COMM 348 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
intercultural competence - Answers - The ability to communicate in an effective and
appropriate manner with people from different cultural backgrounds than your own
Ethnocentrism - Answers - A point of view that accepts one's group's standards as the
best, and judges all other groups in relation to theirs
Cultural humility - Answers - Self-reflection, growths and desire to learn and critique
oneself. Both attitude and ability
Culture - Answers - How we see the world, a belief system. Groups of people that share
communicative norms. "Webs of meaning humans have spun" (Geertz) example of this
is dates
Language - Answers - Linguistic structure (grammar, vocabulary), norms, dialects
Language community - Answers - A population held together as a group by knowledge
of, and normative orientation toward use of a denotational code, a way of picking out
what we want to talk about
Pitfalls in intercultural communication - Answers - Overgeneralization, exaggeration,
jumping to conclusions
Framing - Answers - A definition of a situation; a set of pre-established assumptions for
seeing, understanding, and interpreting the world
Harold Garfinkel's psychotherapy results - Answers - Therapy situation, yes/no
question, answer, reflection. Results were subjects didn't care about their contradictory
answers, used answers to interpret what experimenter "really meant," answers were
easily rationalized. People are good at making stuff up.
Boromisza-Habashi - Answers - Interpretivist approach to culture
emic perspective - Answers - the perspective of the insider, the one belonging to the
cultural group in question
etic perspective - Answers - the perspective of the outside observer
Reflexivity - Answers - Systematic reflection on research as socially situated interaction
Methods - Answers - Data collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation
Ontology - Answers - Addresses the nature of things in the world
, Epistemology - Answers - A body of beliefs about how and what you can learn about
things that exist in the world
Axiology - Answers - Values that shape scholarship and its goals
Rich points - Answers - Events or misunderstandings which have been experienced as
embarrassing, irritating, funny, strange or problematic, and which can serve as entry
points in exploring cultural differences, and analyzed for learning purposes, are
sometimes called
Self-fulfilling prophecies - Answers - An assumption or prediction that, purely as a result
of having been made, causes the expected or predicted event to occur and thus
confirms its own "accuracy". Belief > actions > reactions
Physical attractiveness stereotypes - Answers - The presumption that physically
attractive people possess other socially desirable traits as well: What is beautiful is
good. Product of self fulfilling prophecy. Male and female phone call example
Sanity example - Answers - Sane people admitted to psychiatric evaluation. They were
diagnosed with mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Because that's what psychiatrists
expected. More self fulfilling prophecies
Culture shapes language - Answers - Language merely transmits culture, lang is a
neutral conduit for expressing thought rooted in common culture, culture is independent
from language
Language shapes culture - Answers - Lang influences how society perceives and thinks
about world; if culture is defined as patterns of thought/belief, then lang does not merely
reflect culture. Control over language is control over thought
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Answers - Systematic relationship between grammatical
categories of a language and how the person speaking this language understands and
behaves in the world
linguistic relativity hypothesis - Answers - 1) Language imposes a structure,
categorization, on the world, 2) linguistic structures are variable, different words for stuff,
3) linguistic structures influence nonlinguistic behavior, and (MAIN POINT) constrains
the thinking of those who learn and speak it
Strong version of linguistic relativity - Answers - Ideas not encoded in language cannot
be thought. Language is a set of impenetrable blinders
Weak version of linguistic relativity - Answers - Language shapes habitual thought.
Ideas encoded into language are more salient
intercultural competence - Answers - The ability to communicate in an effective and
appropriate manner with people from different cultural backgrounds than your own
Ethnocentrism - Answers - A point of view that accepts one's group's standards as the
best, and judges all other groups in relation to theirs
Cultural humility - Answers - Self-reflection, growths and desire to learn and critique
oneself. Both attitude and ability
Culture - Answers - How we see the world, a belief system. Groups of people that share
communicative norms. "Webs of meaning humans have spun" (Geertz) example of this
is dates
Language - Answers - Linguistic structure (grammar, vocabulary), norms, dialects
Language community - Answers - A population held together as a group by knowledge
of, and normative orientation toward use of a denotational code, a way of picking out
what we want to talk about
Pitfalls in intercultural communication - Answers - Overgeneralization, exaggeration,
jumping to conclusions
Framing - Answers - A definition of a situation; a set of pre-established assumptions for
seeing, understanding, and interpreting the world
Harold Garfinkel's psychotherapy results - Answers - Therapy situation, yes/no
question, answer, reflection. Results were subjects didn't care about their contradictory
answers, used answers to interpret what experimenter "really meant," answers were
easily rationalized. People are good at making stuff up.
Boromisza-Habashi - Answers - Interpretivist approach to culture
emic perspective - Answers - the perspective of the insider, the one belonging to the
cultural group in question
etic perspective - Answers - the perspective of the outside observer
Reflexivity - Answers - Systematic reflection on research as socially situated interaction
Methods - Answers - Data collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation
Ontology - Answers - Addresses the nature of things in the world
, Epistemology - Answers - A body of beliefs about how and what you can learn about
things that exist in the world
Axiology - Answers - Values that shape scholarship and its goals
Rich points - Answers - Events or misunderstandings which have been experienced as
embarrassing, irritating, funny, strange or problematic, and which can serve as entry
points in exploring cultural differences, and analyzed for learning purposes, are
sometimes called
Self-fulfilling prophecies - Answers - An assumption or prediction that, purely as a result
of having been made, causes the expected or predicted event to occur and thus
confirms its own "accuracy". Belief > actions > reactions
Physical attractiveness stereotypes - Answers - The presumption that physically
attractive people possess other socially desirable traits as well: What is beautiful is
good. Product of self fulfilling prophecy. Male and female phone call example
Sanity example - Answers - Sane people admitted to psychiatric evaluation. They were
diagnosed with mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Because that's what psychiatrists
expected. More self fulfilling prophecies
Culture shapes language - Answers - Language merely transmits culture, lang is a
neutral conduit for expressing thought rooted in common culture, culture is independent
from language
Language shapes culture - Answers - Lang influences how society perceives and thinks
about world; if culture is defined as patterns of thought/belief, then lang does not merely
reflect culture. Control over language is control over thought
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Answers - Systematic relationship between grammatical
categories of a language and how the person speaking this language understands and
behaves in the world
linguistic relativity hypothesis - Answers - 1) Language imposes a structure,
categorization, on the world, 2) linguistic structures are variable, different words for stuff,
3) linguistic structures influence nonlinguistic behavior, and (MAIN POINT) constrains
the thinking of those who learn and speak it
Strong version of linguistic relativity - Answers - Ideas not encoded in language cannot
be thought. Language is a set of impenetrable blinders
Weak version of linguistic relativity - Answers - Language shapes habitual thought.
Ideas encoded into language are more salient
