The theory of accommodation as a basis for the analysis of intergenerational communication
The purpose of this article is to substantiate the relevance of the interpretation of the communication accommodation theory (CAT) as an effective resource for analyzing the essence of intergenerational communication with older people. CAT is one of the most effective models for studying communication in various social contexts. So, one of the most popular and prolific areas of application of this system of ideas were the areas of intergenerational communication and health care. In this connection, the article considers several productive models of intergenerational communication, formulated on the basis of the communication accommodation theory. These models have stimulated the development of the field of health care communication which is based on the principle of applying the therapeutic power of communication, which implements some of the principles of the productive aging paradigm. The authors of the article analyze both the advantages of the CAT and some areas for development of its ideas. Thus, the need for a more complete study of the phenomenon of adaptation in interaction is discussed, since both CAT and its derived models, for example, such as the “communication predicament of aging model”, “age-stereotype in interaction model”, consider only part of the adaptive processes, only part of the communicative space, constructing an idea only of the conscious mechanisms underlying intergenerational communication. But it is important to note that communicative forms of adaptation are guided by both social and biological imperatives. There is a need for a deeper and more complete understanding of the substantive foundations of intergenerational communication, which will allow us to improve the emotional and psychological quality of aging by building more effective communication. The influence of communication on the health status of older people is an actively developing area of anthropological research, a significant contribution to which is made by the results of different areas of communicative linguistics based both on variationist methods (for example, ethnomethodology) but mainly based on a discourse analytical approach that addresses both conversational analysis and a versatile study of narrative. The methodological basis of this article is the work of leading scientist of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, social psychology and cognitive science who have been studying the linguistic and communicative aspects of the aging process since the mid-twentieth century. The works of the authors under consideration use various methodological and theoretical approaches: narrative theory, interactive sociolinguistics, social theory, critical pragmatics and discursive psychology. The integrating basis for these approaches is the emphasis on the search and study of the communicative possibilities for formulating healthy aging practices.