Chapter 6 - Cultural and Environmental Factors in Interpersonal Communication Flashcards
1
Q
What is culture?
A
- Culture is defined differently by different groups of people
- A group of people who, through a process of learning, can share perceptions of the world, which influence their beliefs, values, norms, and rules, eventually affecting one’s behavior
- Culture is formed by a group of people, a group that individuals participate in over the course of their lifetime
- Humans are hardwired to learn culture
- Culture facilitates a shared perception of the world•Culture teaches
- Beliefs: Assumptions and convictions held by an individual, group, or culture about the truth or existence of something
- Values: Important and lasting principles or standards held by a culture about desirable and appropriate courses of action or outcomes
- Norms: informal guidelines about what is acceptable or proper social behavior within a specific culture
- Rules: Explicit guidelines (generally written down) governing acceptable or proper social behavior within a specific culture
2
Q
What is a co-culture?
A
- Regional, economic, social, religious, ethnic, and other cultural groups that exert influence in society
- Simply belonging to a cultural group doesn’t mean everyone within that culture is identical
- Bring a unique sense of history and purpose
3
Q
What is a microculture?
A
- Cultural patterns of behavior influenced by cultural beliefs, values, norms, and rules based on a specific locality or within an organization
- Local culture
- Provide individuals a sense of belonging on a more localized level
4
Q
What purpose does culture serve?
A
- Provides a collective self-esteem
- Cultural stereotyping has positive and negative outcomes
- Provides normative views
5
Q
How does culture provide collective self-esteem?
A
- Collective self-esteem is the aspect of an individual’s self-worth or self-image that stems from their interactions with others and evaluation of their various social groups
- Four factors:
- Private collective esteem
- Membership esteem
- Public collective esteem
- Importance to identity
- Private collective esteem
- The degree to which an individual positively evaluates their group
- Membership esteem
- The degree to which an individual sees themselves as a “good” member of a group
- Public collective esteem
- The degree to which nonmembers of a group evaluate a group and its members either positively or negatively
- Importance to identity
- The degree to which group membership is important to an individual
6
Q
How does collective self-esteem impact interpersonal interactions?
A
- What happens when an individual feels their heritage is viewed positively by a communication partner?•Individuals with high collective self-esteem:
- Report more favorable interactions with individuals from other cultures
- Individuals with low collective self-esteem:
- Report less intimate social interactions with individuals from other cultures
7
Q
How does stereotyping impact interpersonal interactions?
A
- Stereotyping is a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a social group
- Positive and negative
- Accurate and inaccurate
- Types of stereotypes:
- Cultural stereotypes are beliefs possessed by cultural groups about another social group
- Personal stereotypes are those held by an individual and do not reflect a shared belief with the individual’s cultural group(s)
- Stereotypes are problematic
- Categorize people when making snap decisions
- All members of a group are inaccurately viewed as the same
- Many stereotypes are based on ignorance about another’s culture
8
Q
How does culture provide normative views?
A
- Culture provides the rules, regulations, and norms governing a culture and how people act with other members of that society
- Individuals tend to view their own culture as generally right, moral, ethical, etc.
- Ethnocentrism:
- The degree to which an individual views the world from their own culture’s perspective •The evaluation of different cultures according their own culture’s preconceptions
- Often accompanied by feelings of dislike, mistrust, or hate for cultures deemed inferior
9
Q
How does culture impact communication?
A
- Culture is communication and communication is culture
- Different cultures approach relationships differently
- When communicating, individuals strive to create a positive version of themselves in the eyes of the communication partner
10
Q
How does culture impact the communication message?
A
- Edward T. Hall
- Cultures interpret communicative meaning
- Low-context communication
- Explicit verbal messages
- High-context communication
- Implicit contexts (e.g., gestures, social customs, nuances, tone of voice, etc.)
- Three general contextual categories:
- Communication
- Cultural orientation
- Business
11
Q
How do different cultures approach relationships differently?
A
- Geert Hofstede
- Six cultural differences impacting how individuals approach work
- Low vs. high power distance
- Individualism vs. collectivism
- Masculinity vs. femininity
- Low vs. high uncertainty avoidance
- Long-term vs. short-term orientation
- Indulgence vs. restraint
12
Q
How do cultural orientations impact relationships?
A
- Power distance
- The degree to which those people and organizations with less power within a culture accept and expect that power is unequally distributed within their culture
- Cultural differences manifest themselves in different ways within a culture
- Low, middle, and upper classifications
- Individualism vs. collectivism
- Individualism: Characteristics of a culture that values being self-reliant and self-motivated, believes in personal freedom and privacy, and celebrates personal achievement
- Collectivism: Characteristics of a culture that values cooperation and harmony and considers the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of the individual
- Masculinity vs. femininity
- Masculine cultures focus on items like earnings, recognition, advancement, and challenge
- Feminine cultures focus on having a good working relationship with one’s manager and coworkers, cooperating with people at work, and security
- Low vs. high uncertainty avoidance
- Uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which cultures as a whole are fearful of ambiguous and unknown situations
- Cultures of high uncertainty avoidance
- View unknown situations as threatening resulting in higher levels of anxiety and neuroticism
- Higher levels of prejudice and ideological, political, and religious fundamentalism
- Cultural orientation
- Long-term orientation
- Individuals focus on the future and not the present or past
- Focus on persistence and thrift
- Short-term orientation
- Individuals focus on the past or present and not the future
- High respect for the past and cultural traditions
- Indulgence vs. restraint
- Indulgence: Cultural orientation marked by immediate gratification for individual desires
- Restraint: Cultural orientation marked by the belief that gratification should not be instantaneous and should be regulated by cultural rules and norms
13
Q
What is face-negotiation theory?
A
- Stella Ting-Toomey
- Face-negotiation theory to explain the importance of face within interpersonal interactions
- Face is the standing or position a person has in the eyes of others
- Individuals strive to create a positive version of their face in the eyes of the other person
- Three types of face:•Self-face: Concern for our face
- Other-face: Concern for another person’s face
- Mutual-face: Concern for both interactants and the relationship
14
Q
Seven assumptions of face-negotiation theory
A
- People in all cultures try to maintain and negotiate face in all communication situations.
- The concept of face is problematic in emotionally vulnerable situations.
- The cultural variability dimensions of individualism-collectivism and small/large power distance shapes the orientations, movements, contents, and styles of facework.
- Individualism-collectivism shapes members’ preferences for self-orientation facework versus other-orientation facework.
- Small/large power distance shapes members’ preferences for horizontal-based facework versus vertical-based facework.
- The cultural variability dimensions, in conjunction with individual, relational, and situational factors influence the use of particular facework behaviors in particular cultural scenes.
- Intercultural facework competence refers to the optimal integration of knowledge, mindfulness, and communication skills in managing vulnerable identity-based conflict situations appropriately, effectively, and adaptively.
15
Q
How can you improve you intercultural communication skills?
A
- Become culturally intelligent
* Engage in culturally mindful interactions
