Ch9 Test Questions & Answers Intercultural Communication

CHAPTER 9

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

1. Americans calling their culture the greatest culture on Earth is an example of ____________.
   1. chauvinism
   2. ethnocentrism *
   3. cultural pluralism
   4. discrimination
   5. know-nothingism

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles Intercultural Communication

1. Which of the following is an obstacle to effective intercultural communication?
   1. cultural pluralism
   2. cultural participation
   3. discrimination *
   4. cultural relativism
   5. assimilation

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. ______________is the degree to which we can successfully make meaning with communicators from different backgrounds.
2. Intercultural communication competence *
3. Cultural relativism
4. Degree of tolerance
5. Reverse racism
6. Ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. Your friend, who is Caucasian, insists on asking your African-American friends if she can touch their hair. You explain to her that that’s a bit insensitive, if not outright rude, but her response is always is the same, “I’m just being me.” She is exhibiting __________.
   1. unconscious intercultural incompetence *
   2. conscious intercultural incompetence
   3. intercultural self-image
   4. intercultural individualism
   5. intercultural ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. Which of the following is one of Hofstede’s value dimensions?
   1. Authoritarian vs Demographic cultures
   2. Power distance *
   3. Conflict Avoidance
   4. Urban vs Rural cultures
   5. Authoritarian vs Democratic

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. In general, the United States is a(n) _______________ culture.
   1. collective culture
   2. individualistic culture *
   3. feminine culture
   4. high-context culture
   5. agrarian

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Despite their often negative influence, stereotypes persist because___________.
   1. they are usually accurate for most members of a given group
   2. the culture demands it
   3. they are useful for those who hold them *
   4. education in this country is inadequate to dispel them
   5. people remain aloof from “your kind”

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. Stereotypes begin forming _______________.
   1. in the womb
   2. early in childhood *
   3. in the young adult years
   4. in the late teenage years
   5. when children watch too much TV

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. The _________ metaphor has replaced the ______ metaphor as a more precise representation of American culture because it recognizes that the individual richness of each bounded culture is valued for itself and for what it contributes to the whole.
   1. melting pot/salad
   2. salad/melting pot *
   3. big tent/small tent
   4. small tent/big tent
   5. autocratic/democratic

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. It is quite natural for people to feel a preference for their ___________.
   1. in-group *
   2. fellow humans
   3. out-group
   4. fellow citizens
   5. neighbors

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity

1. Identity Negotiation theory states that people learn who they are through ___________.
   1. visual cues
   2. interaction *
   3. education
   4. conflict
   5. assimilation

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity

1. When you enter a culture different from your own you tend to look for the “rules,” those aspects of everyday life that help you determine right and wrong. In fact, you are looking for that culture’s ____________.
   1. relativism
   2. symbolism
   3. values *
   4. beliefs
   5. heroes

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. A New England family moves to the American Southwest, and despite that region’s different culture and traditions it still holds on to its original northern culture in an example of _________.
   1. assimilation
   2. cultural relativism
   3. cultural pluralism *
   4. recidivism
   5. ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. A different New England family moves to the American Southwest and quickly adopts the traditions and culture of that area, especially the Western music and desert-themed art in an example of _________.
   1. assimilation *
   2. cultural relativism
   3. cultural pluralism
   4. recidivism
   5. ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. Lucy decides to get more in touch with her family’s Brazilian roots, so she takes beginning Portuguese at the community center and joins her campus Brazilian dance team. These are acts of ____________.
   1. cultural participation *
   2. cultural pluralism
   3. cultural norms
   4. assimilation
   5. ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. ____________ is a prime example of an individualistic cultural norm.
   1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
   2. First, do no harm
   3. Harmony above all
   4. Love they neighbor as thyself
   5. I am who I am *

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Discrimination is a(n) _____________.
   1. attitude
   2. behavior *
   3. prejudice
   4. way of life
   5. benefit

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. Of the following regions, the one most likely to house high-context cultures is ________.
   1. Asia *
   2. The United States
   3. South America
   4. Scandinavia
   5. Canada

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. “I say what I mean and I mean what I say” is most likely to be spoken by someone immersed in a _________ culture.
   1. high-context
   2. low-context *
   3. masculine
   4. low power distance
   5. mechanistic

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. We all occupy different places in the culture because of our gender, race, class, and other social categories. This __________explains how these different aspects of who we are combine to shape or limit access to the culture’s many benefits.
   1. stereotyping
   2. intersectionality *
   3. labeling
   4. discrimination
   5. intermingling

