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While there has been no empirical research specifically examining the
relationship of verbal aggressiveness to negative stereotype activation, at the anecdotal
level, most individuals have had an older relative or acquaintance whose behavior was
verbally aggressive. In common parlance, individuals exhibiting these behaviors would
be called: grumpy, mean, crotchety, and so on.
In conclusion, the complex process of decoding messages starts with an
assignment of the sender into a group to which the receiver either belongs (ingroup) or
does not belong (outgroup). This assignment has communicative consequences because
it sets the expectation level for the communicative encounter. These expectations are
triggered by contextual, physical, and contact cues and the perceived personality traits of
the sender (e.g., verbal aggressiveness) that cause stereotype activation. This study
specifically tests and extends the Stereotype Activation Model by examining perceiver
characteristics of verbal aggressiveness and the effects of previous experience with elders
as regards to age, relational level, and message strategy.
Hypotheses and Research Questions
Based on SIT, CAT, SAM, and research into aggressive communication, five
hypotheses are proposed in relation to perceptions of verbal aggression in older adults.
The hypotheses are divided into 3 sections: affect of the characteristics and the
experiences of the perceiver on stereotype activation (Hypotheses 1 and 2), affect of the
message strategy on stereotype activation (Hypotheses 3, 4a and 4b), and affect of the
interaction between age and relational level, compared to message strategy (Hypothesis
5).
Convention