Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

communication and culture (Understanding Cultures And Cocultures (one…

- - - - cocultures in today's society include, for example, age, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical disability, language, religion, activity
      - Intercultural and intergroup communication: A matter of Salience social scientists use the term salience to describe how much weight we attach to cultural characteristics. consider a few examples in which culture has little or no salience: a group of preschool children is playing together in a park. these 3-year-old's don't recognize that their parents may come from different countries or events that they don't speak the same language. at this point, we wouldn't say that intercultural or intergroup communication is taking place. only when cultural factors (e.g., diet, sharing, or parental discipline) become salient do the children begin to think of another as different.
        
        the above example shows that in order to view ourselves as a member of a culture or coculture. there has to be some distinctions between "us" and "them" social scientists use the label in-groups to describe groups with which we identify and are emotionally connected. and out-groups to label those we view as different and with whom we have no sense of affiliation.
    - - Cultural values and Norms Shape Communication some cultural influences on communication are obvious. you don't have to be a researcher to appreciate that different languages and customs can make communication between groups interesting and challenging
        
        individualism and collectivism some cultures value the individual more than the group. whereas others place greater emphasis on the group members of individualistic cultures view their primary responsibility as helping themselves. whereas communicators in collectivistic cultures feel loyalties and obligations to one's extended family. community, or even the organization one works for
        
        high and low cultural context social scientists have identified two distinct ways that members of various cultures deliver messages. in Low context, members use language primarily to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas are directly as possible. by contrast, members of high-context cultures rely heavily on subtle, often non verbal cues to maintain social harmony. mainstream culture in the united states, Canada, northern Europe, and Israel falls toward the low-context end of the scale. longtime residents generally value straight talk and grow impatient with people who beat around the bush. by contrast most Asian and middle eastern cultures fit the high context pattern
      - Uncertainty Avoidance. uncertainty may be universal. but cultures have different ways of coping with an unpredictable future. the term Uncertainty avoidance is used to reflect the degree to which members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous situations and how much they try to avoid them a culture's degree of uncertainty avoidance is reflected in the way its members communicate. in countries that avoid uncertainty out of the ordinary people and ideas are considered dangerous and intolerance is high. people in these cultures are especially concerned with security, so they have a strong need for clearly defined rules and regulations
        
        power distancerefers to the extent of the gap between social groups who posses resources and influence and those who don't. culture's with low power distance believe in minimizing the difference between various social classes. rich and poor, educated and uneducated groups may still exist, but there is a good as another regardless of his or her station in life.
        
        cocultures and communication. much of how we view ourselves and how we relate to others grow from our cultural and cocultural identity-the groups with which we identify. where do you come from? what's your ethnicity? your religion? your sexual orientation? your age?
        
        race and ethnicity. race is a construct originally created to explain differences between people whose ancestors originated in different regions of the world, Africa, Asia, Europe and so on. ethnicity is another social construct, ethnicity refers to the degree to which a person identifies with a particular group usually on the basis of nationality, culture, religion, or some other perspective this goes beyond physical indicators, for example, a person may have physical characteristics that appear Asian but they may identify more strongly as a Mormon or a member of the working class
        
        **regional differences where you come from can shape feelings of belonging and how others regard you. an accent is a case in point. speakers of standard ("newscaster") English are typically viewed as more competent and self-confident than others, and people tend to take what they say more seriously.in one experiment researchers asked human resources professionals to rate intelligence, initiative, and personality of job applicants after listening to a brief recording of their voices the speakers with recognizable regional accents- from the southern united states or new jersey, for example, were tagged for lower-level jobs, whereas those with less pronounced speech styles were recommended for higher-level jobs that t involved more public contact.
        
        it is simplistic to think of people as members of a single category. this is true for everyone but consider Barack Obama as an example. he is generally recognized as the first African American president of the United states, despite the fact that his mother was white. Obama experienced a variety of cultural influences while living in Indonesia. Hawaii, California, New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC. social scientists use the term Intersectionality to describe the complex interplay of people's multiple identities. the theory proposes that people are not simply the sum total of the different identities.
        
        accents are not the only indicator of regional differences. sociolinguist Deborah Tannen recorded the conversation at a thanks giving day dinner that included two Christians who grew up in California three Jewish people from new York and a British women. Tannen found that the Jewish new Yorkers spoke with what she called a "high involvement" style that worked well with their companies from the same background but was regarded differently by the English women and the Californians
        
        religion in some cultures religion is the defining factor in shaping in and out-groups. as fears of terrorism have grown peace-loving Muslims living in the wet have often been singled out and vilified. Yasmin Hussein, who works at the Arab American Institute, reflects on the prejudice and cruelty: many Muslims and individuals of other faiths who were thought to be Muslim have been there attacked physically and verbally. young children have been bullied at schools, others told to go back home and social media has become at times (a lot of the time) an ugly place to be on" in an effort to dispel unrealistic stereotypes, tens of thousands of Muslims have joined the #NOTINMYNAME social media movement in which they denounce terrorist groups such as ISIS and condemn violence in the name of the religion
        
        age /generation imagine how odd it would seem to hear an 8-year-old or a senior citizen talking, dressing, or otherwise acting like a 20 something. we tend to think of getting older as a purely biological process. but age-related communication reflects the culture at least as much as biology. in many ways we learn how to dress, talk ,say and what not to say_ in the same way we learn how to play other roles in our lives, such as student or employee. relationships between younger and older people are shaped by cultural assumptions that change over time. today western countries mostly honor youth, and attitudes about aging are more negative than positive. on balance people over age 40 are still twice as likely as younger once to be depicted in the media as an attractive, bored and in declining health and people over 60 are still underrepresented in the media. despite negative stereotypes the data on personal satisfaction present in a different story. studies show that overall, people in their 60s are just as happy as people in their 20
        
        socioeconomic staus social class have a miajr impact on how people communicate. people in the united states typically identify themselves as belonging to the working class, middle class, or upper class and feel a sense of solidarity with peole who tend to feel that they are united both by hardship and by their commitment to hard, physical work.. the effects of social class continue into the workplace, where skills such as assertiveness and persuasiveness are carrier enhancers. peole who come from working class families and attain middle or upper class carriers face special challenges. new speech and language clothing and nonverbal patterns often are necessaryto gain acceptance.
        
        4 more items...
        
        physical ability/Disability whereas identities related to ethnicity or nationality may require years of immersion, disability is "a club anyone can join, anytime. it is very easy. have a stroke and be paralyzed... be in a car wreck and never walk again" although able- bodied people might view disability as an unfortunate condition many people with disabilities find that belonging to a community of similar people can be rewarding. deaf culture is a good example. the shared experiences of deafness can create strong bonds. most notably distinct languages build a shared worldview and solidarity. there are deaf schools, deaf competitions, deaf performing arts and other organizations that bring deaf people.