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 selfimage” (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)
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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
– Credentialing
– Suspended judgment
appeals
– Pre-disclosure
– Pre-apology
– Hedging
– Disclaimer
– …
• Restorative Facework
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–
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–
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Direct aggression
Excuses
Justifications
Humor
Physical remediation
Passive aggressiveness
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)
Dominating/
Integrating/
Controlling
Collaborating
Own Goals
I Win
Compromising
I Lose
Avoiding/
Withdrawing
You Lose
Yielding/
Obliging
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?