978-0134202037 Chapter 4 Soluotion Manual

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Chapter 4: Interpersonal Communication and Diversity:

Adapting to Others

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

4.1 Describe five human differences that influence communication.

4.2 Define culture and identify and describe the seven dimensions of culture.

4.3 List and describe barriers that inhibit effective intercultural communication.

4.4 Identify and apply strategies for developing knowledge, motivation, and skills that can

improve intercultural competence.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Understanding Diversity: Describing Our Differences

Learning Objective 4.1: Describe five human differences that influence communication.

A. Communication researchers have studied several major differences that affect the way we

interact with one another.

1. Discrimination is the unfair or inappropriate treatment of people based on their

group members.

2. Learning about diversity can help us become aware of our similarities and differences

and decrease discriminatory behaviors.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Relating to Diverse Others: A Diversity Almanac

This feature presents thirteen different statistics and facts about diverse cultures within the

United States. In groups, have students read through these statistics and facts and discuss how

the United States is a diverse “melting pot.”

B. Sex and Gender

1. Gender refers to psychological and emotional characteristics that cause people to

assume masculine, feminine, or androgynous roles, and sex refers to biological male

or female characteristics.

2. There are differences in how men and women communicate.

3. Men often communicate to report; women often communicate to establish rapport;

women tend to use communication for the purpose of relating or connecting to others.

C. Sexual Orientation

1. There is evidence that gay and lesbian individuals continue to be judged negatively

based solely on their sexual orientation.

2. An effective and appropriate interpersonal communicator is aware of and sensitive to

issues and attitudes about sexual orientation in contemporary society.

3. Although we may not intend anything negative, sometimes we unintentionally offend

someone through more subtle use and misuse of language.

D. Race and Ethnicity

1. Race is based on the genetically transmitted physical characteristics of a group of

people who are classified together.

2. Ethnicity is a social classification based on a variety of factors that are shared by a

group of people who also share a common geographic origin.

E. Age

1. Generational differences have an effect on a variety of relationships.

2. Your generation has important implications for communication, especially as you

relate to others in both family and work situations.

3. Generational and age differences may create barriers and increase the potential for

conflict and misunderstanding.

F. Social Class

1. There are several cues we use to identify class distinctions, including way of life,

family, job, money, and education.

2. There are several principles that describe how social classes emerge from society:

a. Virtually every organization or group develops a hierarchy that makes status

distinctions.

b. We are more likely to interact with people from our own social class.

c. People who interact with one another over time tend to communicate in similar

ways; they develop similar speech patterns and use similar expressions.

d. Members of a social class develop ways of communicating class differences to

others by the way they dress, cars they drive, homes they live in, schools they

attend, and other visible symbols of social class.

e. It is possible to change one’s social class through education, employment, and

income.

3. Differences in social class and the attendant differences in education and lifestyle

affect whom we talk with and even what we talk about; these differences influence

our overall cultural standpoint, from which we perceive the world.

II. Understanding Culture: Dimensions of Our Mental Software

Learning Objective 4.2: Define culture and identify and describe the seven dimensions of

culture.

A. Culture is a learned system of knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, values, and

norms that is shared by a group of people.

1. Culture and life experiences influence a person’s worldview, which are individual

perceptions or perceptions by a culture or group of people about key beliefs and

issues, such as death, God, and the meaning of life. A person’s worldview influences

his or her interactions with others.

2. A co-culture is a distinct culture within a larger culture; differences such as “gender”

and “race” constitute co-cultures.

3. We learn our culture in several ways:

a. Enculturation is the process of communicating a group’s culture from generation

to generation; culture is “learned.”

b. Acculturation is the process of transmitting a host culture’s values, ideas, and

beliefs to someone from outside that culture.

c. Seven dimensions are found in all cultures:

i. Individualism versus collectivism

ii. An emphasis on the surrounding context, including nonverbal behaviors,

versus little emphasis on context

iii. Masculine values emphasizing accomplishment, versus feminine values that

emphasize nurturing

iv. Degree of tolerance for uncertainty

v. Approaches to power

vi. Short- or long-term approaches to time

vii. Indulgence versus restraint

B. Individualism: One and Many

1. Individualistic cultures value individual achievement and personal accomplishment

and collectivistic cultures value group and team achievement.

