A Test of the Relationships between Host and Home National Involvements and the Preferences for Intercultural Conflict Management Styles

This study focused on the relationships between host national (host interpersonal communication) and home national (ethnic interpersonal communication) involvements and preferences for conflict management styles in the context of a conflict with a member of the host culture. Two hypotheses that examined the relationships between these variables and the preferences for the integrating, the compromising, the avoiding, the obliging and the dominating styles were proposed. Survey data from two hundred and sixty-nine, international and exchange, students were analyzed. The results revealed that the level of host national involvement positively predicted the preferences for the integrating and the obliging styles, and the level of home national involvement positively predicted the preference for the avoiding style. These findings suggest the need to consider contextual influences in understanding the complexities that underlie intercultural communication and adaptation.     

Beyond Individualism-Collectivism and Conflict Style: Considering Acculturation and Media Use

Opportunities for individuals from varied cultural backgrounds to interact, and therefore conflict, are inherently greater because the technologies, economies, and livelihoods of people of many countries are increasingly interdependent. In light of globalization, it is ever more valuable to understand how culture influences the way people manage conflict. The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing people's individualistic-collectivistic culture tendencies and conflict styles, and whether or not acculturation is a moderating factor between individualism-collectivism and conflict style among foreign nationals living within the United States. In addition to acculturation, researchers also measured media use. The data revealed statistically-significant relationships for media-use and acculturation on individualism-collectivism and conflict styles, and supported the idea that acculturation is a moderating factor between individualism-collectivism and conflict style, although this relationship was only significant among those who preferred the dominating conflict style.     

Biculturalism and self-construal

Evidence on the dimensionality of self-construal points to the coexistence of both an independent and an interdependent self-image. Drawing on conceptualizations of the acculturation process, this study is a preliminary examination of the distinctiveness of four hypothesized self-construal patterns: Bicultural, Western, Traditional, and Culturally-alienated. Different types of individuals, having experienced varying amounts of cultural contact and having made different choices in adjusting to cultural groups, might portray distinctive self-construal patterns. Especially intriguing was the notion that those with a well developed sense of interdependence and a well developed sense of independence could be described as bicultural. To test this, persons from four a priori identified groups were selected to represent the four patterns of self-construal. We predicted that on a measure of self-construal, the mean scores of the respondents in the four groups would differ in strength with the bicultural experience group, in particular, exhibiting both a high independent and a high interdependent score on a measure of self-construals. Our hypotheses were supported. In terms of independent self-construal, the Bicultural and Western groups scored significantly higher than the Traditional and Alienated groups. For the interdependent self-construal, the Traditional and Bicultural groups scored significantly higher than the Western and Alienated groups. The bicultural group was the only group to score significantly higher on both types of construals. The availability of both types of self-construal would likely facilitate communication and adaptive behaviors for persons interacting in multiple cultures.     

The Relationships among Perceptions of Social Support,Intercultural Communication Apprehension (ICA), and Conflict Management Preferences in the Context of Cultural Adaptation

This study explores the relationships among perceptions of social support from family and friends, Intercultural Communication Apprehension (ICA) and intercultural conflict management preferences. Two hundred and ninety students, comprising primarily of international students, participated in the study. The results of the study revealed that, in regards to handling conflict with members of the host culture, increased perceptions of social support from family and friends lowered the level of ICA, and the decrease in the level of ICA led to increased preferences for the integrating and the compromising styles and decreased preferences for the avoiding and the dominating styles. Hence, the results of the study suggest that the influence of the perceptions of social support may extend beyond the mere alleviation of acculturative stress and psychological well-being and may have implications for the integration of immigrants and sojourners into the host culture.     

The relationship of individualism–collectivism and self-construals to communication styles in India and the United States

This study investigated the high-/low-context communication construct in terms of individualistic and collectivist values and self-construals. European American students studying in the United States and Indian students studying in India rated 80 communication statements, 29 self-construal statements and 34 value (individualism/collectivism) statements to examine cultural differences in each construct. As expected, Indians rated themselves as more collectivistic, having more interdependent self-construals, and preferring silence and indirect communication than Americans. Contrary to prior theorization, Indians also rated themselves as more dramatic and more individualistic. Several other expected differences were not apparent in this study. These findings show complex subtleties that defy simple definition by the common rubrics or generalizations of individualism/collectivism, self-construal, or high- and low-context behaviors.     

