Comu1311 Examination notes

Comu1311 Examination notes Ch 1: Challenges of Living in a Global Society (P.11-29)  Living in a Global Village - In 1964, Marshall McLuhan coined “global village” to describe a world in which communication technology brings news and information to most remote parts  Contributors to cultural diversity a) Advanced technology and transportation system - Globalization: is the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies, so that events in one part of the world have more and deeper effects on people and societies far away Theory: Perspectives on globalization - Globalists: view globalization as an inevitable development which cannot be resisted or significantly influenced by human intervention, particularly through traditional political institutions, such as nation-states - Traditionalists: the significance of globalization as a new phase has been exaggerated; they believe most economic and social activity is regional rather than global. And they still see a significant role for nation-states - Transformationalists: contend that globalization represents a significant shift, but they question the inevitability of its impacts. They argue that there is still significant scope for national, local and other agencies b) Global economy and business transactions - Global transformation: refers to the worldwide economic and technological changes that influence how people relate to one another Theory: The concept of citizenship - According to Habermas and Arendt: it is important to understand the concept of citizenship both historically and geographically - During antiquity, states began to differentiate between citizens and aliens (outsiders), who were brought to or resided in the territory under their jurisdiction - For instance: a polis reserved certain rights, privileges and duties for its citizens , that is, free individuals born into the polis c) Mass migration and international exchange  Necessity and benefits of intercultural communication a) Multiculturalism b) Building intercultural understanding - Ethnocentrism: means seeing our own culture as the central and best one, seeing other cultures as insignificant - Ethnocentrism may lead to prejudice, stereotypes or discrimination - Cultural relativism: the degree to which an individual judges another culture by its context (contrast to ethnocentrism) ; they try to evaluate behaviors of a culture using that culture’s assumptions about reality c) Promoting international business exchange - According to international business trend report, 3 competencies that are essential in the global workplace: intercultural communication skills, a problem-solving ability, global leadership d) Facilitating cross-cultural adaption - Cross-cultural adaptation is not a process that is unique to immigrants; host nationals also have to experience cultural adjustments when their society is joined by culturally different others Comu1311 Examination notes Ch 2: understanding communication (p.31-53)  The essence of communication - Communication is sharing who we are and what we know; we all share our ideas and feelings with others  The multifaceted nature of communication a) Defining communication Theory: Rhetorical theory - The rhetorical tradition views communication as a practical art of discourse - Rhetorical communication deliberately attempts to influence the audience by using carefully constructed messages of verbal and often visual symbols - Those who create rhetorical communication are called rhetors; the messages they create are rhetorical acts - Aristotle’s rhetoric was the most influential rhetorical text, the model of rhetoric he proposed focuses on 3 elements: 1. Ethos: based on the personal character or credibility of the speaker 2. Pathos: based on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind 3. Logos: based on arguments made in the speech b) Components of communication (8 components) - Source: origin of information; a source is someone who needs and wants to exchange information with others - Message: the verbal/ non-verbal form of ideas, thought, or feelings that one person wishes to communicate to another person or group in some place at some time within a specific context - Channel: messages must have a means by which they move from one person to another - Receiver: intended target of the message - Encoding: the code refers to a shared language use by individuals to categorize their experience and to communicate it to others; it is a process by which source uses shared codes to convert concepts, thought and feelings into a message ; encoding the message of greeting according to a different set of cultural rules - Decoding: a process by which the receiver, as the target of the message, converts the coded message back into meaning; assigning meaning to codes - Noise: noise can be physical, such as distracting sounds or sights - Feedback: the response of the receiver after receiving the message c) Characteristics of communication - Communication is a dynamic process: - David Berlo (1960) provided about communication is a process, if we accept the concept of process, we view events and relationships as dynamic, ongoing, ever-changing and continuous - Greek philosopher Heraclitus said people cannot experience exactly the same thing twice with exactly the same feeling - Communication is interactive: - It requires the active participation of at least two people exchanging messages - Communication is symbolic: - A symbol is an arbitrarily selected and learned stimulus that represents something else - Symbol can be verbal or non-verbal - For instance : In US, patting a child on the head indicates affection, In Thai, this action may considered offensive as it is thought to damage the child’s spirit - Communication is contextual: - It is dependent on the context in which it occurs - A context is the cultural, physical, relational and perceptual environment in which communication occurs - Communication always occurs in a context, and the nature of communication depends in large measure on this context - For instance : In Mexico, children are encouraged to move around the classroom and to interact verbally and physically with classmates; In China, it is expected that students remain in their seats and not talk to other during class  Models of communication a) The linear model - The most influential linear model is Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver’s presented in their book “ The Mathematical Theory of Communication” Shannon’s goal was to formulate a theory to guide the efforts of engineers in finding the most efficient way of transmitting electrical signals from one location to another - The model did not address issue of meaning in message communication - Today, this model is known as the transmission model of communication - According to Shannon and Weaver, communication is a process of sending and receiving messages or transferring information from one mind to another - The transmission model is useful as it allows us to distinguish between communication sources and receivers, and map the flow of information through systems; it also allows for messages to be conceptualized as “containers” of meaning and for communication to be understood as an act performed in order to achieve anticipated outcomes - In transactional model of communication: communicators simultaneously send and receive message rather than acting exclusively as either senders or receivers - Harold Lasswell conceived of analyzing the mass media in 5 stages: the communicator (Who), the content of message (Says What), the means of communication (In Which Channel), the target audience (To Whom), the media effect on audience perception or behaviors (With What Effect) - In elaborating the transmission model, George Gerbner extended the components to include the notions of perception, reactions to a situation and the message context b) The interactive model - Wilbur Schramm was one of the first to challenge the mathematical model of Shannon and Weaver - Everett Rogers and Thomas Steinfatt interactive model, based on their understanding of communication as a process through which participants create and share meaning in order to reach a mutual understanding - Advocates of the interactive model of communication propose that communication systems operate within the confines of cultural rules and expectations - The model theorizes each communication action as building upon the previous experience of the communicators and as having consequences for future communication  Levels of communication a) Intrapersonal communication - The process of understanding and sharing meaning within the self b) Interpersonal communication - The process of understanding and sharing meaning between at least 2 people when relatively mutual opportunities for speaking and listening exist c) Group communication - It refers to purposeful communication in limited-sized groups in which decision making or problem solving occurs d) Organizational communication - It occurs in large cooperative networks and includes virtually all aspects of both interpersonal and group communication - Organizational communication is people working together to achieve individual or collective goals e) Mass communication - It is the process of understanding and sharing meaning with a broad audience through mediated messages  Communication and culture - Culture is a code we learn and share, and learning and sharing require communication - Dodd has noted, is that culture generates symbols, rituals, customs and formats - In first place, culture teaches us significant rules, rituals and procedures, such as our orientation towards time, the perceived degree of power distance, our tolerance of uncertainty, how to dress, when and what to eat, how to work the overall process of learning these things is called socialization - Socialization: refer to the process by which we develop a sense of proper and improper behaviour and communication within the confines of those cultural rules Theory: Communication accommodation theory - The theory is based on three general assumptions: 1. Interactions are embedded in a socio-historical context 2. Communication is about both exchanges of referential meaning and the negotiation of personal and social identities 3. Interactants achieve these functions of communication by accommodating their communicative behaviour, through language, paralanguage, discourse and non-linguistic moves, to their perception of the other’s individual and group characteristics - In US, it is rare to see two male friends kissing in public; In Peru, this would be perceived as commonplace  Case study: hanging out in the public square - Hannah Arendt argues that there is a need for the existence of a common ground where people can relate to each other and physically gather together - Space of communicationfor instance: the Turkish public bath, known as hamam( similar as Westerner know as sauna). The hamam has an important role in the cultures of Middle East, serving as a place for gathering, communicating, ritual cleansing and even as educational and architectural institutions - Hamams usually have 3 rooms: the grand steamy hot room (caldarium) for steam-soaking and massage; the warm room (tepidarium) for washing with soap and water; the cool room for resting or napping after the bath - Another example of an ideal public space for communication public square of ancient Greece - Arendt writes about public spaces depend on public habits, manners and talents - For instance: there is a clear line between public and private realms could be observed in the difference between polis (the sphere where citizens would debate the public affairs, a kind of city-state); oikos ( the private sphere of households) - Besides, the agora a big public square and a marketplace where Athenians gathered to walk and chat; the merchants’ quarter was located around the agora a place where theatres emerged and there the works of Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus were written and performed - The agora contributed to the development of philosophy- Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were among the philosophers who would frequently give public lectures Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.3 Understanding culture 1. What is culture? - Culture as a particular way of life of a group of people, comprising the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, traditions, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and geographic territory - Culture is learned but not intrinsic - Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci (2000) conceptualized “culture as the creative meaning making process, constantly being produced and reproduced by multiple groups - American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1973) defined “culture as a web that people themselves have spun, culture is the fabric of meanings in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action - Raymond Williams, argues that “culture is the product of individuals’ whole committed personal and social experience, it is the product of a whole people and offers individual meanings - Rogers and Steinfatt defines “culture as the total way of life of people, composed of their learned and shared behaviour patterns, values, norms, material Three aspects of Geertz’s “web” metaphor: a) As a web, culture both confines members to their social reality and facilitates their functioning in this reality b) Culture is both a product and a process c) Culture provides contexts for behaviour - Dodd argues “culture is like the luggage we carry” 2. Components of culture (Dodd’s model) a) The inner core of culture - History: deposit and carrier of cultural heritage - Identity: a sense of “who we are” or “who I am”; person’s subjective experience of her or himself in relation to the world - Beliefs : what a culture believes as true or false For instance: Chinese people believe having number 8 appearing in their phone number symbolizes prosperity, having number 6 suggests a smoothness, having both numbers suggests a smooth path to prosperity - Values: what a culture regards as good or bad For instance: US American culture teaches people the values of independence, privacy, competition; Asian culture teaches people the values of harmony, reciprocity, non-competitive, loyalty to superiors and thrift - Worldview: what a culture believes about nature and the working of universe For instance: according to the Christian understanding of human nature, the first humans were created in the image of God  Genesis declares that God said “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea…”  For Japanese Shinto, the Gods called Kami (deities), take the form of wind, rain, mountains…believers of Shinto also respect animals as messengers of gods Theory: Conceptualizing identity - Erik Erikson (1968) states that identity has two forms: identity and difference - The first identity as a self-differentiation or self-awareness and a sense of personal continuity - The second identity derives from a primary relationship, where identity is connected with a differentiation of the self from the other leads to an awareness