communication developed by Howard Giles. This theory concerns '(1) the behavioral changes that people make to attune their communication to their partner, and (2) the extent to which people perceive their partner as appropriately attuning to them.' This theory is concerned with the links between language, context, and identity. It focuses on both the intergroup and interpersonal factors that lead to accommodation, as well as the ways that power, macro and micro-context concerns affect communication behaviors. 'Communication accommodation theorists focus on the patterns of convergence and divergence of communication behaviors, particularly as they relate to people’s goals for social approval, communication efficiency, and identity'. 'Convergence' refers to strategies through which individuals adapt to each other's communicative behaviors to reduce these social differences. Meanwhile, 'divergence' refers to the instances in which individuals accentuate the speech and non-verbal differences between themselves and their interlocutors. The speech accommodation theory was developed to demonstrate all of the value of social psychological concepts to understanding the dynamics of speech. It sought to explain '... the motivations underlying certain shifts in people's speech styles during social encounters and some of the social consequences arising from them.'Particularly, it focused on the cognitive and affective processes underlying individuals' convergence and divergence through speech. The communication accommodation theory has broadened this theory to include not only speech but also the 'non-verbal and discursive dimensions of social interaction'. CAT has also created a different perspective from other research in language and social interaction—and communication more generally—that focuses on either interpersonal or intergroup communication. Like speech accommodation theory, communication accommodation theory continues to draw from social psychology, particularly from four main socio-psychology theories: similarity-attraction, social exchange, causal attribution and intergroup distinctiveness. These theories help to explain why speakers seek to converge or diverge from the language, dialect, accent and behavior of their interlocutors. CAT also relies heavily in social identity theory. This latter theory argues that a person's self-concept comprises a personal identity and a social identity, and that this social identity is based in comparisons people make between in-groups (groups they belong to) and out-groups (groups they do not belong to). According to social identity theory, people strive to maintain a positive social identity by either joining groups where they feel more comfortable or making a more positive experience of belonging to the groups they already belong to. Since speech is a way to express group membership, people adopt convergence or divergence in communication to 'signal a salient group distinctiveness, so as to reinforce a social identity'. Communication accommodation thus, becomes a tool to emphasize group distinctiveness in a positive way, and strengthen the individual's social identity. There are four main socio-psychological theories: The similarity-attraction theory posits that 'The more similar our attitudes and beliefs are to those of others, the more likely it is for them to be attracted to us.' Convergence through verbal and non-verbal communication is one of the mechanisms that we can use to become more similar to others, increasing their attraction towards us. For this reason, it can be said that one of the factors that leads individuals to use convergence is a desire to obtain social approval from their interlocutor. It could hence be concluded that 'the greater one's need for social approval, the greater will be one's tendency to converge'. Natalé (1975), for instance, has found that speakers with high needs for approval converge more to another's vocal intensity and pause length than those with low needs for approval. An individual on the receiving end of high level of accommodation is likely to develop a greater sense of self-esteem and satisfaction than being a receiver of low accommodation. The social exchange process theory '... states that prior to acting, we attempt to assess the rewards and costs of alternate courses of action', and that we tend to choose whatever course of action will bring greater rewards and less costs. The Social Exchange Theory is a theory that looks at how people evaluate their relationships. Throughout the process of evaluating relationships, individuals want to feel as if they are receiving more from the relationship than they are expending within the relationship. In other words, people like to be in relationships where the rewards outweigh the costs. Although most often convergence can bring forth rewards, there are some occasions when it can also bring forth costs such as 'increased effort to converge, a loss of perceived integrity and personal (and sometimes group) identity'. Hence, when choosing whether or not to use convergence, people assess these costs and rewards. The causal attribution theory 'uggests that we interpret other people's behavior, and evaluate the individual themselves, in terms of the motivations and intentions that we attribute as the cause of their behavior' It applies to convergence in that convergence might be viewed positively or negatively depending on the causes we attribute to it: 'Although interpersonal convergence is generally favorably received, and non-convergence generally unfavorably received, the extent to which this holds true will undoubtedly be influenced by the listeners attributions of the speaker's intent.' Giles and Smith provide the example of an experiment that they conducted amongst French and English speaking Canadians to illustrate this. In this experiment, when individuals believed that the person from the different group used language convergence to reduce cultural barriers, they evaluated it more positively than when they attributed it to the pressures of the situation. 'When French Canadian listeners attributed an English Canadian's convergence to French as due to his desire to break down cultural barriers, the shift was viewed favorably. However, when this same behavior was attributed to pressures in the situation forcing the other to converge, positive feelings were not so strongly evoked.' The process of intergroup distinctiveness, as theorized by Tajfel argues, '... when members of different groups are in contact, they compare themselves on dimensions that are important to them, such as personal attributes, abilities, material possessions and so forth.' In these 'intergroup social comparisons' individuals seek to find ways to make themselves positively distinct from the out-group to enhance their social identity. Because speech style and language is an important factor in defining social groups, divergence in speech style or language is often used to maintain intergroup distinctiveness and differentiate from the out-group, especially when group membership is a salient issue or the individual's identity and group membership is being threatened. Many of the principles and concepts from social identity theory are also applicable to communication accommodation theory. Under the influence of social psychology, especially social identity theory, communication accommodation theory are guided by mainly four assumptions. The first assumption indicates that people bring their past experience to conversations. Therefore, communication is influenced by situational conditions and initial reactions but also the 'social-historical context in which the interaction is embedded'. People's attitudes and beliefs, derived from those factors, determine the extent to which they are willing to accommodate in a conversation. The more similarities that they share with each other, the more likely for them to accommodate.