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Critical Literacy, Communication and Interaction 1 (GE3A)University of ArubaFAS: SW&D / OG&MOctober 6, 2009Unit 5

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Today’s program:

•Summary: properties of communication•Introduction on the subject of unit 5•Class assignment on cultural variability•Presentation of class assignments•Summary

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Unit 5Stepping into the ‘cultural’ dimension

Intercultural communication and its contexts

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Properties of communication

1. Process2. Dynamic3. Interactive - Transactive4. Symbolic5. Intentional – unintentional?6. Contextual7. Ubiquitous (omnipresent)8. Cultural

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Discussion questions:

•In what ways is Aruba changing demographically?

•Why do you think there are so many people afraid of communication?

•Why are so many people afraid to communicate with people from cultures different from their own?

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Culture

•What does the saying ‘Culture is everywhere’ mean?

•Contested concept. More than 300 definitions of culture !

•Culture= an accumulated pattern of values, beliefs, and behaviors, shared by an identifiable group of people with a common history and verbal and non-verbal movements (Neuliep, 2009)

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Properties of Culture• Culture is people• Culture as an accumulated pattern of values, believes and

behaviors, shared by an identifiable group of people with a common history and verbal and nonverbal symbol systems

• People who exist in the same culture generally share similar values and believes, history

• The values of a particular culture lead to a set of expectations and rules prescribing how people should behave in that culture

• Identifiable group: shared cognition, shared memory (history that binds people)

• Microcultural groups: subgroups that exist in the mainstream culture (distinct in some way, microcultures often may have histories /or properties that differ in some way with the mainstream culture

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Different microcultures in Aruba?•Please name different microcultures of

Aruba?▫Identifiable group (subculture) within the

mainstream culture?

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Intercultural communication

•Intercultural communication occurs when a minimum of two persons from different cultures or micro cultures come together and exchange verbal and non-verbal codes

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A contextual model of Intercultural communication (Neuliep, 2009)•According to this model, intercultural

communication occurs within and between a variety of interconnected contexts, including cultural, microcultural, environmental, perceptual and sociorelational contexts.

•The term context refers to the setting, situation, circumstances, background and overall framework within which communication occurs ( see unit 1 of this course).

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Neuliep’s contextual model of intercultural communication (2009)

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Identifying the various contexts•The contextual model of intercultural

communication attempts to identify the various contexts that identify what happens when a person from Culture A communicates with a person from Culture B.

•As we walk through the contextual model, please note the model is both conceptually and graphically consistent.

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Context definition

Cultural An accumulated pattern of values, beliefs and behaviors, shared by an identifiable group of people with a common history and verbal and non-verbal systems(the overall rules of communication)

Microcultural Subgroups/minorities group that exist within the main culture.

Environmental The psychical, geographical location of the interaction. The ‘when’ and ‘where’ the rules of communication (culture) apply

Perceptual The individual characteristics of each interactant, including their cognitions (mental models), attitudes, dispositions and motivations. This context focuses on how individuals gathers, stores and retrieves information. Individual perception is affected by culture, moreover how individuals develop attitudes about others (e.g. stereotype) varies from culture to culture

Sociorelational The relationship between the interactants.Whenever people come together they establish a relationship. Each person assumes a role, your interaction varies as a function of what role you are assuming

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Intercultural communication is defined by the interdependence of these various contexts:

•The perceptual contexts combine to create the sociorelational context, which is defined by the verbal and non-verbal messages sent. The sociorelational context is influences by the environmental context and defined by the microcultural and cultural contexts. These contexts combine in a complex formula to create the phenomena of intercultural communication.

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Intercultural communication and Uncertainty • Starting point in intercultural interaction: uncertainty!• We may not know anything about the ‘other’ person’s culture, values,

habits, behavior, dress and so on…we may not know what to do in such circumstances.

• This uncertainty about the other person may make us feel nervous and anxious. Sometimes this even resulting in avoiding communication in the first place

• Berger: the task of communicating with someone from a different culture (who may differ from yourself in cultural terms) presents you with some very complex predictive and explanatory problems;

• Because to some extend, to communicate effectively with someone from a different culture, you must be able to predict how your interaction partner is likely to behave, and based on those predictions , select appropriate verbal and non verbal messages.

• Whenever we come together and interact with a ‘stranger’, our primary concern is to reduce uncertainty (especially when the other person is someone whom we will interact again)

• Reduce uncertainty and increase predictability about the other

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Intercultural communication Apprehension• Successfully interacting with someone from a different culture

requires a degree of communication competence• Spitzberg: cognitive, affective and behavioral components:

▫ Cognitive component: how much one knows about communication▫ Affective component: one’s motivation to approach or avoid

communication▫ Behavioral component: the skills one has to interact competently.