of one’s personal distinctiveness - Manuel Castells (1997) writes that communication networks become central to economies, societies he argues that identities are plural and such plurality is a source of stress and contradiction in both self-representation and social action b) The intermediate layer of culture (cultural activities) - Technology Everett Rogers (1995) states technology has form, function, meaning - Rituals and customs - Roles Ghanaian culture dictates that people address elderly men as grandfather, whilst Japanese culture is considered respectful for people of a junior status to bow to senior when greeting The overall process of learning these cultural rules socialization, the lifelong process by which people develop a sense of proper and improper behaviour within their culture - Rules - Material objects - Communication patterns - Artistic expressions Theory: Popular culture and folk culture - Popular culture: comprises the daily interactions, needs, desires that make up the everyday lives of mainstream, including practices pertaining to cooking, clothing, consumption, mass media, sports and literature - It refers to products and styles of human expression developed from ordinary people - Folk culture: refers to the localized lifestyle of culture. It is usually handed down through oral tradition, relates to a sense of community - A set of behaviours, patterns of thought and beliefs - Geertz (1973) writes that a local or folk culture is comprised of the taken-for-granted and repetitive nature of the everyday culture of which individuals have mastery Theory: cultural theorists - Biological theorists: posit humans as merely “biological species”, underplaying the significance of culture - Cultural theorists: understand culture as a powerful force that affects our behaviour and the ways we experience the world - Cultural theorists argue that culture is shaped by a society’s dominant economic and political system - Research using cultural studies shows how media culture provides the materials for constructing views of the world, behaviour, and even identities Media culture: radio, television, film and other products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge our identities; our notion of class, race, ethnicity and nationality; our sense of “us” vs “them” Media is a profound source of cultural pedagogy, it contributes to educating us how to behave and what to think and what not to c) The outer layer of culture (institution within culture) - Health system - Kinship system - Economic - Political For instance: the Roman Catholic Pope, as leader of his church, holds full legal, executive and judicial power in its seats, the Vatican City - Education - Religious: any system of thought that provides answers to the big question of life, death, of life beyond death; it involves beliefs, ceremonies, worship, norms of respect and spiritual issues For instance: the “Abrahamic” faiths (Judaism, Islam, Christianity) are called monotheistic religions meaning that each believes in only one God; Hindus tend to be both monotheistic and polytheistic ; Buddhism offers the possibility for personal self-realization and Buddha is considered a teacher not a god 3. Characteristics of culture a) Culture is holistic - In reality, culture functions as an integrated and complex whole b) Culture is learned - The Dutch psychologist and sociologist Geert Hofstede writes that every person “carries within him or herself patterns of thinking, feeling, potential acting which were learned throughout his or her lifetime” c) Culture is dynamic - Culture is subject to change over time d) Culture is ethnocentric - Ethnocentrism: refers to the belief that one’s own culture is superior to other cultures Theory: Ethnography - Anthropologists have adopted ethnography approach to study culture - The role of researcher is to spend extended period of time living in the cultural community, observing, participating in activities as a member - It involves learning the language, talking to local people and collecting data 4. Subcultures - Subcultures refer to cultures existing within the larger or dominant culture - Subcultures can be categorized by activities, social class, gender, ethnicity, race, geographic region, occupation, organization or even sexual orientation a) Ethnic culture - Ethnic groups are identifiable bodies of people who are of common heritage and cultural tradition passed down through generations - Ethnic identity: identification with a group with a shared heritage and culture - More than just describing a group’s population status in relation to the mainstream group, the term “minority” sometimes associated with disadvantage and lower social status For instance: The Sami people in Scandinavia have long been an economically and socially disadvantaged indigenous minority in the relatively homogenous cultures of Sweden, Norway and Finland Theory: Conceptualizing ethnicity - Anthony D. Smith views myths and memories as part of a culture, remembered as part of a golden past and the commemoration and celebration of heroic events - According to Smith, every ethnic group has a mythologized version of its past in which heroic events and heroes occupy a prominent position these events and characters are often evoked during different occasions to inspire the members of the group, to build social cohesion among them b) Subculture defined by social class - Socioeconomic status (SES) can be the basis for a subculture - The Indian caste system example of hierarchically ordered social class ranking - Research also reveals differences between people of different SES with regard to friendship, prestige and trust c) Organizational culture - Each organizations has its ways of doing things and ways of communicating, which together constitute its organizational culture - Organisational culture give members a sense of identity d) Regional culture - Regional differences imply differences in social attitudes, lifestyle, food preferences and communication For instance: distinction between the Randstad (Rim City) and non-Randstad Randstad culture is distinctly urban, located in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht - Non- Randstad follows the historical divided between the Protestant north and the Catholic south Case study: The Roma people in Eastern Europe - In the majority of Eastern European states, the Roma are described as one of the most threatened cultural minority groups - Roma people believe in the power of good luck, charms, amulets, talismans, curses and healing rituals - For instance: Roma concept of Marime is a state of impurity, brought onto a person by the violation of purity taboo - drabardi practice fortune telling; drabarni practice natural healing Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.4 The influence of culture on perception 1. The nature of human perception - We respond to sensory stimuli by selecting, organisating, interpreting them and from them we create a meaningful picture of our world - The process of human information processing is referred to as perception. It explains how we see or sense things around us - The first stage of information processing perception, which refers to how we see or sense things around us - According to psychologist Blaine Goss (1995): the information we manage every day has 2 origins: external and internal - People, events, objects are sources of external information - Knowledge, past experiences, feelings are internal world of information 2. Stages of the perception process - The perception process: not always based on true picture of reality, feedback about ourselves and others, we behave as though our perceptions are real a) The selection stage - Which information is received via the senses, then attended to and interpreted by the brain - We are bombarded with an enormous array of stimuli as part of our everyday lives, but we are limited in the number of stimuli we can meaningfully process selection process helps us to discern those stimuli which are immediately useful to us - Selective perception involves 3 steps: selective exposure, selective attention, selective retention - Perception: include selective exposure, attention, retention- is influenced by culture - Goss (1995) identified 3 common perceptual tendencies, all influenced by culture: closure, familiarity, expectations - Closure: humans’ tendency to see things as complete wholes instead of incomplete configurations - Familiarity: people use their existing knowledge to identify what they see - Expectation: the more frequently we see something, the more inclined we are to form a “fixed” image of that thing in our mind which informs our future expectations of it b) Categorization stage - Categorization is the process of ordering the environment by grouping persons, objects and events on the basis of their similarities - Categories are useful because they help the information processor to reduce uncertainty and increase the accuracy of predictions - Membership categorizes are associated with specific features and activities provides people with a powerful resource for making sense of their social world, allowing them to make discursive connections to the category membership of actors - Draw distinctions between ingroups and outgroups - Ingroup (us) represents a special class of membership group characterized by internal cohesiveness among its members - Outgroup (them) is a group whose attributes are dissimilar from those of the ingroup Theory: attribution theory - Was developed by Fritz Heider in 1958, has been modified since that time by Edward Jones, Keith Davis, and Harold Kelley - The theory assumes that a person seeking to understand why another person acted in a certain way may attribute one or more causes to the behaviours in question - According to Heider (1958), a person can make two attributions: internal or external - Internal: the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about that person, such as attitude, beliefs, or personality - External: ascribes situational causes to a person’s behaviour - We commonly attribute our own success and other’s failures to internal factors, attribute our failures and other people’s success to external ones - Attribute theory relevant to the study of human perception c) The interpretation stage - When interpreting stimuli, we try to apply elements of familiarity to it, drawing upon contexts and knowledge we already have 3. The influence of culture on perception a) Culture beliefs, values and perception - Beliefs are the basis of our values, which are enduring attitudes about a preference for one belief over another - Values possess a normative dimension, specifying what is good or bad, right or wrong, in particular context b) Culture and categorization - Nisbett and Miyamoto (2005) argue that people from Western cultures focus on salient objects and rules when categorizing the environment - And people in East Asian cultures focus more on relationships and similarities among objects when organizing the environment - The tendency to see members of outgroups as “all alike”, without recognizing the individual differences that we appreciate in ingroup members outgroup homogeneity effect Theory: implicit personality theory - The first tradition of the theory focuses on the general bias in judgments (e.g. the tendency to presume that someone who has one good trait is likely to have other good traits) - The second tradition of the theory focuses on individual differences in person perception (e.g. the tendency to look for evidence that is consistent with our first impression) c) Culture and interpretation - For instance: Red for Chinese represents splendor and wealth and is a wedding colour; Western white is a wedding colour because it is perceived as suggesting purity - People also try to explain an observed behaviour by attributing to either personal or situational causes - When we explain someone’s behaviour in terms of personality, motivation, or personal preferences personal attributes - When we explain someone’s behaviour in terms of unusual circumstances, social pressure or physical forces beyond their control, we are using situational attributes - When we make attributions of people’s behaviours on the basis of either personality or situational factors, we are prone to biases - In particular, we engage in a self-serving bias, we tend to attribute a positive behaviour by ingroup members to internal factors and their negative behaviour to situational variables; - In contrast, we tend to attribute positive behaviour by outgroup members to situational variables and negative behaviour to personality variables For instance: a student’s failure to pass an exam could be attributed to a lack of intelligence on the part of the student (internal factor) or too much social or family pressure (external factor) 4. Perception and intercultural communication a) Ethnocentrism - Highly ethnocentric people tend to engage in self-centred dialogue in which they use their own cultural standards to judge the experience of communicating with others - Ethnocentrism may lead to prejudice, stereotypes, or discrimination and thus prohibits effective intercultural communication by impairing or preventing understanding - In contrast to ethnocentrism cultural relativism: the degree to which an individual judges another culture by its context b) Prejudice - It is the result of generalized evaluations about a person, object or action and can manifest biased attitudes or behaviours towards the relevant party - The mass media can play a significant role in creating and perpetuation prejudice and stereotypes - Brislin (1981) suggests that prejudice serves several functions: Utilitarian: our prejudices may be rewarded economically or socially; for instance, prejudice against minority groups might put people from the mainstream culture in a more favourable position when competing in the job market Ego- defensive: prejudice allows us to avoid admitting certain things about ourselves; for instance: if you are unsuccessful in some pursuit, you could blame those who were successful and in doing so, avoid examining the reasons for your own failure and protect your self-esteem A value-expressive function: it allows people to highlight the aspects of life they value, such as an affiliation with a particular social group A knowledge function: allow us to organize and structure our world in ways that make sense to us and are relatively convenient - Brislin further categorized prejudice according to the internsity of action or response: verbal abuse, physical avoidance, discrimination, physical attack and massacre c) Stereotypes - Pre-conceived beliefs - Associated with a group or category of people, but may not be generalizable to the entire group - Can be formed from a false association between two variables - In its original sense, “stereotype” stands for “solid impression” - Stereotypes is a form of social consensus rather than individual judgments Theory: Self-fulfilling prophecy - It is a statement that becomes true by directly or indirectly altering actions - For Robert Merton’s book, he stated that a self-fulfilling prophecy is a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original - false conception “come true” For instance: if a lecturer believes all American students are active participants in the classroom, she might treat them as such by giving them more opportunities to speak in class d) Racism - The belief that one racial group is superior to all others - The product of ignorance, hatred and fear of difference, including differences in customs, values, religion or appearance Case study: How are Eastern Europeans perceived by the West? Maria Todorova believed that such negative stereotypes of Eastern Europeans, specifically of people from the Balkans, were influenced by the media, popular culture and especially literature  Created an image of the Balkans as mystical but also dangerous and traditional Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.5 Culture Orientations and Behaviours 1. Culture as a repertoire of behaviours - Culture provides the overall framework for humans to organize their thoughts, emotions and behaviours in relation to their environment. - At the core culture are values which function as criteria for judging our own behaviour and that of others 2. Dimension of culture (Hofstede’s cultural dimension) a) Individualism- collectivism - Individualistic: emphasize individual’s goals, abilities, aptitudes over those of the group - Collectivistic: serve and preserve the ingroup by subordinating personal goals For instance: Chinese performances, such as the dragon dance, which require the close cooperation of the group rather than one skill by an individual - Individualism and collectivism also associated with direct or indirect styles of communication - In the direct style: associated with individualism - Indirect style: associated with collectivism b) Masculinity – femininity - In masculine cultures, people strive for maximal distinction between gender behaviours and expectations; greater value is placed on masculine traits - Cultures place a high value on masculine traits stress assertiveness, competition, material success - Cultures labelled as feminine are those that permit more overlapping social roles for the sexes and place high values on feminine traits - Culture place a high value on femininity stress quality of life, interpersonal relationship, concern for the weak c) Power distance - Power distance is related to the level of hierarchy in a society For instance: In Thailand, where a status hierarchy is observed, people are expected to display respect for monks by greeting and taking leave of them with ritualistic greetings, removing their hats in the presence of a monk Theory: Michel Foucault’s theory of power Michel Foucault (1926-1984) argues that social hierarchies are always present in human communication.. -- where power is located in a culture; -- who has and who does not have power; -- how power is distributed; -- how those in power obtain and keep power; -- to what/whose ends power is used. - He argued that communication rarely takes place between pure “equals”, even though most of our models of understanding communication make this assumption - His work reveals an interest in questions about where power is located in a culture, who has and who doesn’t have it, how power is distributed, how those in power obtain and keep power, and to what/ whose ends power is used - He believes that power is dynamic, flowing through individuals in various contexts and relationships - Importantly, people who are the subjects of power often find ways to resist this power, but this doesn’t mean such resistance is easy d) Uncertainty avoidance - This dimension reflects a culture’s tolerance of ambiguity and acceptance of risk. - In high uncertainty avoidance cultures, members seek for information and certainty, and are actively securities seeking. - In low uncertainty avoidance cultures, members are more comfortable dealing with diversity, ambiguity and risk. - High uncertainty avoidance tends to be found in collectivistic cultures can be found in consumer behaviour For instance: risk perception is found to be negatively associated with Asian consumers’ willingness to adopt online purchasing Similarly, Greek consumers have greater concerns for security than British consumers - Weber and Hsee contended that people from collectivistic cultures maybe more willing to take risks, because in a collectivistic society family and other ingroup members are expected to help a person bear the possible adverse consequences of risky choices e) Long term- short term orientations - This cultural dimension was developed by Hofstede and Bond, also labelled as Confucian work dynamism - Confucian work dynamism refers to dedicated, motivated, responsible and educated individuals with a sense of commitment and organizational identity and loyalty - Countries and regions high in Confucian work dynamism: HK, Singapore, Tw, South korea, Japan five economic dragons - Long-term orientation encourages thrift, savings, perseverance toward results, and a willingness to subordinate oneself for a purpose. - Short-term orientation is consistent with spending to keep up with social pressure, less savings, and preference for quick results. 3. Hall’s high and low context cultural dimension - Hall divided cultures into low and high context this dimension refers to the extent to which we gather information from the physical, social, and psychological context of an interaction (high-context) as opposed to the explicit verbal code (low-context) - In high context cultures, information about procedures is not explicitly communicated by using language. The context is supposed to be a cue for behaviour - In high context communication, the listener is already contexted and does not need to be given much background information - High context cultures generally have restricted code systems, in which speakers and listeners rely more on the contextual elements of the communication setting for information than on the actual languageinteractants look to the physical, social, relational and cultural environment for information - In low context cultures, people rely extensively on the verbal code system for creating and interpreting meaning - Low context cultures employ an explicit code to send messages people rely on an elaborated code system for creating and interpreting meaning, so that little meaning is determined by context 4. Value orientation theory - Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) suggests that cultures develop unique positions in five value orientations The concept entails 4 assumptions: - All human societies face the same problems - The use different means to solve them - The means to address universal problems are limited - Value orientations are behaviourally observable through empirical studies Theory: Condon and Yousef’s model of value orientations - They extended Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s 5 value orientations to include 6 spheres of universal problems all human face - These are the self, family, society, human nature, nature and supernatural - They claimed that all value orientations exist in every society, but the preferred response to the problem will vary from culture to culture For instance: supernatural is knowledge of the cosmic order in some cultures, people believe this order is comprehensible, in others they believe it is mysterious and unknowable a) Man-nature orientation - A society’s conception of the relationship of humans to nature is determined by the worldview of its people For instance: In Arab culture, humans are part of nature and are supposed to live in harmony with it Islamic view that everything in the world, except humans is administered by God-made laws Japanese culture also love and respect for nature, believing that humans should live in harmony with nature they cherish the beauty of nature through hanami (cherry blossoms) in spring and momijigari (maple leaves changing colour)in autumn, and practice traditional flower arrangements known as ikebana b) Activity orientation - It refers to the use of time for self-expression and play, self-improvement and development, and work - The activity orientation can refer to being, being-in-becoming and doing For instance: Protestant cultures, such as that of Britain, perceived paid work as essential: a dominant human activity that occupies a central place in human existence c) Time orientation - Mulder (1996) reports three different conceptions of time in Thai society - The first conception is characterized by continuity - The second is “modern” conception of time- instead of standing still, time in this conception moves ahead toward the future - The third is an animistic conception of time- communities feel that they are controlled by a strong power beyond their control - Hall categorized time orientations into polychronic and monochronic - Monochronic: view time as linear and tend to do one thing at a time - Polychronic: view time as cyclical and attempt to perform multiple tasks simultaneously d) Human nature orientation For instance: Confucianism teaches that humans are born free of evil; Buddhism emphasizes the spirituality and goodness of the individual, in what is a more inward-oriented philosophy e) Relational orientation. - It refers to perceptions of the self and the ways in which society is organized - It can be lineal, collateral and individualistic 5. Intercultural communication ethics Approaches to ethics a) Ethical universalism believes that there is a universal ethical principle across all societies at any time what is wrong in one place will be wrong elsewhere, regardless of time and circumstances - Connected with a unilinear model of cultural development which describes all cultures as progressing along a single line of development and conversing on a single universal set of values and norms For instance: The Geneva Convention standards - Problem associated with universalist: attempt to ground ethics variously in religion, nature history, and reason but largely fail because there is no agreement about what is religiously authoritative b) Ethical relativism proposes that values and norms are relative - They believe that while people from different cultures share common needs, interests or feelings, their ways of acting upon these internal states vary because of cultural differences - Relativists deny the existence of a single universal set of values and norms, instead believe that values and norms are relative to particular individuals or groups - Problem: they fail to address how conflicts between cultures with different values and norms can be resolved c) Communicative ethics approach recognises that humans are products of their culture but are capable of critically reflecting upon and changing the norms and values - We are able to critically review the norms of other cultures and make informed decisions about which of these are worthy of adoption or rejection Principles of ethical intercultural communication A) Mutuality - We should locate a common space - A spirit of equality, inclusiveness and a supportive climate is conducive to successful communication outcomes B) Non-judgmentalism - It implies a willingness to express ourselves openly and be open minded about others’ behaviours C) Honesty - Requires us to see things as they are rather than as we would like them to be D) Respect - Respect involves sensitivity to, acknowledgement of other people’s needs and wants Case study: Dinner at a Japanese home d) Protecting one’s face and particularly that of others, is important in collectivistic cultures e) The entry area of a house or an apartment is called Genkan, where shoes are left f) Wear the offered slippers in every room except for Tatami mat rooms g) Japanese always say Itadakimasu, a kind of grace before meals that also expresses thanks to the host Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.6 Verbal communication and culture 1. The power of language - Noam Chomsky, a well-known linguist, wrote in his influential book Language and Mind that “When we study human language, we approach what some might call the human essence” - The languages we speak affect how we act in the world, because different languages are used in different contexts For instance: immigrants in Canada tend to use English in formal, public settings and their native language in informal, private environments 2. Components and characteristics of language Components of human language - Lustig and Koester (2010) identified 5 interrelated components of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics a) Phonology: explores how sounds are organized in a language; the smallest sound unit called phoneme For instance: native Russian are likely to speak English with an accent b) Morphology: the combination of basic units of meaning- morphemes- to create words For instance: the word “unhappy” contains two morphemes: happy and the prefix “un” meaning “not” c) Syntax: the study of the grammatical and structural rules of language we combine words into sentences according to grammatical rules in order to communicate meaning d) Semantics: refer to the study of the meaning of words and the relationship between words and their referents  Linguists identify 2 types of meaning: denotative and connotative For denotative: refers to the literal meaning of a word or an object descriptive; for instance: a denotative description of a big mac would be that it is a sandwich sold by McDonald’s that weighs a certain number of grams and is served with certain sauces For connotation: deals with the cultural meanings that become attached to a word or an object; for instance: the connotative meaning of a big mac may be certain aspects of American culture e) Pragmatics: concerned with the impact of language on human perception and behaviour focus on how language is used in social context Theory: structural linguistics - Structural linguists: the study of language based on the assumption that language is coherent system of formal units and that the task of linguistic study is to inquire into the nature of this systematic arrangement without reference to historical antecedents - The rise of structural linguistics largely due to the Swiss linguist, who compared language to a game of chess he noted that a chess piece in isolation has no value and that a move by any one piece has repercussions on all the other pieces - Structural linguistics also criticized for being too narrow in conception for instance: generative linguistics argues that it is necessary to go beyond a description of the location of items to produce a grammar that reflects a native speaker’s intuitive knowledge of language - With each language system, a spoken or written word (the signifier) attributes meaning to objects, concepts and ideas (the signified- mental picture produced by the signifier) in the construction of reality  The relation between signifier and signified is based on convention  For instance: the linguistic sign “dog” (signifier) represents a “four-leggedm barking domestic animal” (signified) - The critiques of the Saussure’s model argue that abstract concepts like justice, truth and freedom cannot be tied directly to the outside world, and they mean different things to different people