barriers-and-culture-shock文化冲突.docx

Barriers of cross-cultural communication
a) Stereotypes, Ethnocentrism and Prejudice
Stereotypes
Human beings have a tendency to organize perceptual cues to impose meaning, usually by using familiar experiences. It is quite common for people to draw on their personal experiences to understand and evaluate the motivation of others.
Stereotypes are a form of generalization about some group of people. A generalization that goes beyond the existing evidence, an inaccurate or overgeneralization is a stereotype.
Positive stereotypes: members of certain group have good qualities
Negative stereotypes: members of the group have undesirable characteristics.
Stereotypes are general ideas of a person, created without taking the whole person into account. When we stereotype a group of people, we depict all of the individuals within that group as having the same characteristics even though they are probably all very different.
Stereotypes are perceptions or beliefs we hold about groups or individuals based on previously formed opinions and attitudes. When stereotyping, we assign a number of characteristics to a group to formulate its standardized image. Stereotype refers to a shared conception of characters of a group. When categorized as a group, people are thought to possess relatively same beliefs and exhibit similar behaviors. Stereotypes describe the behavior norm for a particular group, rather than individual behavior. Stereotyping is a natural process. We all stereotype because of an instinctive inclination and cannot avoid being viewed by others according to their stereotypes of our culture.

1. Stereotypes keep us from being successful as communicators because they are oversimplified, over-generalized, and exaggerated.
2. Stereotypes can have a negative effect when people use them to interpret behavior. They are one of the most difficult stumbling blocks to overcome in cross-cultural communication.
3. Parents, teachers, limited personal contact and the media (movies, TV programs, advertising, newspapers, books and magazines, and even school textbooks) help to make stereotypes.
4. Stereotypes are harmful in cross-cultural communication, but we have some ways to reduce or eliminate them
The damaging effect of stereotypes in cross-cultural communication
1. They cause us to assume that a widely held belief is true when it may not be.
2. Stereotypes also impede communication when they cause us to assume that a widely held belief is true of any one individual.
3. The stereotype can become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” for the person stereotyped.
4. When stereotypes lead us to interpret an individual’s behaviour from the perceptual screen of the stereotype they impede communication.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that the customs and practices of one’s own culture are superior to those of other cultures is called ethnocentrism. Cultures train their members to use the categories of their own cultural experiences when judging the experiences of people from other cultures. Our culture tells us that the way we were taught to believe is “right” or “correct” and that those who do things differently are wrong. Ethnocentrism is a learned belief in cultural superiority. Ethnocentrism tends to highlight and exaggerate cultural differences. Judgments about what is “right” or “natural” create emotional responses to cultural differences that may interfere with our ability to understand the symbols used by other cultures. Any group of people tend to see their own group and their culture as the best, as of the common sense and view other people habitually, unconsciously and inevitably by using their own customs as the standards for judgments.
Ethnocentric beliefs about one’s own culture shape a social sense of identity which is narrow and defensive.
Ethnocentrism normally involves the perception of members of other cultures in terms of stereotypes.
The dynamic of ethnocentrism is such that comparative judgments are made between one’s own culture and other cultures under the assumption that one’s own is normal and natural.
Ethnocentrism usually involves invidious comparisons that ennoble one’s own culture while degrading those of others.
Attitudes of cultural superiority:
Superior attitudes reflected on languages: primitive, advanced, savage, barbarian, 蛮夷，洋鬼子，etc.
Americans might think that America is the biggest and the best, the newest and the richest, and all others are a bit slow, old fashioned, rather poor and somewhat on the small side.
Folk complex: the people from hometown are always trustworthy, reliable, and warm-hearted and full of kindness.

