MISUNDERSTANDING AS ACCOUNTS

This article introduces the misunderstanding account as a verbal devic e that is used to normalize a variety of troublesome social situations . Through such accounts social interactors are able to handle the unto ward or problematic actions of one another while avoiding individual a ttributions of responsibility and providing a satisfactory context for the construction of future cooperative acts. A classification of the types of situations that elicit misunderstanding accounts and the impl ications of such accounts for social identity are discussed.