Persuasive messages of women in Xhosa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to explore interpersonal persuasive messages of Xhosaspeakingwomen. The findings suggest that the majority of attempts at interpersonalpersuasion take place in close and often personal relationships. The findings furthershow that the majority of Xhosa-speaking women tend to persuade those they arefamiliar with, such as husbands, children, siblings and friends. Specific cultural aspectsalso influence the persuasive messages of these women, such as collectivism,indirectness, politeness and ubuntu (caring).Research conducted by Cody et al. (1994), Dillard (1989) and Rule et al. (1985)suggests that individuals seek to persuade others for a variety of reasons. Theydiscovered that the most sought-after influence goals are the following: give advice, gainassistance, share activity, change orientation, change relationship, obtain permissionand enforce rights and obligations. These seven influence goals cover a large portion ofthe persuasive landscape, and were dealt with considerably in this research.The data for this research were collected from Xhosa-speaking women situated in theEastern Cape, specifically in the region of East London. A total of 20 women in the agerange of 30 to 45 participated by writing self-reports in which they attempted to influencetheir friends, colleagues or family members. Participants also had to relate persuasiveincidents that recently took place. In addition, they were asked to mention whether theprocess of gaining compliance was successful or not.The research data were analysed and evaluated against the following:1. Different types of influence goals2. Message dimensions (explicitness, dominance and argument)3. Evidence in a persuasive message4. Emotional appeals (threat and guilt appeals)5. Cultural and conversational constraintsThe data analysis revealed that the findings of this study among Xhosa-speaking womenare on par with the findings of the study by S.R. Wilson (2002) on culture and conversational constraints, as well as with other research conducted by Dillard (1998) inthe field of message production.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University