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Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Lecture Notes
Chapter 7: Dominant U.S. Cultural Pattern Using Value Orientation
Theory
Learning Objectives
7-1: Identify the five aspects of value orientation theory
7-2: Trace the origins of U.S. cultural patterns
7-3: Use value orientation theory to describe dominant U.S. cultural patterns.
7-4: Use each aspect of value orientation theory to describe communication practices
in the United States.
7-5: Discuss whether U.S. cultural patterns vary by region and social class
I. Origin of U.S. Cultural Patterns
A. Pre-16th-Century Indigenous Americans
1. Before Columbus arrived, North America was home to a diverse population of
some 10 million people.
2. Indigenous Americans spoke hundreds of languages. Arguably, the Iroquois
were the most important indigenous group; their enemies (the Algonquin)
called them the Iroqu, “rattlesnakes”; the French added the Gallic suffix -ois
3. the Iroquois League (sometimes known as the Five Nations and later the Six
Nations)
4. In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed Senate Resolution 76 to recognize the
influence of the Iroquois League on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
B. European Enlightenment
1. The U.S. society dominant today grew from European roots.
2. The scientific method, democracy, and capitalism are institutions of Western
cultures (D’Souza, 2002).
3. The dominant language, the system of representative government, the structure
of law, and the emphasis on individual liberty all derive from the
Enlightenment ideals formulated in England.
4. Other important U.S. ideals, such as the separation of powers, derive from the
French philosopher Montesquieu.
C. Regional Differences Resulting from Immigration
1. The United States is a country of immigrants from all over the world, each
person immigrating with his or her own cultural values.
2. Many arrived in groups and remained settled in the same area.
a. The Puritans came from eastern England to Massachusetts between 1629
and 1641.
b. Quakers from England’s north and Wales settled in Delaware between
1675 and 1725.
c. Irish and Scottish immigrants settled in Appalachia between 1717 and
1775.
3. Zelinsky (1973): New England, Midland, Middle West, South, and West;
Bigelow (1980): Northeast, Border South, Deep South, Midwest, Mexicano,
Southwest, Colorado, Mormondom, Pacific Northwest, Northern California,
and Southern California.
4. Peter Andersen, Myron Lustig, and Janis Andersen (1987): regional differences
exist in three areas of communication behavior
a. Verbal control and dominance: New Englanders--more likely to be
introverts; in Mid-Atlantic region--not particularly talkative
b. Affiliation and immediacy: People from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas,
and Louisiana visited more neighbors and rated friends higher than did
people in other regions; Pacific Coast residents reported the most isolation
c. Arousal or activation: New Englanders--nondramatic and reserved
communication style; South and Northwest--slow and relaxed compared to
the fast pace of the urban Northeast.
II. Forces Toward the Development of a Dominant Culture
A. Series of events that resulted in the development of a dominant national culture in
the United States.
1. opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 (New York as financial and corporate
capital)
2. defeat of the South and passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments (national citizenship over state citizenship)
3. development of Theodore Roosevelt’s “new nationalism” (activist national
government)
4. passage of Immigration Restriction Act, 1924 (a degree of homogenization of
population)
5. development of radio and television (national politics and popular culture)
6. automobile and interstate highway system (made the country internally mobile)
7. Great Depression, World War II, and Cold War (increased need for strong
centralized national government).
B. U.S. residents have values different from those of other cultures
1. de Tocqueville coined the phrase “American exceptionalism”
2. dominant cultural values said to be characteristic of the majority of U.S.
citizens
III. Value-Orientation Theory
A. What is a Human Being’s Relation to Nature?
1. Worldview: a culture’s most fundamental beliefs about its place in the cosmos,
beliefs about its relationship to God, and beliefs about the nature of humanity
and nature.
2. The European conservative Protestant worldview dominates U.S. culture;
among the world’s industrialized nations, the United States is the most
religious.
3. Samovar et al. (1981): three parts to worldview: individual-and-nature
relationship, science and technology, and materialism.
4. Individual-and-Nature Relationship: in the United States, people typically
make a clear and separate distinction between human life and nature, valuing
5. Science and technology: in the United States, people have a strong faith in the
scientific method of solving problems
a. It’s a common belief that events have causes
b. Causes can be discovered
c. Humans can and should alter the relationship.
6. Materialism: if there is one value that most of the rest of the world attributes
to the United States, it is materialism, or the belief that possessions are
important in life.
B. What is the Modality of Human Activity?
1. Activity and Work
a. Jobs define self and others by occupation
b. Work becomes part of one’s identity.
c. Work and play are separate
2. Efficiency and Practicality:
a. People in the United States are perceived as placing such a high value on
time that “efficiency experts.”
b. As a culture, the United States is less likely to make short-term sacrifices
for long-term gain.
3. Progress and change:
a. People in the United States generally believe that change is good, the new
is better than the old.
b. The new is often adopted without critically examining its effect on other
aspects of culture.
c. The willingness to accept change also explains why the United States has
one of the highest moving rates in the world.
d. The belief that progress and change are good is associated with
technological developments and advancement.
