Communication accommodation theory (CAT)
Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is a framework that explores how individuals adjust their communication styles in different social contexts. Developed by Howard Giles, CAT posits that people often modify their vocal patterns, gestures, and overall communication strategies based on their interactions with others. This theory highlights two primary processes: convergence, where individuals reduce perceived social differences, and divergence, where they emphasize these differences. Such adjustments can be influenced by various factors, including the relationship between communicators, cultural backgrounds, and situational contexts.
CAT is particularly relevant in intercultural communication, where misunderstandings can arise from nonverbal cues or varying speech nuances. It also acknowledges the importance of social norms and the desire for approval, which often drive individuals to adapt their speech styles. While CAT has been widely accepted and applied across diverse fields, including psychology and sociology, it has also faced criticism for potentially oversimplifying complex communication dynamics. Understanding CAT can provide valuable insights into the everyday interactions of individuals, including the challenges faced by bicultural individuals and immigrants as they navigate communication in different environments.
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Communication accommodation theory (CAT)
Communication accommodation theory (CAT) deals with an individual’s ability to adjust to particular situations while communicating with others. It is based on the observation that interpersonal communication often requires people to adapt their communication strategies, such as vocal patterns and gestures, depending on who they are communicating with. CAT researchers have closely examined the rationale behind such adjustments, exploring the motivations that cause individuals to either emphasize or downplay social differences while communicating with others, whether those differences are verbal or nonverbal.
Communication scholars have tried to understand the roles of context and identity in transmitting language. Numerous studies have helped expand researchers’ understanding of the dynamics of accommodation in both personal and group communication. According to the theory, accommodation involves both convergence and divergence, depending on the individual communicators and their situations. Convergence is when an individual minimizes perceived social disparities with another participant in the conversation, while divergence is the emphasis of differences. A communicator who is attempting to practice convergence may unwittingly employ over-accommodation, causing those they are communicating with to view them as condescending, thus heightening barriers to communication.
Background
Communication accommodation theory was the brainchild of Howard Giles, a professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Giles argued that social differences quite often create barriers to communication. To deal with those differences, speakers attempt to accommodate to the speech patterns of others, either stressing or downplaying differences in their communication styles. CAT was heavily influenced by work Giles did in the early 1970s that had led him to develop speech accommodation theory (SAT), which examined the ways in which psychological concepts affect communication and why an individual’s speech can change in response to those with whom the speaker is communicating. While the core ideas of SAT are embraced in CAT, the latter attempts to explain communication accommodation within a broader context, including nonverbal communication and other forms of social interaction. CAT has been used across disciplines, including psychology, sociology, medicine, and criminal justice. It has even been used to examine communication within internet chat rooms.
By the 1990s, Giles had begun to expand his work on accommodation theory, maintaining that the diversity of behaviors within a wide range of communication situations could only be truly understood though further qualitative studies. These studies, which he worked on with Justine Coupland and Nikolas Coupland of Cardiff University, demonstrated that CAT can be used to explain the ways in which individuals communicate on a daily basis. While CAT has been widely accepted within the field of communication and has been endorsed by scholars from various fields, it has also received its share of academic criticism. Its harshest critics have contended that CAT has led to an oversimplification of a complex process.
Overview
Communication scholars have long been concerned with developing a greater understanding of why individuals behave differently when communicating with others. Differences are particularly strong during intercultural communication because the nuances of speech vary greatly in such situations. Nonverbal communication may send messages that were never intended and that may damage a personal or professional relationship. Early in life, bicultural individuals develop the ability to adjust their communication skills as well as their language to different spheres, and this accommodation is one of the first skills that immigrants learn when moving to a new country. Speech is also adjusted to a listener’s ability to comprehend it, resulting in speakers choosing simple sentences when communicating with small children or with individuals with intellectual disabilities. It is easy to understand why most people wish to appear pleasant to others and why the desire for approval is a strong motivator in selecting communication techniques.
CAT depends heavily on understanding the processes of convergence and divergence. When using convergence, the speaker attempts to reduce social differences that result from distinct life experiences. Conversely, the divergence practitioner chooses to stress differences that exist between speaker and listener. Whether convergence or divergence is used is generally a reaction to the perception of identifiable characteristics. Convergence may also be dependent on attraction between the two parties. If the two feel drawn to one another, convergence is seen as a way of narrowing differences. If they are members of the same in-group, they may feel a sense of belonging, in terms of sharing similar speech patterns arising from similarities in background and life experiences. In such a case, speakers may choose to engage in convergence to highlight these similarities. In cases where the speaker perceives that the social status of the other person is higher than the speaker’s, the speaker is likely to engage in convergence and accommodate the perceived superior’s speech and behavior. In most cases, accommodation occurs within the context of appropriate social norms that are understood by the different participants engaged in the conversation.
Divergence, which is sometimes defined as nonaccommodation, occurs in situations where one speaker wishes to heighten perceived differences. For instance, a parent exerting parental authority over a child is much more likely to engage in divergence both verbally and nonverbally. Similarly, physicians and teachers who wish to show that they are the experts may demonstrate divergence when communicating with patients and students. For some speakers, it is more important to maintain their own styles of speech than to accommodate others, and such speakers may deliberately ignore cues and reactions of listeners, engaging in neither convergence nor divergence.
Bibliography
Buzzanell, Patrice M., et al. "When I Call You Up and You’re Not There: Application of Communication Accommodation Theory to Telephone Answering Machine Messages." Western Journal of Communication, vol. 60, no. 4, 1996, pp. 310–36.
Dorjee, Tenzin. "Communication Accommodation Theory." The Sage Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence. Edited by Janet M. Bennett, Sage, 2015, pp. 103–7.
Giles, Howard, editor. Communication Accommodation Theory: Negotiating Personal Relationships and Social Identities across Contexts. Cambridge UP, 2016.
Giles, Howard, et al. "Communication Accommodation Theory: Past Accomplishments, Current Trends, and Future Prospects." Language Sciences, vol. 99, 2023, doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101571. Accessed 12 Nov. 2024.
Giles, Howard, et al., editors. Contexts of Accommodation: Developments in Applied Sociolinguistics. Cambridge UP, 1991.
Hehl, Jennifer, and Deborah Dillon McDonald. "Older Adults’ Pain Communication during Ambulatory Medical Visits: An Exploration of Communication Accommodation Theory." Pain Management Nursing, vol. 15, no. 2, 2014, pp. 466–73.
Pitts, Margaret J., and Jake Harwood. "Communication Accommodation Competence: The Nature and Nurture of Accommodative Resources across the Lifespan." Language & Communication, vol. 41, 2015, pp. 88–99.
Soliz, Jordan, and Howard Giles. "Relational and Identity Processes in Communication: A Contextual and Meta-analytical Review of Communication Accommodation Theory." Communication Yearbook, vol. 38, 2014, pp. 107–43.
Yilmaz, Gamze, and Jorge Peña. "How Do Personal Behaviors and Social Categories Affect Language Use? The Case of Virtual Teams." Communication Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 4, 2015, pp. 427–43.