• An interculturally competent communicator is motivated to communicate, knowledgeable about how to communicate and skilled in communicating. And sensitive to the expectations of the context in which communication occurs. Compotent communicators interact effectively by adapting messages appropriately to the context . They understand the rules, norms and expectations of the relationship and do not significantly violate them.

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e.g. of strategies: asking questions, appropriate non-verbal expressiveness

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the cultural context

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The cultural context• The cultural context in which human communication

occurs is perhaps the most defining influence on human interaction.

• Culture provides the overall framework wherein humans learn to organize their thoughts, emotions and behaviors in relation to their environment.

• Although people are born into a culture, it is not innate: Culture is learned

• Culture is socially distributed, it rests in our social memory (shared cognition)

• Culture teaches one how to think, conditions one how to feel, and instructs one how to act. Especially how to interact with others

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Communication is culture, culture is communication• You can say that the concepts communication and culture can

be used interchangeably.• Hall: “Culture hides more than it reveals, and strangely enough

what it hides, it hides most effectively from it’s own participants.” [culture hides more than it reveals particularly from its members]

• As we conduct our daily lives, most of us are unaware of our culture. Yet culture influences every thought, feeling and action.

• Culture provides people with an implicit theory about how to behave and how to interpret the behavior of others. People from different cultures learn different implicit theories.

• These theories are learned through socialization. It is through socialization that individuals learn the dominant values of their particular culture and their self-identities.

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Making Culture more tangible: cultural variability, the difference between cultures

• We will focus on 5 dimensions of cultural variability that can be used to differentiate between cultures (sociology, anthropology, communication sciences, psychology):

1. Individualism – collectivism2. High-low context3. Value orientations4. Power distance5. Uncertainty avoidance• Each of these dimensions affects how people

communicate

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Cultural continua:• The 5 dimensions of cultural variability will be

presented along the following cultural continua:

I---------------------------------------------------------ILow

High

• This continua allows us to represent the dimensions of cultural variability as continuous and varying in magnitude by degree

• In other words: no culture is purely and absolutely for e.g. Individualistic or collectivistic. Instead a culture can be more collectivistic than an other culture (always in comparison with an other culture)

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Important notion when approaching cultures in terms of variability dimensions:

• Important: these cultural dimensions of variability are not opposites; that is, a culture where for instance a larger power distance is practiced should not be thought of as the opposite of a culture where small power distance is practiced. In many cases, dimensions of cultural variability may coexist in cultures (think about difference of microcultures).

• Many cultures are in a state of great transition. E.g. Japan, considered collectivistic [group-oriented] is since 1950, becoming more individualistic.

• When we label a culture for example as individualistic etc, this does not mean that every person in that culture is an individualistic, think about micro-cultures and personal differences.

• Because their can be considerable within-country variation, labeling a particular in terms of a absolute cul. var. dimension can lead to overgeneralization

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Class group assignments: Culture variabilty improvisation game1. Divide the class in 5 groups. Each group will focus on

1 of the 5 dimensions for cultural variability2. The group has 1 hour to prepare the following:

a. Read the pages that talk about your group’s assigned cultural variability dimension.

b. Give a description of that specific cultural variability dimension your group is assigned to focus on in terms of properties. What does this dimension try to measure, how are cultures described in terms of this dimension?

c. Describe the Aruban culture in terms of this specific cultural variability dimension and illustrate this with examples.

d. Present this approximately 10 minutes to the class.

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5 groups for the class assignment:1. Group 1: Individualism-Collectivism2. Group 2: High-low context3. Group 3: Value orientations4. Group 4: Power distance5. Group 5: Uncertainty avoidance

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Videos [individualism-collectivism]•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sStpPs

Wh6lA

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-SE-VYfXl4 (Geert Hofstede explains this dimension himself)

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Individualism- Collectivism (Hofstede,2005)• One of Hofstede’s dimension of cultural variability is

that of “individualism-collectivism.”.He concluded the dimension of “individualism-collectivism” was a major explanatory concept for differences across cultures.

• According to Hofstede, individualistic cultures place emphasis on the achievements, initiative, and goals of the individual (the individual uniqueness, being yourself, the 1 in a million, to differentiate yourself from the mass/the group is important)

• While collectivist cultures subordinate those to group membership and the goals of the group (belonging to a group is important, membership of a group, loyalty to a group).

