Cultural and

Environmental Factors
in Interpersonal
Communication
Chapter 6
In this chapter we will explore:

• What is culture?
• The function of culture
• Cultural characteristics and communication
• Improving intercultural communication skills
 What is culture?

• Culture is defined differently by different groups of people

• A group of people who, through a process of learning, can
share perceptions of the world, which influence their beliefs,
values, norms, and rules, eventually affecting one’s behavior
• Culture is formed by a group of people, a group that
individuals participate in over the course of their lifetime
• Humans are hardwired to learn culture
 What is culture (slide 2)?
• Culture facilitates a shared perception of the world
• Culture teaches
• Beliefs: Assumptions and convictions held by an individual, group,
or culture about the truth or existence of something
• Values: Important and lasting principles or standards held by a
culture about desirable and appropriate courses of action or
outcomes
• Norms: informal guidelines about what is acceptable or proper
social behavior within a specific culture
• Rules: Explicit guidelines (generally written down) governing
acceptable or proper social behavior within a specific culture
 What is a co-culture?

• Regional, economic, social, religious, ethnic, and other

cultural groups that exert influence in society
• Simply belonging to a cultural group doesn’t mean everyone
within that culture is identical
• Bring a unique sense of history and purpose
 What is a microculture?

• Cultural patterns of behavior influenced by cultural beliefs,

values, norms, and rules based on a specific locality or within
an organization
• Local culture
• Provide individuals a sense of belonging on a more localized
level
 What purpose does culture serve?

• Provides a collective self-esteem

• Cultural stereotyping has positive and negative outcomes
• Provides normative views
How does culture provide collective self-esteem?

• Collective self-esteem is the aspect of an individual’s self-

worth or self-image that stems from their interactions with
others and evaluation of their various social groups
• Four factors:
• Private collective esteem
• Membership esteem
• Public collective esteem
• Importance to identity
 How does culture provide collective self-
esteem (slide 2)?
• Private collective esteem
• The degree to which an individual positively evaluates their
group
• Membership esteem
• The degree to which an individual sees themselves as a “good”
member of a group
• Public collective esteem
• The degree to which nonmembers of a group evaluate a group
and its members either positively or negatively
How does culture provide collective self-esteem
(slide 3)?
• Importance to identity
• The degree to which group membership is important to an
individual

What if an individual views their cultural group as being better

than others?

What if an individual’s cultural group is viewed negatively by

society?
 How does collective self-esteem impact
interpersonal interactions?

• What happens when an individual feels their heritage is viewed

positively by a communication partner?

• Individuals with high collective self-esteem:

• Report more favorable interactions with individuals from other cultures

• Individuals with low collective self-esteem:

• Report less intimate social interactions with individuals from other
cultures
 How does stereotyping impact interpersonal
interactions?

• Stereotyping is a set of beliefs about the personal attributes

of a social group
• Positive and negative
• Accurate and inaccurate
• Types of stereotypes:
• Cultural stereotypes are beliefs possessed by cultural groups about
another social group
• Personal stereotypes are those held by an individual and do not
reflect a shared belief with the individual’s cultural group(s)
 How does stereotyping impact interpersonal
interactions (cont.)?

• Stereotypes are problematic

• Categorize people when making snap decisions
• All members of a group are inaccurately viewed as the same
• Many stereotypes are based on ignorance about another’s culture
 How does culture provide normative views?

• Culture provides the rules, regulations, and norms governing a culture and
how people act with other members of that society
• Individuals tend to view their own culture as generally right, moral, ethical,
etc.
• Ethnocentrism:
• The degree to which an individual views the world from their own culture’s
perspective
• The evaluation of different cultures according their own culture’s
preconceptions
• Often accompanied by feelings of dislike, mistrust, or hate for cultures
deemed inferior

How does patriotism pertain to ethnocentrism?

 How does culture impact communication?

• Culture is communication and communication is culture

• Different cultures approach relationships differently
• When communicating, individuals strive to create a positive
version of themselves in the eyes of the communication
partner
 How does culture impact the communication
message?
• Edward T. Hall
• Cultures interpret communicative meaning
• Low-context communication
• Explicit verbal messages
• High-context communication
• Implicit contexts (e.g., gestures, social customs, nuances, tone of
voice, etc.)
• Three general contextual categories:
• Communication
• Cultural orientation
• Business
How do different cultures approach
relationships differently?

