Patronizing young and elderly adults: Response strategies in a community setting

Older Adults’ Responses to Patronizing Advice

“…Research attention has shifted over the past few years, from the identification of the characteristics and consequences of patronizing talk to the evaluation of possible responses to it (Harwood & Giles, 1996;Harwood, Giles, Fox, Ryan, & Williams, 1993;Harwood, Ryan, Giles, & Tysoski, 1997;Ryan, Kennaley, Pratt, & Shumovich, 2000). Assertive and passive (cooperative, neutral) response types have been included in the majority of the studies.…”

“…Ryan et al (2000) suggest that humorous responses are a way to accomplish assertion without this risk of misinterpretation. Passive responses, on the other hand, attend to the positive face of the advice giver, but do little to protect the advice recipient's negative face or the competence aspect of their positive face (sociability is protected, however) (Harwood & Giles, 1996;Harwood et al, 1993Harwood et al, , 1997. Nonrelevant responses may be considered indirect politeness strategies (Brown & Levinson, 1987).…”

Prologue on two dimensions: The risk and management of intergenerational miscommunication

“…First introduced by Ryan, Giles, Bartolucci, and Henwood (1986), the CPA Model addressed the predicament that arises as people make (sometimes) well-intended changes to their communication to meet the needs of older people (for a recent revision of the model, see Harwood, Giles, Fox, Ryan, & Williams, 1993). Paradoxically, however, the modified communication commonly conveys a lack of respect and not the care and concern as originally intended.…”

Young Adults’ Perceptions of Intergenerational Communication: Mongolian and American Data

“…These perceptions work as a psychological starting point, and then determine whether young adults will either communicatively show respect or decide to avoid such contact. Subsequently, these communication behaviors produce the varying levels of fulfillment and satisfaction in these kinds of encounters (Harwood et al, 1993). What will follow is a description of each of these concepts, how they fit within the theoretical model of CPAM, and how they also work together to influence the overall success of an intergenerational interaction.…”

“…The communication predicament of aging model (CPAM: Harwood, Giles, Fox, Ryan, & Williams, 1993;Ryan, Giles, Bartolucci, & Henwood, 1986) offers a theoretical perspective on communicative behaviors that can be found in intergenerational interactions. The CPAM (see Figure 1) proposes that when a young adult interacts with an older adult, a negative stereotype may be triggered by age cues associated with the latter.…”