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. ____________ tends to be encouraged in a feminine culture.
   1. Making money
   2. Standing out
   3. Truth telling
   4. Career success
   5. Nurturing *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Individualistic cultures tend to value ____________.
   1. making money
   2. standing out *
   3. truth telling
   4. nurturing
   5. assimilation

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Members of collective cultures tend to value __________.
   1. success
   2. independence
   3. harmony *
   4. truth telling
   5. wealth

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. A cultural transformer can effortlessly ______________.
   1. abandon one bounded culture for another
   2. teach the dominant culture to immigrants
   3. move between cultures *
   4. speak a number of foreign languages
   5. teach a bounded culture to a dominant one

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. By 2040 the United States will be a ___________ country; that is, there will be no single racial or ethnic majority among its people.
   1. Mixed-racial
   2. Europeanized
   3. minority-majority
   4. majority-minority *
   5. post-racial

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What is Intercultural Communication?

1. Making statements like gay men are great at interior design and women are emotionally weaker than men is an example of ________________.
   1. stereotyping *
   2. labeling
   3. prejudice
   4. chauvinism
   5. discrimination

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. You simply don’t understand why Mary is unwilling to go with you to Chinatown. “I’m just uncomfortable around those people” is her only explanation. This is an example of __________.
   1. stereotyping
   2. labeling
   3. prejudice *
   4. chauvinism
   5. discrimination

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. When pressed, Mary will admit that part of her problem with Asians is that they come from a part of the world that simply isn’t as wonderful as her homeland, the good old USA. This is an example of __________.
   1. stereotyping
   2. labeling
   3. prejudice
   4. chauvinism *
   5. discrimination

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. ___________________ theory argues that group membership, in and of itself, creates a self-identification that will favor the in-group at the expense of the out-group.
   1. Symbolic Interaction
   2. Frame analysis
   3. Social Identity *
   4. Identity Negotiation
   5. Relational Dialectics

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity

1. ____________ theory argues that when we interact with others we, to varying degrees, assert, challenge, and possibly modify our assumptions about our own and their identities.
   1. Symbolic Interaction
   2. Frame analysis
   3. Social Identity
   4. Identity Negotiation *
   5. Relational Dialectics

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity

1. One of the goals of schools’ efforts to diversify their student bodies is to allow people of different racial, ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds to interact, because just as _________ would predict, that is an effective way of reducing stereotyping and intergroup biases.
   1. Symbolic Interaction
   2. Frame analysis
   3. the Contact Hypothesis *
   4. Identity Negotiation Theory
   5. Relational Dialectics

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. Cultural relativism, the idea that people vary in their cultural behaviors, traditions, and values and those differences don’t make any culture less or more valued, leads to ________.
   1. out-group preference
   2. cultural inclusiveness *
   3. in-group preference
   4. assimilation
   5. ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. For many years Americans spoke proudly of their country as a__________; all the immigrants’ values, beliefs, music, food, celebrations—all the things that made their cultures unique—would become one and mix with the existing American culture, forming an even better, harmonious whole.
   1. salad
   2. big tent
   3. small tent
   4. melting pot *
   5. a shining city on a hill

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. Organizational communication researcher Geert Hofstede explained that there are six ___________ along which the things that different cultures hold dear can shape their communication.
   1. value dimensions *
   2. assimilation routes
   3. cultural tropes
   4. cultural indicators
   5. levels of ethnicity

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Communication scholar Edward Hall identified a seventh way that cultures could be differentiated; they differ in terms of their people’s ___________.
   1. comfort with hierarchy
   2. degree of reliance on informational cues in the communication contexts in which they find themselves *
   3. comfort with uncertainty
   4. commitment to the group over the self
   5. degree to which they accept difference, even when it threatens tradition

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Alex flunked out of school, shaming not only himself, but his entire family. This scenario is most likely representative of the way folks from a(n) _________ culture would react,
   1. individualistic
   2. high power distance
   3. low uncertainty avoidance
   4. masculine
   5. collective*

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Your school’s president routinely drops by students’ weekend tail-gate parties, frequently eats in the student union cafeteria, and maintains an open-door policy for all students. She is clearly trying to foster a __________ culture on your campus.
   1. low power distance *
   2. collective
   3. high power distance
   4. feminine
   5. masculine

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Some countries, for example Germany and Austria, tend to have formal rules for greeting, but others, notably the United States, are far more open to variation and experimentation in greetings. At least in this instance, it makes sense to see the United States as a ___________ culture.
   1. low power distance
   2. high-context
   3. low uncertainty avoidance *
   4. high uncertainty avoidance
   5. feminine

