Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Chapter 2: Barriers to Intercultural Communication
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following, according to LaRay Barna (1997), is one of the barriers to
intercultural communication?
A. perceptions of money
B. spatial distance between cultures
C. nonverbal communication
D. relationships
2. Who applied uncertainty reduction theory to intercultural communication by
developing the concept of the “stranger”?
A. Boucher
B. Cohen
C. Gudykunst and his colleagues
D. Yosei Sugawara
3. If you are unsure how to behave in an intercultural contact and you tend to avoid
contact, you are experiencing which type of intercultural barrier?
A. high anxiety
B. assuming similarity instead of difference
C. ethnocentrism
D. stereotyping
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
4. If you consider that people display emotions inappropriately when the display of
emotions in their culture is different from the display of emotions in your culture, you
exemplify which type of intercultural barrier?
A. high anxiety
B. assuming similarity instead of difference
C. ethnocentrism
D. stereotyping
5. Negatively judging the aspects of another culture by the standards of one’s own
culture is ______.
A. ethnocentrism
B. prejudice
C. racism
D. stereotyping
6. In the reading by Benjamin Franklin, the commissioners from Virginia were victims of
which barrier to intercultural understanding from the list below?
A. ethnocentrism
B. ethnography
C. high anxiety
D. nonverbal misinterpretations
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
7. Positive or negative judgments made about others on the basis of their group
membership is ______.
a. ethnocentrism
b. prejudice
c. racism
d. stereotyping
8. The term Asian American ______.
A. contributes to a stereotype of all people of Asian ancestry as a single community
B. includes more than 30 ethnicities with family origins from East Asia and excludes the
Indian subcontinent
C. was developed by the Census Bureau to refer to all people of Asian descent
D. was developed by the Census Bureau to refer to people from the Indian subcontinent
9. The irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, religion, or sexual
orientation is ______.
A. ethnocentrism
B. prejudice
C. racism
D. stereotyping
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
10. Which of the following explains part of the Roma’s history in Europe?
A. The Holocaust is an important part of their history.
B. They have largely assimilated into European cultures.
C. The Roma have largely disappeared from Europe.
D. Migration from Egypt to Europe is a major part of their history.
11. What term is used to describe the view that an individual’s beliefs and behaviors
should be understood only in terms of that person’s own culture?
A. cultural relativism
B. cultural universalism
C. prejudice
D. ethnocentrism
12. China has a recorded history of ______.
A. 65 years (since the end of World War II)
B. 200 years
C. 2,000 years
D. 4,000 years
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
13. The father of modern China is ______.
A. Chiang Kai-shek
B. Mao Tse-tung
C. Deng Xiaoping
D. Dr. Sun Yat-sen
14. ______ is prejudice with the exercise of power on or over the group.
A. Racism
B. Stereotyping
C. Ethnocentrism
D. Bias
15. Who can be the target of stereotyping?
A. only individuals of a minority group
B. only individuals of a majority group
C. anyone
D. only a member of a subculture
16. What is the official language(s) of Hong Kong?
A. Cantonese and English
B. Cantonese only
C. Cantonese, English, and Putonghue (Mandarin)
D. English only
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
17. What region of China is the more traditional and conservative?
A. East
B. Hong Kong
C. North, including Beijing
D. South, including Guangzhou
18. In the United States, the idea that dominant culture values some based on race is
often referred to as ______.
A. White benefits
B. color privilege
C. color benefits
D. White privilege
19. “You’re really pretty for a dark–skin girl” would be an example of ______.
A. a microaggression
B. a macroaggression
C. microracism
D. macroracism
20. China’s government promotes “Internet ______” rejecting the idea that a nation’s
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
virtual borders should be less meaningful than its physical borders.
A. jurisdiction
B. sovereignty
C. dominion
D. supremacy
True/False
1. A communicator‘s concern over a lack of cultural awareness can be a barrier to
intercultural communication.
2. Across all cultures, it is appropriate to display emotions in front of the same types of
people (parents, lovers, etc.).
3. Cultural nearsightedness is a less extreme form of ethnocentrism.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
4. Using the word Americans to describe only individuals living in the United States is an
example of cultural nearsightedness.
5. The word stereotyping was first used in the Christian Bible to describe judgments
made about other groups.
