Midterm Review Flashcards
- Define culture, according to the lecture.
-acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and
group striving.
-Culture refers to a particular group of people at a particular place at a particular time.
- Define ethnocentrism and provide clear examples of it to assist in understanding the definition.
-Ethnocentric: your culture is the preferred culture.
- List five ways that culture can be transmitted from generation to generation.
-Stories traditions holidays teachers mass media
Parents/ grandparents
- Define worldview and provide five examples of potential clashes between worldviews.
Cultures orientation towards god, humanity, nature, questions of existence, cosmos, life, death, sickness and other issues that deal with how its members view the world.
- Give examples of cultural symbols and explain what is the most important symbol of culture and why.
Flags, currency, dress, gestures, language, religious icons.
Language most important.
- What does Hi Mr. K. Cram, Bestv stand for?
- Hierarchies
- Meanings
- Religions
- Knowledge
- Concepts of the Universe
- Roles
- Attitudes
- Material Objects
- Beliefs
- Experience
- Spatial Relationships
- Timing
- Values
- How does avowel differ from ascription? Provide examples to assist in understanding how these terms differ.
Avowel- our perception of the world
Ascription- our perception about others & their perception of us.
- What are the six characteristics of culture?
- Learned
- Transmitted from generation to generation (proverbs)
- Based on symbols
- Dynamic
- Integrated
- Ethnocentric
- Describe some distinguishing features of a universalistic culture and a particularistic culture and the potential challenges that might arise in business between these two approaches to culture?
Universalistic- role based, Canada, contract set in stone
Particularistic- Focus on relationships, Japan, contract is a guideline
- Provide a detailed description of how low-context cultures differ from high-context culture.
High context- indirect communication (observe)
Low context- direct communication (talk)
- Explain Hofstede’s dimensions of culture.
Power Distance-
The extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions, organizations, and societies is distributed unequally.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Individualism: Degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of a group and believe in individual rights above all else.
Collectivism: Emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.
Masculinity vs. Femininity
Masculinity: The extent to which the culture favours traditional masculine roles of achievement, power, and control.
Femininity: A national cultural attribute that sees little difference between male and female roles. Places high value on the quality of life, interpersonal relationships, nurturing behaviours.
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them.
Long Term vs. Short Term Orientation
Long-term Orientation:
Emphasizes the future, thrift, and persistence.
Short-term Orientation:
Emphasizes the past and the present, respect for tradition, and fulfillment of social obligations.
- Describe the iceberg and the onion as representations of culture.
Iceberg- 10% visible (behavior), 90% invisible (attitude, beliefs, values)
Onion- Outer layer- observable, can perceive with 5 senses)
Middle layer- norms & values
Core- assumptions about existence
- Explain the concept of face and provide examples of how loss of face may differ in individualistic versus collectivist societies.
Face- self esteem, self respect
Individualistic- self face important
Collectivistic- mutual face and other face important
- Explain how meaning is transferred in intercultural communication.
Transferred through language, messages, exchange of messages, gestures, tone of voice
- What are some differences in value assumptions regarding nature and society and interpersonal relationships between nonwestern and western cultures?
Heterogeneity- western cultures, horizontal, guilt, doing something
Homogeneity- non-western cultures, vertical, shame, being
Interpersonal relationships- westsern (independence, informal, achieve status)
-non western (co-dependence, formal, ascribed status)
- What are three predictors of power distance? What is the best predictor of power distance? Explain why?
Climate, population size, distribution of wealth.
Distribution of wealth best predictor because the more unequal the wealth the greater the power distance.
- Explain in detail, with examples, the relationship between context, time, and cognition
Context- high & low Time – M & P Cognition- analytical & relational
- What contributions has Edward T. Hall made to our understanding of culture?
Context- high & low Time – M & P
- Describe features of the analytical approach and the relational approach to learning and problem solving.
Analytical- low context, rely on facts & logical approach
Relational- high context rely on wisdom & luck rather then facts
- How does a person’s culture affect their patterns of thinking and shape their approaches to presenting data and problem solving?
Relational thinking would try and solve a problem as a group. Problem solving would be hard as they are high context countries.
Analytical thinking is more individualistic and low context so the problem gets solved quicker.
- What does the textbook author mean when she say that a frequent source of miscommunication is misreading or missing the frame of reference (the triangle of meaning)?
Based on culture are they HC or LC culture. It all depends on verbal or non-verbal meanings. We all hope that message is taken the same way, that you want it received in the way you meant it.
- How does the author of the text define communicative competence?
It’s not enough to speak the language, but we need to know the use as well. The 5W of communication.
- Explain how past orientation, present orientation, and future orientation of time differ. Provide examples of cultures that follow these orientations.
Past orientation- view traditions of what came before as more important than ways of the present.
Future orientation- Planning on what’s ahead, planning for future
Present orientation- focused on the moment, not past or future.
- Explain in detail how PTime differs from MTime?
P-time- people are less set to their schedules, they are more concerned with relationships then deadlines.
M-time- is people staying on schedule and deadlines are taken seriously, LC
