Communication Accommodation Theory
This theory highlights beneath aspirations and consequences of the possible occurrence when two respondents change their styles of communication. Theorists under this theory contests that during communication, people adjust or accommodate their speaking style to one another. This is mostly done through convergence or divergence. People with stronger racial or ethnic groups highlight their identity through divergence. In case of social approval mostly by the powerless individuals, convergence is their most adopted communication mode. I need to bring to your attention that this theory does not imply that you are powerless, but rather it is praise in disguise. Considering that you and your best friend come from different countries, it only means that you come from a more humbled ethnic and racial background. This should however not discourage you to part ways, after all the best of friends do not share everything, but they understand and acknowledge their differences and that is what makes the friendship unique. Having known your best friend’s background, you need to understand her whenever she makes certain remarks. You should not take her remarks personal since you know her better and you know that she only has your best interest at heart (Cicciarelli, 3).
Applicable Concepts –Self-concept
Self-concept is a prominent term used not only in humanism, but also in social psychology to explain how a person perceives or thinks about herself. It is simply the image we have about ourselves and is influenced by people we interact with in our lives. It also portrays our ability and our uniqueness and constitutes a collection of qualities, beliefs, behavior, and the nature of an individual. Self-concept ent...
... middle of paper ...
...n
Perception refers to a person’s sensory experience to the environment around them and involves environmental stimuli and the stimuli response. Perception is classified into three components. First component is the perceiver, a person who acknowledges something and seeks for its understanding; based on emotions, experience, or motivation. Secondly is the target, who is the individual being judged or perceived. Lastly is the situation, different situations multiplies information about the target. As friends, you should not be quick to respond to the surrounding stimuli but first try to comprehend and analyze what could have been the cause of such stimuli. By responding to stimuli involving your relationship, your friendship can either be restored or completely ruined. It is therefore advisable to first understand the situation before taking any measures.
Conclusion
What does sense of self-mean? It means what that person sees when they look in a mirror. Whether it is a decent, awful or an indifferent image. Everyone’s self-image is different, and that’s acceptable; normal even. No one person is exactly the same. The authors explain how a sense of self is like internal conflicts and the decision to lie in order to gain approval.
According to Carl Rogers (1959) self concept has three different components: The view you have of yourself (Self image); How much value you place on yourself (Self esteem or self-worth); What you wish you were really like (Ideal self). These ideas of self concept do not necessary have to reflect the reality of what is to be known as truth to the outside observer. Such as in the case of those who struggle with anorexia. Though they may appear to the observer as being extremely underweight through the eyes of the observed they find themselves to be overweight. This is believed to be related to concept of self image. Baumeister (1999) provides the following self concept definition: "the individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and what the self
The first unit on our textbook Interactions by Ann Moseley and Jeanette Harris talks about the self-concept. It is hard to find a definition for the self-concept because it is certain beliefs about ethnicity, religion, and personalities combined. This unit has a number of readings by various authors where it shows struggles with the self. Self-identity, ethnic backgrounds, and self-esteem are the major aspects of those readings. After reading their writings I found that I could relate to their experiences. The three readings that got my attention were “Zero” By Paul Logan, “I’m Just Me” by Lylah Alphonse, and “The Jacket” by Gary Soto.
Self-concept is who you think you are and the relatively stable set of perceptions you hold of your self, not only the physical features but also including emotional states, talents, likes, values, roles.
In unit one of Interactions, the authors Ann Moseley and Jeanette Harris showed a number of readings about the idea of the self. The self-concept is an important matter because people change with age constantly and their thoughts change as well. There are many factors that can affect any individual’s thought of self-concept such as growing up, life experiences, friends and family, and meeting new people. Moreover, a number of readings in unit one by different authors showing their experiences and struggles with self-concept such as ethnicities, economy status, and self-esteem issue. I have had similar experiences with several authors, which are, “Zero” by Paul Logan, “Living in two worlds” by Marcus Mabry, and “The Jacket” by Gary Soto.
There are types of communication that we use in our daily life, which are: verbal and non-verbal communication. The way you react to those communications is effective too. Both of these types of communication can be very effective when you communicate with someone or people. Effective communication also depends on who we are talking and whether we agree with what they are saying. Effective communication can solve this friendship breakdown. Non-verbal communication with you friend could be: eye contact, body language (positive and negative), posture, , facial expressions and head movements. Non-verbal communication can be misinterpreted.
The Communication Accommodation Theory states when people interact they alter their speech to fit in or accommodate for others. CAT describes the psychological, social, and linguistic behaviors that people exhibit when communicating with each other (Coupland, Coupland, Giles, Henwood, 1988). Each individual has his or her own personality and motivation when involved in a conversation, this attribute is reflected in how the individual speaks, listens and then responds to the other person involved in the conversation. According to this theory, communication between two people can at any time be adjusted by either party in response to actual, perceived, or stereotyped expectations of the other person (Coupland, et al., 1988). This means that either party can change their communication style based on what they feel or pick up on during the conversation.