6. Psychologists explain stereotypes as mistakes our brains make in the perception of
other people similar to those mistakes our brains make in the perception of visual
illusions.
7. Stereotypes can become self-fulfilling prophecies for the person stereotyped.
8. Profiling refers to the law enforcement practice of scrutinizing certain individuals
based on characteristics thought to indicate a likelihood of criminal behavior.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
9. The term Asian American was created early in the 19th century to refer to all people
of Asian descent in the United States.
10. The “model minority” stereotype associated with Asian Americans has had negative
effects.
11. Hundreds of thousands of Roma were exterminated in Nazi gas chambers and
concentration camps.
12. Japanese-born Koreans, the largest minority group in Japan, experience little social
or economic prejudice.
13. Air quality is a major problem in Chinese cities.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
14. The United States leads all nations in carbon dioxide emissions.
15. Hong Kong was promised at least 50 years of press freedom after its return to China
in 1997.
16. Taiwan currently has a one-party government under martial law.
17. China has become a major competitor with the United States for oil.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
18. China views U.S. demands for the Chinese to improve their human rights policies as
attacks on its sovereignty.
19. Chinese leaders place a higher premium on social order and a lesser one on
individual expression.
20. Google has been banned in China.
Short Answer
1. When encountering strangers, you experience ______ or not knowing how to
interpret the person’s reactions.
2. ______ theory assumes that, during the initial phase of interaction with another
person, your primary communication goal is to discover information about the other
person.
Ans: Uncertainty reduction
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Learning Objective: 2-1: List the barriers to effective and appropriate intercultural
communication.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Barriers to Intercultural Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. Cultural ______, in contrast to ethnocentrism, is the view that an individual’s beliefs
and behaviors should be understood only in terms of that person’s own culture.
4. A less extreme form of ethnocentrism can be labeled cultural ______.
5. ______ is the irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, religion, or
sexual orientation.
6. Psychologists have identified the highly prejudiced individual as having a(n) ______
personality.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
7. ______ is prejudice with the exercise of power on or over the group through historical
or institutional structures.
8. To be ______ is to believe in the superiority of one’s own culture.
9. ______ impede communication by causing us to assume that a widely held belief is
true of any one individual.
10. ______ refers to the law enforcement practice of scrutinizing certain individuals
based on characteristics thought to indicate a likelihood of criminal behavior.
11. Continued use of a ______ reinforces the belief that it is based upon.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
12. People most likely to be highly ______ tend to be uncritical of higher authority,
overgeneralize, and think in bipolar terms.
13. ______ includes threats or verbal slurs directed against specific groups.
14. In the United States, the term ______ describes how a dominant culture empowers
some over others, due to race.
15. Deng’s ______ sought to remove the dogmas, irrationality, and inefficiencies of
Mao’s era and transformed China into a modern nation.
16. In China, the ______ approves all media programming.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
17. In China, the government encourages the ______ for education and business.
18. China emphasizes ______ order.
Difficulty Level: Hard
19. ______ leads all nations in carbon dioxide emissions.
20. The effect of making Chinese products cheap is due to the fact that Chinese
currency is ______.
Essay
1. Discuss anxiety as a barrier to intercultural communication.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
2. Discuss assuming similarity instead of difference as a barrier to intercultural
communication.
3. What barrier(s) is(are) illustrated in the Benjamin Franklin reading?
4. Give examples of ethnocentrism.
5. Discuss with examples how stereotypes affect intercultural communication.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
6. Discuss with examples how prejudice affects intercultural communication.
7. Discuss with examples how racism affects intercultural communication.
8. Discuss how profiling can become ethnic stereotyping.
9. Discuss how stereotyping can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the person
stereotyped.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
10. Discuss the implications of stereotyping Asian Americans as the model minority.
11. Discuss how hate speech impedes intercultural communication.
12. Give examples of prejudice in the United States.
13. Discuss how the Roma have experienced prejudice.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
14. Describe and give an example of White privilege.
15. Describe and give an example of microaggressions.
16. Discuss the impact on the environment of China’s economic development.
17. Discuss China’s media policies.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
18. Discuss China’s human rights policies.
19. Identify and discuss major areas of misunderstandings between China and the
United States.
20. Based on intercultural communication concepts you have learned so far, discuss
how mutual understanding between China and the United States could be improved.