Accommodation- Meaning AND Definition PDF

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Summary

Accommodation is the process of resolving conflicts and adjusting to a new environment. Accommodation refers to acquired changes in their environment's behaviour. J. M. Baldwin, a well-known psychologist, was the first to use the term "accommodation." According to him, the term refers to acquired ch...

Description

ACCOMMODATION: MEANING AND DEFINITION Accommodation is the process of resolving conflicts and adjusting to a new environment. Accommodation refers to acquired changes in their environment's behaviour. J. M. Baldwin, a well-known psychologist, was the first to use the term "accommodation." According to him, the term refers to acquired changes in people's behaviour that help them adjust to their surroundings. "The term accommodation refers particularly to the process by which man achieves a sense of harmony with his environments," writes MacIver. Apart from that, accommodation is the series of steps by which people come to terms with new life circumstances by creating the new conditions. Sociologists use the term "accommodation" to describe how hostile individuals or groups adjust. Individuals and groups make the necessary internal adjustments to social situations that have been created by competition and conflict through the process of accommodation. Accommodation is linked to a fixed and established social order based on custom and mores. Assimilation entails a more comprehensive transformation of the personality, which occurs over time and is influenced by social contacts of the most direct and intimate nature. "The term accommodation has been used to designate the adjustments that people in groups make to relieve the fatigue and tensions of competition and conflict," Lundberg explains. "Accommodation is a concept, used to explain the adjustment to unreceptive individuals and groups," say Ogburn and Nimkoff.

Characteristics of Accommodation

I The dissociative social process of conflict leads to the associative social process of accommodation. When individuals or groups are in conflict, they seek a solution, which is referred to as accommodation, in order to avoid a conflict situation. It could be long-term or short-term. ii) It is a type of adaptation. Although there are differences between individuals and groups, these differences are accepted. iii) As a result, latent conflict may exist. It is contained on an outward level.

iv) A society's built-in mechanism is accommodation. In today's society, there are numerous behavioural patterns and subcultures. Culture teaches its members to adapt and carry on without much ado. The family is an example of this, where the various members carry on with their lives despite their many differences in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour. As a result, accommodation can be unconscious. v) It can also be a deliberate exercise, such as arbitration, mediation, or conciliation, which we'll learn about as we go over the different types. vi) It is a continuous and universal process.

Forms of Accommodation

i) Yielding to coercion

When the parties are unequal in strength, the weaker party submits to the stronger party's demands and interests. When the weaker party is unable to resist the stronger party, this occurs. This is what is known as coercive accommodation.

ii) Compromise

It entails the conflicting parties reneging on some of their demands. Each party can accommodate the demands of the other during the process. This usually occurs when both parties are nearly equal in strength.

iii) Third party intervention Arbitration, mediation, and conciliation are all examples of third-party intervention. While the decision of the arbitrator, a third party, is binding in arbitration, the decision of the third party in mediation is not. In conciliation, a third party attempts to create conditions in which the disputing parties can reach an agreement on their own.

iv) Toleration

This is a type of coexistence that allows for differences. The opposing parties acknowledge and respect each other's differences. This is also a form of avoidance, as it avoids the conflicting grounds. Disagreements must be resolved before a resolution can be reached. Sometimes disagreements become too complicated to be resolved through negotiation and compromise. Individuals and groups may simply avoid the conflicting aspects in such situations. This is what tolerance is all about.

v) Conversion In this case, one of the opposing parties adopts the other's viewpoint. The conflict is resolved in this situation.

Need of Accommodation a) Accommodation is an important social function. In society, there are various types of status and role, various types of social relationships, various interests, values, and goals. All of these things come together to make up social life. In a society, there is latent (hidden) conflict. At the same time, the socialisation process teaches individuals and groups how to play various roles and interact with one another. As a result, individuals and groups are taught to align their behaviour with that of others. This entails recognising and accepting differences, a process known as accommodation. We've already seen how people accommodate each other in the preceding example of a family. This prevents potential conflict from escalating (open). Accommodation facilitates social interactions and, as a result, social life. b) These various varieties may occasionally result in overt conflict. Overt conflict cannot last for long in a society, so various processes emerge to keep overt conflict at bay. One such process is accommodation. In such cases, accommodation occurs after the conflict has occurred. It contains overt conflict in a way that does not result in the opponent's death.

c) By preventing conflict from becoming overt and containing conflict once it does, accommodation allows for group life, society continuity, and cooperation and competition in a way that allows for social life....