Managing Conflicting Goals in Supportive Interaction

Abstract

Supportive interactions often pose conflicting goals: Speakers want to give or receive support, simultaneously conveying and receiving acceptance and preserving the autonomy of both parties. Previous research on the presence or absence of supportive communication has overlooked how support is conveyed and how some message characteristics accomplish multiple goals. By highlighting these multiple goals, politeness theory integrates previous research on dilemmas of supportive communication and characteristics of helpful and unhelpful messages. Face work is a critical part of a theoretical framework for identifying and explaining characteristics of effective supportive communication. The heuristic value of this framework is demonstrated in a series of research questions.

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