Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic Interactionism is communication through symbols or better known as human interactions (Griffin, 2009, p. 60). In this post i will use the film Crazy Stupid Love to explain Symbolic Interactionism and how does it affect our lives.

Charon (1998, p. 39) explains that “Symbolic interactionism focuses on interaction in its understanding of the human being rather than on personality, society, or the influence of others. Interaction includes social interaction and interaction with oneself. It emphasizes that human beings define their environment rather than simply respond to it, that a focus on interaction and definition focuses our attention on the present situation as the cause of what we do”. In other words it relies on human interaction. As stated by Griffin (2009, p. 60), Blumer's three core premises are meaning, language and thought whereby self appears when all three core principles are in place.


Blumer's first premise; meaning, symbols already contain pre-determined meanings and human beings understand these already implemented meanings, in the film we can see that Jacob Palmer is a stud, he sleeps with women from which he picks them up at the same bar, the term 'stud' was installed and labelled to him due to his cheesy pick up lines and charm which has never fail to bring the ladies back to his place. Blumer's second premise; language, when Cal Weaver first met Jacob Palmer, Cal was surprised to see how Jacob picks up the ladies with just mere words, Cal does not understand this 'language' by Jacob, he tried to copy Jacob at first but to no avail, so Jacob decides to teach him the ways on how he brings the ladies home and after a few attempts, Cal does so magnificently as he now understands the 'language' used by young Jacob. 


As noted by Griffin (2009, p. 62), Blumer's final premise is "an individual's interpretation of symbols is modified by his or her own thought processes". This can also be called ones 'inner conversation' or minding. Minding is an inner dialogue or various imagination of alternative outcomes in our minds before we make a decision (Littlejohn, 1996, p. 163). Furthermore, as stated by Griffin (2009, p. 63), "the mental self-image that results from taking the role of the other; the objective self; me" is called the Looking-glass self. Whereby Cal mimics Jacob's role of a womanizer. In other words, as noted by Griffin (2003, p. 63), ‘I’ is “the spontaneous force that fosters all that is novel, unpredictable, and unorganized in the self” whereas ‘Me’ is “the objective self; the image of self-seen when one takes the role of the other". This leads to the concept of Self-fulfilling Prophecy" in which Cal being 'Me' a womanizer as taught by Jacob, is to be accepted by the younger society.

Jacob Palmer (right) teaches Cal Weaver how to be womanizer at a bar.

The Society 'help' us perceive how we display ourselves in public, the 'me' is developed through society's perception of oneself and 'Generalized other' develops. Griffin (2009, p. 65) states that 'generalized other' is "the composite mental image a person has of his or her self based on community expectations and responses. In conclusion, society plays a huge role in our development as a person, how we see and judged ourselves might be due to the people around us, it maybe socially and culturally constructed, hence understanding Symbolic Interactionism is relevant and useful for our daily lives.


References:

Charon, J. M. (1998). Symbolic Interactionism: An Introduction, An Interpretation, An Integration (6^nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill

Littlejohn, S. W. (1996). Theories of Human Communication (5th ed.) California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Muted Group Theory

According to Griffin (2009, p. 455), Muted Group is "People with little power who have trouble giving voice to their perceptions because they must re-encode their thoughts to make them understood in the public sphere; e.g., women." I will use the film 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' as an example where the Veronica was at a constant struggle to complete and attract attention for air time on TV rather than her more dominant male colleagues to help understand how power privileges in the divided in men and women in our daily lives.

Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Kramarae (2005) states that muted group theory suggest in which women are confines to what they can say, when and with what results moreover, languages are man-made; constructed by man in order for them to express themselves and this leads to women being muted. Kramarae and Ardener established that this mutedness is also caused by lack of power dynamics in any group with low rank and they are deemed as "black holes" due to being overlooked and seen invisible (Griffin, 2009, p. 455). In the case of the Veronica, due to their lack of 'power' as a upcoming female news reporter rather than their male counterparts, she is usually ignored from given any TV air time and are not fully utilized as they should be. Kramarae assumes that women see the world differently from men due to dissimilar experience in division of work, furthermore due to men's political dominance and their perception is dominant, hence it ensures that men have the 'controlling power' especially control of the dominant mode of expression.

