Week 10 Communication Accommodation Theory

From my personal understanding, Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) revolves around us trying to ‘accommodate’ other people’s communication style.

Griffin (2012) defines the term 'accomodation' as "the constant movement toward or away from others by changing your communicative behaviour." (p.395)

According to Turner & West (2010), this theory tries to explain what are the causes and the outcomes for what happens when two individuals shift or change their communication styles for the sake of accommodating one another. This is usually the case when two individuals from different cultures meet.

I personally see this 'accomodation' process as something that we do almost everyday when we interact with different people specifically those of different cultures with us. However this 'accommodation' is also done in our daily personal meetings or routine. For example on how we speak with our parents and how we speak with our friends. For surely we will speak to them differently such as in terms of the words we use, the tone we use, even our facial expressions.

It needs to be noted that communication does not always mean verbal form of communication such as talking but it also involves non verbal communication such as behavior, gestures or even the way we dress. (West & Turner 2010)

So for my example in this analysis, I would just use the Malay Muslim culture in Brunei. When the celebration of Eid came, normally the Malay Muslim will be celebrating their moment of victory after fasting for a month. It is also to ask for forgiveness among family and friends. During this time of the year, we can surely see a lot of people trying to ‘accommodate’ other people when they meet.

Let us just take one aspect of the event which is CLOTHING.

As we can see, most people will be dressed up in their formal Malay clothing which is ‘baju cara melayu'  for the men and ‘baju kurong’ for the women. This can be seen as a obvious dress code during eid. This itself is ‘accommodation’. Accommodating the eid event here in Brunei, accommodating the host who is also using ‘cara melayu or baju kurong’.

I can see the concept of convergence occurring here. West and Turner (2010, pg 472) defines convergence it as ‘strategy used to adapt to another’s behaviour’. This is usually done for the sake of social approval, for converging with a particular individual. Referring to the example stated, it only seems proper for us to visit others during Eid by following the dress code which is cara melayu or baju kurung. Those clothing itself potray a hidden message of trying to ‘fit in’ with a particular group or event. In this case, as the culture of Brunei Muslims during Eid is that they wear cara melayu or baju kurong.  

Assuming someone from a different culture of different religion would try to join the Eid event, if they would want to ‘converge’, they would most likely try and fit in through suing the appropriate dress code.

There is another aspect in CAT which is ‘divergence’. Griffin (2012, pg 396) defines it as the ‘communication strategy of accentuating the differences between you and another person.’ Individuals would usually diverge if they wanted to make a distinction of themselves. West and Turner (2010) added that usually groups with strong sense of cultural pride would want to diverge to somehow make a statement or highlight their group identity.

Taking the example of baju cara melayu or baju kurong, divergence can occur when the those clothing are used on a different setting or event. For example on events which involve different cultural groups promoting their culture. Assuming that the Malay culture group is involved in that event, therefore they would also promote their culture where they would wear their traditional clothing of baju melayu or baju kurong. That itself is divergence. Other cultural groups would also 'diverge' in those type of events.

There is a question of why we do all those converging and diverging. Griffin (2012) explains that we are motivated to do them. For ‘convergence’, the motivation for social approval of others. For ‘divergence’, the motivation to be distinctive, different from others. Coupland (2007 pg.62) added that for convergence, individuals seek for 'social attractiveness' and 'communication efficiency'. Whereas for divergence, it may be for 'reducing intimacy' though that is just one of the implications of divergence. 

West and Turner (2010) has commented on this theory on how it is extended from accommodating verbal communication to non verbal communication. With the changing culture in most societies, this theory may need to be extensive to further our understanding with the changing population of culture in the world. 

References:

Coupland, N., (2007) Style: Language Variation & Identity. Cambridge.

Griffin, E., (2012) A First Look At Communication Theory (8th Edition). New York. McGraw Hill.

West, R., Turner, L., H., (2010) Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (4^th Edition). New York. McGraw Hill.