Chapter 6: Understanding Culture

• Chapter 6 explores culture, its functions, cultural characteristics in communication, and ways to improve intercultural communication skills.

What is Culture?

• Culture is defined differently by various groups.
• Culture involves sharing perceptions (a form of reality) through learning, influencing beliefs, values, norms, rules, and behavior.
• Culture is formed by a group of people taking part over their whole life.
• Humans are naturally inclined to learn culture, but it is seen as something unindividual.
• Culture facilitates shared perception.
• Beliefs are assumptions/convictions about truth or existence.
• Values are cultural principles defining courses of action.
• Norms are informal cultural guidelines for social behavior.
• Rules are explicit guidelines for acceptable social behavior.

Co-culture

• A co-culture is a subset mirroring a major culture's specific aspects (e.g., gender in organizational settings, Amish religious sects).
• Regional, economic, social, religious, and ethnic groups influence society.
• Belonging to a co-cultural group never implies identical views among members.
• Brings distinct sense of history and purpose.

Microculture

• Microculture presents behavioral patterns influenced by beliefs, values, norms, in a specific locality or organization.
• Local culture offers a sense of belonging on a more localized scale.
• Co-culture refers to a group within a bigger culture with its own values, while a micro culture represents smaller groups within, often based on locality, organization, or shared interests.
• Microculture still belongs to the dominant culture.

Purpose of Culture

• Provides collective self-esteem
• Cultural stereotyping can have both positive and negative impacts.
• Provides a base for normative views.

How Culture Provides Collective Self-esteem?

• Collective self-esteem affects self-worth coming from relationships and evaluation of social groups.
• Four factors include private/membership/public collective esteem and importance to identity.
• Private collective esteem measures individual's group valuation.
• Membership esteem measures self in members of a group.
• Public collective esteem measures the valuation of non-members.
• The degree to which a group membership is important to an individual and measures its importantce to identity.
• Individuals with high collective self-esteem report more favorable interactions, but individuals with low collective self-esteem report less intimate social interactions.

Stereotyping

• Stereotyping is defined as a set of beliefs applied to members of a social group.
• It can either be positive or negative.
• It can either be accurate or inaccurate.
• Cultural stereotypes, a macro-level and objective stereotype, are beliefs of cultural groups concerning another social group.
• Personal stereotypes are held by an individual and do not reflect a shared belief with the group.
• Stereotypes tend to be problematic
• Stereotypes categorize people when making snap decisions.
• Members are inaccurately viewed the same.

Normative Views

• Culture provides acts through laws and reinforced through practices in society, rules, regulations and norms.
• Ethnocentrism is a belief in the superiority of one's own culture.
• Ethnocentrism involves viewing the world from one's own perspective and often brings dislike, mistrust, or derision for differing cultures.

Culture & Communication

• Culture and communication are essentially inseparable.
• Different cultures approach relationships differently.
• People want to create a positive view in their communication partner's eye.
• Edward T. Hall notes cultures interpret communicative meaning.
• Low-context communication uses explicit verbal messages.
• High-context communication emphasizes implicit contexts.
• Three general contextual categories of communication include communication, cultural orientation, and business.

Cultural Approach to Relationships

• Geert Hofstede covers six cultural differences impacting how individuals approach work.
• Low vs. high power distance
• Individualism vs. collectivism
• Masculinity vs. femininity
• Low vs. high uncertainty avoidance
• Long-term vs. short-term orientation
• Indulgence vs. restraint

Cultural Orientations On Relationships

• Power distance measures acceptance of unequal power distribution within a culture.
• Individualism involves cultures that focus on self-reliance.
• Collectivism involves cultures that focus on cooperation and harmony of a group.
• Masculinity focuses on earnings, recognition, advancement, and challenges.
• Femininity focuses on workplace relationships and security.
• Uncertainty avoidance defines culture's fear of the unknown.
• Indulgence includes cultural orientation that is marked by satisfaction of desires.
• Restraint is a cultural orientation in which gratification should not be immediate and must be regulated.

Face-Negotiation Theory

• Created by Stella Ting-Toomey.
• Face-negotiation theory focuses on meaning of “face” in interactions.
• Face is the standing position in eyes of others.
• People want to create a positive face to other people.
• Includes self-face, other-face, and mutual-face.

Improving Intercultural Communication

• Through Cultural intelligence and mindful cultural interactions is how someone can improve their intercultural communication.
• Cultural intelligence measures being able to communicate well.
• Includes cognitive, motivational, metacognitive, and behavioral.
• Mindful intercultural interactions is achieved by being present in the moment and nonjudgmental, with attention, intention, and attitude.