3
Review of Literature
Stereotyping
Social Identity Theory illuminates the process whereby individuals classify
people in intergroup encounters and how these assignments facilitate modifications in the
communicative endeavor. Miller et al (1977) contends that communication “… can
profit from the source characteristics in message selection, but that such scrutiny should
be grounded with the study of the relevance of situational contexts” (italics in original, p.
50). For Miller et al, the situational factors (ingroup - outgroup membership) are vital to
understanding the verbal and nonverbal communication in an interaction. The possible
communicative consequences of intergroup encounters, especially intergenerational
communicative events, are examined in Communication Accommodation Theory.
Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), which explains the
development of multiple stereotypes, is an extension of social identity theory and
examines the “discursive dimensions of social interaction” (Giles, Coupland & Coupland,
1991, p. 7). CAT is particularly useful because it considers the communication
implications and the strategies that individuals use to express either individual or group
preference.
To examine an individual’s motivations and topic choice in a communicative
endeavor, Coupland, Coupland, Giles, and Henwood (1988) modified previous CAT
conceptions to consider the consequences of communicative behaviors in
intergenerational communication. This modification increased the emphasis placed on
motivation prior to the outset of the communicative interaction and the consequences for
the receiver of the messages being sent.
Convention