The characteristics of verbal codes - Although languages differ, there are some characteristics shared by all of them Neuliep(2006) identified 5 common characteristics: - All languages have some way of naming objects, places or things - All languages have a way of naming an action - All languages have a way of stating the negative, constructing interrogatives and differentiating between singular and plural - All languages have a systematic set of sounds, combined with a set of rules for the sole purpose of creating meaning and communicating, with no natural or inherent relationship between sounds and their accompanying alphabet - All languages have a set off formal grammatical rules for combining sounds and sequencing words to create meaning 3. Language and perception Noam Chomsky’s universal grammar - Noam Chomsky has claimed that all human languages share a universal grammar that is innate in the human species and culturally invariant - Nativists such as Chomsky argue that language acquisition involves triggering these models, so that only the details of a particular language must be learned - Constructivists grounded in the work of Piaget, oppose the idea that there is a universal grammar they argue that language acquisition involves unveiling the patterns of language and thus requires interaction with a structured environment The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - Nominalists argue that our perception of external reality is shaped not by language but by material reality, any thought can be expressed in any language and can convey the same meaning - Relativists believe our language determines our ideas, thought patterns, and perceptions of reality - The relationship between language and thought is well captured in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which purposes that language and thought are inextricably tied together, so that a person’s language determines the categories of thought open to that individual - In 1931, Benjamin Lee Whorf study of the Hopi language, Whorf learned that in Hopi the past, present, and future tense must be expressed differently from English, as the Hopi language does not have verb tense lead Whorf to believe that people who speak different languages are directed to different types of observations of the world - The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis doesn’t imply that people of one culture cannot think of objects for which another culture has plentiful vocabulary - The hypothesis shows that language, thought and culture are closely connected Theory: The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - They claimed that a cultural system is embodied in the language of the people who speak the language this cultural framework shapes the thoughts of the language’s speakers The hypothesis has two versions: - Linguistic determinism (the strong version) the way one think is determined by the language one speaks - Linguistic relativity (the weak version) language provides the conceptual categorize that influence how its speaker’s perceptions are encoded and stored An illustration: - In South Africa, the Zulu language has 39 words for “green”, whereas English has only one. - In India, the Hindi language has different words for father’s older brother, younger brother, mother’s older brother, older brother-in-law and so forth. 4. Cultural variations in verbal communication Communication styles and culture - Communication style refers to how language is used to communicate meaning there are 4 communication styles identified by Gudyknust and Ting-Toomey a) Direct/ indirect communication styles - For direct: is one in which the speaker’s needs, wants, desires and intentions are explicitly communicated - For indirect: is one in which the speaker’s true intentions or needs are only implied or hinted at during the conversation - Research indicted indirect styles are used in collectivist or Asian cultures, such as in Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong - Indirect are also more likely to be used in high-context cultures, where meaning is communicated through context rather than explicitly conveyed in words b) Elaborate/ succinct communication styles - The elaborate style: involves the use of rich, expressive and embellished language in everyday conversation For instance: rather than simply saying that someone is thin, a comment such - as “She is so thin she can walk between raindrops without getting wet” The elaborate style tends to characterize low-context cultures, in which meaning is conveyed through verbal codes - The succinct style: simple assertions and even silence are valued  The use of either an elaborate or a succinct style is closely related to Hall’s high and low context cultures - High context cultures, where meaning is more often conveyed by contextual cues, silence rather than talk can be used to maintain control c) Personal/ contextual communication styles - Personal style: as one that amplifies the individual identity of the speaker this style is often used in individualistic cultures which emphasize individual goals over those of the group - Contextual style: is oriented by status and role, formality and power distance are emphasized  it is often seen in collectivistic cultures where one’s role identity and status are highlighted d) Instrumental/ affective communication styles - Instrumental style: is goal- oriented and sender-focused the speaker uses communication to achieve an outcome - Affective style: is receiver-focuses and process-oriented the speaker is more concerned with the process of communication than the outcome - In collectivistic cultures people are more conscious of other person’s reactions and will attempt to sense meaning by situational cues, so that an effective style will be preferred Gender differences in communication - Deborah Tannen, a discourse analyst, further claimed that men and women express themselves differently because they have different cultures - In her influential “two cultures” theory, she states that men usually use verbal communication to report about the world, whereas women use verbal communication to create a rapport - The usual stereotype is that women are talkers and men are doers Theory: Gender-neutral language - It is a verbal communicative style that adheres to certain rules that were suggested by feminist language reformers in universities during 1970s - These rules discourage various common usages which are thought of as sexist, such as the generic use of masculine pronouns in referring to persons of either sex - The term “gender-neutral language” is also called inclusive language, gender-inclusive language, gender generic language and non-discriminatory language Pidgins and creoles - Pidgins are formed and used when two communities that do not share a common language come into contact and need to communicate - A pidgin has a reduced grammatical structure and a reduced lexicon and refers mainly to a small set of contexts- it is about situational use - When a pidgin is passed on to future generations who acquire it as a first language, it can develop and become creole - A creole is a new language developed from the prolonged contact of two or more languages it is a language that expands and regularizes its structural systems, and the next generation learns it as their first language - A Creole is a full, linguistically complex language in its own right, examples include: Hawaiian Creole English and Louisiana Creole French Translation and interpretation - Translation refers to the process of converting a source text, either spoken or written, into a different language - Interpretation refers to the process of verbally expressing what is said in another language 5. Language and identity - Speech patterns, dialect, and accent serve as a cue for listeners to assign certain attitudes or characteristics to an individual or a group of people. - Identity based on ethnic language also hinges on an assumption that one’s linguistic community is acceptable in a number of ways. - Cultural invasion occurs when one group penetrates the culture of another group and impose its own language on another group. - Ethnoliguisticvitality: the degree of prestige, acceptability, and importance attached to a group’s language Case study: how many languages still exist in the world today? - The largest number use Chinese (Mandarin), English, Hindustani - Many languages have not yet been described through written grammars and dictionaries; for instance: Hawaiian does not have a written form, knowledge has been passed down from generation to the next orally Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.7 Nonverbal communication and culture 1. Universality and variation of nonverbal communication - The study if nonverbal communication dates back to the time of Charles Darwin, who believed that facial expressions such as smiles and frowns are biologically determined - Through body language, as a form of communication, has been recognized since the time of Aristotle, it is the anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell who is recognized as the originator of the scientific study of body language- kinesics - Different types of nonverbal codes including body movement (kinesics), vocal qualities (paralanguage), the use of time (chronemics), space (proxemics), artifacts, dress, and smell (olfactics) are identified 2. Characteristics and functions of nonverbal codes Comparison of verbal and nonverbal codes and their characteristics - In the west, we tend to use verbal behaviour to convey the literal or cognitive content of a message (what is said), whereas the nonverbal component of the message communicates more of the affective content (feelings about what is said) Neuliep (2006) identified three ways in which verbal and nonverbal codes differ a) The verbal language system is based primarily on symbols whereas the nonverbal system is largely sign-based b) The nonverbal system differs from its verbal counterpart is that its sending capacity is more restricted c) Verbal codes have a formal phonetic system and syntax to govern usage, whereas there are few formal rules governing the use of nonverbal code systems - In fact, sign languages and semaphore communication are classified as verbal because they do have such formal rules Theory: Expectancy violation theory - It is developed by Judee Burgoon (1978), assumes that humans anticipate certain behaviour from the people with whom they interact - These expectancies may be general- pertaining to all members of a language community or particularized- pertaining to a specific individual - Based on evidence from various experiments, Burgoon concludes that people evaluate communication with others in either a positive or negative way, depending on their expectation of the interaction and their evaluation of the communicator - A positive evaluation is often directed toward attractive, powerful or credible others - A negative evaluation is more likely to be associated with unattractive or less powerful individuals Functions of nonverbal communication a) Repeat a verbal message b) Contradict a verbal message c) Substitute for a verbal message d) Complement a verbal message e) Accent a verbal message f) Regulate verbal communication Types of nonverbal communication a) Kinesics: body movement - Kinesics refers to gestures, hand and arm movements, leg movements, facial expressions, eye contact and posture Ekman and Friesen (1969) developed a system that organized kinesic behaviour into 5 categories: - Emblems primary hand gestures that have a direct literal verbal translation; these gestures blur the boundary between verbal and nonverbal communication - Illustrators typically hand and arm movements that function to complement or accent words it serves a metacommunicative funtio; that is to say, they are messages about messages For instance: a person might describe the size of a crocodile she saw while using hand gesture to illustrate its length - Affect displays refer to facial expressions that communicate an emotional state through facial expressions we can communicate an attitude, feelings, disgust, happiness, anger or sadness - Regulators include behaviours and actions that govern or manage conversations we may use eye contact, silence and head nodding during a conversation to show interest and to indicate turn-taking - Adaptors kinesic behaviours used to satisfy physiological or psychological needs b) Proxemics - Proxemics refers to the use of space, including territoriality, which stands for the space that an individual claims permanently or temporarily The study includes 3 aspects of space: fixed, semi-fixed and personal space The size of one’s office (fixed) The moveable objects within an office such as furniture and decorations (semi) The distance within people feel comfortable when interacting with others (personal space) Theory: the meaning of spatial relations - Hall analysed North Americans’ use of space and identified 4 zones of personal space that have meaning in communication The first zone: intimate (0-1.5 feet), which is used for intimate communication such as comforting, protecting, love-making The second zone: personal zone (18 inches-4feet), which is the distance that people commonly maintain in dyadic encounters The third zone: social zone (4-12 feet), which is the normative distance at social gatherings, in work setting, and during business transactions The fourth zone: 12feet or above, used in formal communication situations, such as public speaking c) Chronemics: the use of time Monochronic: - Do one thing at a time - Rigid approach to time - Strict agenda - Focus on task - Completion of job most important Polychronic: - Multiple activities at once - Flexible approach to time - No strict agenda - Focus on relationship - Relationships more important than job d) Haptics: the use of touch - North American culture generally discourages touching by adults except in moments of intimacy or formal greetings - High- contact culture are those that tend to encourage touching and engaging in touching more frequently - People from Islamic and Hindu cultures do not touch with the left hand because to do so is a social insult left hand is reserved for toi-let functions e) Physical appearance and dress - White women are pressured to be thin, women of colour may experience not only the societal pressure to be thin but also an impossible expectation to be white f) Paralanguage: quality and characteristics of the voice - Paralanguage refers to the vocal qualities that accompany speech It can be divided into 2 broad categories: - Voice qualities pitch, volume, tempo, rhythm, tone, pausing and the resonance of the voice - For instance: speaking loudly indicates strength and sincerity to Arabs, authority to Germans, but impoliteness to Thais, a loss of control to Japanese g) Olfactics: the use of smell, scent, and odour - Olfactics refers to humans’ perception and use of smell, scent and odour 3. Influence of culture on nonverbal communication Three cultural variations in nonverbal communication: - First, cultures differ in their specific repertoire of behaviours - All cultures have display rules which govern when