Intercultural Interactions

A Practical Guide

Kenneth Cushner, Richard W. Brislin

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 1995
• Print ISBN: 9780803959910, 9780803959903
• eBook ISBN: 9781452237305
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The first edition of Intercultural Interactions pioneered the 18-theme "culture-general" framework that has become the basis of work and research with a diverse array of populations, from interpreters for the deaf to helping professionals in multicultural settings and businesspeople around the world. Even more comprehensive in its scope and now with a practical new user?s guide, the second edition expands coverage to draw the reader in--with more vivid scenarios and examples reflecting changing world events and social milieu. Updated essays integrate these critical incidents, incorporating the most current developments in the field of cross-cultural training. A special chapter, the user?s guide provides practical, time-saving suggestions for using the book in a variety of training programs as well as preparing for the cross-cultural experience. Across the spectrum of professional, educational, and personal settings, the second edition of Intercultural Interactions offers a key framework for living, interpreting, and assimilating cross-cultural experiences. This book is integral for use in culture-centered training and research programs, college coursework in psychology and global management, programs for overseas business people and study abroad students, and multicultural health care and mental health settings. [all the quotes here are:] Praise for the first edition . . . "Brislin and his coauthors have developed a most interesting training device designed to aid sojourners, executives, teachers, and others during the inevitable adjustment period they will face whenever they go to another culture or country. The book will primarily be seen as a helpful aid to anyone who is interested in training and evaluating those who are preparing for ?close encounters of the other-culture kind.? However, it will also be welcomed by many academicians as a useful way in which to discuss certain social psychological principles, such as attribution processes or dimensions of interpersonal attraction." --from the Preface by Walter J. Lonner & John W. Berry "The appearance of Intercultural Interactions is a major event for researchers and trainers in the field of cross-cultural communication. The critical incidents and essays presented are intensely practical in their orientation, broad in their coverage of the main problem areas, and deep in the insights they provide." --Geert Hofstede, University of Limburg at Maastricht, The Netherlands "This admirable volume is addressed to the lay person. The purpose of the educational materials in this book is to assist people when they must adjust to life in another country, or to assist them when they are to interact extensively with people from other cultural backgrounds." --Contributions to Indian Sociology "The authors carefully describe the process they used to develop the training materials, giving convincing empirical evidence of their validity. Those who prepare sojourners will find the result of their work to be a highly useful resource." --Review and Expositor

1

INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE ABOUT TO INTERACT EXTENSIVELY IN ANOTHER CULTURE

Since the first edition of Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide (Brislin, Cushner, Cherrie, & Yong, 1986), debate, discussion, and training efforts centered on issues of intercultural interaction and cultural diversity have intensified. It has become clear to many people that, like it or not and ready or not, the conditions of the world are such that we are all increasingly coming into contact with those who are different from ourselves. Such changes are evident in a wide variety of contexts, both internationally and intranationally around the globe: The international business community continues to expand; international refugees and immigrants swell national populations; organizations such as the Peace Corps and various missionary groups send increasing numbers of people to overseas destinations; schools within many nations are increasingly addressing the needs of individuals and groups from cultures other than the mainstream; and businesses and communities worldwide struggle as their workforces become increasingly diverse, mixing nationalities, genders, ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, and abilities/disabilities.

Recent conceptions of the influence of culture on people’s behavior have followed these phenomena and have expanded to consider a variety of contexts beyond national culture to include issues related to ethnicity, social class, exceptionality, and gender (Brislin, 1993; Cushner, McClelland, & Safford, 1992; Pedersen, 1988; Tannen, 1990). The theoretical field of cross-cultural psychology and the applied field of cross-cultural or intercultural training have both continued to grow in response to these circumstances. In this second edition of Intercultural Interactions, we recognize the many different contexts in which intercultural interactions are likely to occur; we have designed this volume with this expanded audience in mind. The changes that have been taking place worldwide, along with many of our own experiences in conducting hundreds of workshops and training programs employing this model and the considerable research we and others have conducted using the framework presented in this book, provide the impetus for this second edition.

