Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 9: Developing Intercultural Relationships
Learning Objectives
9.1. Recount the fundamental assumptions of the uncertainty reduction theory
9.2. Describe how empathy and similarity affect intercultural relationships
9.3. Compare relational intimacy across cultures
9.4. Compare and contrast relationships in Eastern and Western cultures
Chapter Outline
I. Communication and Uncertainty
A. Uncertainty (the amount of unpredictability during communication) and anxiety
are closely linked.
i. Communication with someone from a different culture involves more
uncertainty and therefore may be even more anxiety producing.
B. Uncertainty reduction theory (URT): a theory developed by Charles Berger and
Richard Calabrese in which the major premise is that when strangers first meet,
their primary goal is to reduce uncertainty.
ii. Berger and Calabrese’s 7 axioms or fundamental assumptions, based on
communication patterns of people in the United States and may not be
generalizable across cultures:
a. Axioms 1 and 2: as communication increases, uncertainty decreases.
b. Axiom 3 is closely related to the first two insofar as information–
seeking behavior is defined as the number of questions asked by
each interactant.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
e. Axiom 6 centers on the notion of similarity. Berger and Calabrese
argue that as similarity between interactants increases, uncertainty
decreases.
f. Axiom 7 focuses on the concept of liking. Unless we know
something about other people, it is difficult to like them.
C. Motivation to reduce uncertainty, according to William Gudykunst and Young
Kim:
D. People from both high- and low-context cultures try to reduce uncertainty but they
use different kinds of communication. A low-context person asks a lot of
questions while the high-context person focuses on nonverbal aspects.
II. Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory of Effective Communication
A. Anxiety/uncertainty management theory (AUM): a theory developed by William
Gudykunst to explain the interrelationships among uncertainty, anxiety,
mindfulness, and communication effectiveness.
D. AUM differs from URT in that it shifts the focus from uncertainty and anxiety
reduction to uncertainty and anxiety management.
E. People have minimum and maximum thresholds for uncertainty.
F. The majority of the time when people are not mindful, communication is
ineffective.
G. Intercultural communication apprehension and ethnocentrism are negatively
related to intercultural willingness to communicate and intentions to engage in
intercultural interactions (i.e., affective-approach tendencies).
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. Ethnocentrism: It refers to the degree to which persons believe that the
attitudes and behaviors of their in-group should serve as the standard by
which other groups are judged.
III. Uncertainty Reduction and Intercultural Communication Apprehension
A. Direct relationship between ICA and uncertainty reduction according to Neuliep
and Ryan.
B. Inverse relation of assertiveness and responsiveness (sociocommunicative
orientation) with communication apprehension according to McCroskey and
Richmond.
i. Assertiveness: an individual’s ability to make requests, actively disagree,
and express positive or negative personal rights and feelings.
ii. Responsiveness: an individual’s ability to be sensitive to the
communication of others, including providing feedback, engaging in
comforting communication, and listening.
C. Assertive and responsive people experience less ICA and uncertainty, according to
Neuliep and Ryan.
D. Assessing Sociocommunicative Orientation/Style
i. Sociocommunicative style: degree of assertiveness and responsiveness
during communication.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
b. Generally, US women score higher on the responsiveness scale than
do men and women from other cultures.
c. Within most cultures, however, men generally score higher on the
assertiveness scale, whereas women tend to score higher on the
responsiveness scale.
