Culture & Perspectives
During a study-abroad trip, Marcus observes that people in another culture greet each other differently than he is accustomed to. He describes their greeting as “weird” and says that his culture's way of greeting is more appropriate.
Ethnocentrism
Fullerton college notices that its student population has become increasingly diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, language, and cultural background. Faculty recognize that they need greater intercultural communication skills to effectively serve their changing student population.
Demographic Imperative
A researcher surveys 2,000 college students to measure their communication behaviors. The researcher uses statistical analysis to identify patterns and develop explanations that may help predict how people communicate across cultures.
Alex joins a new community and gradually learns its shared expectations about appropriate behavior, communication, values, and ways of interacting through observing and communicating with other members.
Culture
A community's experiences and contributions are largely absent from the historical accounts students encounter in mainstream textbooks and museums. Like Larry Itliong and the Manongs in Delano.
Hidden Histories
Elena has always believed that making direct eye contact shows respect. After learning that eye contact has different meanings across cultures, she recognizes that her expectations about “appropriate” communication come from her own cultural upbringing.
Self-Awareness
A U.S. company begins doing business with customers in several countries. Before employees communicate with these new clients, the company provides training on cultural differences in communication, business practices, and expectations.
Economic Imperative
A researcher spends eight months participating in the daily life of a cultural community. Through observations and interviews, the researcher seeks to understand how community members themselves interpret their communication, relationships, and cultural practices.
Interpretive Approach
Every year, members of a community participate in a graduation ceremony. The cap, gown, and ceremony itself have meaning because community members have collectively learned to associate these symbols with achievement and an important transition in life.
Symbolic Significance
Two siblings tell different stories about why their grandparents immigrated to the United States. One emphasizes economic opportunity, while the other remembers family conflict as the main reason for leaving.
Family Histories
When choosing whether to accept a job in another city, Maya primarily considers her own career goals, personal preferences, and independence rather than what her family expects her to do.
Individualistic Orientation
A severe drought forces people to leave their homes and migrate to another region. As people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds come into contact, disagreements arise over resources and how the community should respond.
Environmental Imperative
A researcher examines how employees who speak with certain accents are treated differently in the workplace. The researcher investigates how organizational rules and social expectations privilege some ways of speaking over others and reproduce unequal power relationships.
Critical Approach
A researcher spends several months observing how members of a cultural group use language, gestures, silence, and other communication behaviors. The researcher examines the group's shared rules for who communicates, with whom, when, where, and how.
Ethnography
A museum's exhibit about the development of a city highlights the contributions of wealthy business owners and political leaders but does not discuss the labor, experiences, or contributions of the immigrant communities who helped build the city.
Absent History
Daniel is offered an opportunity that would benefit him personally, but he declines because moving away would make it difficult for him to support his family. He prioritizes his family's needs and obligations over his individual preference.
Collectivistic Orientation
Representatives from two countries with a history of conflict participate in intercultural communication training. They learn about each other's cultural practices, histories, and ways of communicating in an effort to reduce misunderstandings and improve future interactions.
Peace Imperative
A researcher studying intercultural communication recognizes that communication can involve seemingly opposing forces—for example, people may share similarities with others while also maintaining important cultural differences. Rather than choosing one side, the researcher examines how these tensions exist together and shape communication.
Dialectical Approach
Every Thanksgiving, a family gathers together and the oldest family member tells stories about how their grandparents worked hard after immigrating to the United States. The younger family members hear these stories repeatedly and begin to see hard work and family sacrifice as important family values.
Communication Reinforcing Culture
A museum exhibit documents how people with different sexual orientations have experienced discrimination, organized for social change, and developed communities and cultural traditions over time—histories that have often received limited attention in mainstream historical accounts.
Sexual Orientation Histories
In a particular country, a group argues that society should preserve the traditions and interests of people whose families have lived there for generations and that newcomers should not have the same influence on the country's culture.
A researcher encounters a cultural practice that conflicts with the researcher's own beliefs. Rather than immediately assuming the practice is wrong because it differs from their own culture, the researcher considers the cultural context while also asking whether there are ethical principles that should protect people across cultural differences.
Ethical Imperative
A researcher studies a multicultural workplace and finds that employees' communication is shaped by both their cultural backgrounds and their individual personalities. The researcher argues that neither explanation alone fully captures what is happening and examines how these seemingly opposing influences interact in everyday communication.
Dialectical Approach
During hospital meetings, physicians regularly speak first, interrupt other staff members, and make the final decisions. Nurses are expected to wait their turn and have less opportunity to influence the discussion. A researcher examines how these communication patterns maintain the unequal status of physicians and nurses.
Communication Reflects & Reinforces Power
A textbook describes a historical event as a peaceful process led by government officials. Years later, historians incorporate firsthand accounts from people who experienced the event and produce a different account that emphasizes conflict, displacement, and resistance.
Altered Histories