Alignment Talk and Social Confrontation

Because social interaction frequently and expectably becomes problematic, communicators need some ways to “tune” social behavior to meet their preferences. Sara Newell and Randall Stutman reveal a grounded theory of one way this tuning occurs. Their focus upon social confrontation episodes is one of numerous inquiries into the nature of the structures communicators use to align behavior with preferences for that behavior. In short, it is a description of alignment talk between communicators (Morris & Hopper, 1987).