Chapter 7 - Communication and Culture Flashcards
(53 cards)
What is culture?
It is a way of life. It is a system of ideas, values, beliefs, structures, and practices that is communicated by one generation to the next and that sustains a particular way of life.
What are the four key premises to understanding cultures?
- Cultures are systems
- Cultures vary in five dimensions
- Cultures are dynamic
- Multiple social communities coexist within a single culture
What type of system is a culture?
Holistic
- Individualism/collectivism
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Power distance
- Masculinity/femininity
- Long-term/short-term orientation
What are the five key dimensions that vary among cultures?
What does individualism/collectivism refer to?
The extent to which members of a culture understand themselves as part of and connected to their families, groups, and cultures.
What does uncertainty avoidance refer to?
The extent to which people try to avoid ambiguity and vagueness.
What does power distance refer to?
The size of the gap between people with high and low power and the extent to which that gap is regarded as normal
What does masculinity/femininity refer to?
The extent to which a culture values aggressiveness, competitiveness, looking out for yourself, and dominating others and nature; versus gentleness, cooperation, and taking care of other and living in harmony with the natural world.
What does long-term/short-term orientation refer to?
The extent to which members of a culture think about and long term (history and future) versus short term (present).
What does dynamic mean?
They evolve and change over time
What are the four primary sources of change in cultural life?
- Invention
- Diffusion
- Calamity
- Communication
What is invention?
The creation of tools, ideas, and practices
What is diffusion?
Borrowing from other cultures.
What is calamity?
Adversity that brings about change in a culture.
What is the primary way communication propels change?
By naming things in ways that shape how we understand them.
What are social communities?
Groups of people who live within a dominant culture yet also are members of another group or groups that are not dominant in a particular society.
What is high-context communication style?
It is indirect and undetailed
What is a low-context communication style?
Explicit, detailed, and precise
What are the two principles that illuminate the intimate relationship between communication and social communities and cultures?
- Communication expressed and sustains cultures
2. We learn culture in the process of communication.
What are the two principles for minimizing misunderstandings between members of different cultures and social communities?
- Resist the ethnocentric bias
2. Recognize that responding to diversity is a process
What is ethnocentrism?
The use of ones own culture and its practices as the standard for interpreting the values, beliefs, norms, and communication of other cultures.
What does ethnocentrism literally mean?
Put our own ethnicity (ethno) at the center (centrism) or the universe
What is cultural relativism?
It recognizes that cultures vary in how they think, act, and behave as well as in what they believe and value.
What are the five responses to diversity?
- Resistance
- Tolerance
- Understanding
- Respect
- Participation
