Cultural Influences on Communicating with Strangers

Cultural Influences on Communication with Strangers

Two Approaches to Studying Cultural Processes

• Emic Approach:
  • Examines a culture from within, seeking to understand behaviors from the perspective of people in that culture.
• Etic Approach:
  • Compares cultures using predetermined categories to examine selected aspects.
  • Aims to understand how cultures compare with respect to specific qualities.

Dimensions of Cultural Variability

• Dimensions on which cultures differ or are similar.
  • Used to explain communication across cultures.
• Examples:
  • Individualism-Collectivism:
    • Individualistic cultures prioritize individuals over groups.
    • Collectivistic cultures prioritize groups over individuals (Triandis, 1988).

Culture-General vs. Culture-Specific Information

• Understanding communication requires both:
  • Culture-general information (e.g., where a culture falls on dimensions of cultural variability).
  • Culture-specific information (e.g., specific cultural constructs associated with a dimension).

Levels of Analysis: Cultural vs. Individual

• Cultural Level:
  • General tendencies within a culture on dimensions of cultural variability.
• Individual Level:
  • Not all members of a culture share the general tendencies.
  • Individual characteristics mediate the influence of cultural-level tendencies on individual communication.

Individualism-Collectivism

Cultural-Level Individualism-Collectivism

• Individualistic Cultures:
  • Emphasize individuals' goals over ingroup goals.
  • Promote self-realization.
• Collectivistic Cultures:
  • Prioritize ingroup goals over individual goals.
  • Require individuals to fit into their ingroups.
• Example:
  • Kenyan culture emphasizes collectivity, harmony, and cooperation (Saleh & Gufwoli, 1982).

Importance of Ingroups

• Ingroups:
  • Groups important to members, for which members will make sacrifices (Triandis, 1988).
• Individualistic Cultures:
  • Members belong to many specific ingroups with relatively little influence on behavior in any particular situation.
  • Tend to be universalistic, applying the same value standards to all people.
• Collectivistic Cultures:
  • Members belong to a few general ingroups with a strong influence on behavior across situations.
  • Tend to be particularistic, applying different value standards for members of their ingroups and outgroups.

Sphere of Influence of Ingroups

• Individualistic Cultures:
  • Ingroup influence is very specific (e.g., affects behavior in specific circumstances).
• Collectivistic Cultures:
  • Ingroup influence is very general (e.g., affects behavior in many different aspects of a person's life).
• Examples:
  • In the U.S., university affiliation influences behavior mainly at the university or alumni events.
  • In Japan and Korea, university affiliation influences behavior throughout adult lives.

Self-Ingroup Relationships in Collectivistic Cultures (U. Kim, 1994)

• Undifferentiated Facet:
  • Firm group boundaries and undifferentiated self-group boundaries.
  • Individuals are governed and defined by their ingroups.
• Relational Facet:
  • Porous boundaries between ingroup members allow free flow of thoughts, ideas, and emotions.
  • Focuses on the relationship shared by ingroup members.
  • Requires willingness and ability to feel and think what others are feeling and thinking.
  • Qualities discussed in terms of amae ("dependence") in Japan and chong ("affection") in Korea.
• Coexistence Facet:
  • Separates the public self and the private self.
  • Public self is enmeshed with collectivist values, while the private self maintains individualist values.
  • Individuals follow group norms and fulfill their roles for harmony.
  • Relates to tatemae ("conventions") and honne ("true intentions") in Japan.

Is Distinctiveness Universal?

• Brewer (1991) argues individuals need inclusion in social groups and distinctiveness from others.
• Optimal distinctiveness occurs at the point of equilibrium between the two needs, and includes a moderate distinctiveness.
• Brewer and Pickett (1999) suggest inclusion and differentiation are "universal human motives," not cultural values.

Individualism-Collectivism and Self-Enhancement

• Self-Enhancement:
  • Kitayama et al. (1997) argue that there is a "cultural force in the direction of self-enhancement" in the United States.
• Self-Criticism:
  • The Japanese tend to engage in self-criticism rather than self-enhancement.
  • Individuals “identify consensual standards of excellence shared in a relationship (or in the society in general) and to engage in the process of self-criticism by identifying those shortcomings, deficits, or problems that prevent one from meeting such standards” in order to fit in with their ingroups (p. 1260).

Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultural Values

• Values: Modes of conduct and end-states of existence that are personally and socially preferable (Rokeach, 1972).
• U.S. American Values (Vander Zanden, 1965):
  1. Materialism
  2. Success
  3. Work and Activity
  4. Progress
  5. Rationality
  6. Democracy
  7. Humanitarianism
• Arab Values (Patai, 1976):
  1. Hospitality
  2. Generosity
  3. Courage
  4. Honor
  5. Self-respect

Horizontal versus Vertical Cultures (Triandis, 1995)

• Horizontal Cultures:
  • Relations among people are horizontal.
  • People see themselves as the same as others and value equality.
• Vertical Cultures:
  • Relations among people are vertical.
  • People see themselves as different from others and equality is not valued highly.

Factors Mediating the Influence of Cultural Individualism-Collectivism on Individual Behavior

Personality Orientations

• Idiocentrism and allocentrism are personality orientations learned as a function of individualism and collectivism (Triandis, Leung, Villareal, & Clack, 1985).
• Yamaguchi (1994) argues that collectivism leads an individual to give priority to the collective self over the private self, especially when the two are in conflict.

Individual Values (Schwartz, 1992)

1. Self-direction
2. Stimulation
3. Hedonism
4. Achievement
5. Power
6. Security
7. Conformity
8. Tradition
9. Spirituality
10. Benevolence
11. Universalism

Self Construals

• Independent vs. Interdependent Self Construals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
• Independent construal predominates in individualistic cultures.
• Interdependent construal predominates in collectivistic cultures.

Low- and High-Context Communication

Characteristics of Low-Context and High-Context Communication (Hall, 1976)

• High-Context Communication:
  • Most information is in the physical context or internalized in the person.
• Low-Context Communication:
  • Most information is vested in the explicit code.

Conversational Maxims (Grice, 1975)

1. Quantity Maxim
2. Quality Maxim
3. Relevancy Maxim
4. Manner Maxim

Hofstede's Dimensions of Cultural Variability

Uncertainty Avoidance

• High uncertainty avoidance cultures have a lower tolerance "for uncertainty and ambiguity, which expresses itself in higher levels of anxiety and energy release, greater need for formal rules and absolute truth, and less tolerance for people or groups with deviant ideas or behavior" (Hofstede, 1979, p. 395).

Power Distance

• "The extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally" (Hofstede & Bond, 1984, p. 419).

Masculinity-Femininity

• The major differentiation between masculine and feminine cultures is how gender roles are distributed in cultures (Hofstede, 1991).

Confucian Work Dynamism

• The Confucianism work dynamism dimension involves eight values.
• Confucianism directly influences several different aspects of behavior in most Asian cultures.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientations

Human Nature Orientation

• Deals with the innate character of human nature (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961).

Person-Nature Orientation

• There are three potential types of relations between humans and nature: mastery over nature, harmony with nature, and subjugation to nature (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961).

Time Orientation

• The temporal focus of human life can be directed on the past, the present, or the future (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961).

Activity Orientation

• Human activity can be handled in three ways: doing, being, and being-in-becoming (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961).

Relational Orientation

• Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) isolate three potential ways in which humans can define their relationships to other humans: individualism, lineality, and collaterality.

Parsons' Pattern Variables

Affectivity-Affective Neutrality

Universalism-Particularism

Diffuseness-Specificity

Ascription-Achievement

Instrumental-Expressive Orientation

Structural Tightness

• Structural tightness focuses on the norms, rules, and constraints cultures place on individuals' behavior.

Cultural Communication

• The influence of culture on communication by trying to understand communication in a culture from insiders' perspectives. The major emic approach used to study communication and culture is cultural communication.
• Philipsen (1992) finds a theory of "culturally distinctive codes of communication conduct". Speech code theory posits that communal conversations imply distinctive codes of communication.