A comparative study of African American and European American ethnic identity

Differences between African Americans and European Americans were examined to find how ethnic identity salience was enacted in interethnic conversations, A sample of 126 African Americans and 78 European Americans was recruited from the community using a snowball sampling method. First, different factor structures for the two groups indicated that African Americans conceptualize sociocultural and political identity as separate constructs while European Americans express a singular and social definition of ethnic identity and experience less identity salience than African Americans. Secondly, although our sample is small, those who used the label “African American” expressed greater political ethnic identity salience than those who used the label “Black”. This finding is consistent with others' research indicating a continuing trend toward a positive political posture for African Americans. Third, ethnic identity was found to be negatively related to interethnic communication satisfaction for European Americans. Stronger European American ethnic identity was related to less satisfying interethnic conversational outcomes in less intimate relationships. Ethnic identity salience showed no significant relationship to interethnic conversational outcomes for European Americans communicating with friends nor for African Americans no matter the relational distance.     

Ethnic Differences in Public Participation: The Role of Conflict Communication Styles and Sense of Community

Cities around the world are challenged by a growing ethnic diversity and previous studies theorize that two of the factors that contribute to ethnic differences in public participation are conflict communication style and sense of community. This paper addresses these factors as predictors of community meeting attendance by two ethnic minority groups—African Americans and Korean Americans. Survey findings indicate ethnic differences as predictors of intent to attend a community meeting, and implications for facilitation of meeting processes are discussed. Further research is suggested to deepen understanding of how different ethnic groups perceive and respond to conflict in public meetings.     

The Effects of Self-Construal and Perceived Control on Argumentativeness and Communication Apprehension

This study investigates the relationships between self-construal, perceived control in communication interaction, and communication predispositions (e.g., argumentativeness and communication apprehension [CA]). The results indicate that the independent self-construal constitutes a significant predictor of perceived internal control in interaction, whereas the interdependent self-construal constitutes a significant predictor of perceived external (chance and powerful others) control in interaction. Moreover, the findings of this research indicate that perceived internal control constitutes a significant predictor of argumentativeness, whereas perceived external control is a significant predictor of CA. Contrary to expectations, the interdependent self-construal also constitutes a predictor of perceived internal control, which in turn constitutes a significant predictor of CA.     

Native American identity work in settler colonial context

In U.S. society, Native Americans face invisibility, stereotypes, discrimination, and structural barriers. In this article, we employ a symbolic interactionist approach, embedded in critical analysis, to explore how this social context impacts the conveyance and interpretation of Native American identity among people who are not Native American. Participants, 213 White American and 104 Native American people, replied to open-ended questions about Native American identity conveyance and interpretation. We employed an inductive thematic approach to analyze their written replies. The majority of Native American participants discussed their identity in the context of limited public knowledge of, and/or oppression faced by, Native Americans. For most Native American participants, this context generated strain and struggle associated with conveyance and interpretation of their identities. Despite this, some Native American participants engaged in identity work to educate others and reduce oppression. Without prompting, some White participants expressed positive attitudes toward Native Americans and their identity revelation. These positive attitudes evidence both hope for social change and problematic fetishization based on romantic stereotypes of Native Americans. We argue that society-wide change is necessary to reduce strain in, and enhance the effectiveness of, identity work by Native American people.     

The Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory: A conceptual framework and measure of intercultural conflict resolution approaches

Grounded in the pragmatics of human communication perspective, the current study examined how disagreements and emotion function across cultural context in resolving conflict. Specifically, the research effort developed the Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) inventory, a 36-item measure of intercultural conflict resolution style based on two core dimensions: Direct vs. indirect approaches to dealing with disagreements and emotionally expressive vs. emotionally restrained patterns for dealing with the affective dimension of conflict interaction. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) found the proposed two-factor model was a good fit to the data. Analysis of the CFA findings identified a final set of 18 direct/indirect items and 18 emotional expressiveness/restraint items. The direct/indirect scale obtained a coefficient alpha of .73 and the emotional expressiveness/restraint scale achieved .85 reliability. Validity testing of the scales found no significant effects by gender, education or previous intercultural living experience. A theoretical framework for understanding differences in conflict resolution styles grounded in the development of this inventory, a practical, four-quadrant intercultural conflict resolution style model is proposed based on high/low levels of directness and high/low levels of emotional expressiveness: (1) discussion style (direct & emotionally restrained), (2) engagement style (direct & emotionally expressive), (3) accommodation style (indirect & emotionally restrained) and (4) dynamic style (indirect and emotionally expressive).     