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. In the communication of _____________ cultures there is much more “me” and “I” talk, more open expression of material comfort, and greater amounts of conversational challenge.
   1. feminine
   2. high-context
   3. masculine *
   4. low-context
   5. high uncertainty avoidance

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. In high-context cultures such as Japan, Korea, and China, speakers know to ignore the words (the_________) and pay attention to the understood meaning.
   1. cultural communication
   2. explicit code *
   3. assertion
   4. assimilation
   5. meme

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. When you engage in effective intercultural communication without any thought, you are engaging in _____________.
   1. unconscious incompetence
   2. conscious incompetence
   3. conscious competence
   4. unconscious competence *
   5. routine assimilation

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. Social scientists believe that quick categorization is_________, but that stereotyping is _____________.
   1. evolutionarily hard-wired/a controllable cognitive process *
   2. a controllable cognitive process/evolutionarily hard-wired
   3. typical of low power distance cultures/not
   4. typical of high power distance cultures/not
   5. taught in the family/taught in school

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. One way to improve intercultural communication in the workplace is to figuratively “walk a mile in another person’s shoes.” You might recognize this as _____________, putting ourselves in the position of others in order to better understand them.
   1. seeing all people as human first
   2. role-taking *
   3. increasing self-knowledge
   4. assuming mutual respect
   5. conscious incompetence

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. The best way to succeed as an intercultural communicator is not to tolerate diversity but to ____________ it.
   1. avoid
   2. ignore
   3. respect and celebrate *
   4. emulate those who practice
   5. get better at

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. Scholarly evidence suggests that children who ___________ hold fewer stereotypes throughout their lives.
   1. travel abroad at a young age
   2. have more exposure to diverse groups *
   3. have bi-cultural parents
   4. have tolerance training in school
   5. watch less TV

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. According to Hofstede’s value dimensions, people in ______ cultures tend to see their fates as sealed early in life.
   1. indulgent
   2. long-term oriented
   3. short-term oriented
   4. restrained *
   5. masculine

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Even though she herself is a woman, Jill refuses to hire females to write computer code for her new start-up because she thinks they not only distract the male programmers, but they simply aren’t strong enough to work the many hours she expects from them. Her refusal to hire qualified women is a case of ___________.
   1. discrimination *
   2. chauvinism
   3. intolerance
   4. labeling
   5. ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. When a female executive looks down on her male and female subordinates or older teenagers act superior toward their younger peers simply because they view age as hierarchal they are demonstrating ___________.
   1. discrimination
   2. chauvinism *
   3. intolerance
   4. labeling
   5. ethnocentrism

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. Identity Negotiation Theory argues that in childhood people work to establish first their _______ identities and then their ________ identities.
   1. in-group/out-group
   2. cultural/personal
   3. personal/cultural *
   4. out-group/in-group
   5. social/individual

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity

1. In differentiating high-context and low-context cultures, Edward Hall stressed that one of culture’s functions is to designate ___________ and__________.
   1. who is in/who is out
   2. who we tolerate/who we dismiss
   3. which hierarchies we value/which hierarchies we devalue
   4. what we pay attention to/what we ignore *
   5. what traditions we follow/what traditions we ignore

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

SHORT ANSWER

1. Define stereotyping and, using examples, explain the four ways it hinders intercultural communication.

Main theme: Stereotyping happens when we broadly characterize people or groups, often inaccurately. It is a clear hindrance to effective intercultural communication for four reasons.

Answer must have: Accurate definition of stereotyping and listing of four hindrances (serve as a filter; assumes culture-specific characteristics apply to each member of a group; are often exaggerated and over-simplified; are often difficult to change once formed). Examples must make sense.

Answer may have: Mention of other obstacles to effective intercultural communication, accelerators of intercultural communication, and ways to be a better intercultural communicator.

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. What is intercultural communication competence and its four levels? What type of thinking does intercultural communication require?

Main theme: Intercultural communication competence is the degree to which we can successfully make meaning with communicators from different backgrounds. It is a process.

Answer must have: Accurate definition of intercultural communication competence and listing of four levels (unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence). It requires holistic and analytical thinking.

Answer may have: Mention of obstacles to effective intercultural communication, accelerators of intercultural communication, and ways to be a better intercultural communicator.

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. What do prejudice and discrimination have in common? How do they differ? Give examples.

Main theme: Prejudice and discrimination are two other obstacles to successful intercultural communication, and the two concepts are often confused.

Answer must have: Correct recognition that prejudice is a negative attitude toward a cultural group based on little or no experience and discrimination is the overt actions people take to exclude, avoid, or distance themselves from other groups. Prejudice is an attitude; discrimination is a behavior.

