Psychology 409b-Tuesday October 15, 2006
Emergent Coherence
Pages 85-99
By: Laura C. Moa
Instructions for this
activity are found at:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Deborah Tannen. (1994). Gender and Discourse. (
I.
Comparing Conversational Styles and Techniques of Males and
Females.
A.
Emergent Coherence:
Emergent coherence is the amalgamated activity that exists in conversation. It
is an individualÕs way of using aspects of communication, like words,
sentences, styles, and Òprevious conversation experienceÓ, in order to create a
dialogue or conversation with someone else that has structure. Cultural
differences and gender differences affect each individualÕs conversation
activity or coherence.
á
Based on her own
research, as well as that of her colleagues, author Deborah Tannen
believes that studying emergent coherence is one of the first steps toward
understanding the differences in conversational styles between males and
females.
á
The organization of
coherence is something that changes from one person to the next according to
interaction and expectation and navigated by styles learned from previous
interactions.
1.
There are two aspects of emergent coherence:
1.
Physical Alignment: The
way that each individual engages in various forms of body language during conversation (i.e.
eye contact, physical contact, posture, body closeness, position of head and
body, all compared to the other individual).
2.
Topical Coherence: The
topics that each person chooses, how they initiate conversation on that new
topic, and the duration of time and depth that each topic is discussed.
a.
By measuring these
two aspects within the conversations of males verses
females, one is able to evaluate the style differences in conversation between
the two sexes.
b.
Analysis of
observing the two aspects of emergence coherence among two males of similar age
and two females of a similar age showed that there are both male specific and
female specific patterns of conversational style that exist. These patterns
remained relatively constant throughout all ages.
2.
Interlocutors: These
are used in conversation to establish and identify context in order to
communicate your feelings to the other person and to show interest or
engagement. Examples of these Òcontextualization cuesÓ are:
á
Intonation
á
Loudness
á
Pitch
á
Sequencing
á
Choice of Words
a.
The use and
meaning of these interlocutors or cues vary from one culture to another. In one
culture, a cue in conversation can signal something completely different than
the same cue in another culture.
b.
Various interlocutors
used in conversation are learned from others who are in the same cultural
group, like peers.
c.
Similarly, the use
and meaning of cues can also vary from one gender to the other.
d.
These styles of
conversing are most likely learned throughout life from another individual of
the same sex, hence same-sex patterns.
e.
Therefore, males
and females have Òdifferent norms for establishing and displaying
conversational informationÓ which are learned from
their same-sex peers.
3.
Determining Gender Differences in Physical Alignment
á
Through observing
conversations of same-sex friends over a number of different ages and
documenting their various types of interlocutors and differences in physical
alignment, Tannen concluded that males and females
have distinct and separate patterns of conversational style.
á
She established that
some forms of physical alignment used by one gender can signal a different
level of involvement or engagement for the other gender.
a.
Female patterns of physical alignment
á
Females, at all ages
tested, sit close together, aligning their bodies toward on another so that
they are face to face during a conversation.
á
Most often they display good eye contact
with only an occasional break in gaze.
á
They show comfortableness
with physical contact, like touching.
á
For the most part,
females of all ages stay still, abstaining from constant squirming.
á
They display better
body posture.
b. Male
patterns of physical alignment
á
Males, at all ages
tested, often sit farther apart then females and do not align their bodies
toward each other. Instead of sitting face to face they normally sit at an
angle to the person they are in a conversation with.
á
Most often they do not
display good eye contact. Instead, their gaze or direction of eyes is most
often anchored somewhere else, with occasional glances toward the other
speakers face.
á
They do engage in
physical contact, touching rarely occurs.
á
The younger aged boys
display restlessness and constantly squirm, often abrupt movements documented.
á
Contrasting to
females, male body posture is often poor, at a slouch, or very relaxed.
c. Analyzing these differences
in physical alignment
á
Some people would look
at these differences in physical alignment between the genders and assume that
females are more engaged, interested, and intimate in conversations than males.
á
However, Tannen argues that this may not be true. She asserts that
most people measure engagement in conversation by female norms and this creates
a bias.
á
This bias can be rendered
if we stop measuring engagement by the patters of females. She believes we
should recognize each genderÕs pattern is different and cannot be measured by
the other. Good eye contact in conversation in females can signal engagement in
conversation, however bad contact in men doesnÕt necessary signal non-interest.
á
Each gender has
learned conversational patterns that may often mean different things. This can
cause confusion between sexes because particular cues can often be missed by
the other sex.
á
She asserts that each
sex has different ways of communicating to than the other.
Relates Links:
1). Male and Females
Communicate Differently
This particular site asserts the men and women often have trouble
communicating because they, in a sense, speak different languages. Marilyn A.
Sachs, the author of this site believes that gender differences in
communication are due to our social experiences. She writes that, whether these
communication styles are learned or inherited, they are incorporated into our
lives and exist throughout life. Sachs, credits speech
pathologist Lillian Glass for her studies on the Ò105 gender differences in
communication patterns.Ó Among these patters are body language, facial
language, and speech and voice patterns. Glass suggests that these differences
in patterns affect all aspects of life and every relationship, intimate or not.
I chose this site because I think that Marilyn Sachs writes about some very
similar concepts to Deborah Tannen. Both Sachs, and Tannen assert that
there are clear differences in patterns between the two genders. Sachs also
discusses speech and voice patterns, which, according to Tannen
are interlocutors. Body language was also mentioned in this site, which is
called physical alignment in TannenÕs vocabulary,
this being TannenÕs main topic of these reading.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5280.html
2). Nonverbal Cues as A Barrier to Us
Creator of this site, Donnel King
offers us a look into the misinterpretations of nonverbal cues between the
sexes. He asserts that females often interpret certain nonverbal cues in
different ways than men do and vice versa. The particular nonverbal cues he
covers in his short website are; eye contact, facial expressions, gender and
posture, and touching. King proposes the idea that these cues can be
misinterpreted by the other sex which often leads to misunderstandings. I chose
this site because he corroborates TannenÕs idea that
the differences in nonverbal communication patterns between the sexes can often
be misinterpreted. Interestingly enough he also references her in his related
links. His paragraph on eye gaze is particularly similar to her findings.
http://www.soapboxorations.com/squiggles/nvcom2.htm
3). Affecting
Relationships Closest to Us
Cynthia Torppa,
Ph.D., gives a slightly different perspective than Tannen
in this site about communication barriers between the sexes. She suggests that
the communication barriers that exist between each gender are actually minor
ones that can be easily adjusted. She also gives examples of misunderstandings
in conversation by displaying short dialogues, similar to the dialogues Tannen uses in her book. However, unlike Tannen, Torppa focuses on the
underlying meanings of sentences and structure of sentences. She also focuses
on the interpersonal areas of communication barriers including differences
caused by emotional interpretations during conversations directed by societal
factors. I picked this site because I think that it is important to not only
look at the structure of language and its many diverse forms as Tannen does, but also to look at the emotional aspect of
interpreting conversations caused by the emotional differences that exist
between men and women.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/flm02/FS04.html
My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409bf2006/moa/moa-home.htm
Class Home Page:http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm