The theory of the coordinated management of meaning (CMM) refers to the idea that people make interpretations and subsequently act on the basis of rules.  Within any social situation, individuals attempt to make sense of the episodes and actions in a particular environment and apply rules to achieve a better understanding.  As a result, the individuals act on the basis of their findings and employ rules to determine the appropriate course of action.  Rules of meaning and action work within a context, and one context is always embedded within another so each one is a part of a larger whole.  The hierarchy of contexts illustrates this idea as it depicts four contexts that build upon their predeccsor: relationship, episode, self-concept, and archtype.  The relationship context includes mutual expectations among members of the group.  The episode context is an event.  The self-concept context refers to an individual's personal definition.  Finally, the archtype context is an illustration of a general truth.  A further understanding of the meaning of a text can be seen in the image of a loop.  When the rules of meaning are consistent throughout the loop, the loop is described as charmed (self-confirming).  Despite this, the rules of interpretation often change from idea in the loop to another, creating a paradox (strange loop).  Such loops confirm that rules provide logic in dealing with a situation and therefore people deal with a situation consistent with their rules (Littlejohn, 2002). 

Hierarchy of Contexts

(Littlejohn, 2002, 172).