The materials presented in this book are intended to assist people when they must adjust to life in countries other than their own, to assist people who need to interact extensively with people from other cultural backgrounds, and to provide a foundation of knowledge concerning the nature of culture as well as cross-cultural interaction. The materials are designed to be helpful regardless of (a) the cultural backgrounds of the people involved in a given interchange, (b) the country or culture in which the reader moves or interacts, and (c) the particular role the reader assumes in another country or within another group.

We recommend that persons preparing to live in countries other than their own, or to interact extensively with members of other cultures, examine the collection of critical incidents presented in this book and analyze the issues that they raise. The cross-cultural encounters depicted in the incidents are typical of the kinds faced by people living and working in other cultures, and they summarize common emotional experiences, communication difficulties, and challenges to preexisting knowledge. The assumption is that as people read and analyze the incidents, all drawn from the actual experiences of others who have moved across cultures, they will become better prepared for their own upcoming intercultural interactions. They will thus develop broader vocabularies and conceptual bases about intercultural interactions that will empower them to understand and solve their own cross-cultural problems more efficiently.

People typically have difficulties when moving across cultures. Suddenly, and with little warning, they find that behaviors and attitudes that proved necessary for obtaining goals in their own culture are no longer useful. Further, familiar behaviors that marked well-adjusted persons in their own culture may even be seen as indicative of ill-mannered persons in their new surroundings. Even with all the typical difficulties, however, most people who have had cross-cultural experiences look back on them as an enriching, challenging part of their lives. Many people make career changes as a result of extensive intercultural interaction, and many become more interested in international affairs. A possible reason for such positive developments is that most people who interact cross-culturally successfully overcome barriers to adjustment and consequently develop images of themselves as competent individuals who can understand the viewpoints of people in various parts of the world. They also become more knowledgeable about others’ perspectives and ways of life, and are thus better able to understand the issues and conflicts that others may face. Individuals differ as to how quickly they begin to overcome the inherent difficulties of cross-cultural interaction and begin to obtain the benefits it offers. A basic assumption behind the development of the materials in this book, substantiated by much of the research on this topic (see Chapter 2), is that all people can successfully overcome the difficulties if they are aware of the range of challenges they will face. They will also benefit if they analyze how various experienced people have obtained their goals during intercultural assignments.

The materials presented here were developed to improve formal efforts to prepare people for extensive interaction with individuals from cultures other than their own. Such efforts are most commonly referred to as cross-cultural training, diversity training, or multicultural education programs.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING PROGRAMS

Various researchers and practitioners have designed programs to prepare people for successful sojourns in other countries or to prepare people for extensive interaction with members of other cultural groups within any one country (Bhawuk, 1990; Brislin & Pedersen, 1976; Brislin & Yoshida, 1994a, 1994b; Landis & Brislin, 1983). The ultimate purpose of these programs is to increase the probability of people’s successful adjustments in dealing with other cultures. Successful adjustment is defined as a combination of four factors (Brislin, 1981, 1993; Ruben & Kealey, 1979):