2. Individualist cultures tend to be more loosely knit socially; in collectivist cultures

individuals expect more support from others.

C. Context: High and Low

1. Cultural context implies that information is not explicitly communicated through

language but through environmental or nonverbal cues.

2. High-context cultures derive much information from nonverbal cues.

3. Low-context cultures derive much information from the words of a message and less

information from nonverbal or contextual cues.

D. Gender: Masculine and Feminine

1. Masculine cultures value achievement, assertiveness, heroism, and material wealth.

a. More value is placed on traditional roles for men and women.

b. These cultures view communication from a content orientation (information

exchange).

c. Males base their friendships on sharing activities rather than talking.

2. Feminine cultures value caring for the less fortunate, being sensitive toward others,

and overall quality of life.

a. Women approach communication for the purpose of relating to others and to

know and be known by others.

b. What women talk about is less important than the fact that they are talking,

because talking implies relationship.

E. Uncertainty: High and Low Tolerance

1. Some cultures have a higher tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity and have more

relaxed, informal expectations of others.

2. Some cultures have a higher need for certainty and have and enforce rigid rules of

behavior and develop more elaborate codes of conduct.

3. People from Portugal, Greece, Peru, Belgium, and Japan have high certainty needs,

but people from Scandinavian countries tend to tolerate uncertainty.

F. Power: Centralized and Decentralized

1. Centralized power cultures value having power in the hands of a small number of

people.

2. Decentralized power cultures favor equality and an even distribution of power in

government and organizations.

G. Time: Short-Term and Long-Term

1. A culture’s orientation to time falls on a continuum between long-term and short–

term.

2. People from a culture with a long-term orientation to time place an emphasis on the

future and tend to value perseverance and thrift.

3. People from a culture with a short-term orientation value spending rather than saving,

tradition, and saving their face and the face of others and have an expectation that

results will soon follow their actions.

H. Happiness: Indulgent and Restrained

1. The newest cultural dimension is that some cultures focus—more than other cultures

do—on what makes them happy.

2. Indulgent cultures desire and expect freedom and happiness, whereas restrained

cultures do not expect to have all of their needs met to achieve happiness.

III. Barriers to Effective Intercultural Communication

Learning Objective 4.3: List and describe barriers that inhibit effective intercultural

communication.

A. Intercultural communication involves communication between or among people of

different cultures.

1. Culture shock is the sense of confusion, anxiety, stress, and loss when you encounter

a culture that has little in common with your own.

2. The first step to bridging differences between cultures is to find out what hampers

effective communication.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

#communicationandtechnology: Relating to Others Online in Intercultural Relationships

The likelihood of interacting with others who have different cultural or ethnic perspectives is

increasing, particularly with the prevalence of social media. This feature provides seven

strategies for enriching electronic intercultural connections with others. With a partner, have

students read through the strategies and identify times where they have implemented each

strategy while communicating with others who are different from them.

B. Ethnocentrism

1. Ethnocentrism stems from a conviction that your own cultural traditions and

assumptions are superior to those of others.

2. There are ways to avoid being ethnocentric.

a. Be mindful and honestly consider whether you harbor unhealthy ethnocentric

views toward a cultural, co-cultural, or ethnic group.

b. Avoid stereotypes by viewing people as individuals rather than as stereotypes or

caricatures fueled by media or literature characterizations.

c. Separate the politics from the person because the politics promoted by a given

leader of a country are not necessarily representative of the people who live in

that country.

d. Communicate interpersonally rather than impersonally and seek to move beyond

judgmental, impersonal communication to a more meaningful and authentic

interpersonal relationship.

C. Different Communication Codes

1. Different communication codes for verbal and nonverbal communication may also

impede your ability to connect with someone of another culture.