Various forms of ethnocentric attitudes:
1. Most other cultures are backward compared to my cultures.
2. My culture should be the role model for other cultures.
3. Lifestyles in other cultures are just as valid as those in my culture.
4. Other cultures should try to be more like my culture.
5. People in my culture could learn a lot from people in other cultures.
6. Most people from other cultures just don’t know what’s good for them.
7. I have little respect for the values and customs of other cultures.
8. Most people would be happier if they lived like people in my culture.
9. People in my culture have just about the best lifestyles of anywhere.
10. Lifestyles in other cultures are not as valid as those in my culture.
11. I respect the values and customs of other cultures.
12. I do not cooperate with people who are different.
13. I do not trust people who are different.
14. I dislike interacting with people from different cultures.
15. Other cultures are smart to look up to my culture.
Negative effects of ethnocentrism:
Extreme ethnocentrism leads to a rejection of the richness and knowledge of other cultures.
It impedes communication and blocks the exchange of ideas and skills among peoples.
It excludes other points of view.
An ethnocentrism orientation is restrictive and limiting.
Ethnocentrism serves as the starting point for most prejudicial beliefs.
Prejudice
Stereotypes that include negative feelings and attitudes toward a group are prejudices. Prejudice refers to negative attitude toward other people that are based on faulty and inflexible stereotypes. Prejudiced attitudes include irrational feelings of dislike and even hatred for certain groups. Prejudice is a universal psychological process.
Prejudice satisfies a utilitarian or adjustment function. Displaying certain kind of prejudice means that people receive rewards and avoid punishments. For example, if you express prejudicial statements about certain people, other people may like you more. Another function that prejudice serves is an ego-defensive one; it protects self-esteem.
Severe prejudice:
Sexism: belief that women are inferior in mental ability to men
Racism: belief that other races are inferior to one’s own
Symbolic prejudice: negative feelings about a particular group because they feel that the group is a threat to them in some way. They do not dislike the group itself but feel that the group is a threat to a way of life that they value. Those with symbolic prejudice may feel that members of a group (women, rural migrants, immigrants from a particular country, etc) are making unreasonable demands on the society.
Tokenism: some people have negative feelings about members of a particular group but do not want to admit this, even to themselves. Such people do not view themselves as prejudiced and to prove this to themselves and others they often participate in unimportant but positive behavior toward members of the group.
Subtle prejudice: some people behave toward members of a group in a positive and friendly way in relatively distant social situations but show their prejudice in more personal or intimate social situations.
Discrimination can be thought of as prejudice “in action”.
e) Cultural shock
Cultural shock is also called “cultural fatigue”. Cultural shock is a common experience of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad. It refers to phenomena ranging from mild irritability to deep psychological panic and crisis. It is associated with feelings in the person of estrangement, anger, hostility, indecision, frustration, unhappiness, sadness, loneliness, homesickness, and even physical illness. Cultural shock is caused by anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols or social contact. Cultural shock is the feeling of confusion, insecurity, and anxiety caused by the strangeness of a new environment. Common symptoms of culture shock may include antagonism and cynicism about the new culture, loss of patience, depression, an absentmindedness, overwhelming fear of being cheated or robbed, overeating, oversleeping, substance abuse, withdrawal, declining invitation and preferring to stay at home to read books and watch videos shipped in back from home.
Reverse cultural shock
The reentry process is also a problem which is called reverse cultural shock. The individuals will have some mental problems. With changed perspective and personality, they feel it is hard for them to fit in when they are at home again. For example, about 30 percent of the volunteers of the Peace Corps have some mental problems.
f) Four levels of cross-cultural awareness
1. Cultural differences are exotic
2. Cultural differences are frustrating
3. The different culture is believable
4. The different culture is believable as lived experience
Improvements of cross-cultural communication
1) Display of respect：It is the ability to show respect and positive regard for another person. What stands for respect in one culture will not necessarily be so regarded in another culture. Respect is shown through both verbal and nonverbal symbols. The action of displaying respect increases the likelihood of a judgment of competence.
2) Orientation to knowledge: The terms people use to explain themselves and the world around them. A competent orientation to knowledge occurs when people’s actions demonstrate that all experiences and interpretations are individual and personal rather than universally shared by others. For instance,
New Yorkers must be crazy to live in that city.
I find New York a very difficult place to visit and would not want to live there.
3) Empathy: It is the capacity to behave as though one understand the world as others do. Empathetic behaviors include verbal statements that identify the experiences of others and nonverbal codes that are complementary to the moods and thoughts of others.
4) Interaction management: Skills in regulating conversations. Interaction management skills require knowing how to indicate turn-taking both verbally and nonverbally.
5) Task role behavior: Behaviors that involve the initiation of ideas related to group problem-solving activities. Individuals are focused on work-related purposes. Tasks are accomplished by cultures in multiple ways. Task behaviors are so intimately entwined with cultural expectations about activity and work that it is often difficult to respond appropriately to task expectations that differ from one’s own. Socializing at a restaurant or a bar may be seen as a necessary prelude to the conduct of a business negotiation. But Euro-Americans believe that doing business is something separate from socializing.
6) Relational role behavior: Behaviors associated with interpersonal harmony and mediation. Relational behaviors concern efforts to build or maintain personal relationships with group members. Examples of competent relational role behaviors include harmonizing and mediating conflicts between group members, encouraging participation from others, general displays of interest, and a willingness to compromise one’s position for the sake of others.
7) Tolerance for ambiguity: The ability to react to new and ambiguous situations with little visible discomfort. Some people react to new situations with greater comfort than others. Some are extremely nervous, highly frustrated, or even hostile toward the new situations and those who may be present in them. Competent intercultural communicators are able to cope with the nervousness and frustrations that accompany new or, unclear situations, and they are able to adapt quickly to changing demands.
8) Interaction posture: The ability to respond to others in descriptive, non-evaluative and nonjudgmental ways.