Running Head INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION1INTERCULTURAL .docx

Running Head: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
1
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
4
Reflection of chapter 4
(The environmental context)
For this reflection, the concept that I have picked is from The
Environmental Context in chapter 4. The specific concept that
the paper will discuss is the concept of the cultural preference
for privacy. This is a concept that explains that different
cultures have different preferences for privacy both online and
offline. The preference of privacy ranges from solitude to
isolation to intimacy with friends or with the family to
anonymity and finally reserves. The level of preference that a
culture has forms the basis upon which certain policies are set,
how people socialize and the basis of deciding how to structure
their houses and living spaces.
I have had an experience with this concept especially in regard
to the preference for privacy on the online space. Some time
back in a group of very diverse individual, a topic was raised
about the numerous censoring and limitation that is done on the
web in China. In the group, there was one Chinese individual
who tried to explain that it works well for them and their

country. However, most the other individuals in the group
including myself who come from a culture where there is a lot
of freedom on the internet where individuals can access
anything and post anything, they like were against the whole
concept of internet censoring.
We went round and round telling the Chinese individuals how
the government was denying them a right to freedom and how
much more they were missing on the internet because of being
locked out by the government. No matter how much he tried to
explain how that worked well for their society, none of us were
hearing any of it because we were all convinced that what their
government does is wrong. Surprisingly at the end of the whole
discussion and debate, the Chinese individual seemed very
unmoved by our many opinions and was still okay with this
approach the government had decided to take to monitor
activities on their web. From this experience, however, I ended
up feeling like we had gone on an on to impose our views and
criticisms without giving ourselves a chance to listen and
understand the point of view of the one person who felt that
such policies were okay for their country.
If I knew then what I know now that is the concepts of this
course in regard to the fact that different cultures have different
preferences of privacy the experience for me would be very
different. This is because I would have made contributions to
the discussion from a point of a lot more understanding rather
than just imposing my opinion like what everyone else did. I
would have been able to see and understand the point of view of
the Chinese fellow in the group when he said that what they
have worked for them and consequently be more accommodative
of the fact we all do not have to be the same and that our needs
are not their needs.
The communication or the debate, in this case, would have been
more constructive because the argument would be made with

consideration of the differences we have in culture and
preferences. This would have helped to accommodate and bring
to the table different objective rather than subjective points of
view and consequently make the debate a lot more constructive
for all involved. The knowledge that different cultures have
different preferences for privacy help us see why individuals
make the different choices that they do in policies and
structures and that it is okay, and we do not need to impose our
beliefs or critiques on them without understanding the basics.
Guideline
Questions:
1. Define what is Sociological Imagination ( 200
words)
Can you define it? It's about understanding how
public issues are often mislabeled as
personal troubles…( Details can be explanation of a
pairing - like biography/history; self/society and
personal troubles / public issues. Student communicates
nuance of the Sociology Imagination such as
how public issues are mislabeled as personal troubles.
Student clearly demonstrates an explicit and
applied SI. Source(s) is/are included and correctly
cited.)
2. What is a self-reflexive statement? It is a short
statement describing your
participation in the course. Included in a “self-
reflexive” statement of your
contributions to the course are … ( 250 words)

1. how much and how often you contributed,
2. a description of what you learned,
3. how you specifically added value to the course,
4. a definition of the Sociological Imagination, an
explanation of what a
Sociological Imagination is (define and cite source)
and a description of how
your Sociological Imagination developed as a result of
taking this course,
5. and your thoughts on your participation in general.
3. Sociological Imagination - Real World Application
of… ( 250 words)
Explain how have or plan to use your Sociological
Imagination in the real world. Be as
specific as possible. Link this to the material in the
course. Use strong empirical sources
and cite them using APA format. ( Explanation of
how you specifically have or specifically plan to
use a sociological imagination in the real world is
exceptional / accurate and detailed. Source(s) is/are
included and correctly cited. ) ( real world, uhhh,
let's set it as Medical Field )
4. Have you found any good sources related to
Gender Inequality, the domination
of men over women, feminist? ( 150 words)
Write a description of the site, and why you think
this is important? Attach URL’s or
youtube clip here.

Remember to follow the posting guidelines (and
include a sociological imagination) in
your post.
*********************
Here are some good notes on THE SOCIOLOGICAL
(NOT SOCIAL) IMAGINATION:
*****************
BACKGROUND:
Your "The Promise" article is an excerpt of the first
chapter of Mills' book "The
Sociological Imagination" (1959). So, you can get an
idea of how condensed your
article is.
· C. Wright Mills (1916-1962), great, mid-century
Sociologist who coined the term
"The Sociological Imagination."
● An academic who felt strongly that a fundamental
goal of academia should be
progressive social change.
● Provided a radical and controversial critique of both
contemporary sociology
and sociological practice.
● As a practicing sociologist, his major focus was on

these things:
● social inequality,
● the power of elites,
● the declining middle class,
● the relationship between individuals and society,
● and the importance of including a historical
perspective in sociological
thinking.
He talks about how we can look at society as
consisting of three sets of
pairings.
1) Biography - History
2) Self - Society
3) Personal Troubles - Public Issues
Just as some of you have contributed, Sociology is
about being able to see that there
are various perspectives and that you need to have
some kind of scientific or systematic
basis to understanding the world and human
interactions within it.
Sociological Imagination
A definition of the term: "the recognition that our
personal experiences are in large part
shaped by social forces within the larger society." (

Mills' 1959 book entitled "The
Sociological Imagination".)
One of the broad aims of this course is to help
students develop their sociological
imaginations - to recognize how it is that things
that people experience as "private
troubles" (disparate pay) is experienced on an
individual level but is connected to
"public issues" (in this case, wage discrimination and
patriarchy) on a broader level.
It's not that people are powerless to make change in
the system, but Mills argued that
they are sort of "trapped" in the system and largely
unaware of its workings.
TWO MAIN WAYS TO VIEW SOCIAL LIFE:
To simplify what he is saying, there are really two
ways of viewing social life.
1) the personal individualized level (in Mills' writing
this is composed of the following:
biography, self, and private troubles) and
2) the structural level (history, society and public
issues). Mills' analysis points to how
much we "personalize" situations and how we then
look for solutions on the personal
level. He argues that at the very least, we need to
consider both levels and look more
to structural level changes for responsible social
change.

