Social Psychology Lecture 6

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Social PsychologyLecture 6

• Social Psychology of Language
• Jane Clarbour
• (Spring 2002)

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Overview

• Content
• Theory of equivocation
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict
• Ratings of equivocation
• Threats to face
• Style
• Speech accommodation theory
• Accent convergence and divergence
• Postural congruence
• Function
• Discourse analysis
• Discursive action model
• Accountability

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Objectives

• Give an account of Bavelas et al.s theory of
  equivocation
• Give an account of Speech Accommodation Theory
  using empirical examples of accent convergence
  and divergence
• Demonstrate an understanding of what is meant by
  discourse analysis
• Give an account of what is meant by stake,
  interest, and accountability
• Discuss an example of a study based on discourse
  analysis

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Key Reading

• Beattie Doherty (1995)
• Discursive construction of victims and
  perpetators in Northern Ireland
• Giles et al. (1987)
• Speech accommodation theory the first decade and
  beyond
• Henley et al. (1995)
• Syntax, semantics, and sexual violence agency
  and the passive voice

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The content of speech

• Equivocation (Bavelas et al., 1990)
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict
• Types of replies
• Ratings of equivocation
• Equivocation theory
• Threats to face

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Equivocation (Bavelas et al. 1990)

• Circumstances in which people avoid replying to
  questions
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict
• Telling truth bad
• Telling lie bad
• Try to avoid both negative alternatives
• Especially when telling the truth serves no real
  purpose..

I appreciate your thoughtfulness!
Yuk!!!
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Avoidance-avoidance conflict

• Conflict situations
• e.g. students were asked to respond to following
• Another student in a small class, which meets
  three times for the entire year, has just given a
  class presentation. It was very poorly done
  poorly prepared, and poorly delivered. After he
  sits down again, he passes you a note How did I
  do? you have to jot something down and pass it
  back to him. What would you write as an answer?

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Avoidance-avoidance replies

• Bavelas (1990) identified three types of
  equivocal, avoidance-avoidance answer
• Subtle change responses (you were it
  was)
• Deferred replies (postponement)
• Hints (but doesnt answer directly)

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Subtle change responses

• Changes in speech content from
• you were it was
• Changes the answer from the person to the
  presentation

It was okay, but there were things that could
have been improved!
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Deferred replies

• Postponement
• Answers obliquely
• Changes the topic

I wasnt quite sure what you were getting at,
but the idea behind it was good
shall we meet later and talk about it over
coffee?
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Indirect responses

• Hints (but doesnt answer directly)

• You should have spent a little more time
  preparing for the presentation. It only needed a
  little more work to be a really good
  presentation

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Equivocation theory

• Communicative responses are dimensional
• Responses including avoidance-avoidance conflicts
  are more equivocal
• Direct avoidance- responses
  avoidance replies
• Theory states that although it is the individual
  who equivocates..

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Situational determinants

• It is the communicative situation that is the
  cause of the equivocation
• Change of approach from the personality of the
  equivocator to that of the situation
• So, although politicians are notorious for
  equivocation, they equivocate so much because
  they are so frequently placed in
  avoidance-avoidance conflicts!

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Evaluation of equivocation theory

• 3 main criticisms
• Lack of theoretical basis
• Causes rather than effects
• Implicit vs non-replies
• Implicit replies as highly skilled social skill

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Threats to face (Bull et al. 1996)

• Self-presentation
• Threats to face create avoidance-avoidance
  conflicts
• politicians avoid responses that make them look
  bad.
• If a question is posed that makes a politician,
  colleague, or the party look bad avoid reply
• If a question does not pose a threat to face
  reply.

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Speech styles

• Speech Accommodation theory
• Studies of accent convergence
• Studies of accent divergence

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Speech Accommodation Theory

• Based on BYRNEs (1969) similarity-attraction
  theory
• The more similar are our attitudes and beliefs to
  another, the more likely it is that we will be
  attracted to them
• Speech is accommodated in order to reduce
  dissimilarites

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Studies of accent

• Accent divergence
• To disassociate from the listener the speaker may
  emphasise pronunciation dissimilarities
• Accent convergence
• To gain anothers approval, the speaker may
  reduce pronunciation dissimilarities
• Upward accent convergence
• Downward accent convergence

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Studies of accent convergence

• COUPLAND (1984)
• Observed accent convergence in a travel agency.
• Number of hs sounded by assistant varied from
  3.7 to 29.3
• Significantly correlated with the proportion
  sounded by her clients

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Accent divergence (Bourhis Giles, 1977)

• Welsh students on Welsh language course
• Ss asked to take part in a survey concerned with
  2nd language learning techniques.
• Ss listened to questions posed by very English
  sounding tutor who at one point asked
• Responses showed extreme accent divergence
  following this attack
• Broadened their Welsh accent
• Introduction of Welsh words and phrases
• 1 Ss was silent then produced Welsh expletive
  into the microphone!