• Geert Hofstede
• Six cultural differences impacting how individuals approach
work
• Low vs. high power distance
• Individualism vs. collectivism
• Masculinity vs. femininity
• Low vs. high uncertainty avoidance
• Long-term vs. short-term orientation
• Indulgence vs. restraint
 How do cultural orientations impact
relationships?
• Power distance
• The degree to which those people and organizations with less power within a
culture accept and expect that power is unequally distributed within their
culture
• Cultural differences manifest themselves in different ways within a culture
• Low, middle, and upper classifications

• Individualism vs. collectivism

• Individualism: Characteristics of a culture that values being self-reliant and
self-motivated, believes in personal freedom and privacy, and celebrates
personal achievement
• Collectivism: Characteristics of a culture that values cooperation and harmony
and considers the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of
the individual
 How do cultural orientations impact
relationships (slide 2)?
• Masculinity vs. femininity
• Masculine cultures focus on items like earnings, recognition, advancement,
and challenge
• Feminine cultures focus on having a good working relationship with one’s
manager and coworkers, cooperating with people at work, and security

• Low vs. high uncertainty avoidance

• Uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which cultures as a whole are fearful of
ambiguous and unknown situations
• Cultures of high uncertainty avoidance
• View unknown situations as threatening resulting in higher levels of anxiety and
neuroticism
• Higher levels of prejudice and ideological, political, and religious fundamentalism
 How do cultural orientations impact
relationships (slide 3)?
• Cultural orientation
• Long-term orientation
• Individuals focus on the future and not the present or past
• Focus on persistence and thrift
• Short-term orientation
• Individuals focus on the past or present and not the future
• High respect for the past and cultural traditions
• Indulgence vs. restraint
• Indulgence: Cultural orientation marked by immediate gratification for
individual desires
• Restraint: Cultural orientation marked by the belief that gratification
should not be instantaneous and should be regulated by cultural rules
and norms
 What is face-negotiation theory?
• Stella Ting-Toomey
• Face-negotiation theory to explain the importance of face
within interpersonal interactions
• Face is the standing or position a person has in the eyes of
others
• Individuals strive to create a positive version of their face in
the eyes of the other person
• Three types of face:
• Self-face: Concern for our face
• Other-face: Concern for another person’s face
• Mutual-face: Concern for both interactants and the relationship
Seven assumptions of face-negotiation
theory
1. People in all cultures try to maintain and negotiate face in all communication
situations.
2. The concept of face is problematic in emotionally vulnerable situations.
3. The cultural variability dimensions of individualism-collectivism and
small/large power distance shapes the orientations, movements, contents,
and styles of facework.
4. Individualism-collectivism shapes members’ preferences for self-orientation
facework versus other-orientation facework.
5. Small/large power distance shapes members’ preferences for horizontal-based
facework versus vertical-based facework.
6. The cultural variability dimensions, in conjunction with individual, relational,
and situational factors influence the use of particular facework behaviors in
particular cultural scenes.
7. Intercultural facework competence refers to the optimal integration of
knowledge, mindfulness, and communication skills in managing vulnerable
identity-based conflict situations appropriately, effectively, and adaptively.
 How can you improve you intercultural
communication skills?

• Become culturally intelligent

• Engage in culturally mindful interactions
 How can you become more culturally
intelligent?
• Cultural intelligence is the degree to which an individual is capable of
communicating competently in varying cultural situations
• Four types of cultural intelligence
• Cognitive CQ: The degree to which an individual has cultural knowledge
• Motivational CQ: The degree to which an individual desires to engage in
intercultural interactions and can easily adapt to differing cultural
environments
• Metacognitive CQ: The degree to which an individual is consciously aware
of your intercultural interactions in a manner that helps them have more
effective interpersonal experiences with people from differing cultures
• Behavioral CQ: The degree to which an individual behaves in a manner
that is consistent with what they know about other cultures
How can you engage in culturally
mindful interactions?

The overall goal of mindful intercultural interactions is to

be present in the moment in a nonjudgmental way.
• Attention
• Intention
• Attitude