Journal of Language and Social Psychology current issue

Reflections on Language and Social Psychology Research From ICLASP11, Tucson, Arizona

Pitts, M. J., Harwood, J. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This introductory essay outlines the rationale for this special issue. It reports on the background to the International Conferences on Language and Social Psychology (ICLASPs) and establishes the importance of a special issue representing the work from ICLASP11, held in Tucson, Arizona, in the summer of 2008. After describing the keynote presentations at the conference, specific articles making up the special issue are introduced. Finally, the future of the conferences is addressed with the announcement of the location for ICLASP12 (Brisbane, Australia).

Conflict-Initiating Factors in Intergenerational Relationships

Zhang, Y. B., Lin, M.-C. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study examined American young adults’ written accounts of intergenerational communication with a focus on factors that initiate conflict. Analysis of the conflict scenarios in intergenerational relationships revealed seven types of initiating factors. Results also indicated that the type of relationship with older adults was associated with the frequency distribution of five of the seven initiating factors. Specifically, young adults perceived they were criticized and rebuffed by nonfamily elders more frequently than by family elders, whereas young people tended to disagree with and rebuff family elders more than nonfamily elders. Furthermore, young people reported more incidents of illegitimate demand from family elders than from nonfamily elders. Results are discussed with respect to intergenerational communication research and the communication predicament of aging model.

Is Your Language a Social Clue? Lexical Markers and Social Identity

Mange, J., Lepastourel, N., Georget, P. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This research deals with the interplay between language use and social identity. Social lexical markers used by two leaders of two opposed groups (French and American presidents) on the Second Gulf War were identified. Experimental texts were constructed on this basis and were read by French participants. The authors compared two types of social identity activation, either indirect (in-group vs. out-group lexical markers) or direct (in-group vs. neutral priming). Attitude and intergroup perception were measured on three groups (French, American, and Iraqi). Whereas no effect of direct activation was observed, results notably showed that using out-group marker leads participants to emphasize their in-group attitude, whereas an in-group marker leads them to "open-up" toward out-group attitude. Besides, an interesting in-group bias was evidenced despite the use of negatives outcomes and the three groups’ evaluation. Potential applications for intergroup communication are discussed and theoretical and practical elaborations are proposed.

Linguistic Accommodation and the Salience of National Identity Markers in a Border Town

Llamas, C., Watt, D., Johnson, D. E. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study tests the extent of speakers’ linguistic accommodation to members of putative in-groups and out-groups in a border locality where such categorizations can be said to be particularly accentuated. Variation in the speech of informants in dialect contact interactions with separate interviewers is analyzed for evidence of speech accommodation in the form of phonological convergence or divergence. The data do not support a straightforward interpretation of accommodation, and findings are considered in terms of evidence required for such an account. Implications for the notion of salience in explanations of contact-induced language change are also considered, as is the significance of the "interviewer effect" in the compilation of data sets for use in quantitative studies of phonological variation and change.

Convergence and Contact in Milwaukee: Evidence From Select African American and White Vowel Space Features

Purnell, T. C. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

Past sociophonetic research on African American speakers of the Inland North dialect of American English suggests that speakers in the region do not participate in vowel changes observed among White speakers. Speaker identity to a pan—African American dialect has been often implied as militating against participation in White sound changes.Yet most of these studies analyze vowels as static and single data points, although vowels are known to be articulatorily and perceptually dynamic. It is unclear, then, whether situations involving phonetic convergence co-occur with different vowel properties than previously reported. This study investigates vowel dynamics (raising of vowel qualities and elongation of diphthongs) to test accommodation by Black speakers in southeastern Wisconsin toward White speakers. Results reveal that Black—White contact—either synchronically in an interview or diachronically from historical employment and housing discrimination—influences vowel-quality position and diphthong elongation in vowel space.

False Faces and Broken Lives: An Exploratory Study of the Interaction Behaviors Used by Male Sex Offenders in Relating to Victims

Campbell, A. M. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study examines the use of self-presentation strategies and manipulation by male sex offenders in grooming a victim for a sexual relationship. The study finds that male sex offenders use multiple categories of self-presentation strategies in their interactions with victims with the supplication strategy being present in a majority of reports of such interactions. Furthermore, the research reveals that the male sex offender uses manipulation to isolate and groom the victim for a sexual relationship in conjunction with coercive tactics to ensure the victim does not reveal the true nature of their relationship to other people. Findings are discussed in the context of luring communication theory and applications of the findings.

Reverse Linguistic Stereotyping: Measuring the Effect of Listener Expectations on Speech Evaluation

Kang, O., Rubin, D. L. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

The linguistic stereotyping hypothesis holds that even brief samples of speech varieties associated with low-prestige groups can cue negative attributions regarding individual speakers. The converse phenomenon is reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS). In RLS, attributions of a speaker’s group membership trigger distorted evaluations of that person’s speech. The present study established a procedure for ascertaining a proclivity to RLS for individual listeners. In addition to RLS, variables reflecting degree of multicultural involvement (e.g., proportion of friends who are nonnative speakers, amount of language study) predicted speech evaluations. Although the RLS measurement procedure outlined here requires more demanding administration than mere paper-and-pencil self-reports, it has the advantage of reflecting authentic RLS processes. Measuring individuals’ RLS levels can help screen teachers, job interviewers, immigration officials, and others who are called on to make judgments about the oral proficiency of speakers of nonprestige language varieties.

Evaluating the Speech of Younger and Older Adults: Age, Gender, and Speech Situation

Odato, C. V., Keller-Cohen, D. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:20 PST

This study examines how listeners arrive at judgments of speech as irrelevant or off-topic (off-target). Older adults and college students evaluated a set of narratives ascribed to speakers differing in age and gender and presented as conversations or interviews.The results show that young and old adults bring different understandings of age and situation to the evaluation task. Older evaluators judged narratives more on-target than younger evaluators. Differences between evaluator age groups were also observed in the effects of speaker age and speech situation: Younger evaluators judged older speakers more on-target than younger speakers, but older evaluators did not; and younger evaluators judged speech in interviews more off-target than older evaluators did. However, both old and young evaluators judged female speakers more on-target than males. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of age stereotypes in evaluating speech, highlighting the listener’s role in constructing an interlocutor’s speech as off-target.