CCT200: Intercultural Communication

1. Culture and Perception CCT200: Intercultural Communication Race and Racism in a Canadian Context Rhon Teruelle Class #4 – October 1, 2012 CCT200 Week #4: RT 1

2. Chapter 3 • Culture and Perception 2 CCT200 Week #4: RT

3. The Perception Process • Each of us goes through the perception process as we come into contact with others: • We observe the available data in our environment. • We choose what data we see/hear/feel/smell/ taste and process it (selective perception). • We define the person or event and build expectations of future behaviour. • Our expectations help determine our behaviour toward the person. • Our behaviour affects the other person’s perceptions. 3 CCT200 Week #4: RT

4. Components of the Perception Process • Attributive component – consists of those characteristics we attribute to the person or object or event. • Expectative component – consists of the expectations we have of the things we perceive. • Affective component – feelings about the objects and people we perceive. 4 CCT200 Week #4: RT

5. Culture and Perception • Ethnocentrism – “the view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.” (Summer 1950). • Cultural relativism – trying to understand others’ behavior in the context of the culture or group of the person engaging in the behavior (Gudykunst 1994). 5 CCT200 Week #4: RT

6. Culture and Perception • The concept of ethnocentric speech (Lukens 1978). • Ethnocentric speech + cultural relativism (Gudykunst and Kim 1977). 6 CCT200 Week #4: RT

7. Social Cognition • Social cognition concerns the way we make a coherent “picture” of any event. • The process of social cognition involves the following: the situation; the people involved; the relationship of the people; the behaviour we perceive. 7 CCT200 Week #4: RT

8. Social Cognition Continued… • The situation – in order to communicate effectively, we need to understand “where” we are – the physical setting as well as the social setting. • Personal constructs are the mental yardsticks for evaluating objects, events, and people (Duck 1976). They are physical constructs, role constructs, interaction constructs, and psychological constructs. 8 CCT200 Week #4: RT

9. Social Cognition Continued… • Implicit personality theory – we organize our individual perceptions into a cluster, filling in missing data. • Self-fulfilling prophecy - occurs when one person (the observer) believes something to be true about another person (target). The observer behaves towards the target as if the belief is fact. This behaviour then causes or prompts the target to behave as the observer expected. • Cognitive complexity - we differ in both the number (differentiation) and quality (abstraction) as well as the ways we integrate these cognitions when evaluating others. 9 CCT200 Week #4: RT

10. The Relationship • We label relationships. • Whatever level we assign determines our perception of the appropriate behaviour in the relationship. • As the relationship develops, we will develop a master contract with the other person that guides our recurring interaction. • One variable that governs how we do this is “self” – determining what aspects of our self-perception fit into the relationship. 10 CCT200 Week #4: RT

11. The Behaviour • Attribution theories – deal with the ways people infer the causes of behaviour. • Includes three general principles: 1) People attempt to determine the causes of behaviour 2) People assign causes systematically 3) The attributed cause affects our perception and our behaviour. 11 CCT200 Week #4: RT

12. Biases • Personality error – we explain another’s behaviour in terms of personality and underestimate the influence of situational factors. • Group bias – we tend to attribute positive behaviour by in-group members to their personality and their negative behaviour to situational variables. • Egocentric bias – the tendency to see our own behaviour as normal and appropriate. • Premature closure – the tendency to stop searching for explanations of behaviour once we have a reasonable and relevant explanation. • Negativity – the tendency to overemphasize negative information about others’ behaviour. 12 CCT200 Week #4: RT

13. Making Accurate Attributions • Perception checking – helps us make sure that our interpretation of another’s behaviour is what she or he meant. • Active listening – we can do this by attending to the other person. An active, not a passive activity. • Feedback – both seeking AND giving feedback. 13 CCT200 Week #4: RT

14. Stereotypes • Stereotype – a generalization about a group of people which can be positive or negative. • Involves three essential aspects: 1) We categorize others based on easily identifiable characteristics. 2) We assume that certain attributes apply to most or all of the people in the category. 3) We assume that individual members of the category have the attributes associated with the group. 14 CCT200 Week #4: RT

15. Prejudice • A negative attitude towards individuals resulting from stereotypes. • According to Van Dijk (1987): - Prejudices are attitudes. - Prejudices are group based. - Prejudices fulfill social functions for in-groups. - Prejudices are negative evaluations. - Prejudices are based on cognitive models. 15 CCT200 Week #4: RT

16. Why Do People Have Prejudices? • Brislin (1991) suggests that prejudice serves several functions. 1) Utilitarian function - our prejudices may be rewarded. 2) Ego-defensive function – allows us to avoid admitting certain things. 3) Value-expressive function – they allow people to highlight certain aspects of life that they value highly. 4) Knowledge function – allows us to organize and structure our world in ways that make sense and are relatively convenient. 16 CCT200 Week #4: RT

17. Discrimination and Racism • Prejudice leads to discrimination! • Discrimination often leads to racism! 17 CCT200 Week #4: RT

18. Peter S. Li, PhD • B.A., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.C. • Acting department head, professor, tenured – University of Saskatchewan • “Social Inclusion of Visible Minorities and Newcomers: The Articulation of “Race” and “Racial” Difference in Canadian Society. 18 CCT200 Week #4: RT

19. Race and Racism in Canada • The constitutional and legislative tools developed to ensure that “race”, “origin”, and colour are illegal grounds for differential treatments are insufficient to guarantee de facto racial equality. • “Racism can be articulated in a democratic society in “racial” myths and stereotypes without requiring its followers to denounce the democratic principles” (Henry, et al. 2000). • “The very fact that both pollsters and respondents have accepted the legitimacy of ranking people based on ‘race’ or ‘origin’ and have asked and answered such questions routinely further suggests that the concept of ‘race’ is socially entrenched in the normative order of Canada” (Li 2003). 19 CCT200 Week #4: RT

20. Race and Racism in Canada Continued…. • “Social inclusion of visible minorities and new immigrants of ‘non-white’ origin necessitates rejecting using ‘race’ and ‘racial’ features to signify the value of people and to reward or penalize people accordingly” (Li 2003). • Confronting the problem of ‘racial’ signification remains a daunting challenge in the social inclusion of visible minorities and racialized immigrants” (Li 2003). 20 CCT200 Week #4: RT

21. Questions or comments 21 CCT200 Week #4: RT