C. What is the Temporal Focus to Human Life?
1. Temporal orientation refers to cultures’ conceptions of time.
2. In the United States, time is viewed as a commodity.
3. When time is thought of as a commodity, one needs to be constantly aware of
it; time clocks are everywhere.
4. When time is viewed in a linear fashion, it obviously has a past, a present, and
a future.
D. What is the Character of Innate Human Nature?
1. Human nature orientation refers to addressing the following questions.
a. What does it mean to be human?
b. What is human nature?
c. What are human rights and responsibilities?
2. Goodness: It has been argued that the Puritan ancestry of the United States
suggests that people are born evil but have the potential to be good
a. To achieve good, one must discipline the self
b. The contemporary belief in the United States is that people are born with a
potential for both good and evil.
3. Rationality: If you believe humans are rational then you believe humans act
on the basis of reason.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
a. This is consistent with the belief in the scientific method.
b. Faith in the power of reason infused Western culture and stimulated the
pursuit of science, democracy, and capitalism.
4. Mutability: the belief that human nature can be changed by society.
a. The belief that education is a positive force in improving human nature
b. The belief that the prison system can rehabilitate wrongdoers, that
although an individual chose to do evil, that individual can be changed by
society to choose to do good
c. Scientists linking biology to behavior are finding a substantial genetic
underpinning for human behavior (e.g., genetic role in intelligence,
aggression).
d. Public debate also extends to whether unhealthy circumstances can lead
individuals to do evil (e.g., child abuse).
E. What is the Relationship of the Individual to Others?
1. Individualism: The most distinctive and perhaps permanent characteristics of
the U.S. character are independence and individuality.
a.Naming children
b. Marriage and love
c. Life after death
d. Working in groups and organizations
e. Adults are encouraged to accept responsibility as separate, independent
individuals
f. Hyperindividualism, a withdrawing into individual private shells
2. Self-motivation: Individuals should set their own goals and then pursue them
independently; competition, unlikeliness to favor government redistribution of
income.
3. Social organization: Equality and Conformity may explain many
characteristics of the United States.
4. Equality is an important cultural myth and does not appear in the United States
Constitution nor the Bill of Rights
5. Conformity differs in the content and type in different cultures. An example
would be: U.S. citizens seem to conform to what is “in.”
IV. Popular Acceptance of Dominant U.S. Cultural Patterns
A. U.S. citizens are unusually patriotic and 52% say they are extremely proud of their
country
1. 2015 study of 45,993 respondents in 36 countries showed the United States to
have the highest national pride (Fabrykant and Magnum, 2015).
2. Perceptions of U.S. qualities vary from people around the world
B. There may be significant forces weakening a strong nation-state identity
V. Forces Toward the Development of Regional Cultures:
A. National unity is fragmenting into cultural regions.
1. The old industrial heartland is being replaced with new regional economic
centers in the south and west, while the United States is becoming part of an
integrated global economy.
2. Integration and equal rights have resulted in recognition and acceptance of
social and cultural differences.
3. Immigration has eroded the homogeneity of the U.S. population and created
ties between U.S. society and other societies worldwide.
4. As national media have grown into global media, new forms of local, special
interest, and multilanguage media have appeared.
5. International air transportation makes it easier and less expensive to travel
abroad than to rural U.S. locations.
6. The end of the Cold War lessened for a time the need for a large national
security establishment.
B. The New Regions
1. Garreau (1981) described what he called the “nine nations” of North America;
today, it’s possible to imagine even more.
2. Some metropolitan areas that have taken on distinct cultures within the larger
U.S. culture.
a. Atlanta, Georgia (site of Coca Cola, Delta, CNN)
b. Charlotte, North Carolina (center of new southern industrial belt)
c. Miami, Florida (linked to Hispanic, Caribbean immigrants)
d. Houston, Texas (oil producer, links to Mexico)
e. Los Angeles, California (most ethnically diverse community)
f. San Francisco Bay area (capital of high-tech industry)
g. Seattle, Washington (home of Microsoft, Starbucks; ties to Asia).
C. Social Class
1. Gilbert (2015) defined the U.S. social classes largely based on wealth,
occupation, and income which frequently result from education.
a. The capitalist class--the top 1% made up of executives who control
corporations large investors and heirs of successful entrepreneurs--$2
million
b. Upper middle class--14% includes high-ranking managers, medium-sized
commercial interests and doctors, highly educated professionals, $150,000
c. Middle class--30% comprised of managers, semi-professionals, craftsman,
foremen, and nonretail sales, $70,000.
d. Working Class--30% comprised of clerical, retail, and manual labor,
$40,000
e. Working poor--13% comprised of poorly paid labor, retail, and service
workers $25,000
f. Underclass of people--12% unemployed or part time or on public
assistance--$15,000.
2. The debate is, people in the United States deny the existence of social class or
social class can be an important part of identity.
3. The US 2016 presidential election made social class an issue. Bernie Sanders
claimed wealth was unequally distributed and more working poor existed in the
United States since the 1920s (Bernie 2016 Website).
