Ch 6 - Cultural and Environmental Factors in Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal Communication Skills

Behavioral CQ

Your capability to adapt your verbal and nonverbal behaviors—word choice, formality, tone, pace, eye contact, gestures, touch, space, turn-taking—to fit the norms of a different cultural context so your message lands as intended.

Belief

The ideas you hold to be true or likely true about the world, yourself, and other people.

Co-Culture

A distinct group within a larger culture that shares particular values, norms, and communication practices, coexisting alongside the dominant culture; the term avoids implying lower status.

Cognitive CQ

Your knowledge of cultural norms, values, and systems—what you know about how different cultures work.

Collective Self-Esteem

Your evaluation of the worth and significance of the social groups you belong to—and of yourself as a member of those groups.

Collectivism

A cultural value orientation that prioritizes the goals and harmony of the group over individual preferences, with the self understood as interdependent, defined by roles, relationships, and duties to the in-group.

Cultural Intelligence

The capability to work and relate effectively across cultural differences by noticing cultural cues, understanding norms/values, staying motivated to bridge differences and adapting your behavior so your message lands as intended.

Culture

The shared system of beliefs, values, norms, symbols, and practices that a group uses to make sense of the world and to guide interaction—its “way of life” that shapes how members think, communicate, and behave

Culture as Normative

Viewing culture as a system of shared values, beliefs, and especially norms—the “rules and expectations” for appropriate behavior—that guide how members think, communicate, and act in a group organization.

Dominant Culture

The set of norms, values, and communication practices of the group with the most power in a society or organization—treated as the default “right/normal” standards others are expected to follow or are measured against.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view your own culture’s beliefs, values, and communication norms as the “right” or “normal” way, and to judge other cultures by those standards.

Face

Your public self-image—the social value or identity you want others to recognize and respect during interaction.

Feminine

Qualities or behaviors a culture associates with femininity, which vary across cultures and time.

High-Context Cultures

Cultures where much of a message’s meaning is carried by the context—relationships, shared history, setting, nonverbal cues, silence, and what is implied—rather than by explicit words. As a result, people often communicate indirectly to preserve harmony and “read between the lines” using situational and relational cues.

Importance to Identity

How core a specific role, group membership, value, or trait is to your sense of self across situations.

Indigenous Peoples

The original peoples of a place who maintain historical continuity with pre-colonial or pre-settler societies and who self-identify as Indigenous.

Individualism

A value orientation where people see themselves as autonomous “I” selves and prioritize personal goals, rights, and independence over group obligations.

Indulgence

A cultural value orientation that permits relatively free gratification of human desires related to enjoying life and having fun; its opposite, restraint, emphasizes suppressing gratification through strict social norms and self-discipline.

Long-Term Orientation

A cultural value dimension describing how much a group prioritizes future rewards—perseverance, adaptability, and thrift—over quick results and maintaining tradition.

Low-Context Cultures

They rely on explicit, direct verbal messages; most meaning is carried by the actual words rather than shared history.

Masculine

Traits or behaviors a culture associates with masculinity; these vary by culture and person and aren’t tied to biology.

Membership Esteem

How worthy and valuable you feel as a member of a particular group—your sense that you feel as a member of a particular group—your sense that you are a “good” or respected member.

Metacognitive CQ

Your awareness of, and active control over, your cultural assumptions while you interact—planning how you’ll communicate, monitoring cues in real time, and then evaluating and adjusting your approach so your message lands across cultures.

Microculture

A smaller group within a larger culture that develops its own shared norms, language, and expectations for how people should interact.

Motivational CQ

Your drive and confidence to engage across cultural differences—your intrinsic interest, purposeful goals, and persistence that energize you to learn, interact, and adapt in diverse settings

Norms

Shared rules and expectations that a group uses to decide what counts as appropriate behavior and communication.

Ostracized

To be deliberately excluded or ignored by a person or group—kept out of conversation, decisions, activities, and attention.

Power Distance

How much a group accepts and expects unequal power between people.

Private Collective Esteem

Your personal evaluation of your social group—how positively or negatively you, privately, judge the groups you belong to.

Public Collective Self-Esteem

Your belief about how outsiders view your group—your sense of the group’s reputation or status in the eyes of others.

Restraint

A cultural value orientation where people are socialized to suppress gratification of desires through strict social norms, emphasizing self-control, duty, modesty, and practicality over leisure and open emotional expression.

Rules

The explicit, agreed-upon guidelines a group or organization sets for appropriate behavior and communication.

Short-Term Orientation

A cultural value that prioritizes quick results, fulfilling current obligations, and maintaining established norms and traditions over long-range adaptation and delaying rewards.

Stereotype

A fixed, oversimplified belief about a group that people apply to individuals, used as a mental shortcut rather than attending to who the person actually is.

Uncertainty Avoidance

A cultural value dimension about how comfortable a group is with ambiguity and the unknown.

Values

Your deeply held beliefs about what is good, right, and important.