Co-anchors; Ron Burgundy and Veronica Comingstone

Men are seen as gatekeepers of communication in the film, the KVWN-TV station was filled with male-dominant news reporters and journalist and Veronica's goal as a lead anchor was challenged by not only Ron but his friends were also a constant nuisance. Ron did not want a 'woman' to be in his workplace and Veronica had to go to extreme measures to be anchor. Kissack (2010) supports by saying that "In a patriarchal society, men create and reinforce their prevailing societal structures, including the formulation and use of language. For women to operate within such a society, they must assimilate to masculine norms, including language usage. Such assimilation mutes feminine voice and renders women as inarticulate due to the necessity of having to express themselves through a language that does not accommodate their experiences." As stated by Griffin (2010, p. 459), "Kramarae believes that in order to participate in society, women must transform their own models in terms of the received male system of expression." In other words, women have to learn make an effort to speak the language of men to get noticed and most importantly being able to express themselves. In the end of the film, Veronica and Ron did managed to settle their differences and became co-anchors for World News Centre.

Muted Group Theory focuses on women who are muted but nowadays more and more women are able to empress themselves such as seen in the movie, women should not be discounted as invisible despite the 'power privileges' that we see in our daily lives.


References:


Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.


Kramarae, C. (2005). Muted Group Theory and Communication: Asking Dangerous Questions. Women & Language, 28(2), 55-61.


Kissack, H. (2010). Muted voices: a critical look at e-male in organizations. European Journal of Training and Development, 34(6), 539-551.

Communication Accommodation Theory

Communication Accommodation Theory is a communication theory that offers intercultural communication to communication itself (Griffin, 2009, p.368). In this post I will use the cast from How I Met Your Mother, to view the ‘communication accommodation strategies’ that are offered in Communication Accommodation Theory and view how it plays out in our daily lives.

Howard Giles, a Welsh psychologist, defines Communication Accommodation Theory in Griffin (2009, p. 388) as, “The constant movement toward or away from others by changing your communicative behaviors.” While Imamura, Zhang and Harwood (2011), supports this statement by Giles in "CAT explains how people modify their communication based on what they perceive to be the cognitive, emotional, and conversational needs of their conversation partners and situational cues such as stereotypical views of their partners’ group (Giles et al., 1991)." In other words, for instance when two separate individuals from different culture and ethnic background speak to each other, each of them tries to accommodate or change how they speak or act according to the other individual to help them better understand and they are fueled with their motivations of their own. 

Giles develop two ‘communication strategies’, they are ‘Convergence’ and ‘Divergence’. According to Griffin (2009, p. 389), Convergence is “a strategy by which you adapt your communication behaviour in such a way as to become more similar to the other person.” Whereas another way of adapting is through 'Discourse management' that is a delicate alternative of topics to confer (Griffin, 2009, p. 389). This act of 'Convergence' can be seen in episode 17 of season 1 where Marshall Eriksen changed his accent to accommodate with his friends at work to be socially accepted and in episode 16 of season 3 in How I Met Your Mother when Lily Aldrin changed her accent to the stereotypical African American accent communicate with her friend Michelle, this has led Lily to converge and accommodate to Michelle's original accent. The changed of accents from Marshall and Lily are due to social acceptance and desire for approval.

   

Marshall Eriksen 'Converging' due to social acceptance

Barney Stinson 'convergence' due to sexually approval

According to Griffin (2009, p. 389), 'Divergence' is " a communication strategy of accentuating the differences between yourself and another person". In other words, communicating in a different dialect to increase distance between two parties. This 'divergence' can be divided into three categories; 'counter-accommodation', 'under-accommodation' or 'maintenance' and 'over-accommodation'.