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Individualistic common values & characteristics• Personal independence• Emphasis on personal responsibility• Freedom of choice• Personal autonomy• Achieving self-fulfillment• Distinctive personal attitudes and opinions• Prefers self-directed behavior• competiveness• Independence of groups• Individualists tend to see themselves as unique from others• In some extend emotionally disconnected from ingroups such as

family.• Social control depends more on personal guilt than on shame or

other social norms or conformity• Ecology (geography, resources and the history of a society) can

shape the level of individualism. E.g. modern, industrial-urban, fast-changing cultures tend to be individualist.

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Collectivistic common values & characteristics• Groups bind and mutually obligate individuals• Is linked with a sense of duty to group• Interdependence to others• Harmony with others is primary value• Working with the group• Group goals have precedence over individual goals• Culture stress values that serve the ingroup by subordinating personal

goals for the sake of preserving the ingroup• Primary groups: family, neighborhood, occupational group in which

members have diffuse mutual obligations and expectations based on their status and rank

• People are not seen as isolated individuals• Responsibility is shared and accountability is collective• A person’s identity is defined by his or her group membership• Emotionally connected to the ingroup• A collectivist’s values and believes are consistent with and reflect those of

the ingroup. It’s association with the ingroup may last for a lifetime

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Behavioral traitsIndividualism Collectivism

Optimism Social self-concept

High self-esteem Need for affiliation

Lower social anxiety Sensitivity to rejection

Satisfaction with self Sensitivity to embarrassability

Satisfaction with freedom Ingroup relationship preference

Ease of interacting with strangers

Indirect communication style

Direct communication style Social networks are valued

Lower relational commitment

Preference to work alone

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High and Low context communication

• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIUilYX56E&feature=PlayList&p=B87EBA870CF4EB9F&index=0&playnext=1

• Human communication is dependent on the context in which it occurs. In addition to the verbal and non-verbal codes that are exchanged between interactants, the salient features of a communicative context include the cultural, psychical, sociorelational and perceptual environments

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High and Low context communication

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High and Low context communication

• The cultural context includes among others features like collectivism-individualism etc.

• The physical environment includes the actual geographical location of the interaction (classroom, bedroom, office)

• The sociorelational environment encompasses the relationship between the interactants (e.g. subordinate/superior, husband/wife, parent/child)

• Perceptual environment consists of the attitudes, motivations and cognitive dispositions of the interactants

• Each of these environments (contexts) provide a wealth of information to the interactants about how to communicate.

• The degree to which interactants focus on these contexts while communicating varies considerably from culture to culture!

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High and Low context communication (Hall)• Depending on the contextual features present during

communication:▫ Some persons choose to focus more on the verbal

codes than on the non-verbal elements (LOW CONTEXT)

▫ While others actively monitor the non-verbal elements of the context over the verbal codes (HI CONTEXT)

• A HC communication or message is one in which most of the information is either in the psychical context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message.

• A LC communication is just the opposite: the mass of information is vested in the explicit code

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Restricted and elaborated codes•HC culturesrestricted code•LCelaborated code

•(Next to Neuliep’s explanation on the restricted and on the elaborated code, see also Fiske (1991) (UNIT 1) for a more detailed explanation on the difference between these two kind of codes). This is very important for your exam!

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Video {power distance}

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU2gp3QjnNU (Geert Hofstede explains what he understands under the dimension of power distance)

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Power Distance (Hofstede,2005)• Hofstede defined power distance as “the extent

to which the members of a society accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.

• Individuals in high power distance cultures accept power and authority as parts of life and consequently place high value on obedience to superiors and following orders.

• In a low power distance culture, individuals value equality and may question the orders of superiors before following them.

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Video {uncertainty avoidance}

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=757-r3qmcp8

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Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede,2005)• Hofstede’s study supports the notion that a

fundamental dimension of any culture is the level of tolerance it has for uncertainty and ambiguity. Hofstede labeled this dimension “uncertainty avoidance.

• According to Hofstede, cultures high in uncertainty avoidance value conformity, maintain rigid codes of belief and behavior, and do not tolerate deviation, while cultures low in uncertainty avoidance maintain a “more relaxed atmosphere where deviance is more easily tolerated.

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Values • Values affect intercultural communication• values differ among cultures• Values prescribed what is preferred or

prohibited (evaluative component of an individual’s attitudes and behavior)

• Values trigger positive or negative emotions• Schwartz: values are concepts or believes that

pertain to outcomes and behaviors, guide the selection and evaluation of behaviors and are rank according to their relative importance to the individual

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Schwartz’s universal values1. Self-direction2. Stimulation3. Hedonism4. Achievement5. Power6. Security7. Conformity8. Tradition9. Spirituality10.Benevolence11.Universalism

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Kluckholn and Strodtbeck’s value orientation •K & S’ categorization of value orientation

can be used to describe and compare cultures

1. The self2. The family3. Society4. Human nature5. Nature6. supernatural