COMM 330
Final Review

• Stereotype - a set of beliefs (cognitive)

- can be positive / negative
• Prejudice - an attitude (affect)
- can be positive / negative
— is stored in the mind
— i love Mexican food (prejudice)
• Discrimination - a type of behavior
- can be positive / negative
— is the act/ behavior
• Traditional relationship among the three stereotypes —> prejudice —> discrimination
• Discrimination is communicative
— is prejudice, ex: “i like a dodger fan just as much” later that day ends up beating up a dodger fan.
- generous definition of communication: Festivals, Marches, Tattoos, Violence,
Clothing, and Language are all communicative
- if discrimination can be positive / negative, then so can communication (be positive / negative)
• Communication Accommodation (Adjustment) Theory: explores how discrimination occurs communicatively
• Main Premise: we adjust (accommodate) our communication based on our communicative partner.
- attitudes of communicative partner’s social group are important
- types of accommodation
• Converge: —> social identity
- we desire a positive social identity
- we want to feel good about our own group membership
—> social comparison
- we compare our group in relation to other groups (“relative” others)
— relative means that when you are comparing the same genders but different ethnicities they’re the same, but different
— in-group rejection: when you reject yourself
• Social Comparison
- we compare our group in relation to other groups (“relative” others)
— women compare themselves to other women
- if social comparison for our group is positive, then we have positive social identity - the more positive social identities we have, the more positive we feel about ourselves - converse also true (ex: negative social identity)
— people can absolutely have a negative social identity
—> psychological distinctiveness (differentiation)
- to gain a positive social identity, we engage in psychological distinctiveness or differentiation between in-groups and out-groups
- differentiation often occurs communicatively (verbally and nonverbally)
—> psychological process
—> social categorization
—> social identity
—> social comparison
—> positive distinctiveness
Intercultural Communication
• according to communication accommodation theory, we communicatively move away from partners when our attitudes about our group is positive and attitudes about their social group are negative
- communicative differentiation is an act of divergence

— differentiation -> is moving away from
• in-group favoritism / out-group rejection
— in-group favoritism -> biased, for your own group
— when people have so much pride of their identity, the out-group doesn't really matter that much
- protecting our social identity by demonstrating a favorable in-group bias
— “it’s like a kit-kat but better”

• Sneetches

- the star belly sneetches thought they were better than the plain belly sneetches
- it was creating differences among groups
Improving Attitudes
• Intergroup contact - has 4 conditions
1). Equal Status
— both groups have to except
— one condition that are very difficult to meet
2). Inter-individual and Intergroup contact
- develop inter-individual and intergroup relationship with out-group
3). Institutional and Social support
- when an authority endorse the contact
— when your professor invites the “interact” group to perform in class for the day
4). Superordinate and Cooperative goals
Intercultural Communication Competence
• Intercultural Competence: the ability to behave effectively and appropriately when interacting across cultures.
• Intercultural Competence assumes:
— desire is the 1st assumption you should recognize
- Attitudes: tolerance for ambiguity, empathy, and non-judgmentalism
- Motivation: desire to make a commitment in relationships, learn about the self and others, and be flexible
- Knowledge: cognitive aspect of what we know about ourselves and others
• self-knowledge: knowing how one is perceived as a communicator, as well as ones strengths and weaknesses
• other-knowledge: knowing how people from other cultures think and behave
- distinguish between macro-level differences (ex: cultural differences) vs micro-level differences (ex: individual differences)
— macro- when sheldon from big bang theory starts talking about the indian culture and how girls have to listen to the men, and what they say and Raj agrees
— micro- Raj’s sister says how he breaks the indian culture all the time, but Raj dismisses what he does wrong
• Skills and Behavior: putting knowledge into practice
- unconscious incompetence: communicating without adapting communication style and not thinking about why it may not be effective
— one that lacks awareness that the interaction is not going well with different people

- conscious incompetence: awareness that an interaction is not going well, but not knowing why
— aware that they are not skilled intercultural communicators
- conscious competence: awareness that interaction is going well and understands why
- unconscious competence: interaction is going well, but now having to think about why, as the various aspects of intercultural communication are being used unconsciously. — think of themselves then others
• Anxiety / Uncertainty Management Theory: effective communication occurs through managing levels of anxiety and uncertainty
- people get more anxiety when talking to people outside there in-group
• intercultural interactions cause anxiety and uncertainty
• anxiety and uncertainty needs to be managed in order to have effective interactions — goal of intercultural communication is having effective communications
• optimally managing anxiety and uncertainty: minimum and maximum thresholds • mindfulness is key to managing thresholds: conscious / aware of communication - creation of new categories: make more, not fewer distinctions
- openness to new information: focusing on the process, not the outcome
- awareness of more than one perspective: look for other options available
• effective communication = minimizing misunderstandings
— effective communication is not sharing minimizing views, but understanding views
• Effective Intercultural Communication Involves:
- dialogue: sharing and reciprocating
• cultural differences in self-disclosure
- listening: hearing, considering, reconsidering, and interpreting in an attempt to understand intent
- sensitivity: thinking carefully before speaking and delivering nonthreatening or condemning messages