Reclaiming America: the quest for home in Shawn Wong’s Homebase

ABSTRACT

With its dynamic narrative, Shawn Wong's Homebase recounts the story of four generations of a Chinese family searching for a homebase on the land of the United States. Personal experiences, family chronicles, and Chinese American history are portrayed through various forms, including short stories, correspondences, student essays, memories, and dreams. A major theme of the novel is geographically and spiritually “reclaiming America,” or attempts by Chinese Americans to make the United States their “real” home. The protagonist's way to reclaim America involves revisiting landmarks and other places in the United States where his father and grandfather had traveled, through which he tries to discover the meaning of his own life in the United States and thereby to find his personal identity and home in this country. In drawing the topography of Chinese American history, Shawn Wong not only inscribed Chinese American presence on those places where the protagonist's forefathers had lived and worked, but also used legends to implant their heritage into those soils. Shawn Wong hopes that through his writing he can build for Chinese Americans a history, a cultural foundation with myths and legends of their own. Only when a people's myths spread over the land they inhabit can the land truly be considered theirs. The Chinese American identity shaped in Homebase is heroism, rooted in the ethnic identity of the male Chinese American in the American West, and this is the “home” that the protagonist as well as many other Chinese Americans ever quest for.     

Modes of victim blaming in a case of stabbing: Victim and offender ethnicity and observer ethnicity and religious affiliation

This study examined the effects of ethnicity on victim-blaming in a case of stabbing by addressing victim and offender ethnicity as well as observer ethnicity and religion. Jewish (n = 285), Muslim Arab (n = 249), and Christian Arab (n = 51) students from Israeli universities and colleges read a single stabbing scenario, in which we manipulated victim (Arab/Jewish) and offender ethnicity (African/Arab/Jewish). The results showed that participants blamed a Jewish victim more than an Arab victim. Also, our findings indicated that Christian Arabs expressed significantly higher victim-blaming than Jews. However, victim-blaming among Christian Arabs did not significantly differ from victim-blaming among Muslim Arabs, and victim-blaming among Muslim Arabs did not significantly differ from victim-blaming among Jews. Furthermore, the interactions between observer and victim ethnicity and between observer and offender ethnicity were significant. The discussion addresses the findings in the context of prejudice against members of African and Arab communities, the black sheep effect, and defensive attribution. In addition, the discussion suggests that observer ethnic and religious background may be related to blame-attribution mode: fixed (not affected by victim and offender ethnicity) or modular (affected by victim and offender ethnicity). From the practical standpoint, our findings suggest a need for further education on prejudice against minorities and promoting ethnic diversity among practitioners assisting and treating victims.     

Linguistic intergroup bias tells ingroup/outgroup orientation of bicultural Asian Americans

Traditional studies of ethnic relations focus on racialization between Whites and Blacks, or ethnic stratification between Whites and people of color. This study aims at broadening conventional studies of interethnic relations to examine racial attitudes among people who have internalized more than one culture – i.e., the biculturals and multiculturals. Social psychological research suggests that bicultural individuals are capable of switching between two cultural meaning frames depending on contextual demands. Bicultural individuals vary in how well they integrate the two cultural identities internalized in them – i.e., their bicultural identity integration levels (BII levels). Their BII levels lead to either culturally congruent or culturally incongruent behaviors among bicultural individuals. The underlying assumption of linguistic intergroup bias indicates that people tend to describe more abstractly observed positive ingroup behaviors and negative outgroup behaviors and describe more concretely observed negative ingroup behaviors and positive outgroup behaviors. In this study, bicultural Asian American participants are hypothesized to use language of either higher or lower abstraction to describe actions of positive and negative valence performed by either ethnic Asians or European Americans depending on the cultural priming they received and their BII levels. The demonstrated pattern of ingroup enhancement and outgroup derogation of the bicultural participants point out the perceived ingroup/outgroup orientation of these biculturals towards their coethnics and people of the mainstream culture. Effects of the cultural priming and impact of BII levels are also discussed.     

Answering a Call for Service: An Exploration of Family Communication Schemata and Ethnic Identity's Effect on Civic Engagement Behaviors

This study explored whether family communication schemata, in tandem with ethnic identity, predicted civic engagement behaviors. The study revealed several significant and positive relationships: among the family communication schemata and civic engagement, between ethnic identity exploration and ethnic identity affirmation, among family communication schemata and ethnic identity exploration, and between ethnic identity affirmation and civic engagement. A path model was used to demonstrate that expressiveness and structural traditionalism, two family schemata, predict ethnic exploration which in turn predicts ethnic affirmation which leads to one type of civic engagement, membership in formal groups.     

