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Intergroup relations have been studied systematically for more than 60 years and have become embedded in mainstream communication studies. The intergroup communication (IGC) approach provides a crucial level of understanding beyond the interpersonal and the societal, highlighting the interconnections and mutual influences between groups and individuals. In this paper, we briefly describe the main features and history of IGC, pointing to ways of moving forward in the light of current challenges. We highlight the complexity and messiness of IGC and the need for more diversity in theory and method. The time is right for new thinking in IGC that leads to the improvement of communication within and across groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By emphasizing the value of health professionals’ communication skills in creating positive health care experiences, researchers have tended to study health communication as an interpersonal encounter. Interactions in the health context, though, are inherently intergroup. Using the language and social psychology approach, this study emphasizes those intergroup features of health communication. We used mixed methods and applied communication accommodation theory and the willingness to communicate construct to the health context. Participants in Canada and Australia (N = 371) were asked about their perceptions of their health consultations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that health communication competence was the best predictor of patient willingness to communicate. Differences between patients’ accounts of positive and negative health care experiences were clearly differentiated by their perceptions of the health professionals’ communication strategies. The potential effects of these strategies on patient participation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity threat can be understood from a social identity perspective where people interrelate based on group memberships. Language use may indicate the presence of identity threat. We explored reactions of doctors to planned expanded roles for nurses to perform gastrointestinal endoscopy in Australia. Specialist doctors have traditionally performed endoscopic procedures, yet the level of doctor support for nurse endoscopy is relatively unknown. We present results of our valence and discourse analyses of text box responses in a national survey that explored doctors’ attitudes toward this role expansion. We found low levels of support for the role, and frequent expression of identity threat in three main areas: (1) framing nurses as incompetent, (2) use of contracted statements to evoke authority, and (3) emotive expression. Findings indicated that stakeholders should consider intergroup attitudes when facilitating changes in health professional scope of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, five papers that formed the Special Issue for the fourth International Association of Language and Social Psychology Taskforce on health communication are revisited. Our starting point is Gallois's epilogue and the six themes she identified from those papers. These themes are invoked to explore where health communication is moving in the 21st century. Burgeoning work on intergroup communication in this context, patient voice, minority groups, and the role of the carer are highlighted [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hospitals involve a complex socio-technical health system, where communication failures influence the quality of patient care. Research indicates the importance of social identity and intergroup relationships articulated through power, control, status and competition. This study focused on interspecialty communication among doctors for patients requiring the involvement of multiple specialist departments. The paper reports on an interview study in Australia, framed by social identity and communication accommodation theories of doctors'' experiences of managing such patients, to explore the impact of communication. Interviews were undertaken with 45 doctors working in a large metropolitan hospital, and were analysed using Leximancer (text mining software) and interpretation of major themes. Findings indicated that intergroup conflict is a central influence on communication. Contested responsibilities emerged from a model of care driven by single-specialty ownership of the patient, with doctors allowed to evade responsibility for patients over whom they had no sense of ownership. Counter-accommodative communication, particularly involving interpersonal control, appeared as important for reinforcing social identity and winning conflicts. Strategies to resolve intergroup conflict must address structural issues generating an intergroup climate and evoke interpersonal salience to moderate their effect. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]