COMM 305 1st Edition Lecture 9 Outline of Last Lecture I Theories of Discourse and Interaction II Communication Accommodation Outline of Current Lecture I Communication Accommodation cont II Culture and Communication Current Lecture Communication Accommodation cont o Pattern Distinctions cont Unimodal vs multimodal Unimodal only one aspect of our communication is growing more similar Multimodal more than one aspect of our communication growing more similar Typically convergence divergence is multimodal Symmetrical vs asymmetrical Symmetrical when both people are trying to become more similar Asymmetrical when you don t see convergence between either person or only one is trying to become more similar Subjective vs objective Subjective what people think happened nonverbals that are understood by the parties involved the subjective perceptions of the interaction has just as much if not more consequences for the evaluation of the interaction It s the subjective perceptions that determine how the event went especially if you don t remember what really happened Objective what really happened o Explanations of Convergence and Divergence Natural tendency to accommodate Attraction we tend to converge towards people we re attracted to Power social status we tend to converge towards people in higher power These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Social identity convergence and divergence are ways we can express a social identity those aspects of self defined by some association we have Theories of Discourse and Interaction Culture and Communication o Expectancies in part come from who the people are the history they have the background they share and our culture and the interactions we grew up with o Emic vs Etic Approaches Emic Approaches try to explain communication as it happens what is true of in particular cultures focused inside cultures Etic Approaches are interested in explaining what true about communication across cultures General insights of how culture works o Complexities of Culture Cultures are nested within other cultures American culture and middle class American culture is nested within that and white middle class American culture in nested within that etc or Aggieland within Texas culture within American culture Individuals can belong to more than one culture Speech Codes Theory o Speech Codes and Speech Communities Speech Code A historically enacted socially constructed system of terms meanings premises and rules pertaining to communication conduct set of rules of what communication is in a certain culture wherever there is a speech community there is a speech code Speech Communities can be broad race where you live etc or small knitting circles high school friends o Six Propositions Wherever there is a distinctive culture there is to be found a distinctive speech code The jargon is different In any given speech community multiple speech codes are deployed ex diglossia a circumstance where 2 different languages coexist in a community where individuals are bi trilingual one of the languages is used for everyday informal occasions and another for formal occasions such as business and code switching enacting another set of codes and rules In the same sense that we can belong to more than one culture speech codes are monolithic more than one are at play Ex Haiti French for formal and Creole for informal A speech code involves a culturally distinctive ways of thinking of the self psychology how do I define myself the community as a whole sociology and culturally distinctive ways of making arguments constructing an appeal rhetoric The significance of speaking depends on the speech codes used by listeners to create and interpret their communication we know what things mean based on our own speech codes Speech codes must be discovered through observation of talk speech codes are not just about the talk but in order to understand it you have to see people using the language so you can see the context and nonverbals interact Speech codes guide and constrain behavior but they don t have deterministic force they don t have a specific code to them no formula speech codes don t directly determistically cause behavior