DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE MODEL

Grounded theory
Majority/dominant color model-process for non-dominant members slightly different. Developmental model--linear

ETHNOCENTRISM
Ethnocentrism assumes that the worldview of ones own culture is central to all reality.
Similar to egocentricity, in which an individual assumes that his or her existence is central to the reality of everyone with whom they come in contact.

DENIAL OF DIFFERENCE
Basic unconscious belief: All people in the world share my beliefs, attitudes, behavioral norms, and values. Difference is not experienced, has no meaning. Perception is very selective. There is a lack of categories for cultural difference; only that which is already familiar is perceived.

DENIAL: 2 FORMS
A slight increase in ability to perceive difference can lead to 1. SEPARATION: An intentional erection of physical or social barriers to maintain distance. Examples: Reservations, Jim Crow laws, ghettoes, gated communities, apartheid.

DENIAL: 2 FORMS
2. ISOLATION: The person has never been exposed to cultural difference due to lack of proximity. Parochialism: A relative form of isolation in which the person chooses to expose themselves to less difference than would be possible (small town near a large city).

DEFENSE
Attempts to preserve the centrality of ones worldview & leave identity unchallenged. People recognize specific cultural differences and erect specific defenses against them.
Defense can take 3 forms: Denigration, superiority, or reversal.

DENIGRATION
Negative stereotyping: Bad characteristics are applied to every member of the group (Stage, not an isolated act). May include a group-belief system that offers an intellectual rationale for why the other group is inferior: For example, Colonial rationale for the inferiority of Indians and Africans; Nazi rationale.

SUPERIORITY
Emphasizes the positive evaluation of ones own culture, less overt emphasis on the inferiority of the other. Difference is viewed as an inferior, possibly temporary state. Protection from seeing difference as a viable alternative; difference is tolerated but still seen as less-than.

REVERSAL
Denigration of ones own culture, assumption of the superiority of the other.
Difference is still seen as less-than.

Avoids confrontation with self and identity issues.

MINIMIZATION
An attempt to bury difference under the weight of cultural similarities. Still ethnocentric because the nave assumption is that all people are basically some particular way, almost always derived from the persons native culture. Example: Reagan in Latin America-entrepreneur.

Minimization:

Physical Universalism
Assumes that all cultures are just elaborations on fundamental biological similarities. For cross-cultural interactions, this assumption EVEN IF TRUE is meaningless because it fails to address the unique social contexting of physical behaviors, reflecting unique worldviews.

Minimization:

TRANSCENDENT UNIVERSALISM
Suggests that all humans, whether they know it or not, are products of some single transcendent principle, law, or imperative. Examples: We are all gods children.(When the group does not believe in the speakers god).

Minimization:

TRANSCENDENT UNIVERSALISM
Marxism Capitalism (All value success most highly) Psychology (Archetypes) On the surface minimization is less nasty than preceding stages. There is more tolerance for difference, and people are often very nice.

Minimization:

TRANSCENDENT UNIVERSALISM
NEGATIVE ASPECTS Aggressive conversion attempts: Latin American policy With education, all will accept the truth. May be willing to study diverse populations in order to make conversion attempts more effective.

ETHNORELATIVISM
Assumes that cultures can only be understood In relative terms. There is no absolute standard of rightness or goodness that can be applied to cultural behavior. Ones own culture is not more central to reality than any other culture.

ETHNORELATIVISM
A major thinking and emotional divideshift from reliance on absolutes to an acceptance of different realities. Does not imply an inability to make ethical judgements, but they are now made on grounds other than the ethnocentric protection of ones own world view.

ACCEPTANCE
Cultural difference is acknowledged and respected.
2 stages: Behavioral difference Value differences

Acceptance

Behavioral difference
Behavior difference is seen as indicative of profound cultural differences. Example: Language as shaper and reflector of cultural reality, not just different codes to express the same ideas. Most difficult: Seeing the cultural relativity of nonverbal behavior

Adaptation

Behavioral
Philosophically: Differences must be understood totally within the context of the relevant culture. Cognitively, emotionally: The person in behavioral adaptation has internalized two or more cultural frames of reference. Respect for difference = respect for self.

Acceptance

Value differences
Other interpretations of reality are accepted as workable and worthy Examples: Person-person or person-group orientation Ones own world view is accepted as a relative cultural artifact. I know I believe this way because my culture taught me to. High cultural self-awareness

ADAPTATION
Can relate to and communicate with people of other cultures, can switch behaviors to those appropriate to the other culture, and reestablish own frame of reference later. OCCURS IN TWO STAGES: Cognitive adaptation Behavioral adaptation

Cognitive Adaptation
Recognizes the value of having more than 1 cultural perspective available Can take the perspective of another culture to understand or evaluate Can intentionally shift cultural frame of reference Cognitive adaptation can be developmental or nondevelopmental

Behavioral adaptation
Person first develops the ability to empathize, not sympathize. Empathize: The ability to shift into the frame of reference the other brings to that situation. Sympathize: Imagining how you would feel in those circumstances.

Behavioral adaptation
Can produce situationally appropriate behavior natural to the other culture, not ones own--without conscious effort The person has internalized two or more cultural frames of reference. May not be more sensitive to a 3rd culturemay resist cultural training

INTEGRATION
Difference becomes integral to identity Can CHOOSE a cultural perspective from which to evaluate 2 skills needed: Shifting of cultural context Self-awareness needed to exercise choice Judgements reinstated: But are specific to a given cultural context.