1. Good personal adjustment, marked by feelings of contentment and well-being. If a person can say to him- or herself, “Yes, I feel comfortable here and feel that I’m doing well,” this would be an indication that this one criterion of successful adjustment is being met.
2. Development—and maintenance—of good interpersonal relations with hosts, marked by respect for people in the other culture, good collegial relations in the community or on the job, free time spent with those of the other culture, and sharing of personal information with others. Especially important is the other’s point of view. If others say, “This person interacts well in this context and gets along with others,” this would be an indication that this aspect of cross-cultural success is being met.
3. Task effectiveness, or the completion of work goals in the other country or with the other culture. This aspect of cross-cultural success concerns the attainment of task-related goals, and these will differ from person to person. Foreign students want to obtain high school diplomas or college degrees. Overseas businesspeople want to establish trade agreements. Technical assistance advisers want to complete development projects. Teachers in diverse settings want to help their students succeed in school. In the last two examples, for instance, this aspect will include the sharing of knowledge with others along with the accompanying need to adjust one’s teaching style to accommodate a different learning style, as in the transfer of information for the maintenance of a successfully completed development project (Hawes & Kealey, 1981) or in teaching in a culturally diverse school setting (Cushner, 1994; Cushner et al., 1992). This is but one example of how the materials in this book highlight the cross-cultural differences individuals must understand in order to achieve subsequent success.
4. No greater stress or experience of culture shock than would occur in the home culture when moving into a similar role. People experience adjustment difficulties, for example, whenever they move into new positions, no matter where they are. Teachers of adolescents will have difficult moments whether they teach in Seoul, New Delhi, or New York. Likewise, air traffic controllers have stressful jobs whether they are in Tokyo, Cairo, or Atlanta. This fourth criterion of success is met when the individual experiences only the natural period of culture shock or adjustment any person would experience, with no greater stress than would be caused by the same circumstances in his or her own culture.

Readers should keep all four criteria for success in mind when thinking about cross-cultural adjustments. People may make seemingly adequate progress in one area, but may have difficulties because of inattention to the other three. For instance, a person may think he or she is making a good adjustment (the first criterion), but may be disliked by hosts (the second criterion). A strong-willed person may overcome obstacles and achieve task-related goals (the third criterion), but at the cost of his or her physical and mental health (the first criterion) or relations with others (the second criterion). Professionals who work with people crossing cultures (e.g., foreign student advisers, personnel officers in multinational or multicultural organizations) should make sure that attention is paid to all four criteria. This attention is especially important for the future of cross-cultural interaction. Often in international work, individuals who are overly concerned with one of the aspects of successful adjustment (e.g., they work to the exclusion of good interpersonal relations) do not receive appropriate feedback from hosts because of local norms demanding politeness and congeniality. Subsequently, the programs that brought the troublesome sojourners to the host country are jeopardized, and there are fewer opportunities for the next wave of potential sojourners. Or social service providers may be so intent on their task that they ignore critical aspects of communication and relationship building, and thus alienate and distance clients. Put another way, the next wave of people crossing cultures pay for the sins of their predecessors. Many cultures have “war stories” about past sojourners or workers that make it difficult, if not impossible, for today’s sojourners to establish themselves and to have a chance to meet the four criteria of successful adjustment.

THE NATURE OF CULTURE AND CULTURE LEARNING

The process by which we all come to believe that there is a “right” way to think, express ourselves, and act is called socialization. It is the process by which individuals learn what is required of them in order to be successful members of a given group, what is right and good. Socialization is a unique process in that it simultaneously looks to the future and the past. It looks forward to where people are expected to be and backward to determine what behaviors, values, and beliefs are important to continue. Socialization is such a potent process that once people have been socialized they are hardly aware that other realities can exist. This results in the presence of ethnocentrism, the tendency of people to judge others from their own culture’s perspective, believing theirs to be the only “right” or “correct” way to perceive the world.

We consider most people to be potentially multicultural, as we are all socialized by many different groups that influence our behaviors and thought patterns; gender, nationality, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and religion, for example, all play roles in our socialization. Brislin (1993) provides a list of culture’s features that is useful in helping us to understand the influence of culture on behavior; these features apply across all of the categories of groups by which we are socialized. The list is summarized below; readers are advised to apply it to the various groups with which they interact.

Culture usually refers to something that is made by human beings rather than something that occurs in nature. The place where a body of water meets a shore provides an example. The naturally occurring components of this environment are not considered culture—the water itself, the beachfront (usually), or the horizon. How we think about and what we do with this natural environment, however, are usually dependent upon culture. Consider the beachfronts of Miami Beach, Florida, and Malaga, Spain, and their various waterfront condominiums, piers and boardwalk, boats, shoreline litter (including medical waste that may wash ashore), and even the thin layer of suntan lotion left floating on the water’s surface. All of these would be considered part of culture. Furthermore, the condos, the boats, and the litter are not only products of culture, they also represent attitudes toward the natural environment. Thus human culture and the natural environment are always connected, usually in a variety of ways.