2. Even when language is translated, meaning can be missed or mangled.

D. Stereotyping and Prejudice

1. Stereotyping and prejudice can keep us from considering the uniqueness of

individuals, groups, or events.

a. To stereotype someone is to push him or her into an inflexible, all-encompassing

category.

b. Prejudice is a judgment or opinion of someone that you form before you know all

of the facts or background of that person.

2. Despite laws addressing gender and racial discrimination, certain prejudices are

widespread and people’s opinions have not kept pace with the law.

E. Assuming Similarities

1. Cultural differences do exist.

2. Even if people appear to be like you, all people are not alike.

F. Assuming Differences

1. Do not automatically conclude that another person is different from you.

2. Identifying common cultural issues and similarities can also help us establish

common ground with others.

IV. Improving Intercultural Communication Competence

Learning Objective 4.4: Identify and apply strategies for developing knowledge,

motivation, and skills that can improve intercultural competence.

A. Although identifying causes of misunderstanding is a good first step to becoming

interculturally competent, most people need strategies to help them overcome barriers.

1. Intercultural communication competence is the ability to adapt your behavior

toward another in ways that are appropriate to the other person’s culture.

2. Bridging strategies

a. Developing appropriate knowledge of how others communicate

b. Developing motivation—an internal state of readiness to respond to something

c. Developing skill in adapting to others, which focuses on specific behaviors

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Communication and Emotion: Are Human Emotions Universal

This feature presents various research on whether or not there are universal emotions or universal

ways of expressing emotions. Psychologist Robert Plutchik suggests that there are eight primary

emotions, and combinations of those primary emotions produce eight secondary emotions. Other

researchers (Paul Ekman and Marc Pell) hold that the expression of emotion is the same for

strong emotions, and people from a variety of cultures are able to interpret emotions through

facial expressions and vocal cues. Other researchers disagree and have found that people from

collectivist and individualist culture express emotions differently. Overall, the research

consensus is that although there may be a common cultural basis for expressing emotions, certain

cultural differences exist in how people interpret some emotions. Use these different research

conclusions as a starting point for a class discussion about whether human emotions are cross-

culturally universal.

B. Develop Knowledge

1. Seek Information

a. Seek information about the culture to help manage your anxiety about the

unknown.

b. Information can help you understand the worldview of the culture.

c. You can gain information by spending time with people who are culturally and

ethnically different from you. This phenomenon is known as contact hypothesis.

2. Ask Questions and Listen Effectively

a. Be prepared to share information about yourself.

b. Listen to what is shared by others.

3. Create a “Third Culture”

a. A third culture is common ground established when people from separate

cultures create a third, “new,” more comprehensive and inclusive culture.

b. This new culture evolves from talk and dialogue.

c. Developing a third culture can reduce our tendency to approach cultural

differences from an “us versus them” point of view.

d. Building on the similarities as well as talking about the differences to create a

“third culture” can lead to enhanced friendship.

C. Develop Motivation: Strategies to Accept Others

1. Tolerate Ambiguity

a. Be patient and tolerate ambiguity when speaking to something with a different

worldview.

b. This will help clarify that person’s messages and behaviors for you.

2. Be Mindful

a. Being mindful involves applying the awareness of cultural differences and the

connection between thoughts and deeds in one’s interactions with someone from a

background different from our own.

b. You can become more mindful through self-talk, telling yourself messages to help

you manage discomfort in a situation.

3. Avoid Negative Judgments

D. Develop Skill

1. Develop Creative Flexibility

a. Because each person is unique, it is important to treat each person not as a

representative of a monolithic group but as someone with a distinct perspective.

b. The skill of observing and responding with creative flexibility enhances your

intercultural competence.

c. Pay close attention to the other person’s nonverbal cues and adjust your

communication style and language, if necessary, to put the person at ease.

d. Listen and respond and, if necessary, create a new culture—a third culture—to

forge a new way of interacting.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Tao: A Universal Moral Code

This feature presents information about Tao—a universal moral code that informs human ethical

decisions—which is a concept advanced by C. S. Lewis. In his book The Abolition of Man,

Lewis presents eight universal principles that provide a basis for assessing society. Read through

the eight principles, and hold a class discussion about students’ agreement and disagreement with

Lewis’s laws. Finally, ask students to consider whether there is a universal theory for human

communication.

