Hannah Kelley Theory Application Blog

Intercultural communication theories and concepts can help us understand cultural groups.  This blog post will focus on intercultural relationships and social identity theory, more specifically age identity.  According to Martin & Nakayama in 2013, “most people have a variety of intercultural relationships that may feature differences in age, physical ability, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, race, or nationality” (p. 391).  Intercultural relationships require the balance of similarities and differences.  The benefits of intercultural relationships include “acquiring knowledge about the world, breaking stereotypes, and acquiring new skills” (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, p. 391).  Intercultural relationships can provide an insight on a specific cultural group and assist in breaking stereotypes that may have been enforced.  

            Identity is the concept of who we are and social identity theory is how people identify themselves through interaction with others (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).  There are a variety of social and cultural identities that different groups of people identify with.  Age identity is important to understand because the society of the United States fears aging and many people are very conscious about how to prevent this natural process.  Age identity is “the identification with the cultural conventions of how we should act, look, and behave according to our age” (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, p. 189).  The concept of age provides a framework of how people should behave and act in order to align with their age or “act” their age.  As people get older, the notions of age change.  Different generations have different ways of thinking and their values may not be completely aligned.  

            Examining intercultural relationships and age identity as part of social identity theory, will allow us to better understand the elderly.  This generation of people has experienced so many things and adapted a stronger sense of age identity, as they got older.  I am interested in exploring the similarities and differences between my personal age identity and the age identity of someone who is older.  This exploration will highlight the concept of intercultural relationships and seek to explain a further insight into the elderly population.  It may also break stereotypes that the elderly have been labeled with.  By interacting with the elderly, I may be able to better identify with my age and vise versa, as social identity theory is how people identify themselves through interaction with others.

            I plan to conduct interviews for my data collection.  I will gain permission to record the audio of these interviews, and if allowed, take some photographs or record videos.  Recording the interviews will allow me to transcribe them and make certain that vital information is not left out.  I have made contact with Tabitha and was given permission to conduct interviews and attend an event there.  I will interview two or three of the residents at Tabitha about their everyday lives and the stories that they have, as I feel that story telling would make them feel comfortable during the interview.  This would provide me with an insight of the elderly culture.  I am interested in finding out how they identify themselves in the society and if they mention anything related to age identity.  There are a variety of activities hosted by Tabitha that I can attend.  I plan to call the director of Tabitha and set up an official time to complete the interviews and attend an event.  I do not mind who I interview, as I feel that I will gain insight from anybody in this culture.  Before I attend Tabitha, I will form ten to fifteen open-ended questions that will explore the elderly culture.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRNQtvOCbc

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.