IV. Empathy and Similarity in Relationship Development
A. Majority of uncertainty reduction occurs during the initial stages of a relationship.
D. Empathy: the degree to which we can accurately infer another’s thoughts or
feelings.
i. As uncertainty is reduced, people get to know each other more and can
work on developing their relationship.
iv. Benjamin Broome’s model of relational empathy (shared meaning and
harmonization that is the result of the interaction of two people) is based on
the idea that whenever two people develop a relationship, they create a
third culture (created when a dyad consisting of persons from different
cultures comes together and establishes relational empathy) of shared
meaning and relational empathy.
a. Broome asserts that the third culture emerges when the interactants
are open and willing to communicate with others and expose
themselves to new meanings.
b. When two people come together and interact, a product of the third
culture is interdependent meaning—that is, new meaning based on
the combining of each individual’s objective and subjective
meanings.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
v. Klopf’s prescription for empathic listening skills involves (a)
paraphrasing, rewording what the other person has said; (b) reflecting
feelings, relating back to the other the feelings we believe the other is
experiencing; (c) reflecting meanings, restating what we heard to confirm
its meaning; and (d) summarizing, briefly restating the major topics the
other has communicated.
vi. Use both Broome’s model and Klopf’s prescription to develop and
enhance our intracultural relationships.
E. Similarity
i. Powerful force for attraction and approach tendencies:
a. Particularly important during initial encounters with another person.
b. Some kinds of similarity seem to be more important than others in
the establishment of intercultural relationships.
v. We can be similar to others culturally, attitudinally, linguistically, racially,
behaviorally, affectively, and/or physically.
vi. Cultural similarity may not necessary to form meaningful and lasting
relationships.
V. Perceptions of Relational Intimacy across Cultures
A. Yum’s view of perception of relationships in individualistic and collectivist
cultures:
B. Eastern and Western Cultures and Relationships
i. Three of these four principles have direct implications for how
relationships are perceived in East Asian cultures compared with Western
cultures such as the United States, according to Yum.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
a. Many East Asian cultures practice particularism, the belief that
particular or unique rules and guidelines apply to each individual
relationship.
• Relational partners are to be sensitive to differences in such
factors as status when interacting with others.
b. Most East Asian cultures believe in strict, well-defined social
hierarchies in which people are perceived as higher or lower than
others.
• In contrast, persons in Western cultures practice what Yum
calls a universalistic orientation to relationships.
• Most Westerners try to treat others as equally as possible,
regardless of status or intimacy level of the partners.
C. Interethnic, Interracial, and Intercultural Relationships and Marriages
i. Monogamy, marriage between one man and one woman, one man and one
man or between one woman and one woman, is the most common type of
marriage practice in the United States and most Western industrialized
nations.
ii. Serial monogamy: people can marry, divorce, and marry again.
iii. Polygamy and its forms: the practice of having multiple spouses.
iv. Miscegenation is marriage or cohabitation between persons from different
racial groups.
v. Intermarriage varies by race and ethnicity: Interethnic and interracial
relationships.
D. Arranged Marriages: marriages that is initiated and negotiated by a third party
rather than by the bride and groom.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. More arranged marriages than free-choice marriages globally.
ii. Lower divorce rate: the global divorce rate for arranged marriages is just
over 6%.
v. Still practiced in a variety of cultures and within some microcultural
groups in the United States such as the Amish and the Hmong.
vi. Arranged marriages in India:
a. 90% of all marriages are arranged.
b. Parents place “matrimonial” advertisements in magazines, websites,
and newspapers.
c. The sons and daughters play virtually no role in mate selection.
d. In most cases, there is an initial meeting between the families.
vii. Forced arranged marriages in Africa.
E. Marital Dissolution and Divorce Across Cultures
i. Reasons: Communication problems, cultural, social, and economic issues,
such as income, sexual dissatisfaction, childlessness, women’s equality
issues, religion, and the ease with which one can obtain a divorce; vary
across cultures.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
b. Specifically, in cross-national comparisons divorce rates are
consistently related to a society’s level of cultural individualism,
with highly individualist societies exhibiting higher divorce rates.
VI. Intercultural Relational Maintenance
A. Relational maintenance: how relational partners sustain their relationships.
B. Stafford’s typology of seven relational maintenance behaviors couples use to
sustain their relationships: self-disclosure; relationship talk; positivity;
understanding; assurances; networks; and tasks.
