Chapter 5 Review
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key terms
culture
Co-cultural Communication Theory
co-cultures
assimilation
prejudice
Stereotype Content Model
individualistic cultures
collectivistic cultures
uncertainty avoidance
high power distance
low power distance
high-context cultures
low-context cultures
display rules
masculine cultural values
feminine cultural values
monochronic time orientation
polychronic time orientation
intercultural competence
world-mindedness
ethnocentrism
attributional complexity
communication accommodation theory
key concepts
What Is Culture?
Our sense of culture is deeply influenced by our nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, and many other factors. According to Co-cultural Communication Theory, members of assorted co-cultures may get the dominant culture to accommodate their co-cultural identity, assimilate into the dominant culture, or separate themselves entirely from it.
The Stereotype Content Model contends that our prejudiced views, rooted in stereotypes, cause us to see other groups benevolently or with hostility.
Cultural Influences on Communication
Whether we grow up within individualistic cultures or collectivistic cultures strongly influences the extent to which we value personal achievements and independence over group identity. Similarly, the directness or indirectness of our communication is impacted by our experience with high- and low-context cultures.
Our level of uncertainty avoidance determines our acceptance of life’s unpredictability. The display rules we learn growing up help us decide when, where, and how to appropriately communicate our emotions.
Whether and how we will confront people of different social status is affected by the power distance of our culture, just as our culture’s masculine cultural values and feminine cultural values impact the importance we place on personal achievement, assertiveness, compassion, and cooperation.
Creating Intercultural Competence
We demonstrate world-mindedness by accepting others’ expressions of their culture as part of their interpersonal communication, avoiding the temptation to judge others, and treating others with respect. This is the opposite of ethnocentrism, a significant barrier to intercultural competence.
We develop attributional complexity by observing others’ behavior and analyzing the various forces influencing it.
Communication accommodation theory encourages us to adapt our communication to gain approval and establish relationships, as long as we avoid imitating others’ accents or dialects.