Download - Communication Accommodation Theory
Communication Accommodation Theory
By Caitlyn Mendogni
It’s also called the CAT
…but not this kind of cat
Communication Accommodation
Theory is:
Speech Vocal Patterns Gestures
How our language converges or
diverges with others
Human Interaction based off of:
Convergence Divergence
Convergence Someone who changes their speech patterns to match the speech patterns of the other person.
Examples:Dressing like a particular group you want to fit in with
Mirroring your speech to match the professionalism of your boss
DivergenceA strategy to accentuate the verbal and nonverbal differences between the communicators
Examples:At business meetings, the boss stands and the subordinates sit
A teacher scolds a student for misbehaving
Don’t FrEaK out!
All that image is showing is how humans interact when communicating
Basically how we encode or decode a message that someone else tells us
People at Work Friends
Family
So pretty much…
EVERYONE!
To better understand how people communicate and why they react to different people in conversations. We can see changes in the
persons gestures, vocal patterns, and speech when communicating with another person.
Conversations are too complex to be broken down into parts such as convergence and divergence.
The concepts ability to be tested is a concern.
CAT relies heavily on rational forms of communicating. People become irrational during an argument.
Critics believe…
Presenters choice…
Over and under accommodating can lead to miscommunication… you need the right balance!