2. Become Other-Oriented

a. Use social decentering—the cognitive process by which we take into account

another person’s thoughts, feelings, values, background, and perspectives.

i. The greater the difference between you and another person, the more difficult

it is to accomplish social decentering.

ii. Ask yourself what this person might be thinking right now or draw on your

own experiences.

iii. Keep the other person’s worldview and cultural values in mind as you make

inferences about his or her cognitive perspective.

iv. After considering his or her cognitive point of view, consider what the person

may be experiencing emotionally.

b. Feel empathy for others, which is an emotional reaction that is similar to the

reaction being experienced by another person—feeling what another is feeling.

i. Your ability to be emotionally responsive can enhance your skill in

communicating with others who are different from you.

ii. Shutting down may make other people perceive you as less socially skilled.

3. Appropriately Adapt Your Communication

a. To adapt is to adjust your behavior to others to accommodate differences and

expectations.

b. Communication accommodation theory suggests that all people adapt to the

behavior of others to some extent.

i. We can adapt predictively by modifying or changing behavior in anticipation

of an event.

ii. We can adapt reactively by modifying or changing behavior after an event.

c. There are at least four reasons why you might adapt your communication with

another person.

i. You adapt your message in response to specific information that you already

know about your partner.

ii. You adapt your communication in response to what you think the other person

is thinking, what you see the person doing, and your observations of the

person’s emotional expressions and moods.

iii. You adapt your messages to others based on previous conversations, past

shared experiences, and personal information that others have shared with

you.

iv. You adapt your message depending on where you are.

d. People frequently adapt communication in response to the feedback or reactions

they are receiving during a conversation.

e. People in conversations also adapt to nonverbal cues.

f. Adaptation across intercultural contexts is usually more difficult than adaptation

within your own culture.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Improving Your Communication Skills: Identifying and Adapting to Cultural Rules and

Norms

This feature asks students to write about the norms and rules that they expect when

communicating with people from their own culture. After students write a response to each

question, have them discuss and compare their responses with other classmates. Then, hold a

discussion about which intercultural competence skills (presented earlier in this chapter) would

help students better adapt to people who have different expectations.

In-Text Opportunity for Classroom Discussion

Applying an Other-Orientation to Diversity: The Platinum Rule

This feature discusses the Platinum Rule, which is do to others as they themselves would like to

be treated. The Platinum Rule is different from the Golden Rule (i.e., do to others as you would

like to be treated). Hold a class discussion about the differences between these two rules. In

addition, ask students to consider some of the benefits and challenges associated with carrying

out the Platinum Rule (i.e., is this rule even possible?).

KEY TERMS

discrimination, LO 4.1

sex, LO 4.1

gender, LO 4.1

race, LO 4.1

ethnicity, LO 4.1

culture, LO 4.2

worldview, LO 4.2

co-culture, LO 4.2

enculturation, LO 4.2

acculturation, LO 4.2

cultural context, LO 4.2

high-context culture,

LO 4.2

low-context culture,

LO 4.2

masculine culture, LO 4.2

feminine culture, LO 4.2

intercultural

communication, LO 4.3

cultural shock, LO 4.3

ethnocentrism, LO 4.3

stereotype, LO 4.3

prejudice, LO 4.3

intercultural

communication

competence, LO 4.4

motivation, LO 4.4

skill, LO 4.4

contact hypothesis, LO 4.4

third culture, LO 4.4

mindful, LO 4.4

social decentering, LO 4.4

empathy, LO 4.4

adapt, LO 4.4

communication

accommodation theory,

LO 4.4

adapt predictively, LO 4.4

adapt reactively, LO 4.4

the Platinum Rule, LO 4.4

LECTURE TOPICS

1. Why is it important to acknowledge diversity when communicating with other people? What

are some times that you have been aware of another person’s differences as you were

communicating with them?