First, 'counter-accommodation' is the straightforward way of amplifying contrast between two speakers while 'under-accommodation' or 'maintenance' is constant use of our original dialects or accents in communicating despite others demeanor and 'over-accommodation' is the patronizing but well-intended talk to a particular individual and this lead to the recipient feel worse about him or herself. An example of 'over-accommodation' is in episode 17 of season 5 when Anita asked Barney out but he rejected Anita due to his promise to his friend; Robin, Barney kept saying 'no' and this led to Anita being patronized and feeling worse about herself.

References:

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.


Imamura, M., Zhang, Y. B., Harwood, J. (2011). Japanese sojourners' attitudes toward Americans: Exploring the influences of communication accommodation, linguistic competence, and relational solidarity in intergroup contact. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 21(1), 155-132.

Genderlect Styles

Genderlect as stated in Griffin (2009, p. 430), is "a term suggesting that masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinctive cultural dialects. In this post, i will use the interactions between the cast from the hit tv series That 70s Show to show how does Genderlect Styles are viewed in men and women and better understand how opposite sex communicate with each other and why is it important to understand Genderlect Styles.

Tannen argues that women more than anything seek 'human connection' where as men seek status in a relationship, or in other words, 'rapport talk' by women where their usual conversation style is to establish connection with others where as 'report talk' by men is a mono-logic style that they establish to command attention, carry information and win confrontations (Griffin, 2009, p. 432-433). Tannen views this as cross-cultural communication. This can been seen as Michael Kelso's constant hook ups with various women such as Laurie Forman, Pam Macy, Angie Barnett, Annette Berkardt and many more women with this Michael Kelso tends to show off his status as a womanizer to the rest of his friends in the series, this supports Tannen's claim that men seek status.  Whereas Donna Pinciotti, a character who is in love with Eric Forman; the lead series character, seeks human connection or love in her case, she doesn't show off her status unlike Michael Kelso does.

Tannen claims that women talk more in private conversation whereas men only talk more in public speaking situations where men always seek a 'one-up' position among men (Griffin, 2009, p. 433). In episode 17 of season 2, we can see that Donna and Jackie are having a private conversation about Eric's and Donna's first time in intercourse, and also can be seen in other episodes, while later in that episode, Eric tries to establish a 'one-up' position among his friends by telling how good was his first intercourse with Donna and insist on an agreement with his friends.

Donna's and Jackie's many private conversations together

According to Griffin (2009, p. 433), men tell far more stories especially jokes than women do and "telling jokes is a masculine way to negotiate status." Tannen further added that men see themselves are heroes in their stories and women tell stories by sharing stories about others (Griffin, 2009, p. 433). Throughout the TV series, there can be seen a series of 'one up-ship' among the men; Eric Hyde, Fez, Michael especially from Kelso where he more than twice had the 'upper hand' when he had slept with Eric's and Hyde's respective sisters and the way he had told the stories or jokes would always make him the 'hero'. Tannen further claims that woman tend to show more attentiveness during conversations with men while the men are seen avoiding being attentive as they can be seen weak (Griffin 2009, p. 433-434). From this, the reaction how Hyde treated Jackie for 3 seasons in the series, he was the opposite for the more attentive Jackie when having conversations. Hyde shunned himself from being more attentive with eye contact, listening and even agreeing with her most of the time. Tannen also adds that men do not ask questions as it is a sign of weakness while women ask questions to seek connection where women use tag questions to avoid potential conflicts (Griffin, 2009, 434). Moreover, as described by Tannen, men prefer and are more comfortable with conflicts as they are wary of being told what to do in the other hand, women find conflict as a threat to connection which must be avoided no matter what (Griffin, 2009, p. 435). Before and early during Hyde's and Jackie's relationship, Hyde had feelings of animosity towards Jackie due to Hyde's poor perspective on authority. Hyde tries his best to establish conflicts with Jackie as seen in episode 18 of season 2.