and in what context certain nonverbal expressions are required, permitted, preferred or prohibited - The meaning attributed to particular nonverbal behaviours differs from culture to culture Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.8 Categorization, subgroups and identities 1. The multifaceted nature of identities - Identities a person’s subjective experience of himself or herself in relation to the world - Formed through cultural processes - A sense of place in the world - Manifesting personal or group characteristics - The notion of active engagement indicates that one’s identity is formed through cultural processes, which are in turn conditioned by cultural structures - Individual identity refers to categorizing an individual as distinct from others, along with the specific relationships the individual has with others - Collective identity refers to a categorization based on group membership, to make groups rather than individuals distinctive For instance: racial identity a type of collective identity 2. Social categorization (subgroups and identities) Social categorization and subgroups - Social categorization refers to the grouping of people based on skin-colour, dress, language, occupation, interest, region, or desirable/undesirable qualities, etc - These groups existing within the larger cultural environment are referred to as subgroups - Subgroups provide members with relatively complete values and patterns of behaviour - Subgroups establish group boundaries by their specialized vocabulary - Subgroups may have unique nonverbal symbols (e.g. clothing) Social categorization and the formation of identities - Social identity theory claims that identity formation is a product of social categorization. Individuals belong to various social categories, and form identities based on membership of social categories - Social identities connect individuals to society through group memberships which influence their beliefs, attitudes and behaviour in their relationships with members of other social groups Personality identity: - It defines an individual in terms of his or her differences to others - Aspects of personal identity include physical features, hobbies, interests, family relationships and social circle, personal aspects of age, sex, nationality, religious, affiliation.. - Personal identity consists of things that pick us out as individuals and make us distinct from others who are similar in some way Social identity: - It refers to those parts of an individual’s self-concept which derive from his or her membership of a group, together with the value and emotional significance attached to such membership - Our social identity influences how we live within diverse cultural contexts and relate to a range of social groups and institution - Social groups can be marked by family connections, ethnic communities, cultural groups, race, nationality, occupation or friendship circles Theory: Stages of identity development: - Hardiman (2001) identified four stages for social identity development by white people in Western cultures: -- Unexamined identity (lack of desire to look into one’s identity) -- Acceptance phase (Become aware of one’s identity) -- Redefinition phase (aware of others identity and reassess) -- Integration phase (aware of special privilege and appreciate values of minority cultures)  identity development may not necessarily follow a linear process, and the length of each stage may vary from person to person Ingroups and outgroups: - Ingroups represent a special class of membership group characterized by an internal cohesiveness among members - Ingroups are characterized by some shared experiences and an anticipated shared future, so that they create a sense of intimacy, solidarity and trust - Ourgroups non-membership groups can be voluntary or involuntary - Attributions made about ingroup and outgroup members are biased in favour of the ingroup Theory: identity negotiation theory - It emphasizes a particular identity domains as influential to our everyday interactions - The theory posits identity as a reflective self-image constructed during the process of intercultural communication - Identity negotiation is present through all communication interactions as communicators attempt to evoke their own desired identities and challenge or support others’ identities 3. Subgroup memberships and different types of identities a) Gender identity - Part of person and social identity - Children develop gender identity constancy by five to six years of age Gender constancy: the concept that a child born as a girl will always be female, will adopt female roles, grow up to be a woman - Yet, gender identity isn’t necessarily limited to male or female The native American berdache define as an individual with two spirits, both masculine and feminine; the berdache is believed to have supernatural powers - The hijra of India are recognized as a special caste they are born with male genitals, but do not accept specially male or female gender roles - Khanith in the the Islamic culture of Oman males who wear clothing that mixes masculine and feminine characteristics and who engage in sexual relations with males  They all are third gender and illustrate gender identity can be disconnected from gender roles Theory: interpellation - The process whereby a society creates individuals as particular kinds of people as a form of “interpellation” or “hailing” (as when someone calls out to you, asking you to respond) b) Ethnic identity - Ethnicity is different from race, but as a concept is often used interchangeably with or in relation to race - Ethnic identity refers to a sense of belonging to or an identification with an ethnic group - Ethnic identity is also concerned with the issue of salience - Salience refers to the likelihood that an individual will acknowledge his or her identity in a given context c) Cultural identity - It refers to those social identities that are based on cultural membership; they are our identification with and perceived acceptance into a larger cultural groups, into which we are socialized and with which we share a system of symbols, values, norms and traditions - Like ethnic identity, cultural identity also have value and salience content - Value content refers to the criteria that people hold to evaluate appropriate or inappropriate behaviours - Cultural identity salience refers to the strength of identification with a larger cultural group d) National identity - It refers to a type of identity that is characterized by one’s individual perception of him as a member of a nation National identity has two characteristics: - It is based on a set of common characteristics that hold members of the nation together it includes a common descent, a shared culture and language, a common historical heritage and a common legal and economic system - National identity always implies difference it involves not only an awareness of the ingroup but also an awareness of others from whom the nation seeks to differentiate itself 4. Identities and intercultural communication Developing intercultural identity - Individuals who acquire an intercultural identity are willing to negotiate these differences - In “Development Model of Intercultural Sensitivity”, Milton Bennett organized these observations into six stages of sensitivity to cultural differences, moving from ethnocentric, which characterizes the first three stages, to ethnorelative, which characterizes the last three stages Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.9 Developing relations and culturally different others 1. The nature of human relationship - William Schutz claimed that we satisfy three basic needs through our interaction with others: inclusion, affection and control - Inclusion is a sense of belonging or of being involved with others, as well as of including others in our activities - Control refers to our ability to influence others, our environment and ourselves along with our desire to be influenced by others - Affection refers to showing love to and being loved by others 2. Dimensions of human relationship - Human relationship can be defined as an interactional process of connecting ourselves with others in the network of social needs Dimensions of social relationship - Association-dissociation association behaviours include helping friends, cooperating with colleagues and supporting others’ ideas or actions, whereas dissociation are illustrated in verbal or nonverbal behaviours such as fighting or avoiding the other person - Superordination- subordination superordinate behaviours are a supervisor giving orders to workers, while subordinate behaviours involve employees obeying orders from above - Intimacy- formality intimate can be seen in a person’s self-disclosure, such as revealing personal attitudes and feelings, touching and expressing emotions; formality include sending written invitations - Overt-covert overt are visible to others, like touching whereas covert are not visible (e.g. evaluating the behaviours of others) Dimensions of interpersonal relationships Lustig and Koester model: - Control: involves power, the level of control we have over others, ourselves and the environment is dependent on the amount of power we have to influence the people and event around us - Affiliation: the degree of friendliness, liking, social warmth, or immediacy that is communicated between people - Activation: refers to the ways people react to the world around them Characteristics of human relationships - The first characteristic of a human relationship is interdependence Chen and Starosta identified five characteristics of human relationship: - Dynamic: they are in a state of development and transformation through communication - Hierarchical: based on the level of intimacy or closeness, human relationships can be arranged in a hierarchical order ranging from strangers to intimate friends - Reciprocal: it occurs when individuals in a relationship network can satisfy each other’s social needs - Unique: they are rule-governed with different rules for different types - Interdependent and irreplaceable: individuals in a human relationship network connect to each other and share emotions with each other - Leslie Baxter referred to the basic contradictions in human relationships dialectics  Dialectics in interpersonal relationships: - Autonomy-connection: the extent to which individuals want a sense of separation from others (autonomy) or a sense of attachment to others - Novelty- predictability: the dynamic tensions between people’s desire for change (novelty) and stability (predictability) in their interpersonal relationships - Openness-closeness: the extent to which individuals want to share (openness) or withhold (closeness) personal information Theory: social exchange theory - It aims to explain the development of interpersonal and intercultural relationships - The basic assumption of the theory is that individuals establish and continue social relations on the basis of their expectations that such relations will be mutually beneficial 3. Stages of human relationship development A) In the entry phrase: communication is governed by a set-of social norms; the communication patterns in this stage are structured and the content focuses mostly on demographic information For instance: our interactions with strangers or those people we meet for the first time B) Personal: communication content in this phase goes beyond the superficial and may include information on personal problems, attitudes and opinions C) Exit: the relationship begins to deteriorate and the frequency of interaction decreases - Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor proposed their social penetration theory to explain the development of relationships through the exchange of information - A key concept in this theory self-disclosure, which refers to the process of revealing personal information that another person would be unlikely to discover through third sources Social penetration theory (Altman and Taylor, 1973): - Interpersonal exchange of information develops over time from a superficial stage to an intimate stage --Orientation – superficial – basic greetings --Exploratory affective exchange – e.g. Where are you from? --Affective exchange – e.g. exchanging opinions --Stable exchange – well-established/cemented relationships 4. Culture and human relationship development Yum’s model of human relationships (5 types) a) Particularistic vs universalistic relationships - In a culture where particularistic relationships are desired, people maximized differences in age, sex and status and encourage a mutuality and interdependency between cultural members - Particularistic societies tend to be more hierarchically structured, and human relationships are established in accordance with the levels of hierarchy accepted by the society - Particularistic relationships are practiced more in East Asian countries - For universalistic: people establish interpersonal relationships based on rules of fairness and equality For instance: it is practiced by North Americans, the development of interpersonal relationship relies on the principle of equality not hierarchy b) Long-term vs Short-term - Long term relationships preferred in East Asian cultures, where a social reciprocity is viewed as centrally important - Short term relationship symmetrical reciprocity is more characteristic of North Americans’ interpersonal relationship - People consider freedom and independence as important and the flexibility to initiate or terminate relationships as an individual choice is treasured c) Ingroup vs ourgroup relationships - To East Asians, ingroup membership ties suggest similarity, trust, affinity leading to the development of close interpersonal relationships - The boundary between ingroup and outgroup members is less clearly defined for North Americans, British people and other Western Europeans who establish relationships to fit specific contexts d) Formal vs informal relationships - In vertical cultures like those of East Asia, relationship development is more formal than in horizontal cultures like North America e) Personal vs public relationships - An emphasis on privacy, individualism, autonomy and self-reliance encourages North Americans to keep their public and personal relationships separate f) Friendship, romantic relations and family - Friendship usually involves intimacy, self-disclosure and involvement - Condon (1995) noted that the language people use to describe their friends can reflect underlying cultural value about the meaning and importance attached to a friendship Theory: similarity attraction paradigm - Similarity attraction paradigm states that if we perceive our attitudes to be similar to someone else's, we are attracted to them because they validate our view of the world - We filter potential relational partners based on the extent to which we perceive that they are similar to us 5. Developing intercultural relationships Creating an awareness of cultural norms governing relationships - In Australia: the term “friend” can be used to refer to neighbours or colleagues or even someone a person has just met Theory: anxiety/ uncertainty