Answer may have: Mention that both grow out of the stereotypes people hold, other obstacles to effective intercultural communication, accelerators of intercultural communication, and ways to be a better intercultural communicator.

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

1. Differentiate between individualistic and collective cultures. Give an example of each.

Main theme: In individualistic cultures the strong individual, one who is independent and stands apart from “the herd,” is valued. In collective cultures the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few.

Answer must have: Correct explanation and delineation of individualistic and collective cultures and examples must make sense.

Answer may have: Commentary on how communication typically differs in each culture (open, forceful, direct vs. in the service of bonding) and examples of countries that exhibit each cultural dimension (United States, Great Britain, and Australia vs. China, Japan, and many Latin American countries).

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. What is the difference between generalizing and stereotyping? Offer an example?

Main theme: Generalizing and categorizing are natural; stereotyping is not.

Answer must have: Correct rendering of what each is and how they differ and commentary on the fact that although we cannot help our initial flow of thought, we can control our subsequent thoughts and behaviors.

Answer may have: Commentary on the morality of each, discussion of other obstacles to intercultural communication, and mention of accelerators to intercultural communication.

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

ESSAY

1. What are the basic principles of the Social Identity Theory? How does this theory apply to intercultural communication? Give an example of people differentiating between their in-group and out-group and how that might influence their interaction

Main theme: Social identity theory argues that a person does not have one self, but rather several selves that correspond to her or his different group memberships and group membership, in and of itself, creates a self-identification that will favor the in-group at the expense of the out-group.

Answer must have: Correct rendering of the theory’s basic tenets and recognition that once people have membership in a given group, they work to increase their self-esteem by positively differentiating their in-group from some other out-group and that people find positive distinctiveness in a collective significant other, that is, their in-group. Must also mention that interaction will range on a spectrum from being purely interpersonal on the one hand to purely intergroup on the other.

Answer may have: Mention of symbolic interaction and discussion of impossibility of purely interpersonal interaction (Stephen Colbert’s irony fits here).

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity

1. What is tolerance? What is the problem with tolerance? How does tolerance affect intercultural communication?

Main theme: Tolerance is reluctant acceptance of different others; it interferes with true acceptance of the other; difference is to be embraced and celebrated.

Answer must have: Answers will vary, but there should be some recognition of the limitations of tolerating difference.

Answer may have: Mention of famous Niemöller quote or discussion of intercultural communication competence and its fourth level, unconscious competence.

A-head: Attitudes toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance

1. How do you feel about America soon becoming a majority-minority country? If you welcome this demographic reality, why? If you fear it, why? Do you think people of different ethnic backgrounds should fear or welcome its inevitability? How much impact do you think this will have on intercultural communication between Americans of different backgrounds?

Main theme: The United States is becoming more pluralistic: by 2020 the United States will be a majority-minority country; there will be no single racial or ethnic majority among its people.

Answer must have: Answers will vary greatly, but must make sense given the totality of the chapter.

Answer may have: Commentary on accelerators and obstacles to intercultural communication.

A-head: Obstacles to Intercultural Communication & Accelerators of Intercultural Communication

1. Differentiate between high- and low-context cultures. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? In which of these two dimensions, were you free to choose, would you feel most comfortable growing up?

Main theme: High and low refer to the amount of meaning existing in the communication context or environment. People in high-context cultures require less detailed explanation than those in low-context cultures because the context provides cues for meaning making.

Answer must have: Answers will vary, but there must at least be correct delineation of both dimensions, recognition that contexts constrain in high-context cultures but relative freedom of low-context cultures brings with it risk of error. Choice of culture must make sense given answer.

Answer may have: Mention of other value dimensions or discussion of face.

A-head: How Cultural Values Shape Communication

1. Social Identity Theory and Identity Negotiation Theory, taken together, offer an important intercultural communication lesson. How might that lesson shape your own commitment to effective intercultural communication?

Main theme: Considering the relationship between identity and culture can help explain the naturalness of in-group prejudice.

Answer must have: Recognition of the theories’ assertions that it is easier to interact with those with whom we are familiar; it boosts our self-esteem. But only by stepping out of our “comfort zone” can we can transform who we are and negotiate an identity that is truly ours, one constructed with a richness of experiences and interactions. Beyond that, answers will vary.

Answer may have: Commentary on idea that too much unquestioned and unchallenged cultural identity can lead to ethnocentrism and too little can lead to confusion. Too little change leads to stagnation; too much change leads to chaos and mention of different value dimensions.

A-head: The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity