MC

Chapter 2: Culture and Gender

What is culture?

  • Background, traditions, religion, values, celebrations.

Culture (def): a system of learned and shared symbols, language, values, and norms that distinguish one group of people from another. It is learned through enculturation.

Not necessarily related to or based on our ethnicity (a mind's perception of his or herself), or nationality (an individual's status as a citizen of another country).

Society: a group of people who share a culture

  • In-groups (people like you, tend to gravitate towards them, more commonalities) v. Out-groups (perceived as different from you):

    • Ethnocentrism: when you believe that your cultural practices are superior to other cultures, foreground of racism and prejudice.

  • Enculturation: a process of acquiring culture, a method of learning.

Components of Culture:

  •  Symbol: smth that represents an idea

    • What are common symbols of the US? Flag, bald eagle.

    • What are common symbols of other cultures? Religious symbols and statues, monuments.

  • Language

    • What are the three most commonly spoken languages in the world? Chinese, English, Spanish

  • Values: things people think are good, bad, right, wrong. Freedom, independence, fairness, respect (intensity/priority varies from culture to culture). Txtbk def: standards for judging how good, desirable, or beautiful something is.

  • Norms: common customs (ex: meet someone new in the US, you shake their hand), how you take up space, direct v. indirect.Txtbk def: 


Co-cultures:

  • Groups of people who share values, customs, and norms related to mutual interests or characteristics besides their national citizenship.

  • Regional identity/co-culture, 

  • Sports

  • Clubs and student org: interest groups

How Culture Affects Communication: Seven Aspects of Culture (there are gray areas in some cultures)

Individualism and Collectivism

Whether a culture emphasizes the needs of the individual or the group (me v. we)

U.S.: individual, value voicing our opinion, independence, autonomy, competition

Collective: value harmony and smoothness

Low and High Context

Whether language is expected to be explicit or subtle

Low: what I say is what I mean

High: read between the lines

Low- and High-Power Distance

Whether power is widely or narrowly distributed among people

Low: equality, equal playing field; ask questions

High: status bc of bloodlines, hierarchies; do not question authorities

Masculine and Feminine (achievement and nurturing couture)

Whether traditionally masculine or feminine values are promoted

Culture likes sex-specific roles.

Masculine: achievement, individualism, dominance

Feminine: nurturing collaboration, empathy

Monochronic and Polychronic

Whether time is seen as a finite commodity of an infinite resource

Mono: singular, not to be wasted; doing

Poly: flexibility, not pinned down to schedules; being

Uncertainty Avoidance

Whether people welcome or shy away from uncertainty

To what degree is your culture okay with ambiguity and differences among its members/value conformity?

Communication codes

How idioms, jargon, and gestures reflect cultural values

Idiom: culturally understood sayings that don't make literal sense if translated into other cultures. 

Jargon: technical vocab, specific to an interest group or profession

Gestures: not universal, can be harmful if not understood by different cultures.

Gender:

At what point do we begin to differentiate people based on gender? Gender reveals

Why do we feel like doing that? How do raise, expectations put on them by others, figure out how to raise them

What we call gender is a function of:

  • Gender roles: masculinity, femininity, and androgyny (culturally bound)

  • Biological sex: biological female or biological male

  • Sexual orientation: heterosexual, homosexual, and asexual

 Understanding gender and communication:

  • Gender roles are culturally constructed norms for how men and women are expected to act.

    • Masculinity, femininity, and androgyny

    • Their expectations influence our perspective of them

  • Biological sex is affected by:

    • Psychology

    • Genetics

    • Anatomy

  • Sexual Orientation: who we are attracted to

How does gender affect communication?

  • Expressive talk v. Instrumental talk (task-oriented): contextual, femininity is more expressive.

  • Language and Power: Powerful (direct, assertive) v. less powerful (hedging, qualifiers, questioning self) 

Linguistic violence: degrading comments -> lot of it to women, bodies, and way of being

  • Gendered linguistic styles: Who uses more "I" statements: men

 Nonverbals:

  • Touch and body movement

  • Emotional communication: how expressive are you based on expectations for gender

  • Affectionate behavior: demonstrates closeness