C. Reiter and Gee’s study: open communication and support affect intercultural
relationships.
i. Open communication is a maintenance behavior that includes self-
disclosure but here includes a lack of topic avoidance, meaning that
individuals who engage in more open communication tend not to avoid
topics.
a. But here, Reiter and Gee extend this to mean relationship-specific
support, which likely plays a particularly important role in
relational maintenance for intercultural relationships, given the
types of societal obstacles these couples face.
b. Here, Reiter and Gee extend the construct of the relationship-
specific support to include support for culture.
iv. Findings of study:
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
cultural support were related to lower levels of relationship distress
and higher levels of relationship satisfaction.
c. Reiter and Gee point out that when compared with intracultural
partners, intercultural partners were more likely to report that
exchange of cultural values with their partner helped their
relationship grow.
D. Stafford: Research on relational maintenance in gay and lesbian relationships:
E. Communication plays a principal role in marriage and relational maintenance.
F. Communication within different types of marriages can vary considerably.
H. Results of the study: In this study, Asian Americans represented the largest group,
followed closely by White Americans. Hispanics/Latinos and Black Americans
were the smallest groups, with half as many Hispanics/Latinos and one-sixth as
many Black Americans.
i. Consistent with the theory that perceived similarity is a dominant factor in
initiating a relationship (i.e., approach tendencies), an overwhelming
number of students from all four groups dated members of their own group
more than they dated members of other groups.
ii. Levin and her colleagues also found, however, that many students dated at
least one member of another group during their college years.
iii. Availability also plays a role in who dates whom, that is, what options are
available to someone when choosing to date someone else.
I. The Internet as Relational Maintenance
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. Use of Facebook and Twitter for initiating and maintaining relationships.
ii. Facebook use is motivated by two primary needs: the need to belong and
the need for self-presentation.
a. Cultural factors, especially individualism and collectivism, mediate
these needs.
v. Seder and Oishi: US microcultural student groups and their Facebook use:
European American students may be more likely to form Facebook
friendships with others they perceive to be similar to themselves (i.e.,
homophily) than with their microcultural group counterparts.
vi. Related research has compared Facebook use across cultures:
a. US students were more likely than German students to post
problematic information to their Facebook profiles.
b. Differences may be due to dimensions of cultural variability,
population.
vii. Japan:
viii. India:
a. India is the world’s biggest market for Facebook and Whatsapp.
b. India is also one of Twitter’s most important markets.
c. Indians use social media to initiate and maintain relationships, as
well as to start social action movements and protest for their rights,
particularly women’s rights.
ix. Africa:
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
c. Facebook is the leading social networking site in Nigeria, used
primarily for initiating and establishing relationships via online
dating.
x. Mexico:
VII. Mate Selection and Desirability across Cultures
A. Buss and Hill: Different mate preferences in men and women.
i. Desirability enhancement effect: Women rate men more desirable when the
men are shown surrounded by women than when they are shown alone or
with other men.
B. International Mate Selection Project:
i. The purpose of his research was to identify (a) which characteristics
individuals value in potential mates, (b) similarities and differences among
countries in their values, (c) clusters of countries that are similar to one
another, and (d) sex differences in the degree of variation in mate selection
within each country.
ii. Results of survey:
a. Cultures shared some overall commonalities but each country
displayed some unique mate preferences.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
o They point to research that has found that students
of Asian descent score higher on measures of
companionate and pragmatic love styles and lower on
erotic love styles compared with their European-
descended counterparts.
e. Jackson and his colleagues asked U.S. and Chinese couples to
complete the Love Stories Scale, an instrument designed to assess
preferences for 25 metaphors for love.
• Their results showed that fantasy emerged as a prototypical
theme for U.S. citizens that was missing from the Chinese
responses.
• For the Chinese, democracy and history emerged as themes,
where the sharing of power and history between partners
was an important ingredient of love.
• Pornography emerged in both Chinese and US themes.