“Self-concept consists of knowledge, views and evaluation of the self, ranging from miscellaneous facts of personal history to the identity that gives a sense of purpose and coherence to life” (McCrae and Costa, 1996). With self-concept, we learn who we are by observing ourselves and using our cognitive processes to judge and evaluate our behaviour. However, with self-regulation, we are able to use this knowledge and judgment and apply it to future situations and so predicts behaviour and says a lot about our personality. If we are willing to cognitively analyse past situations and apply it effectively to future situations, this means we are changing our behaviour, thus changing our
In order to understand how one perceives situations and how they can determine the way one communicates; we first must understand the value of self-concept. Self is easily defined; it is one's beliefs, attitudes, feelings and values. It is who one is and what one stands for. Self-concept, is a relevantly stable set of perceptions and emotional states. It is the way one sees and understands oneself, and contributes to how one perceives oneself and perceives situations. One's self-concept may alter their perception, and either enhance or impede one's communication effectiveness. The way one sees oneself can influence the way they see their social surroundings. Only after one become aware of oneself can they be aware of their physical and social surroundings, which will allow one to perceive situations and people with a truer idea and create a more positive outcome.
In interpersonal communication there are many theories that are similar yet different in many ways. The theories can be combined to describe people and how those people interact and communicate with each other. Many of these theories help explain how people in society form impressions of others, how they maintain these impressions, why people interact with certain people in society, and how people will use these impressions that they have formed later on in life. These theories also help people to better understand themselves, to better understand interpersonal communication, and to better understand people in general. There are two theories in interpersonal communication that, despite their differences, can go hand in hand. The first is interaction adaptation theory and the second is emotional contagion theory. These two theories’ similarities and differences and their relevance to my everyday life will be discussed in this paper. These two theories are very important in understanding how people interact with others and why people do the things they do sometimes.
The opportunity for universal application of the Communication Accommodation Theory gives the field of Communication Studies a method of objectively analyzing conversational strategies and motivations both of which are considered to be overwhelmingly subjective. The ways in which communicators of different cultures perceive one and other [as individuals or members of a group] varies greatly even in a two-person interaction. The number of cultural identifications one certain individual might possess may be numerous, and already makes structured analysis of their communication choices in an interaction difficult. By guiding the process of conducting research with CAT, researchers are able to analyze the communication behaviors of any set of cultural communicat...
Some communication barriers appeared when Megan returned to New Zealand. This included language differences– the speech rate, vocabulary, and different accent. For example, using American terms (trash) instead of New Zealand terms (rubbish). Sometimes, both of us would have to repeat ourselves in order to correctly understand the conveyed meaning. A strategy used is defined as convergence, based on the Accommodation Theory. Convergence occurs when individuals adapt their – often non-verbal - communication behaviours towards each other (Giles, Coupland & Coupland, 1991). Megan and I demonstrated convergence by using similar hand gestures and having a more balanced speech rate to simply convey meaning through our spoken language. Another challenge I faced was perceiving Megan in light of the American stereotype; to be proud and openly expressive of her opinions and emotions. The influence of her cultural values didn’t categorise her as the American stereotype. However, Megan did mention the Islander stereotype she faces; being perceived as messy, uneducated, large, and violent. These two stereotypes have contributed to how she communicated her ethnic identity. Using standard English language features and showing respect and love to the person rather than speaking off hate and forcing her opinions on others. My strategic response was to have a more dialectic approach. In this case, I would take into account her Samoan cultural influence and her American cultural influence rather than perceiving her as one or the other in our
Self-concept can be described as how a person views themselves. There is a variety of factors that impact a person’s self-concept but the biggest impact comes from self-esteem. Self-esteem is much like self-concept the only difference is the addition of emotions. For example say an individual likes a brand they are aware that they enjoy the brand so that’s self-concept. Self-esteem on the other hand, if nobody else in the workplace likes the brand programme individual likes that could have a negative effect on a person’s self-esteem and therefore effect a person’s self-concept. In the workplace self-concept is of the uttermost importance when estab...
Now the communication class is almost over I have realize how important is to have good communication skills, and how it is key to life. I have learned many things in this class for example ways to approach strangers. Another thing that I have learned how to handle conflict and how sometimes it could be good it not always bad and many others. The way I look things have change to have reach my goals. This class was has also taught me how to look in the “other” perceptive, and not being selfish by just seeing one side. All that I have learn will help me and other around me to be able to communicate better.
They know how they feel about themselves. Their emotions have been developed so their way of describing themselves is accurate. The domain of self-concept during late teen years relates to Kail’s theme of “Children influence their own development” and “ Early development is related to later development, but not perfectly.” Self-concept is an idea that one develops within them. This idea is formed by social interactions and experiences. Parents cannot make a child’s self-concept. When a child is in their late teens their self-concept is already developed but one can conclude that they have made that self-concept by themselves and that there are certain aspects of why a child thinks that way because of some