Тема 2.

Lecture 2. Axioms behind Intercultural Communication

- Intercultural communication assumes the perception of difference

The principal of difference implies that people often do not immediately share norms, thought patterns, structures, and systems. Seeing "difference" is a central facet to the intercultural communication model involving perception—at the core is how individuals decide on similarity or dissimilarity. When they perceive "difference," the dissimilarity can be explained by three screening filters by which communicators size up each other. A form of distinguishing occurs. That is, social categorization leads to mental and emotional associations across three assessments: differences in cul­ture or group, differences in personality, and differences in the way two people might view their particular interpersonal relationship. How does all this influ­ence our practical communication?

This is where the axiom concerning the principle of difference helps us understand information and relationships. Evaluating the source of difference explains actions or thoughts of another person who appears different. We can explain the source of miscommunication, attributed to difference because of (1) culture ("This is the way my culture does things"), (2) personality ("You and I are from the same culture but we are individuals who think and act dif­ferently"), and (3) relationship history ("I thought I knew you, but I can't trust you anymore").

- Intercultural communication has content and relationship dimensions.

The relationship between two communicators affects how the message is interpreted.

The principle of difference describes one fundamental relationship filter whereby we answer the question of how similar or dissimilar is this person. A second way people assess others involves believability, which communication experts call credibility. To­gether, perceptions of similarity/dissimilarity and credibility predict the nature of relationships. These judgments form the basis of information relationships.

Intercultural communication can be described in terms of the communication styles used by people. Communication style means the personal qualities we infer from the messages and the manner of a communicator.

- Intercultural communication involves reducing uncertainty

In the field of communication, predictability is something of the opposite of uncertainty and remains an important aspect of relationships. We seem to need a certain amount of redundancy to lessen the entropy (the "new" messages or the un­familiar part of a message) in communication. In other words, the less guesswork about a message and a relationship, often the better we feel about the situation.

One answer to facing uncertainty is to offer predictability, using communi­cation rules, customs, rituals, phrases, and features that match the other person's culture. A second way to face uncertainty is to understand and manage the inter­action stages typical of people meeting: precontact, contact and impression, and closure.

Precontact. The first phase of reducing uncertainty involves precontact impression formation. In coming in contact with another person, we proceed from an unfocused scanning of the environment to a focused scanning. We become aware that another person is a part of the immediate commu­nication climate. At that point, we engage in reciprocal scanning. We gain in­formation by interpreting the appearance and mannerisms of the other person, while the other person does the same with us.

Contact and impression. The second phase of intercultural uncertainty re­duction involves the initial impression within the first few minutes of verbal com­munication. Brooks and Emmert suggest that during the first four minutes, a decision is made to continue or discontinue the relationship. This four minute barrier as it sometimes is labelled, may not take exactly four minutes, but the power of early impressions is certain.

Closure. The third phase of uncertainty reduction involves closure, or completion, of the intercultural relationship. This is not just a way of exiting or saying goodbye. It is the longer lasting attitudes based on the early impressions in stage two. There is a tendency to form a comfortable summary of another per­son, a mental picture or verbal phrase that profiles a final evaluation concerning the other person.

- Intercultural communication involves fundamental attitudes toward groups and relationships

Positive intercultural attitudes lead to adaptive, functional outcomes, such as friendship, peace, increased understanding, and lasting bonds. The attitudes and accompanying communication behaviors emerge as openness, affirmation, questioning, supporting, listening, offering feedback, asserting, and suggesting.

Negative intercultural attitudes lead to nonadaptive, dysfunctional outcomes including prejudice, racism, ethnocentrism, discrimination, and negative stereo­typing. These are related to communication behaviors such as withdrawing, blocking, closed-mindedness, authoritarian communication, slandering, con­demning, and hating.

There are four reasons for attitudes originating:

1. Attribution. This theory refers to our understanding and summarizing others' behaviors by inferring their motivations. If someone does some­thing we like, we attribute a positive motivation to that person because, after all, he or she practiced what we valued. Negative actions, however, cause us to infer a negative motivation.

2. Impression consistency. A related concept is called implicit personality theory. This theory implies that we seek consistency with our first "per­sonality" assessment of another individual. If the first impression of a per­son's qualities is positive, then we ascribe additional positive qualities to that person. In the same way, if the first-known qualities are negative, we assess the unknown with more negative features. In other words, a positive or negative "halo effect" extends from described qualities to unknown qualities. What is unknown is consistent with the known.

Incomplete information. This also accounts for poor perception and can re­sult in negative attitudes. Personal circumstances may lead to inadequate or poor sampling from which to draw accurate data about a person or a group. This leads to hasty or limited generalization.

4. Following cultural attitudes. By custom and adherence to cultural atti­tudes, one can slide into negative attitudes toward out-groups simply by following cultural caricatures, stereotypes, and attitudes. Cultures, schools, and families teach us in silent, yet numerous ways, how to feel about others "not like me." It is all too easy to lift the stereotypes others have invented and unconsciously apply this "in-group" judgment without question.

- Communication is central to culture

Cultures inherently contain communication systems. In 1966 Smith observed that "communication and culture are inseparable".One im­plication of this insight is that cultures generate symbols, rituals, customs, and formats.

A second implication of this axiom is not only should we employ the correct symbols with a culture's communication system, but also use the appropriate per­sonal communication style. Communication styles refer to mannerisms, phrases, rituals, and communication customs appropriate for various situations in a culture.

Intercultural effectiveness is a goal of intercultural communication

Another axiom of intercultural communication involves communication effec­tiveness. The goal of this concept is positive intercultural outcomes. That success can take many forms: improved relationships, effective management, friendship, training, technology dissemination, and conflict reduction.

Overall, researchers are concerned about three intercultural communication outcomes: task, relationship, and personal adjustment. The task outcome is the result of intercultural communication on performance. Task means accomplish­ing a work-related purpose.

In the relationship outcome, we are concerned with what others think of us. Do they like us? Dislike us? Can we continue to work together? Understanding and friendship are two important subsets of relationship. Increased understand­ing makes mutual influence and accurate understanding possible. One of the goals, of studying intercultural communication is to increase under­standing and to decrease tensions.

A third possible outcome of intercultural communication is personal adjust­ment. Learning to adjust and to acculturate are major outcomes of adaptation leading to effectiveness.