COMM 335 1st edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 8 Chapter One Lectures 1 3 Summary There are six reasons or imperatives for studying intercultural communication a The self awareness imperative involves increasing understanding of our own location in larger social political and historical contexts b The demographic imperative includes the changing domestic and international migration raising questions of class and religious diversity c The economic imperative highlights issues of globalization and the challenges for increased cultural understanding needed to reach the global market d The technological imperative gives us increasing information and increased contact with people who are similar and different from us Increased use of communication technology also raises questions about identity and access to these technologies e The peace imperative involves working through issues of colonialism economic disparities and racial ethnic and religious differences f The ethical imperative calls for an understanding of the Universalist relativist and dialogic approach to ethical issues Key words Ethnocentrism a tendency to think that our own culture is superior to other cultures Demographics the characteristics of a population especially as classified by race ethnicity age sex and income Heterogeneous difference s in a group culture or population Homogeneous similarity in a group culture or population Diversity the quality of being different Immigrants people who come to a new country region or environment to settle more or less permanently Anglo centrism using Anglo or white cultural standards as the criteria for interpretations and judgments of behaviors and attitudes Melting Pot a metaphor that assumes that immigrants and cultural minorities will be assimilated into the U S majority culture losing their original cultures Nativistic Extremely patriotic to the point of being anti immigrant Multinational corporations companies that have operations in two or more nations Maquiladoras Assembly plants or factories established on the U S Mexican border and using mainly Mexican labor Global village a term coined by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s that refers to a worlds in which communication technology unites people in remote parts of the world Diasporic groups ethnic and or national groups that are geographically dispersed throughout the world Identity management the way individuals make sense of their multiple images concerning the sense of self in different social contexts Identity tourism a concept that refers to people taking on the identities of other races genders classes or sexual orientations for recreational purposes Colonialism 1 the system by which groups with diverse languages cultures religions and identities were united to form on state usually by a European power 2 the system by which a country maintains power over other countries or groups of people to exploit them economically politically and culturally Ethics principles of conduct that help govern behaviors of individuals and groups Dialogical approach focuses on the importance of dialogue in developing and maintaining relationships between individuals and communities Self reflexivity a process of learning to understand oneself and one s position in society Chapter Two Lectures 4 6 Summary The field of intercultural communication in the United States began with the establishment of the Foreign Service Institute in 1946 This new field was interdisciplinary and pragmatic It emphasized nonverbal communication in international contexts The perceptions and worldviews of scholars have an impact on the study of intercultural communication and have led to three contemporary approaches the social science interpretive and critical approaches The textbook advocates a dialectical approach that combines these three approaches A dialectical approach emphasizes a processual relational and holistic view on intercultural communication and it requires a balance of contradictory views Intercultural communication is both cultural and individual personal and contextual characterized by differences and similarities static and dynamic oriented to both the present and the past and characterized by both privilege and disadvantage Key Words Worldview underlying assumptions about the nature of reality and human behavior Proxemics the study of how people use personal space Distance zones the area defined by physical space within which people interact according to Edward Hall s theory of proxemics The four distance zones for individuals are intimate personal social and public Cross cultural training training people to become familiar with other cultural norms and to improve their interactions with people of different domestic and international cultures Diversity training the training meant to facilitate intercultural communication among various gender ethnic and racial groups in the United States Sapir Whorf hypothesis the assumption that language shapes our ideas and guide our view of social reality This hypothesis was proposed by Edward Sapir a linguist and his student Benjamin Whorf and represents the relativist view of language and perception Intercultural competence the ability to behave effectively and appropriately in interacting across cultures Interdisciplinary integrating knowledge from different disciplines in conducting research and constructing theory Paradigm a framework that serves as the worldview of researcher Different paradigms assume different interpretations of reality human behavior culture and communication Perception the process by which individuals select organize and interpret external and internal stimuli to create their view of the world Functionalist approach a study of intercultural communication also called the social science approach based on the assumptions that 1 there is a describable external reality 2 human behaviors are predictable and 3 culture is a variable that can be measure This approach aims to identify and explain cultural variations in communication and to predict future communication Quantitative methods research methods that use numerical indicators to capture and ascertain the relationships among variables These methods use survey and observation Variable a concept that varies by existing in different types or different amounts that can be operationalized and measured Individualistic the tendency to emphasize individual identities beliefs needs goals and views rather than those of the group