Steven Hyde and Jackie Burkhart

In conclusion, as stated in Griffin (2009, p. 435), Tannen suggests "sensitivity training as an effort to teach men how to speak in a feminine voice, while assertiveness training is an effort to reach women how to speak in a masculine voice...hope that men and women will alter their linguistic style." The statement made by Tannen is supported by Gilligan's 'ethical reflection'. Genderlect Style may be heavily sided on the men's side as to the women's. There are flaws in  where these 'styles' between men and women are worth looking into, to have a better judgement how the contemporary men and women communicate with each other.

References:

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Uncertainty Reduction Theory is about how communication between humans were first developed as strangers by focusing on gaining knowledge and understanding at which the initial interactions are filled with uncertainties, these uncertainties are reduces with self-disclosure (Griffin, 2009, p. 125). In this post i will use Peter Klaven and Sydney Fife from the movie "I Love You, Man" on how Uncertainty Reduction Theory is the relevant in our daily life.

The 2009 hit film, "I Love You, Man"

In Dawkins, Uncertainty Reduction Theory claims "that the primary goal of individuals in initial interactions is to reduce uncertainty and increase the ability to predict behavior of others." As supported by Yoo (2009), "The basic assumption of uncertainty reduction is that when two individuals meet for the first time, their primary goal is to reduce uncertainty and increase predictability through communicating with each other, since uncertainty is an uncomfortable state (Berger &  Calabrese, 1975)" Whereas Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton & Qin (2012), adds that "Uncertainty reduction is the exchange of information between individuals that allows one to form impressions of others and make sense of social situations (Sheldon, 2010)." In other words, when strangers meet for the first time, there is that uncertainty between them and the goal to communicate is to reduce that uncertainty and increase predictability among both individuals.

Peter Klaven is a real estate agent who is getting married with his fiancé Zooey Rice but his marriage has led him to look a best man for his wedding due to his lack of or no male best friends. Whereas Sydney Fife is a successful investor who has keen interest in recently divorced wives. There are three conditions to reduce uncertainty, they are; 'anticipation of future interaction', 'incentive value' and 'deviance' (Griffin, 2009, p. 125). In Peter's situation, his intention to reduce uncertainty with Sydney is; first, to arrange or have more future interactions or 'hang outs' with Sydney; his new male best friend.  Second, to finally get his first 'male best friend' and lastly, Sydney's weird behavior this contrary to Peter’s demeanor is increasing Peter’s desire to reduce uncertainty with Sydney.

Peter Klaven and Sydney Fife

Peter's and Sydney's first interaction was during an open house at Lou Ferrigno's mansion that was held by Peter himself. Peter was astound by Sydney's honesty and hit off very despite having different characters. Peter's first phone call with Sydney was awkward where he hesitated on whether to call him or not, what to say and most importantly what not to say. This is called 'behavioral questions', an uncertainty in which one does not know how to act (Griffin, 2009, 126.). After hitting off well with Sydney, Peter's uncertainty of what type of guy Peter is lead to him arrange a 'man-date' with him, this type of uncertainty is called 'cognitive questions', it is reduces by attaining information such as Sydney's character as cool, affirmative and confident man. Berger suggests a series of axioms as stated in Griffin (2009) are "a self-evident truth that requires no additional proof". While as noted by Dawkins (2010), "a master list of uncertainty reduction concept"; 'verbal communication', 'nonverbal warmth', 'information seeking', 'self-disclosure', 'reciprocity', 'similarity', 'liking' and 'shared networks'. This reduce in uncertainty is essential as supported by Yoo (2009), by decreasing uncertainty, an individual increases his or her ability to predict certainty about his or herself and other's demeanor and this leads to the reduction of anxiety and vulnerability due to initial uncertainty. 