2. What are some examples of ways that you have had to adapt your communication to better

communicate with friends, family, coworkers, and strangers?

3. List some examples of stereotyping and prejudice that exist in the world today. How can

improving a person’s intercultural communication competence mitigate or ameliorate the

stereotypes and prejudice that exist in our world today?

GROUP IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

1. Interpersonal Communication Competence and Remember the Titans. Watch clips from

the movie Remember the Titans (especially the football training camp scenes) and discuss

how Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) tries to teach the white and African American

players intercultural communication competence. In particular, how does he teach his players

to develop knowledge, motivation, and skills?

2. Elements of U.S. Culture and Enculturation. Ask students to work in small groups to

identify some of the elements of U.S. culture, including the expectation of a college

education, freedom of expression, focus on the future and new technologies, and the

changing nature of family relationships (e.g., blended families and delayed marriage). Within

their small groups, have students discuss the following questions:

• How were these values passed along to them?

• What values from their parents’ era seem to have lost importance or changed?

• What values do they think will go forward from their generation?

3. Individualistic v. Collectivistic Cultures and Mr. Baseball. Show the first ten minutes of

the comedy Mr. Baseball to illustrate major differences between the cultures of the United

States and Japan. Ask students to watch and then discuss differences between individualistic

and collectivistic cultures.

4. Stereotypes and Prejudice. In small groups, have students create a list of different

stereotypes that exist and the attributes associated within each stereotype. Have students

discuss where these stereotypes originated and the problems with stereotyping other people.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

1. Reflecting on One’s Culture. Ask students to write three paragraphs describing their culture

to a visitor from another culture. Have them include descriptions of cultural elements,

material culture, social institutions, individual beliefs, aesthetic considerations, and language.

2. Researching Other Cultures. Have students select a culture different from their own

culture. Then have them research the norms and interpersonal rules for conversing in that

other culture. Have students present their findings to the class.

3. Avoiding Negative Judgments about Another Culture. Ask students to generate a list of

judgments they had about other cultures or they have experienced in relation to their own

culture either in their day-to-day life or their travels.

Once they have completed the list, ask students to discuss how these judgments affected

the ways they communicated with people in a particular culture. For example, if the

judgment exists that “all people in France are rude,” then discuss how that might influence

your interactions with people when traveling in France.

Finally, have students discuss methods that might be used to learn more about another

culture before you visit or have interactions with people from that culture.

4. Institutional Racism on Campus. Have students interview a variety of students, faculty,

and staff members (i.e., a male majority group professor, a male minority group

administrator, a female minority group professor, a male majority group student, a male

minority group student, etc.) about the presence of institutional discrimination in your college

or university. Have them bring the findings from their interviews to use in a class discussion

about how social location affects the way a person experiences an institution.

REVEL WRITING EXERCISES

Journal Writing

4.1 Journal: Gender Roles. How have gender differences played a role in your own

communication or interaction with others?

4.2 Journal: Different Cultures. Is it ethical or appropriate for someone from one culture to

attempt to change the cultural values of someone from a different culture? For example, consider

the 2008 case in which children living on a Texas ranch owned by a polygamous religious sect

were taken from their families for suspected abuse. Is it right for others to attempt to make

someone from another culture or someone with a different value system change his or her ways?

4.3 Journal: Dealing with Racism and Prejudice. What are appropriate ways to deal with

someone who consistently utters racial slurs and displays prejudice toward racial and ethnic

groups?

4.4 Journal: Improving Communication Competence. You have never been to China before

but you have an opportunity to travel to Beijing with a study abroad group from your school.

Based on the strategies for improving communication competence as described in this chapter,

what are actions you could take to prepare for your trip?

Shared Writing: The Social Media Effect

Bring to class a fable, folktale, or children’s story from a culture other than your own. As a

group, analyze the cultural values implied by the story or characters in the story.