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Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Lecture Notes
Chapter 3: Context, Perception, and Competence
Learning Objectives
3-1: Explain how communication differs in high-context and low-context cultures.
3-2: Explain the concept of face and its importance in intercultural communication.
3-3: Explain the relationship between culture and sensation.
3-5: Give examples of intercultural communication competence skills appropriate to
more than one culture.
3-6: Discuss ethical guidelines for intercultural communication.
I. High Versus Low Context
A. In 1946, the formal study of intercultural communication originated when Congress
passed the Foreign Service Act.
B. The Foreign Service Institute provided language and anthropological cultural
training for foreign diplomats.
C. Edward T. Hall published The Silent Language in 1959.
D. In 1976, Hall focused attention on the communication of high-context and low-
context cultures.
E. Low context--the message is encoded in an explicit code.
F. High context--Less is said or written as more of the meaning is in the physical
environment or shared by people within that particular culture.
G. Low-context cultures--verbal messages are elaborate and highly specific. Detailed
and redundant. Verbal abilities are highly valued.
H. High-context cultures--People are brought closer by the importance of their shared
context.
I. Japanese Tea Ceremony reflects the Zen and Taoist traditions. Nothing is spoken.
J. Self-understanding--The concept of high and low context apply to self-
understanding.
1. The self is a free agent in a low context.
2. Self can move from group to group.
3. Self-understanding--High context
4. The person is connected, fluid, and conditional.
5. Participation in relationships makes it possible to act.
6. Independent behavior usually is not possible or desirable.
K. The Concept of Face
1. High-context cultures relying on relationships find the concept of face critical
to understand.
2. In Chinese Culture, face is conceptualized in two ways.
a. kien (face).
3. Hsien Hu (1944) defines lien as something that “represents the confidence of
society in the integrity of the ego’s moral character, loss makes it impossible to
function within the community.”
4. Mien stands for the type of prestige that is emphasized in the United States,
reputation and success.
5. Masumoto, Oetzel, Takai, Tingtoomey, and Yokochi (2000) define facework
as the communication strategies one uses to enact self-face and uphold or
challenge another’s face.
6. Raymond Cohen (1997) examples of losing face
a. rebuffed overture;
b. insult;
c. lack of respect;
d. forced to give up a cherished value;
e. unnecessary concessions;
f. failure to achieve goals;
g. personal inadequacy;
h. damage to a valued relationship.
II. Perception
A. Sensing
1. Early 20th-century quantum mechanics posits that on a subatomic level the
observer is an active part of the observed.
2. Wexler (2008) wants us to recognize how integrate our minds are to the
external world.
4. Sensation: The neurological process by which we become aware of our
environment.
5. Gordon (1971) explains human sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch are the
most studied.
6. William James, pioneering psychologist, explained that sensory data do not
come to us “ready-made” but in an “unpackaged” state, and we assemble the
rules and meaning according to our culture.
7. The Greeks had Aristotle and the Chinese had Confucius
a. Ancient Greeks had a strong sense of individual identity with a sense of
personal agency.
b. Chinese thought views things in their context and elements as constantly
changing and rearing themselves.
B. Effect of Culture on Sensing
1. Individuals raised in diverse cultures can sense the world in different ways.
2. Marshal Segall, Campbell, and Herskovits (1966) found people living in
forests, and rural areas can sense crooked lines more accurately than people
living in urban areas.
3. Field Dependence refers to the degree to which perception of an object is
influenced by the background or environment in which it appears.
4. Japanese look at the relationship to objects in a scene.
5. Americans focus on the description of a scene.
6. When people live in other cultures for a period of time they often change to the
culture’s way of perception, that is, Japan and American cultures.
C. Perceiving
1. Human perception is usually thought of as a three-step process each affected
by culture
a. Selection
b. Organization
c. Interpretation
2. Selection
a. Stimuli as perceived by our retinas.
b. Parts of our brains produce output from retinas that we cannot “see.”
c. Introspection cannot make us aware of this process.
d. Simons and Chabris (1999) study of a basketball game video where a
gorilla walks in and none notices the gorilla.
e. Airport terminal and the busy stimuli you can still respond to the sound of
your name being called.
