Scribd
Upload
89 views11 pages

Face Theory of Conflict Negotation

Face negotiation theory examines how people negotiate issues of social self-worth and identity, or "face", during interpersonal interactions and conflicts. It draws from Goffman's concept of face as a social self-image that people try to maintain. Key aspects of face negotiation theory include: 1) People in all cultures negotiate face through verbal and nonverbal behaviors known as "facework" to maintain, restore, or gain face. 2) How people negotiate face can be influenced by cultural variables like individualism vs collectivism and power distance, as well as individual variables like independent or interdependent self-construal. 3) During conflicts, people employ different facework strategies like integrating, compromising

Uploaded by

Jefmo Jefmo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
89 views11 pages

Face Theory of Conflict Negotation

Face negotiation theory examines how people negotiate issues of social self-worth and identity, or "face", during interpersonal interactions and conflicts. It draws from Goffman's concept of face as a social self-image that people try to maintain. Key aspects of face negotiation theory include: 1) People in all cultures negotiate face through verbal and nonverbal behaviors known as "facework" to maintain, restore, or gain face. 2) How people negotiate face can be influenced by cultural variables like individualism vs collectivism and power distance, as well as individual variables like independent or interdependent self-construal. 3) During conflicts, people employ different facework strategies like integrating, compromising

Uploaded by

Jefmo Jefmo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11

Face Theory of

Conflict
Negotation

COM 372—Theory and Research in


Intercultural Communication
John R. Baldwin
Illinois State University
Face negotiation theory (of
conflict) (Ting-Toomey, 2005)

• Background: Goffman
– Face: “about identity respect and other-identity
consideration issues within and beyond the actual
encounter episode” (2005, p. 73)
• “A claimed sense of favorable social self-worth that a
person wants others to have of her or him” (TT&K,
1998, p. 187)
• “An individual’s claimed sense of favorable social self-
image” (p. 190)
– Can be “threatened, enhanced, undermined, and
bargained over—on both an emotional reactive
level and a cognitive appraisal level” (p. 73)
Face negotiation theory (of
conflict) (Ting-Toomey, 2005)

• Background: Goffman
• Brown & Levinson
– Face
• Positive and negative
• Self and other face
– Politeness
• Positive: buffering sense of connection/competence
• Negative: giving hearer a way out, softening requests,
etc.
Face negotiation theory
(Ting-Toomey, 2005)

• Background: Facework
“the specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors that we
engage in to maintain or restore face loss and to
uphold and honor face gain”
• Face loss
• FTAs
• Preventative and
restorative facework
Face negotiation theory
(Ting-Toomey, 2005)

• Assumptions (summarized)
– People in all cultures negotiate face
– Self—and thus face—is at the basis of all communication!
– Some situations especially threaten face
– Cultural variable differences influence aspects of face
negotiation
– Individual differences also influence face
Face negotiation theory
(Ting-Toomey, 2005)

• Aspects of face that might


be influenced:
– Face orientation
(self/other/both)
– Face movements
(defended, saved,
maintained, upgraded)
– Facework interaction
strategies (V/NV—
direct/indirect)
– Conflict communication
styles
– Face content domains
(positive/negative)
Facework interaction strategies
(Ting-Toomey, 2005)

• Preventative Facework • Restorative Facework


– Credentialing – Direct aggression
– Suspended judgment – Excuses
appeals – Justifications
– Pre-disclosure – Humor
– Pre-apology – Physical remediation
– Hedging – Passive aggressiveness
– Disclaimer – Avoidance
– … – Apologies
– …
Conflict

• A definition: “the perceived incompatability of


values, norms, processes, or goals between a
minimum of two cultural parties over identity,
relational, and/or substantive issues” (2002, p.
323)
• Types
– Expressive/Relational
– Instrumental/Substantive
– Identity
Facework Conflict strategies
(Ting-Toomey, 2005)

I Win Dominating/ Integrating/


Controlling Collaborating
Own Goals

Compromising

Avoiding/ Yielding/
Withdrawing Obliging
I Lose

You Lose You Win

Other’s Goals
Additional Strategies

• Stella Ting-Toomey & John Oetzel


Lets Make Some (facework)
Predictions!

• Culture-level variables
– Individualism/collectivism
– Power distance
• Individual-level variables
– Self-construal
• Independent/dependent
• Biconstrual/ambivalent
• Relational-contextual variables
– In-group/out-group
• Other important variables?

You might also like