Stereotype traits of older adults generated by young, middle-aged, and older Chinese participants

Permissions were not obtained for sharing the full text of this article.This study examined stereotype traits of older adults elicited from 40 young (M age = 19.6), 40 middle-aged (M = 36.8), and 40 older Chinese adults (M = 64.7). Trait lists were compared across age groups and to traits reported by U.S. and Chinese New Zealand participants in earlier research (Hummert, Garstka, Shaner, & Strahm, 1994; Ng, Liu, Loong, & Weatherall, 1999). Results indicated considerable overlap between stereotype traits of these Chinese participants and those from the earlier studies with Western participants, but also revealed 22 stereotype traits unique to Chinese culture. Participants of all ages reported more positive age traits than negative ones, with young participants reporting the highest number of positive traits. Consistent with Ng et al. (1999), the latter result suggests that views of aging are more positive in Chinese than in Western cultures. Discussion focuses on age stereotypes in the context of Chinese culture

Harmonies and Tensions in Chinese Intergenerational Communication: Younger and Older Adults' Accounts

Author Final Draft doi:10.1075/japc.11.2.06zhaThis study examined interview accounts of intergenerational communication from twenty younger adults (M age = 24.05; Age range: 19 to 33) and thirteen older adults (M age = 67.10; Age range: 62 to 72) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed into Chinese. Meaningful descriptions of intergenerational communication were then translated to English. Using an emergent theme analysis approach, we identified themes that fell into three broad areas: 1) positive intergenerational communication behaviors, 2) negative intergenerational behaviors, and 3) ideal intergenerational communication. The analysis also revealed that some themes of the two age groups were congruent (e.g., the mutual endorsement of filial piety), while others were incongruent with each other (e.g., disagreement on perceptions on equality and superiority). Themes are compared to descriptions of intergenerational communication found in research within Western cultures. Themes are also discussed in relation to cross-cultural intergenerational research, the Communication Predicament of Aging model, and the changing Chinese economic and political system

Perceptions of Conflict Management Styles in Chinese Intergenerational Dyads

DOI: 10.1080/0363775052000342535We examined intergenerational communication and conflict management styles in China. Older and younger Chinese adults were randomly assigned to evaluate one of four conversation transcripts in which an older worker criticizes a young co-worker. The young worker’s communication was varied across the transcripts to reflect four conflict management styles: competing, avoiding, accommodating, and problem-solving. As expected, older participants favored the accommodating style over the problem-solving style. Young adults either preferred the problem-solving style to the accommodating style, as predicted, or judged the two styles as equally positive. The results illustrate the juxtaposition of tradition and modernization/globalization in the changing Chinese cultural context, and demonstrate how such cultural changes are reflected in interpersonal communication between the generations

Psychometric Analysis of the Emotional Tone Rating Scale: A Measure of Person-Centered Communication

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Gerontologist on 2012-01-01, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/07317115.2012.702648.Psychometric analysis of the Emotional Tone Rating Scale (ETRS) was completed using ratings of naïve listeners who evaluated staff-resident communication in three nursing homes. Interrater consistency was high with ICC (2, 1) for agreement = 0.95 and consistency = 0.95. Factor analysis revealed two factors—person-centered communication and controlling communication—that explained 84.8% of the variance. Person-centered communication included seven descriptors (items) with loadings ranging from 0.84 to 0.98 and a coefficient alpha of 0.98. Controlling communication included five items that loaded from −0.63 to .99 with a coefficient alpha of 0.94. These factors were negatively correlated p = −.64 and demonstrated good ranges, standard deviations, and high item-total correlations. Person-centered communication correlated with higher resident engagement in conversation in contrast to controlling communication. The ETRS provides a measure of person-centered communication that can be used to evaluate interactions between nursing staff and older adults who reside in long term care settings

Older Adults in Prime-Time Television Dramas in Taiwan: Prevalence, Portrayal, and Communication Interaction

DOI: 10.1007/s10823-009-9100-3A content and thematic analysis of 109 episodes (94.9 hours) of prime-time dramas examined the portrayals of aging and the nature of intergenerational interaction involving older adults on Taiwanese television. The content analysis revealed that older characters, regardless of sex, appeared less frequently and in less prominent roles than other adult characters, but not in comparison to adolescents and children. The older characters who did appear, however, were predominantly portrayed as cognitively sound and physically healthy. The thematic analysis provided a different picture, showing that older characters talked about age explicitly, strategically linking it to death and despondence, to influence younger characters. Communication behavior themes identified included supporting, superiority, and controlling for older characters, and reverence/respect for younger characters. Findings are compared to those from similar studies of U.S. media and discussed from a Cultivation Theory perspective in terms of their reinforcement of Chinese age stereotypes and the traditional values of filial piety and age hierarchy in the context of globalization and culture change

Accommodation and institutional talk: communicative dimensions of police-civilian interactions

In this chapter, we focus on Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT)'s utility for analyzing one under-studied domain of intergroup communication, namely police-civilian encounters. By so doing, we focus on one aspect of institutional talk where a power imbalance is clearly evident. In addition to presenting recent self-report data relevant to this initiative, new intercultural data from China, Taiwan and the US, are also introduced. But first, we overview some important assumptions and concepts of the theory, interlaced with a selection of empirical research studies

Expressed Trust and Compliance in Police-Civilian Encounters: The Role of Communication Accommodation in Chinese and American Settings

Author Final Draft doi:10.1080/17544750802287935Research has demonstrated that police officers’ communicative practices are potent predictors of individuals’ expressed reactions to law enforcement. The present study continues this line of work in Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China, and the United States by testing a theoretical model pertaining to the influence of perceived police officer accommodation and reported trust on attitudes about compliance with police requests. In addition to differences in reported levels of these variables across locations, findings indicated that perceived police officer communication accommodation predicted trust in police which, in turn, predicted attitudes about compliance with police requests. The empirical and practical significance of these findings are discussed