COMSOC 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Rubber Band, Communication Accommodation Theory, Ethnography

• School: WSU
• Department: Communication And Society
• Course: COMSOC 321
• Professor: A Tan

Document Summary

Social scientific: roots in psychology, how is communication affected by culture, this approach assumes a describable external reality. It also assumes that human behavior is predictable and that the researchers goal is to describe and predict behavior: mostly quantitative (surveys, experiments, culture is a variable that can be measured (cid:894)e(cid:454). The (cid:862)degree(cid:863) of eth(cid:374)o(cid:272)e(cid:374)tri(cid:272)all(cid:455), collectivism, etc. : goal is to des(cid:272)ri(cid:271)e a(cid:374)d predi(cid:272)t (cid:862)eti(cid:272)(cid:863) (cid:271)eha(cid:448)ior, searches for universal generalization across cultures from a distance. Simple words: diffusion of innovation theory, what cultural aspects affect the spread of an innovation over time, via certain channels, in a certain social system, ex: the introduction of well water, communication accommodation theory. Individuals adjust their verbal communication to facilitate understanding: diffusion of innovations theory, how cultural practices can be changed largely due to communication, conversational constraints theory, cultural groups vary in their concerns regarding messages should be structured.