4. Comment on Bennet’s model of intercultural sensitivity. Which stage of this model describes most accurately your current views on other cultures? Prove your point.

Ethnocentrism – experience of one’s own culture as “central to reality” → believes and behaviors that people receive are unquestioned, they are experienced as “just the way things are”.

Ethnorelativism - experience of one’s own culture as just one organization of reality among many visible possibilities.

The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity:

Denial → Defense Minimization → Acceptance → Adaptation → Integration

Denial – the state in which one’s own culture is experienced as the only real one. Other cultures are either not noticed at all or they are construed in rather vague ways.

Denial worldview:

- disinterest in cultural differences

- inability in differentiating national cultures

- tendency to avoid noticing or confronting cultural difference

Defense – the state in which one’s own culture is experienced as the only viable one – the most “evolved” form of civilization or the good way to live. World is divided into ‘us’ and ‘them’ → one’s own culture is superior and the other one is inferior.

Defense worldview:

- ‘attack on their values’

- many negative stereotypes about ‘them’, emphasizing failings of other cultures

- good stereotypes of one’s own culture

- nation-building

Reversal – an adopted culture is experienced as superior to the culture of one’s primary socialization. Does not maintain the other culture as a threat. Provide a positive experience of a different culture along with seemingly analytical criticisms of one’s own culture.

Minimization of cultural difference – the state in which elements of one’s own cultural worldview are experienced as universal → Defense may be neutralized by subsuming the differences into familiar categories.

People expect similarities, and they may become insistent about correcting others’ behavior to match their expectations → may be tolerant, but they are unable to appreciate other cultures because they cannot see their own culture clearly.

- for some it is like a ‘melting pot’ idea

Acceptance – the state in which elements of one’s own cultural worldview are experienced as just one of a number of equally complex worldviews.

Acceptance worldview:

- discriminate differences among cultures

- construct a kind of self-reflexive perspective

- other cultures are different, but all of they are human beings

- ‘value relativity’

Acceptance does not mean agreement.

Adaptation – the state in which the experience of another culture yields perception and behavior appropriate to that culture.

Adaptation is not assimilation → the extension of your repertoire of believes and behavior, not a substitution of one set for another (you don’t need to lose your primary identity to operate effectively in a different cultural context)

Adaptation worldview:

- the ability to take perspective or shift frame of reference vis-à-vis other cultures

- the ability to express their alternative cultural experience in culturally appropriate feelings and behavior

Integration – the state in which one’s experience of self is expanded to include the movement in and out of different cultural worldviews.

Encapsulated form – the separation from culture is experienced as alienation.

Constructive form – movements in and out of cultures are a necessary and possible part of one’s identity.

5. What is the significance of context in the study of intercultural communication? Explain the 3 dimensions of assessing the context suggested by Samovar and Porter. Assess how the current context you’re in is affecting your communication.

Communication context – cultural, social, and physical settings in which human interaction occurs. Culturally determined rules help define acceptable and unacceptable codes of thought, feeling, and behavior. Context helps specify communication rules. Rules can be imposed by special groups, community, or culture.

Dimensions:

1. Formality and Informality

2. Assertiveness and Interpersonal Harmony

• (Assertiveness) In a culture where individualism is highly valued, people are expected to take the initiative in advancing their personal interests and well-being and to be direct and assertive in interacting with others.

• (Interpersonal Harmony) Maintaining harmonious relations and avoiding what appears to be aggressive behavior.

3. Status Relationships

Every culture and organization has specific culturally based protocols to guide interaction between people of varying social positions.

• Egalitarianism facilitates and encourages openness among communication participants, stresses informal interaction between subordinates and seniors, and minimizes the expectation of deference (уважение) and formality.

• Hierarchical: Status is normally ascribed by birth, appointment, or age. Communication is rule governed, and those rules shift from culture to culture.