Peter's and Sydney's first interaction at Ferrigno's mansion

In the 2009 hit film, "I Love You, Man", after Peter's and Sydney's initial interaction in Ferrigno's mansion, they went on a man-date, the amount of 'verbal communication' increases from their conversation on intercourse, nicknames, fish tacos, hybrid cars, etc. This reduces their uncertainty of each other. Whereas for 'Nonverbal warmth', Sydney's relaxed and laid back body language and approach made Peter interested while Sydney finds Peter as a 'pretty cool guy' and this again reduces uncertainty between them. Peter's high level of uncertainty about Sydney and this caused  Peter to 'Information Seeking' about him more. Berger claims that for 'seeking information', there are 3 approaches, firstly as stated in Griffin (2009, p. 130), 'Passive strategy' is "impression formation by observing a person interacting with other", Peter observes Sydney 'testosterone outburst' during their lunch out at the Venice Boardwalk and seen something that he's never used to this has surprisingly made a good impression on Peter. Second, 'Active Strategy' is asking others or a third party regarding that person while the quickest route to reducing uncertainty is the 'interactive strategy' which is face-to-face interaction with the individual (Griffin, 2009, p.130-131). The 'interactive strategy' is often used by both Peter and Sydney throughout the film during their 'hang outs'.

Those frequent jamming sessions to reduce uncertainty

'Self-disclosure', Peter shares his personal intimate relationship about Zooey with Sydney where Sydney disclosure his personal 'man-cave', this is not only a process of 'self-disclosure' but also a 'reciprocity' process between them. The 'similarities' in their interest in Rush and jamming session further decline uncertainty and they become close and as the film goes on they both a 'liking' for each other and went out on more 'man-date' with each other where their 'shared network' of being Rush fans decreases their uncertainty. Through pairing theorems, as noted in Griffin (2009, p. 128), are "a proposition that logically and necessarily follows from two axioms", and axioms, this creates 28 theorem altogether.

Message plans are mental images of action scenarios that may be applied to acquire goals, they are used to confront uncertainties and Berger argues these plans are 'hierarchically organized' where vague illustrations of the top hierarchy to the bottom are assumed (Griffin, 2009), in other words, Peter's top priority in the film was to find a male best friend and subsequently a best man for his wedding according to his chronological order of 'plan'. To these message plans, there are strategies; 'Seeking Information', 'Choosing Plan Complexity', 'Hedging' and 'The Hierarchy Hypothesis'.  'Choosing Plan Complexity' as claimed in Griffin (2009), "A character of a message plan based on the level of detail it provides and the number of contingencies it cover". Furthermore, 'Hedging' is the strategic use of vague and ambiguity for both individuals to 'save themselves' from embarrassment after failing to attain their goals, or in other words, this can be a joke to cover up a failed attempt in communication between two parties (Griffin, 2009, p.131). Lastly, 'The Hierarchy Hypothesis', this is when a parties does not understand the message that is sent by this the individual tries to alter his or her voice by making it louder and repeating it again and again, this can be seen when Peter and Zooey had a fight which lead to Peter's failure to explain and reason why Zooey, he tries to alter his voice and tone but to no avail.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory is relevant in our daily lives because it encourage people to critically think when they meet new people as the Uncertainty Reduction Theory has its own flaws such as most often communication is done due to care and interest, uncertainty does lies beyond the first few interactions and in terms of moral panic; sometimes, it is best to know less than more. Hence by studying Uncertainty Reduction Theory we can choose our 'best moves' during interaction or encounters by not so depending on the axioms, theorem or even the message plans.

References:

Dawkins, M. (2010). How it's Done: Using Hitch as a Guide to Uncertainty Reduction Theory. Communication Teacher, 24(3), 136-141. doi:10.1080/17404622.2010.489511

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Palmieri, C., Prestano, K., Gandley, R., Overton, E., & Qin, Z. (2012). The Facebook Phenomenon: Online Self-Disclosure and Uncertainty Reduction. China Media Research, 8(1), 48-53.

Yoo, J. H. (2009). Uncertainty Reduction and Information Valence: Tests of Uncertainty Reduction Theory, Predicted Outcome Value and an Alternative Explanation?. Human Communication, 12(2), 187-198.