management theory - This theory argues that effective interpersonal and intercultural communication is based on how individuals manage the anxiety and uncertainty that they experience when communicating with others. - The reduction of uncertainty leads to an increase in both the amount of communication and the level of interpersonal attraction. - Uncertainty refers to individuals’ ability to predict or explain others’ feelings, attitudes and behaviour Interpreting behaviours in their cultural context - Successful intercultural communication requires us to understand the meanings that different cultures attribute to different types of human relationships and also the culture rules governing interactions between people involved in different types of relationship Recognizing cyberspace as a site of intercultural communication Case Study: love by arrangement in India - A Hindu marriage joins to individuals for life, so they can pursue dharma (duty), artha (possessions), kama (physical desires) and moksa (spiritual release) together Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.10 Managing intercultural conflicts 1. Pervasiveness of intercultural conflicts - The interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of goals, aims, and values, and who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of these goals (Putnam and Poole, 1987) Highlights 3 general characteristics of conflict: - Incompatible goals - Interdependence of the parties involved - Communication Levels of conflicts: - Interpersonal : When conflict occurs between two or more persons when they are disagreeing with each other - Intergroup: when two cultural or social groups perceive disagreement over resources, power, territory or the like - Interorganisational: involves disputes between two or more organizations - International: disputes between nations - As culture influences communication at all levels, intercultural conflict can be interpersonal, intergroup, interorganisational or international 2. Potential sources of intercultural conflict The sources of intercultural conflict: - Differences in beliefs and values, incompatible goals, bias and prejudice, ethnic and racial prejudice, historical grievances and hatred and political, territorial and economic disputes Theory: Types of conflict - Affective  Interpersonal in nature and mostly emotional  When affective conflict arises, disagreements over personal, individually oriented matters become detrimental to personal and group performance, and emotions seem incompatible - Cognitive  Perceived disagreements about ideas/views due to incompatability  Disagreements among individuals are bound to occur, since they bring different ideas, opinions and perspectives to the table  Some argue is beneficial because it requires individuals to engage - Goal-oriented  Disagreements about preferred goals/ends  For instance: an externally imposed group goal might be at odds with a key personal goal Globalization and the rise of racial violence - According to the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, the number of conflicts observed per year rose from 81 in 1945 to 300 in 2006 most of these conflicts are low-intensity conflicts, but do involve the use of military armed forces adopted at least by one party involved in conflict - The number of high-intensity conflicts involving a series of intense complex battles between conventional military forces or even the use of nuclear weapons also rose from 7 in 1945 to 41 in 2004 - The all-time high was 49 high-intensity conflicts in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union Ingroup and outgroup bias and prejudice - Ingroup and outgroup bias has been one of the major sources of intercultural conflicts - The unfavourable attitudes and exclusion of outgroups based on origin and ancestry myths can often lead directly to intercultural conflict - For instance: the Apartheid system in South Africa based on ingroup and outgroup bias and prejudice, then resulted in many interethnic and interracial conflicts Historical grievances and interethnic hatred - Although everyday intercultural conflicts are often based on cultural ignorance or misunderstanding, some conflicts are based on hatred and centuries old antagonisms, often arising from long-standing historical grievances - Intercultural conflicts due to historical hostility, hatred and grievances are also illustrated by the disputes between the Mexican government and Mexican Indian farmers known as Zapatistas (Zapatista National Liberation Army) - Interethnic hatred as a result of cultural ignorance is illustrated by the continuing practices of anti-Semitism - Anti- Semitism refers to a negative perception of Jews Theory: Orientalism - The book “Orientalism” by Edward Said the book offers a classical framework for understanding relationships between the West and the RestMuslims in the Middle East - He created the term “Orientalism”, which refers to a specific kind of discourse that fosters the difference between the familiar(Europe, the “West”, the democratic and civilized) and the strange(the Orient, the East, the uncivilized and barbaric) - There are 4 dogmas about Orientalism: - The Orient is undeveloped and inferior while the West is rational and developed - The Orient lives according to rules inscribed in its sacred texts, rather than in response to the changing demand of life - The Orient is eternal, uniform, and incapable of defining itself, thereby justifying the vocabulary used by the West to describe it - The Orient is either something to be feared ot to be controlled by pacification, occupation or development Political, territorial and economic disputes - In addition to territorial claims, international and intercultural conflict can occur as a result of a prohibition against speaking one’s own language - The rise in both status and usage of the English language coincided with the gradual disappearance of the Welsh language, supported by state institutions 3. Stages in conflict process PONDY: - Latent – conditions exist  It is possible to have latent conflict without perceived conflict - Perceived – believe incompatibility exists - Manifest - enacted - - Felt – focus is on conflict and strategies are formulated Conflict aftermath – consequences (Short term and long term consequences) 4. Conflict management styles and approaches Conflict management styles - The styles are strategies that people adopt to handles conflict Blake and Mouton first classified 5 conflict management styles: avoiding, competing, accommodating, compromising, and collaborating - Avoiding: is a physical withdrawal or refusal to discuss the conflict - Competing: is linked to a use of power to gain one’s objectives, even though it means ignoring the needs of an opponent the outcome is that you win and the other person loses - Accommodating: refers to behaviours that conceal or play down differences by emphasizing common interests you would sacrifice your own interests to satisfy those of other party, that is, you lose and the other party wins - Compromising: aims to find a midpoint between the opposing parties- both parties involved in a conflict try to work out a solution so that everyone gets something this is a popular way to resolve conflicts as neither side wins or loses - Collaborating: the conflict agents are encourages to find a solution where both sides can win consider an ideal way to handle conflict in most situations, but it is not often used because it requires more time, a willingness to negotiate, assertiveness and cooperation Conflict Management approaches - Two major approaches are evident in the literature on intercultural conflict The first one is conflict as normal this approach views any type of conflict as an opportunity to grow and build relationships There are 4 assumptions underlying this approach: a) Conflict is normal and useful b) All issues are subject to change through negotiation c) Direct confrontation is valuable d) Conflict always represents a renegotiation of the contract, a release of tension and a renewal of relationships - Advocates of this approach believe that working through conflicts provides potential benefits, such as acquiring new information about other people or groups and increasing the overall integrity and cohesiveness of the parties involved The second approach is conflict is destructive (unproductive, dangerous) There are 4 assumptions underlying this approach: - It is a destructive disturbance to peaceful situations - The social system should not adjust to needs of members but vice versa - Confrontations are destructive - Those involved in conflict should be disciplined - Ting-Toomey suggested that the conflict as normal approach grows from an attempt to protect the individual; while the conflict as destructive rises from a higher value attributed to maintaining harmony in relationships and saving other’s face Theory: Face negotiation theory (Ting-Toomey) - The concept of face is about self-identity and other identity consideration in a communication event There are three face orientations: - Self- face: protecting self image - Other-face: protecting other parties image - Mutual face: concerned with protecting both parties image 5. Influence of culture on conflict management Cultural dimension and conflict management - Individualistic: conflict strategies tend to be goal-oriented, communication is more direct - Collectivistic: willing to sacrifice personal interest to maintain good relationship (more accommodating or avoiding communication styles) Cultural values and negotiation - Individualistic: conflicts can be resolved directly through face to face negotiations - Collectivistic: face to face may not be possible involve a third party Effective management of intercultural conflict - In Managing Cultural Differences, Harris and Morgan proposed a 5 steps methods of managing intercultural conflict - The five steps are: describe the conflict in a way that is understood in both cultures - Analyse the conflict from both culture perspectives - Identify the basis for conflict from the two cultural viewpoints - Resolve the conflict through synergistic strategies - Determine if the solution is working interculturally Synergistic strategies: refer to a dynamic process in which the opposing parties combine their actions and work by adapting and leaning different viewpoints through empathy and sensitivity Resolving conflict strategies: a) Focus on common ground: emphasize on shared goal, a common desire to restore peace or get a fair share of the resources b) Practice relational empathy: seeking an issue from the perspective of the other party, active listening can form the starting point for conflict management process c) Develop a positive communication climate: support ,non-judgmentalism and open mindedness, avoid emotional presentations and respect Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.11 Mass media, technology and cultural change 1. The world of mass media - By extending our connections to the rest of the world, the mass media can promote a better understanding, appreciation and connections between different cultures and facilitates intercultural communication - However, the mass media can also achieve the opposite - For instance: the media can perpetuate stereotypes regarding age, gender or religion 2. Globalization, technology and the mass media Globalizing the mass media - The media do not operate in a vacuum, they are always tied to political and economic systems it is impossible to consider identities, communication, democracy, capitalism, nationalism and the media as separate and autonomous - McQuail identified two approaches in studying the mass media: media centric and society centric - A media centric: attributes great autonomy and influence to the media and concentrates on the impact of the media’s own sphere of activity - Society centric: posits the media as a reflection of political and economic forces - In Latin America, we find telenovelas - The leading networks in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil distribute telenovelas all over the world Theory: Cultural studies - Cultural studies scholars tend to focus on those popular cultural forms that are not traditionally studied in academic settings, like popular TV shows, rap music, and romance novels - Examples of cultural studies projects: studies of the reaction of audiences in Middle East, the Netherlands to the TV show Dallas Political economy of mass media - Scholars in political economy of media investigate processes of privatization, concentration, commercialization and deregulation Theory: The Frankfurt School and critical media theory - A key critical media theorist from the Frankfurt School, developed the term “culture industry” to call attention to the industrialization and commercialization of culture - The theorists argue that the culture industry aims to perform the dual task of attracting and sustaining the attention of the audience, while ensuring that audience continues to consume rather than critique the product - The theory aims to critique on oppressive and alienating modern industrial capitalist order, characterized by a growing dominance of instrumental reason on the social, political and cultural life Homogeneity and heterogeneity of media content - There are two ways of conceptualizing the relationship between global and local media - One way posits that the media flow from “the West to the Rest”, resulting in a global homogeneity of products, lifestyles, cultures, identities, tastes and attitudes - Some observers see the media as a support system for one culture to dominate another culture- an uneven process called hegemony - Global media flows bring about cultural hybridization this process and impact of media convergence and globalisation can be seen in a number of transnational TV channels Internet technology and alternative media - Internet technology has created another type of “hybrid” media, called alternative media or blogging to provide space for online users to make their voices heard and to make mass communication interactive 3. The mass media and symbolic social reality The media and the construction of social reality - Media are one of the critical agents in this social construction of reality - Reality is necessarily manipulated when events and people are relocated into news or prime-time stories in doing so, the media can emphasize certain behaviours and stereotype people - The CNN effect: the ability of television pictures to influence people so powerfully that important military and political decisions are driven by those pictures rather than by policies - Media mediation is also evident in the pervasiveness of celebrities in the media - Tuchman (1978) analysed the role of news in the construction of social reality - In her view, news is simultaneously a record and a product of social reality - Dayan and Katz (1992) discussed the role of different media events in the creation of reality - Media events are large-scale interruptions of everyday life, when all the media attend to one event and ceremonially mark it Audience analysis - It deals with audience tastes, preferences, habits and demographics - This