Endings in Relationships & Cultural Competence in Communication

Differentiating

Stage where partners highlight differences and seek individual identity.

Circumscribing

Stage characterized by limitation and decreased quality of conversations.

Stagnating

Stage where partners barely speak to each other and go through the motions.

Avoiding

Stage involving physical and emotional distance, may include direct or indirect avoidance.

Terminating

Formal ending of the relationship, severing all ties and negotiating new terms.

Factors decreasing likelihood of divorce

Knowing each other more than a year, higher education level, similar religious beliefs, joint church attendance, living in a rural area.

Factors increasing likelihood of divorce

Premarital pregnancy, getting married young, having been married before, having divorced parents.

Unrealistic expectations

Leads to disappointment in relationships.

Negative attributions

Making overly negative or overly positive judgments of a partner.

Loss of trust

Can lead to more negative attributions in a relationship.

Attribution theory

Attempts to describe and explain mental and communicative processes involved in placing meaning on everyday behavior.

Internal attribution

Behavior results from character or personality.

External attribution

Behavior results from environmental or outside factors.

Self-serving bias

In positive situations, we make internal attributions of our own behavior.

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to make internal attributions of others' behavior.

Over-attribution

Tendency to attribute a range of behaviors to a single characteristic of a person.

Enculturation

The process of learning a culture, often performed by elders.

Culture

Systems of learned and shared symbols, language, values, norms that distinguish one group of people from another.

Co-culture

Groups of people who share values, customs, norms related to mutual interests beyond their nationality.

Hofstede's dimensions of culture

Framework for understanding cultural differences, including individualism vs collectivism.

High-context cultures

Cultures that rely heavily on context and indirect communication.

Low-context cultures

Cultures that use explicit communication and presume differences.

Power distance

Degree to which people view unequal distribution of power as acceptable.

Masculine cultures

Cultures that emphasize achievement, competition, and differentiated gender roles.

Feminine cultures

Cultures that emphasize compassion, cooperation, and fluid gender roles.

Monochronic time

Time is viewed as a valued and limited resource.

Polychronic time

Time is viewed as flexible and relaxed.

Uncertainty avoidance

Degree to which people try to avoid unstructured, unclear, unpredictable situations.

Emotional display rules

Norms that guide the management of feelings for socially desirable emotional displays.

Cultural competence

Ability to communicate appropriately, effectively, and ethically with people from diverse backgrounds.

World-mindedness

Respect for the different ways cultures express themselves.