Why on earth do you want to study a dying
language with a dismal future?
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Experimental manipulation of convergence
levelsGiles Smith (1979)

• A Canadian male speaker prepared a series of
  tapes describing the educational system in
  Ontario for English speakers
• The speaker accommodated in terms of 3 levels of
  speech convergence
• message content
• (original length 120 words / speaker added 85
  words to elaborate on items)
• Pronunciation
• (originally BBC/ to RP accent)
• speech rate
• (normal rate 145 words per minute / slowed down
  to 100 wpm)
• The tapes were rated by a group of teachers in
  England

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Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles et al.
1987)

• Nonverbal communication
• The concept of speech accommodation has been
  broadened out to include non-verbal communication
• Postural congruence SCHEFLEN (1964)
• People accommodate towards each others posture
  (mirror imaging)
• Similarity of posture may signal similarity of
  views or roles in a group
• Non-congruence of posture may indicate marked
  divergence in attitude or status

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Discourse analysis

• How people perceive and interpret social
  interaction (especially communication).
• But emphasis not simply on how individuals
  construct reality based upon interpretation of
  situations
• Instead, a pragmatic consideration of the entire
  whole
• the situation, the past history, future
  intentions, motivation, the roles of the
  individuals, what is said, what isnt said

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Discourse as a social construction

• All language is considered by the discourse
  analyst as constructed
• To make sense of experience
• A production of an account in relation to
  something/someone
• To convey an idea
• To justify action
• To impart blame
• It is not necessary for the account to be
  consciously constructed or seen as true/untrue
• A description of something to a friend or parent
  may differ placing different emphasis in each
  construction
• (Potter Wetherell, 1987)

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Discursive Action Model (Edwards Potter, 1993)

• 3 major principles of discourse
• Action
• Fact and Interest
• Accountability
• Each contains 3 components

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Discursive Action Model (Edwards Potter, 1993)

• ACTION
• Focus on action, not cognition
• Attributions are discursive actions
• Not as perceptions or translations
• Attributions occur in activity sequences
• They involve interpersonal issues
• Blame, reward, invitation, compliment etc
• Attributions are elements in social activities

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Discursive Action Model (Edwards Potter, 1993)

• FACT and INTEREST
• Analysis of interest or motivation in the action
  sequence
• Statements of factual accounts
• Truth portrayed through direct perception of
  account (e.g I saw it)
• Descriptive accounts constructed
• Selective accounts organised to represent a
  particular rhetorical argument or perspective

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Discursive Action Model

• ACCOUNTABILITY
• Analysis of who/what originally caused the event
• Who is accountable for its occurrence?
• How accountable is the current person in the
  event?
• How accountable is the reporter of the event?

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Discursive Action Model

• Stake or Interest - how does the speaker
  construct an account without appearing partisan
  or biased (which would reduce credibility)
• Accountability - Depending upon the function of
  the talk, speakers may emphasise or de-emphasis
  both their own accountability and the
  accountability of the other person
• for actions
• for accuracy
• for the interactional consequences of those
  accounts
• to claim (or disclaim) credit

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Example of discourse analysis (Beatie Doherty,
1995)

• Eyewitness accounts (protestant) of an
  assassination assassination attempts in
  N.Ireland.
• John Jean own a video shop in
  N.Belfast. The Irish Provisional Liberation Org.
  attempted to murder Jean in Oct 91, and in Feb
  92 they returned and murdered her 16-yr-old
  assistant, William.

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Jeans construction of the attempted murder
(Beatie Doherty, 1995)

• Jean recalls the attempted murder
• Car pulls up in front of her (factual
  presentation)
• a) Going to say hello? (false, but credible,
  belief)
• b) Simply a bad driver? (false, but credible,
  belief)
• Jean establishes herself as a credible witness
• wouldnt everyone think thisShe is after all an
  ORDINARY woman
• Vivid recall of events
• JEAN IS DE-EMPHASISING HER STAKE OR INTEREST

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Agency and the passive voice(Henley et al., 1995)

• Active voice
• In the U.S. a man rapes a woman every 6 minutes
• Passive voice
• In the U.S. a woman is raped by a man every 6
  minutes

A woman was sort of raped in the parking lot
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Summary

• Theories of communication have largely developed
  in isolation to each other
• Equivocation theory
• Focus on the content of speech
• Accommodation theory
• Focus on communicative style
• Discourse analysis
• Focus on the communicative function
• Verb voice changes the semantics of the
  communication

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Conclusions

• Equivocation
• considered as a special form of accommodation as
  people equivocate in order not to diverge too
  sharply from their listeners
• Discourse analysts would question why
• Discourse analysis (DA)
• is a philosophical and ideological approach to
  social understanding based upon an analysis of
  the function of words.
• DA considers social interaction to be motivated,
  goal driven and socially constructed

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What next..

• Practical 2 (Assessed)
• Quantitative analysis of communication
• Lecture 7 Focus on attitudes