Intercultural Communications

Topics: Culture, Cross-cultural communication, Illegal immigration Pages: 7 (2293 words) Published: May 25, 2013
Test 1
Chapters 1-4

COMM 1502
Alexandra MacMurdo
May 14, 2013

Chapter 1
1. Why is it important to think beyond ourselves as individuals in intercultural interactions?

It is important to think beyond ourselves as individuals in intercultural interactions because the world is a melting pot filled with many people of different cultures living amongst other cultures. This makes intercultural communication inevitable to everyone. Additionally, having an intercultural interaction tends to make one aware of his or her own ethnocentrism. Intercultural encounters require one to go beyond his or her self due to the fact that this world is not about one individually. The ability to challenge one’s ethnocentrism, by becoming self aware, plays an important role in successful intercultural interactions.

2. The term “nativistic” refers to a person or group being so patriotic that they are anti-immigrant. Give a modern example of this and discuss its implications on society.

A legislative act was passed and is being enforced in the state of Arizona that at the time of passage was a severe anti-illegal immigration tactic. It has been the center of debate since, internationally and nationally because of its controversy and nativistic attributes. The Arizona Act made it a state misdemeanor crime any immigrant to reside in Arizona without the required documents to prove U.S. citizenship. Additionally, Arizona law enforcement officers are to determine an individual’s residence status via a "lawful stop, detention or arrest" when there is reasonable suspicion of a person being an illegal immigrant. Its implications on society hinders the situation in both ways. On one hand, the illegal immigrants gave birth to children in the united states and are citizens because of their birth right. If they deport these children’s parents out of the country, it will not be fair to the children because they are citizens of the U.S. In addition. these illegal immigrants accept hard labor work for little pay, that many U.S. born citizens refuse to take. On the other hand, being an illegal immigrant hinders the illegal immigrant’s health and social status because they are not entitled to health care and other benefits of U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, some end up using emergency rooms in hospitals for minor health issues that can end up costing the government and hospitals great financial loss.

Chapter 2
1. There are 3 approaches to studying intercultural communication. Compare and contrast all three.

The three approaches to studying intercultural communication are The Social Science Approach, The Interpretive Approach, and The Critical Approach. The Social Science Approach is based on psychology and sociology, uses culture as a variable, and uses quantitative methods. The Interpretive Approach is based on linguistic and rhetoric, and also uses qualitative methods. Additionally The Interpretive Approach uses Patterns of communication. Lastly, The Critical Approach studies the context in which communication occurs, such as background and environment. Additionally, The Critical Approach believes in objective rather than subjective and distinguishes that all intercultural interactions are characterized by power. However, it does not center on face to face intercultural interaction so the results are less realistic. Compared to The Critical Approach, The Social Scientific Approach believes that human behavior is predictable and the researcher's objective is to describe and calculate human behavior. However, it does not consider context nor is it very culturally sensitive. Whereas, The Interpretive Approach has an in depth understanding of communication patterns in particular context. Nonetheless, this approach has limitations such as a small number of interpretive studies of inter cultural communication. 

2. “Thus, the struggle over the image of each nation is, in part, fought out in the...
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