type of analysis studies why, we like particular radio program more than others or why the American television show Desperate Housewives are so popular - One of the most commonly applied models for audience research uses and gratifications theory - - Uses and gratification theory ask the question: “What do people do with the mass media?” rather than “What do the mass media do to people?” Herzog studied the gratifications that women listeners received from radio daytime serials, and drew the conclusion that there were three main categories: emotional release, wishful thinking and advice seeking Media effects on perceptions of social reality - The magic bullet theory claims that the mass media have a direct, immediate and powerful effect on a passive mass audience - Some scholars argue that the media influence masses of people indirectly, through a two-step flow of communication - The first stage: the direct transmission of information to a small group of people why stay well-informed - The second stage: those opinion leaders interpret and pass on the message to less directly involved members of society (followers) - The two-step flow model later evolved into a multi-step flow model, which claims that information that flows in a culture or group actually is filtered through a series of opinion leaders before reaching all other segments of that group or culture Theory: Cultivation theory - George Gerbner’s cultivation theory postulates a relationship between heavy television viewing and people’s worldview - He suggests that exposure to vast amounts of violence on the screen conditions viewers to see the world as an unkind place - Gerbner believes that TV power comes from the symbolic content of the real-life drama frequently broadcast on television Media effects on agenda-setting - Researchers on agenda-setting propose that has the mass media focus our attention on certain aspects of life, and in doing so, set the agenda for us - As Robinson suggests, the most useful way to conceptualize the CNN effect is to view it as an agenda-setting agency Theory: agenda-setting theory - Mass media had the ability to transfer the salience of items on their news agendas to public agenda The theory has 2 interconnected points: - It affirms the power of the press while still maintaining that ultimately individuals are free to choose - The theory argues that there is a cause and effect relationship between media content and voters’ perceptions Media effects on identity construction - The influential work of Anderson proposed that print capitalism was essential in promoting the creation of national imagined communities 4. Mass media and cultural changes - The media create awareness - The media set agendas agenda-setting occurs because the media must be selective in reporting news - The media promote stereotypes - The media accelerate change Case Study: ohmynews in South Korea - OhMyNews has been included in “hybrid” types of media, meaning that it incorporates print and electronic forms Some of the achievements of OhMyNews are the following: - It has provided a platform for democratic dissent in a context in which dissent is frowned upon - Potent social movement under “anyone can be a journalist” A threat to controlled media monopolies and their power to censor those who are outside political establishment - Added to the credibility of news and helped to strike a chord with the younger generation who have been, to some extent, ignored by the mainstream media Comu1311 Examination notes Ch.12 Immigration and Acculturation Immigration and Cultural Diversity - Historically, immigration was conceptualized as the restricted cross-border movements of people, emphasizing the permanent relocation and settlement of usually unskilled, often indentured or contracted labour or people who were displaced by political turmoil and thus had little option other than resettlement in a new country - Acculturation a process whereby immigrants are integrated into the host cultural environment, is essential to being able to move between two cultures effectively as the circumstances and situations demand Migration and globalization a) Trends of migration: past, present and future - In Europe, the countries with the highest emigration rates until 1960 were Italy, Spain, Portugal, the former Yugoslavia, and Greece - According to a report from the International Organization for Migration, the number of international migrants was thought to have reached between 185 and 192 million in 2005, an upward trend that is likely to continue - A prominent feature of the Asia-pacific system in recent years is the increasing scale and significance of female migration - For instance, a growing number of immigrant domestic workers are from Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka b) Diaspora, migrancy and transnationalism - Diaspora: based on the Greek terms speiro, meaning to sow and the preposition dia, meaning over Greeks used diaspora to mean migration and coloization - In Hebrew, the term initially In Hebrew, the term initially In Hebrew, the term initially referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile, and then came to have a more general connotation of people settled away from their ancestral homeland - Diasporas identify themselves with other members of diasporas through a network of symbols and meanings, and form an ‘imagined community’ such a community maintains the identification of members outside the national borders of space and time in order to live within the new environment - Migrancy highlights movement, so that greater attention is paid to movement in both space and time in transnational practices - Transnationalism the process by which migrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement - Immigrants who develop and maintain multiple relationships familial, economic, social, organizational, religious and political—that span borders are referred to as transmigrants - Sociologists generally focus on the receiving end of immigration, while anthropologists tend to work at both ends of the immigration process, beginning in the country of birth and asking what prompts individuals to leave particular communities, what happened to them in their place of origin and how they remain connected to their former homeland - Sociological and anthropological approaches appear to differ in their methodologies ,they do not differ in their outcomes; both field developed “push and pull theories” explain the reasons, selectivity, flow and scope of migration - Predominant push factors: economic stagnation, declining living standards, a reduction in national resources, low personal income, unemployment, political and other discrimination, political persecution, alienation and natural disasters - Principal pull factors: economic prosperity, education, appropriate employment and a higher income c) Identity reconstruction for immigrants - The melting-pot ideal used to be the dominating discourse of immigrant identity in Australia and US people with this ideal take the view that national identity should be an amalgam of culture - A melting-pot differences between “us” and “them” are reduced, in the hope that “we” become more like “them” and “they” see us less alien and more like - “we” - As Waters stated, migrancy and transnationalism are the social process in Melting-pot to the salad bowl to depict contemporary American society which the constraints of geography and social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding Diversity and Multiculturalism a) Attitudes toward diversity and multiculturalism - The ideological asymmetry hypothesis suggests that hierarchy-attenuating ideologies such as multiculturalism appeal more to low-status groups than to high-status group, because the existing status hierarchy tends to be more beneficial for members of high rather than low status groups - Multicultural hypothesis confidence in one’s cultural identity involves a sense of security, which is a psychological precondition for the acceptance of those who are culturally different Theory: Integrated threat theory (Walter G. Stephan) - Perception of threat plays an important role in prejudice toward outgroups in general and immigrants in particular Identified 4 domains of threat: - Realistic: concerns a threat to the political and economic power and the well-being of the ingroup immigrants are likely to evoke such threat, as they need jobs and may also require additional resources from the host - Symbolic: concerns group differences in values, beliefs, morals and attitudes may lead to prejudice against member of outgroups - Negative stereotype: negative expectations concerning the behaviour of members of the stereotyped group - Intergroup anxiety: refers to people’s feeling of being personally threatened in intergroup interactions because they are concerned about negative outcomes for themselves, such as being embarrassed, rejected or ridiculed b) Challenges faced by host nationals and immigrants - Both the ethnic minority and majority group lack of accommodating attitudes in either group may hamper the realization of a positively diverse and equal society - For instance: the 2004 French law banning the wearing of religious insignia in schools - In western European countries such as Netherlands and France, young Muslim women have become the symbols of controversies the presence of visible multicultural symbols such as ethnic shops and clothing isn’t an indicator of a truly multicultural society unless there is both acceptance Acculturation and Culture Shock a) Acculturation orientations - Acculturation: the changes that cultural groups undergo after being in contact over a period of time, it is often marked by physical and psychological changes that occur as a result of the adaptation required to function in a new and different cultural context - According to John Berry’s model, immigrants are confronted with 2 basic issues: maintenance of their heritage culture and maintenance of relationships with the host society - On this continuum, acculturation orientations range from a positive value being placed on both the heritage and the new culture (integration); a negative value on the old and positive on the new (assimilation); a positive on the old and a negative on the new (separation) and a negative on both cultures (marginalization) - For instance: individuals who wish to maintain their ethnic traditions and at the same time become an integral part of the host society integrationists - Marginalization: refers to individuals devaluing their cultural heritage but not having significant psychological contact with the host society either - Assimilation and separation both refer to rejecting one culture and living exclusively in the other - People adapting to new cultures face changes in their diet, climate, housing, communication, roles and social networks the stress associated with such changes is acculturation stress - A shortcoming of Berry’s original model is that is that it places the emphasis in acculturation on minority or immigrant groups, on the assumption that immigrants have the freedom to pursue the acculturation strategy they prefer in the host society - For immigrants, acculturation centre on whether they value intergroup contact, their acculturation attitudes- in a model analogous to Berry’s but referring to the host culture are referred to as integration, assimilation, segregation and individualism - An important assumption of social identity theory is that membership in a high status group is desirable because it contributes to a positive social identity b) Culture shock - Culture shock refers to the feelings of disorientation and anxiety that a sojourner experiences when entering a new culture - Symptoms of culture shock: depression, helplessness, anxiety, homesickness, confusion, irritability, isolation, intolerance, defensiveness and withdrawal Adler noted that culture shock progresses through several developmental stages  U-curved model - The initial stage honeymoon stage: intense excitement associated with being somewhere different and unusual new arrival may feel euphoric and excited with all the new things encountered - The second stage disintegration: when frustration and stress begin to set in owing to differences experienced in the new culture the new environment requires a great deal of conscious energy that isn’t required in the old environment, which leads to cognitive overload and fatigue - The third stage reintegration: involves the reintegration of new cues and an increased ability to function in the new culture - The fourth stage adaptation: people become more comfortable in the new culture as it becomes more predictable - Final stage biculturalism: people are able to cope comfortably in both the home and new cultures - Culture shock can also be experienced by people who return to their native home country after an extended stay in a foreign culture  Reserve culture shock - Several factors contribute to the downturn phrase - Upon re-entry to home culture, there is feeling of need to search for an identity - The home culture may look so negative at times that re-entering person longs for “good old days” in host country where he or she lived for the previous period - The old values, beliefs and ways of thinking and living, with which the person was once familiar, may have changed - People too may have changed over the intervening years Cross cultural adaptation Factors influencing cross-cultural adaptation process a) Similarity between the host and home cultures - For instance: Sudanese immigrants in Australia exhibit significantly larger psychological and cultural distance as compared to those from New Zealand b) Ethnic social support - For instance: previous research has identified social networks as a critical part of the entrepreneurial activities of immigrants in many countries c) Personal characteristics and background - For instance: international students cope with the settling in process better if they have travelled to other countries where they cannot use their native language to communicate d) Effects of mainstream media e) Effects of ethnic media - Such as newspaper printed in their native language published in their host countries - Ethnic media have both intragroup and intergroup functions - As intragroup function: ethnic media promote ethnic language they use f) Intergroup contact g) Political and social environment h) Developing strategies for cross-cultural adaption - Allowing themselves to be assimilated into the new culture assimilation - Opting to minimize their engagement with the new culture by withdrawing into an ethnic enclave (separation) - Developing the skills of functioning simultaneously in two different cultures and of effectively moving between cultures (integration) - Withdrawing from both the host and home cultures (marginalization) Theory: the stress- adaptation- growth model - Young Y. Kim explains the intercultural adaptation process in a new culture in her stress-adaptation growth model - In this model, adaptation is a progressive series of positive and negative experiences, rather than a smooth, continuous process - Kim argues that acculturation is an interaction between the stranger and the host culture - Personal and social communication, the host environment, and individual predisposing factors are the central features of the acculturation process - Personal communication: refers to individual’s ability to use verbal and non-verbal codes to communicate in the host environment - Social communication: interaction between the newcomer and host nationals - Predisposing factors: include how much people know about their new culture Ch. 13 Becoming an Effective intercultural communicator Global and Local Dimensions of Culture - As Skalli points out, all these interconnections are embedded in a system of inherent differences - Mass cultural products, such as Latin American telenovelas, Egyptian melodramas, Arab reality TV and televised Hindu epic, have generated passionate global debates about politics, international wars, women’s emancipation, global understanding and the possibilities for cultural hybridity - Cultural hybridization a new cultural form that combines elements of other cultures, is proliferating Homogenization and Fragmentation - Homogenization and fragmentation create a “dialectic” which can be reflected in cultures as well as in people. - The dialectic could also be described as engagement versus isolationism or globalism versus nationalism - The desire to preserve cultural uniqueness promotes isolationism and nationalism - Nation may also protect their people from perceived effects of the beliefs, values, norms and social practices coming from an exposure to “outside” cultural products this type of isolationism is illustrated by the censorship of imported movies in many countries - Globalisation the works dialectically, on the one hand, there is a growing interconnectedness, on the other hand, there is a rise in deep-seated xenophobia and nationalistic sentiments Homogenization and fragmentation of social and ethnic groups - A mutual cultural exposure doesn’t necessarily imply mutual benefits, acceptance or harmony recent conflicts suggest that this cultural exposusre can highlight and exacerbate cultural differences between groups or nations Theory: coordinated management of meaning (CMM) - CMM theorists believe that communication is both idiosyncratic and social; and it is necessary to describe the cultural context in order to understand communication within and across cultures. Three goals of this theory: - Understand the “who”; the “what” and the “how”; - Generate an illuminating critique of cultural practices - Render cultures comparable while recognizing their incommensurability; From local to global a) Cultural diffusion and convergence - Cultural diffusion happens when a culture learns or adopts a new idea or practice from another culture - An icon a symbol that is idolized in a culture or is employed to represent it; for instance: Mcdonald’s represents the value placed on standardization, efficiency and control in American culture - The increased sharing of information and agreement on mixing West with East leads to cultural convergence The diffusion model: - Focuses on what one culture does to another, One result of contact between cultures is that through interaction, one culture may learn and adopt certain practices of the other culture The convergence model: - In the convergence model, communication is defined as a process in which information is shared by individuals or groups who converge over time toward a greater degree of mutual agreement b) Cultural hegemony and colonialism - Cultural hegemony structurally enabled predominant influence of one culture over another For instance: French resistance to any of the linguistic influences of English is well-documented in the literature, as are Japan’s resistance to American movies and India’s resistance to Coco-Cola - Contact between cultures may also lead to cultural colonialism - At the core of cultural colonialism is the concept of ‘othering’, predominantly used to refer to stereotypical images of non-white populations From global to local a) Cultural hybridization - Cultural hybridization refers to a new cultural form that combines elements of other cultures b) Cultural branding - Whereby business entities and nations position themselves and their products as globally recognizable - Brands are also capable of evoking beliefs and emotions and prompting behaviours For instance: attempts to globally brand a national image and transform it into commodities Colombia is branded as Café de Colombia; Switzerland is branded as its delicious chocolate and cheese; Brazil is promoted by samba dancing, carnivals, magic, sports c) Cultural knowledge - Terms such as “the CNN effect” have become useful to explain how technologies can deprive international politicians of time for careful deliberation Theory: cultural schema theory - When entering into communication with others, each of us brings a stock of knowledge about appropriate behaviours in our own culture. This pre-acquainted knowledge is referred to as cultural schemas (Nishida 2005). - When sojourners enter into a new culture, they usually go through two processes to adapt to the host culture: self-regulation and self-direction. - Self- regulation: sojourners try to resolve ambiguities and establish an integration of information by drawing upon their home culture schemas - Self- direction: try to re-organize their home culture schemas or generate host culture schemas to adopt to the new environment Developing intercultural competence: components of intercultural competence a) Knowledge - The level of cultural knowledge a person has about another person with whom he is interacting b) Affective - Involves the emotional aspects of an individual in a communication situation, such as fear, like or dislike, anger or stress c) Psychomotor - The actual enactment of the knowledge and affective components - It involves the ability to use verbal and nonverbal codes to communicate messages in an interaction, and the degree to which one can communicate those messages in a culturally appropriate way d) Situational - The actual context in which intercultural communication occurs, including the environmental context, any previous contact between the communicators, and the status differential Strategies to develop intercultural communication competence - Seek commonalities - Overcome stereotyping and prejudice - Develop flexibility and openness Week 4 required reading Coloring books, video recorders, and Sandpaper: 3 cultural metaphors - Three images serve as metaphors for those behaviours and attitudes which we believe are recognizably Israeli. The images are: a page from a coloring book, the “fast-forward” mode on a video recorder, and sandpaper The coloring book - The fact is that Americans and Israelis have different mental images of the same picture in the coloring book - The American mental image of the coloring book often corresponds to all of the lines are solid and clearly defined; whereas, in Israeli picture lines themselves are blurred and even indistinct in places, the picture has an unfinished quality, it may turn out to be a charming example of free-form creativity, or simply a mess a) Spontaneity - The Israeli communication style is spontaneous, natural and unrestrained - In workplace, spontaneity expresses itself in the ability to come up with on-the-spot solutions to problems instead of relying on the book or being limited by it - In a formal meeting, Israeli representatives may offer their views as they come to mind without considering whether they are interrupting, or whether offering an opinion at a particular juncture is appropriate - From an American perspective, that behaviour is out of line and aggressive if not offensive - Spontaneity in the workplace sometimes expresses itself in a tendency to “wing it” for instance: to witness a staff presentation which seems extemporaneous, it is obvious that the presenter is well grounded in the material and that the presentation has substance, but it clearly has not been though out systematically in advance - Spontaneity expresses itself in social encounters as a lack of inhibition if you want to invite someone to your home, you do so b) Positive attitude toward risk taking - The readiness to color outside the lines means that the individual working on the picture is willing to take a risk - In commercial and bureaucratic encounters, the positive attitude toward risk taking expresses itself in a willingness to test the rules c) Self- confident - Israelis are confident that going out of the lines will work, and even if it - doesn’t work, they are self-confident enough to take the risk Self-confidence expresses itself in the willingness to improvise, to develop creative solutions for problems in the work environment, to question authority, to make decisions outside the boundaries of one’s job description, to risk oneself in a sexual or social encounter - Arrogance expresses itself in a haughty attitude toward those who choose to color inside the lines d) Individualism - Israelis are highly individualistic, as are Americans, but the trait expresses itself differently in the two cultures - Israeli individualism expresses itself in a casual attitude toward rules and regulations, a tendency not to follow instructions, a resistance to imposed authority - Individualism also expresses itself in self-reliance Israelis identify themselves as members of groups, are loyal to group members and are concerned with the well-being and collective interests of the group - Self-reliance is a strong component of individualism in American culture Americans believe as do Israelis, that individuals should be encouraged to solve their own problems and make their own decisions - Americans look at behaviour which Israelis call “Israeli individualism” and label it childishness, insubordination, disrespect, anarchy and arrogance; Israelis look at behavior which Americans call “American individualism” and label it selfishness or egotism e) Limited respect for authority/ casual attitude toward rules and regulations - Authority implies the existence of limits and constraints: clearly defined rules concerning what is permissible and what is not - Israeli attitude toward rules as well as evidence of their individualism and their improvisations approach to problem solving the arrangement of cars in the parking lot reveals a great deal about Israeli attitudes toward boundaries and border crossings The fast-forward mode on the videocassette recorder - The fast-forward analogy sheds additional light on informality as an Israeli cultural trait - Since Israeli culture is more informal than American culture, or almost any other, it often seems that Israelis operate on the fast-forward mode while - Americans operate on “play” Fast-forward expresses itself in both business and social settings An Israeli who is a guest or stranger at a formal meeting in the workplace may behave as if he has known the other participants for years Sandpaper a) Direct Israeli communication style - The direct Israeli communication style, verbal and nonverbal, is analogous to sandpaper - Many Americans are convinced that Israelis never say please, thanks or excuse me the truth is that Israelis do use these polite forms - The direct, confrontational, no-frills style is known as “dugri talk” in Israeli slang - The dugri style of speaking characterizes sabra communication style Week6: required reading Ageism: Prejudice Against our feared future self - Categorization of each individual along 3 dimension: race, gender, and age - This categorization is so well-learned and so fundamental to social perception that researchers refer to these dimensions as “primitive” or “automatic” categories A brief history of Ageism - The institutionalization of ageism has its roots in the increasingly negative way the US views older adults older adults tend to be marginalized, institutionalized, and stripped of responsibility, power and ultimately their dignity - The second major development in society that led to shift in attitudes toward the elderly was the industrial revolution the revolution demanded great mobility in families- to go where the jobs were Manifestations of ageism in daily life a) Patronizing language - Two major types of negative communication have been identified by researchers: overaccomodation and baby talk - In overaccommodation younger individuals become overly polite, speak louder and slower, exaggerate their intonation, have a higher pitch and talk in simple sentences with elders - Baby talk is a simplified speech register… with high pitch and exaggerated intonation as the term implies, people often use it to talk to babies (termed primary baby talk) but such intonation is used, also, when talking to pets, inanimate objects, and adults (termed secondary baby talk) b) Effects of pseudopositive attitudes on older people - According to Arluke and Levin, infantilization creates a self-fulfilling prophecy in that older people come to accept and believe that they are no longer independent, contributing adults - The cumulative effect of hearing from others that one is “old” will eventually bring about older behaviour and an older self-image in the older individual via a basic self-fulfilling prophecy effect c) Ageism in the helping professions - Research has shown that counselors, educators, and other health professionals are just as likely to be prejudiced against older people as other individuals - The perpetuation of the myth of aging as a state of continual physical and cognitive decline leads to the continued treatment focus on disease management versus prevention - Ford and Sbordonne (1980) found that psychiatrists were more likely to recommend drug therapy rather than psychotherapy for the treatment of depression - In a survey of 350 psychiatrists, Ray, Raciti and Ford found that females and those of a psychoanalytic orientation held the most negative views toward older patients - Healthism: stereotypes about individuals who are in poor physical health d) Elder abuse - There are many different ways older adults can be abused. This abuse can take the form of neglect by the caregiver, outright violence, fraud or exploitation Theoretical perspectives a) Functional perspective - The approach holds that negative attitudes toward older adults serve an ego-protective function for the stereotyping individual - These stereotypes help younger persons deny the self-threatening aspects of old age b) Terror management - It suggests that culture and religion are creations that impose order and meaning on the world, and this buffers frightening thoughts of one’s own mortality and the seemingly chaotic nature of existence Week 11: required reading Young people and violent territorial conflict- exclusion, culture and the search for identity Structure, culture and identity: the drivers of inter-group territorial violence - Childress(2004) explains that young people are drawn to public spaces as a consequence of holding a limited ability to control private property - Similarly, Valentine et.al recognized that young people occupy marginal spaces as “the space of the street is often the only autonomous space that young people are able to carve out for themselves”