Collective identity factors and the attitude toward violence in defense of ethnicity or religion among Muslim youth of Turkish and Moroccan Descent

Collective deprivation, connectedness to mainstream society (friendship and psychological closeness to majority individuals) and in-group identity factors (i.e. strength of in-group identity, and perceived in-group superiority) were investigated among Muslim Dutch youth of Turkish and Moroccan descent, in relation to their attitudes toward violence in defense of religion or ethnicity, and the willingness to use such violence. Data come from a sample of students (N = 398, age 14–18 years). Results show that perceptions of in-group superiority were predicted by higher connectedness to the in-group and lower connectedness to Dutch society in both ethnic groups and by collective relative deprivation among Moroccan-Dutch participants only. In both groups, attitudes toward violent in-group defense and violence willingness were predicted by perceptions of in-group superiority. Collective relative deprivation directly predicted more positive attitudes to violent in-group defense among Turkish-Dutch youth, as well as indirectly (via in-group superiority) among Moroccan-Dutch. Connectedness to the in-group directly predicted the willingness to use a violent in-group defense among the Turkish-Dutch participants and again indirectly (via in-group superiority) among Moroccan-Dutch participants. The results underline the relevance of collective identification processes to the attitudes of violent in-group defense among young Muslims of the second generation in a rather tensed socio-political climate. The study outcomes emphasize the importance of examining the dynamics between different Muslim groups, as their unique acculturation patterns yield particular pathways to the attitudes toward violent in-group defense and the willingness hereof.     

Between survival and vision: Boundary-crossing Arab teachers in Jewish schools and Arab teachers in their community

This mixed-methods study examined the experiences of belonging/otherness among Arab teachers in Israel. A group of boundary-crossing teachers: Arab teachers in Jewish schools (AJ; N = 57) was compared with Arab teachers teaching in their own community (AA; N = 103). We found that the AJ group had a multicultural orientation, unlike the AA group, who were community-orientated. These orientations are reflected in different otherness sources, different motivations for selecting a workplace, and differences in identity ratings. While professional and social sources promoted teachers’ sense of belonging in the two groups, the source of AJs' sense of otherness was the national divide as opposed to community-oriented aspects in AAs. Selfefficacy ratings were high in both groups with a significant advantage for AJs, an unanticipated finding given that most of them were women, had attended teacher training colleges rather than universities, and were rarely homeroom teachers. Arab teachers' involvement in Jewish schools was partial with a low proportion of classroom educators or teachers in managerial roles. AJs tend to leave their national identity outside the school, and are not involved in political discourse or in the staffroom power relations. The phenomenon of integrating AJs is relatively new, and within a segregated education system that limits the opportunities for Jews and Arabs to meet, it can provide a viable, albeit limited, tool to inhibit prejudice and antagonism between Jews and Arabs.     

Biculturalism as a double-edged sword: The perspectives of Mexican American emerging adults

Cultural and ethnic identity research largely highlights the adaptiveness of biculturalism among Latino youth in the United States. Less is known about how Latino youth themselves define and experience biculturalism, the cultural identity content that they deem relevant, and how heritage and host identities intersect. Using an inductive approach, this study examines the salience, valence, and meaning of biculturalism among Latino youth living in a multicultural U.S. city. Twenty-six Mexican American emerging adults (M_age = 22.35 years) participated in semi-structured interviews and constructed cultural identity maps focusing on their experiences of biculturalism. Qualitative analysis reveals that participants overwhelmingly deem biculturalism to be positive and explores the duality (i.e.: opposition or contrast) that lies beneath that positivity. Participants emphasized individual-level advantages of biculturalism, namely, that their Mexican heritage provides identity rootedness and enables expanded career and educational opportunities. The bicultural challenges that participants discussed were overwhelmingly relational: familial cultural gaps due to dissonant values and critical gazes from others due to inadequate cultural performances. By revealing that and why biculturalism is mostly positive in the eyes of participants, and exploring the duality that lies beneath that positivity, this study draws attention to the complexity of biculturalism that can be obscured by exclusive reliance on quantitative self-report measures.     

Problems and strategies for sexual identity and cultural integration Mexican-American women on the move

Although Mexican-American women have played a major role in improving the general condition of their own people, they have traditionally been content to be passive. But even in a society which often has been viewed as sexist, Mexican-American women are becoming more assertive in communicating both their ethnic and their social identity. They are determined to enter mainstream American society on their own terms. They are convinced that the struggle for women's liberation is also their struggle. They believe that a strong independent Chicana movement, as part of the larger feminist movement in the United States, and as part of the movement of La Raza, can ensure success of their struggle.