A Study Tool

• Culture is a system of thought and behavior, learned through communication, that reflects a group’s shared beliefs, values, and practices (p. 122).
• Your worldview is the framework through which you interpret people’s behavior (p. 122).
• Intercultural communication is the communication between people from different cultures who have different worldviews (p. 124).

• Individuals in high-context cultures use contextual cues to interpret meaning and send subtle messages; in low-context cultures, verbal directness is much more important (pp. 126–128).
• In collectivist cultures, people perceive themselves primarily as members of a group and communicate from that perspective; in individualist cultures, people value individuality and communicate autonomy and privacy (p. 129).
• Our discomfort with the unknown (uncertainty avoidance) varies with culture (p. 129).
• Masculine cultures tend to place value on assertiveness, achievement, ambition, and competitiveness; feminine cultures tend to value nurturance, relationships, and quality of life (p. 130).
• Power distance (high and low) is the degree to which cultures accept hierarchies among individuals (p. 130).
• Time orientation is the way that cultures communicate about and with time. In monochronic cultures, time is a valuable resource that is not to be wasted. Polychronic cultures have a more fluid approach to time (pp. 131–132).
• Cultures differ in their expression of emotion. Cultures that embrace hyperbole use vivid, colorful, exaggerated language, whereas cultures that value understatement use language that downplays emotional intensity (pp. 132, 134).

• Co-cultures are groups whose members share some aspects of the general culture but also have their own distinct characteristics (p. 134).
• A generation is a group of people born into a specific time frame (pp. 134–135).
• Gender refers to the behavioral and cultural traits associated with biological sex (p. 135).
• Social identity theory notes that your social identity is based on your group memberships. We communicate differently with people in our ingroups versus outgroups (pp. 136–137).
• Studies in intergroup communication examine how our group membership affects our interaction, and our social identity shifts depending on which group membership is most salient at a given moment (pp. 137–138).

• Anxiety may cause you to worry about embarrassing yourself in an intercultural interaction (pp. 140–141).
• Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of your own culture or group (p. 141).
• Discrimination is biased behavior toward someone based on their membership in a group, class, or category. People often discriminate based on stereotypes and prejudiced views of other groups (pp. 141–142).

• Be mindful of cultural differences and develop intercultural sensitivity, an awareness of behaviors that might offend others (p. 143).
• Intergroup contact theory suggests that interaction between members of different social groups can encourage positive attitudes. However, intergroup biases interfere with this process: behavioral affirmation is seeing or hearing what you want to see or hear in group members. Behavioral confirmation is acting in a way that makes your expectations about a group come true (p. 144).
• Research supports the importance of accommodation, adjusting your language and nonverbal behaviors. Convergence is adapting your communication to be more like another individual’s. If you overaccommodate, however, the interaction can be perceived negatively (pp. 145–146).
• It is important to practice your intercultural skills (pp. 146–147).