Clearly, then, culture consists of interrelated components of material artifacts (the condos and boats), social and behavioral patterns (we have medical waste and we dump it in the ocean), and mental products (it’s all right to dump litter in the ocean because, somehow, the water will take care of it, and anyway, the ocean is so large).

The most critical dimension of culture concerns itself with people’s assumptions about life. Culture consists of the ideals, values, and assumptions about life that are widely shared and that guide specific behaviors. Triandis (1977) points out the distinction between objective and subjective culture. The term objective culture refers to the visible, tangible aspects of culture, and includes such things as the artifacts people make, the food they eat, the clothing they wear, and even the names they give to things. It is relatively easy to pick up, analyze, and hypothesize about the uses and meanings of objective elements of culture.

Subjective culture, on the other hand, refers to the invisible, less tangible aspects of a group of people. People’s values, attitudes, norms of behavior, and adopted roles—the things generally kept in people’s minds—fall into this category. It is much more difficult for people to speak about, observe, and understand what is going on when it is the subjective elements of their culture that are in conflict with those of another. It is thought that most cross-cultural misunderstandings occur at the subjective cultural level, and that this should be the focus of good cross-cultural training.

Culture is a collective creation. Culture is socially constructed by human beings in interaction with others. Cultural ideas and understandings are shared by groups of people who recognize the knowledge, attitudes, and values of one another, and who also agree on which cultural elements are better than others. Culture is, thus, transmitted across generations by parents, teachers, respected elders, and religious leaders, and is mediated through a variety of sources, including the media, the stories parents tell their children, and the various experiences individuals have in a given culture’s schools.

There exist clear childhood experiences that individuals can identify that help to develop and teach particular values and practices. Consider the characteristics of individualism and self-reliance so highly prized in the United States. Most people who have grown up in the United States can identify specific experiences from their childhoods that helped them to develop such traits, such as early jobs (paper routes, baby-sitting), and proverbs extolling the virtues of individuality that were influential as they grew up (“God helps those who help themselves”; “The early bird catches the worm”).

Aspects of persons’ cultures that guide their behavior are not frequently spoken about. In many ways, culture is a secret. Because one’s culture is generally widely shared and accepted as “normal” and “natural,” there is little reason to discuss it frequently. Consequently, people generally lack the vocabulary to discuss issues when cross-cultural problems emerge. It thus becomes a major responsibility of cross-cultural trainers and educators to help individuals develop categories and vocabularies that will allow them to discuss freely the encounters they experience, thus enabling them to resolve problems before they get out of hand.

Owing to the lack of common vocabulary and the fact that most people are uncomfortable with discussing or unable to discuss culture with others, culture becomes most evident in well-meaning clashes. Such clashes occur when people from different cultures interact in ways that each believes are proper and appropriate from his or her own perspectives but are different from what is expected by the other. A problem emerges, then, when people confront differences with which they are unfamiliar. Lacking both an outsider’s perspective on the elements of their own culture and a vocabulary with which to discuss that culture, they are unable to speak with others about the situation. People typically respond first on an emotional level; they may become quite frustrated, make negative judgments about others, and then end an interaction at this point of frustration. This must be avoided if productive encounters are to result. A major goal of this book is to help people develop vocabularies of re...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Series Editors’ Introduction
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Information for People About to Interact Extensively in Another Culture
• 2. Information for Teachers and Cross-Cultural Trainers
• 3. Host Customs
• 4. Interacting With Hosts
• 5. Settling In and Making Adjustments
• 6. Tourist Experiences
• 7. The Workplace
• 8. The Family
• 9. Education and Schooling
• 10. Returning Home
• 11. People’s Intense Feelings
• 12. Knowledge Areas
• 13. The Bases of Cultural Differences
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• About the Authors