3. Japanese/English Difficulties With Speech Sounds
a. Vowel length is important to the Japanese, that is, obasan, aunt, obaasan,
and grandmother.
b. Vowel length is not critical in English.
4. Organization
• Once the stimuli is perceived it must be placed in a meaningful order.
5. Grouping like objects together--children asked to identify in school like objects
a. Chicken and grass, chicken and cow all depend on culture.
b. Japanese would group according to material.
c. Americans would group according to shape.
6. Interpretation
a. Attaching meaning to sense data and is synonymous with decoding.
b. Making judgments on age, social status, and educational backgrounds.
c. Subtle cues based on culture: Americans perceive tall men as more
credible. Japanese students being identified as younger than their years.
7. Dogs as Pets or as Food
a. Animals are categorized as medicine in some cultures.
b. Racist views on animal rights such as Southeast Asia persist in some
areas.
c. Rats and cows are defied in India.
8. Weather Vane as Christina Cross
a. Johnston Pump Company was forced to remove a weather view due to a
resemblance to the cross in Saudi Arabia (first pump installed in king’s
palace).
b. Johnston’s success is due to respect for the strict religious customs.
D. Case Study: Airport Security
1. U.S. airports.
2. TSA identifies thousands of “behavior detection” officers at one-third of the
airports (Winter & Currier, 2015) each has a point value, six points or higher
results in a pat-down and additional screening.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
a. Too much yawning +1
b. Whistling +1
c. Widely open staring eyes +2
d. Too much fidgeting +1
e. Cold stare +2
f. Rigid posture +2
g. In disguise +3
h. Woman over the of 55 −1
i. Man over the age of 65 −1
III. Intercultural Communication Competence
A. Communicating effectively in intercultural settings is known as intercultural
communication effectiveness as the degree of the source’s success in accomplishing
goals set out for the interaction (Review of Western Model Chapter 1).
B. Personality Strength
1. The ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with people of other
cultures (Spitzberg, 2000).
2. Personal strength--self-concept, self-disclosure, self-monitoring, and social
relaxation.
C. Communication skills
1. Require competence in verbal and nonverbal behavior.
2. Message skills, behavioral flexibility, and interaction management.
3. Social skills are empathy and identity maintenance.
D. Psychological Adjustment
1. Competent intercultural communicators must be able to assimilate to new
environment.
2. Handle “culture shock,” that is, frustration, stress, and alienation in new
environments or cultures.
E. Cultural Awareness
1. Understanding the culture and the social customs within the social system of
the host culture.
3. Chen and Starosta’s (1996) model includes three perspectives
a. Affective or intercultural sensitivity
b. Cognitive or intercultural awareness
c. Behavioral or intercultural adroitness
F. Third Culture
G. Multiculturalism
1. Multicultural person.
2. Multicultural person is one who respects cultures and has tolerance for
differences (Belay, 1993; Chen & Starosta, 1996).
3. Canadian Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism is often
credited with developing the modern political awareness of multiculturalism.
4. Origins of multiculturalism date back as early as 1915 to philosopher Horace
Kallen (1915, 1924/1970).
5. Chancellor Merkel, announced that multiculturalism had “utterly failed.”
6. International terrorism and domestic terrorism have led to renewed pressures
against multiculturalism.
7. Some columnists began to label the Boston Marathon tragedy as an example of
the failure of multiculturalism.
H. Post Ethnic Cultures
1. John Dewey criticized pluralism as encouraging people to identity as members
of one group
2. Multicultural perspectives in a postethnic world live in diverse groups and
there is no confinement to one particular group, that is, Angela Davis (1992)
used the image of a rope to an anchor.
3. Horace Kallen (1970) employed the metaphor of a symphony
4. Domestic terrorism
IV. Intercultural Communication Ethics
A. Communication and of intercultural communication competence are specific to
culture
B. Ethical communicators address people of other cultures.
C. Ethical communicators seek to describe the world as they perceive it.
D. Ethical communicators encourage people of other cultures to express themselves.
E. Ethical communicators strive for identification with people of other cultures.