Mills' Sociological Imagination encourages us to
socially situate and locate all kinds of
interactions within the social order - he really
encourages us to see that there is indeed
a social structure to every society. Many people have
trouble conceptualizing this
because you can't *see* a social order - even
though it's definitely there. He used to
liken the social order to water in a fishbowl. The
fish isn't really aware of the water but
can't survive without it. Cool, eh?
“Neither the life of an individual nor the history off
a society can be understood
without understanding both.” ( Mills, The Promise, p.
3 )
"The sociological imagination enables us to grasp
history and biography
and the relations between the two within society.”
(Mills, The Promise, p. 6)
Here is some good information and resources...

Found something you like about the Sociological
Imagination (SI)?
The American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)
described the perspective of
sociology as "The Sociological Imagination." He
maintained that this new point of view
benefits individuals by helping them to see how their
personal lives are shaped by larger
social forces. In order to help us see this more
clearly, he asserted that a critical task for
social scientists is to "translate personal troubles into
public issues". Personal troubles
relate to how a single person feels about something
while public issues refer to things
that affect whole groups of people. For instance, a
person who cannot find an affordable
place to live is experiencing a personal trouble,
while a city with a massive
homelessness rate actually makes that not just a
personal trouble but a public issue.
Sociologists, then, rightly connect biographical, personal
troubles to social institutions.
Social scientists should then connect those institutions
to social structures and locate
them within a historical narrative. In short, Mills
argued, we cannot fully understand
ourselves without understanding the society in which
we live. Worse, we tend to
"individualize" (and therefore misconstrue and / or
make invisible) issues rooted in the
social structure of our societies. We need to begin
by really SEEING our societies and

social structures and where we, and everyone else, is
located in that larger structure.
"Public issues" are often mis-labeled and misunderstood
and individualized as "personal
troubles." What, specifically, did Mills recommend we
do about this myth?
What they need... is the quality of mind that will
help them to [see] ... what is going on in
the world and.... what many be happening within
themselves. It is this quality... that ...
may be called the Sociological Imagination."
C. Wight Mills. "The Sociological Imagination." New
York: Oxford University Press,
1959. pp. 3-5
“Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one
pleases;
neither is it merely the opportunity to choose
between set alternatives.
Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the
available choices,
to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to
choose.”
C. Wright Mills

Chapter 10
Intercultural Conflict
1
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 7e. © SAGE
Publications, 2018.
FLAN 3440
Definition of Intercultural Conflict
The implicit or explicit emotional struggle between persons of
different cultural communities over perceived or actual
incompatibility of cultural ideologies and values, situational
norms, goals, face-orientations, scarce resources,
styles/processes, and/or outcomes in a face-to-face (or
mediated) context within a sociohistorical embedded system.
2
Publications, 2018.
Kim’s Model of Intercultural Conflict
Publications, 2018.
3

A Culture-Based Social Ecological Conflict Model
Layers: macro, exo, meso, and micro
Highlights
primary orientation factors
situational appraisals
conflict processes
conflict competence
Publications, 2018.
4
A Culture-Based Social Ecological Conflict Model
Includes conflict competence criteria and outcomes
effectiveness/appropriateness
productivity/satisfaction
principled ethics.
Publications, 2018.
5
Publications, 2018.
6
Intercultural Dialogue, Conflict Resolution & a Culture of
Peace
To build and maintain peace, we must learn productive ways to
handle disagreements, and we must develop norms, mechanisms,
and institutions that will guide us toward resolving divisive
issues without violence. A central means through which such
actions can unfold is dialogue.
7

Publications, 2018.
Dialoguing makes sustained contact necessary
Conflicting parties must come together and interact in dialogue
Understanding of the other’s point of view becomes possible
through dialogue
Listening to one another can lead to respect for each other
8
Publications, 2018.
Intercultural Dialogue, Conflict Resolution & a Culture of
Peace
Publications, 2018.
9
SOURCE: This discussion of the model is based entirely on
Broome, B. J. (2013). Building Cultures of Peace: The Role of
Intergroup Dialogue. In J. G. Oetzel & S. Ting-Toomey (Eds.),
The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication: Integrating
Theory, Research, and Practice (pp. 3737–3761). Thousand
Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Face, Facework, & Communication Conflict Styles
Face Negotiation Theory
Face
Self-Face
Other-Face
Mutual-Face

Publications, 2018.
10
10
Facework
Facework
Used to initiate, manage, or terminate conflict.
Facework strategies
Dominating
Avoiding
Integrating
Publications, 2018.
11
Publications, 2018.
12
Publications, 2018.
13
Table 10.2 Facework Behaviors Continued
SOURCE: Adapted from Oetzel, J. G., Ting-Toomey, S.,
Masumoto, T., Yokochi, Y., & Takai, J. (2000). A Typology of
Facework Behaviors in Conflicts With Best Friends and
Relative Strangers. Communication Quarterly, 48, 397–419.

Conflict Communication Styles
Avoiding
Dominating
Obliging
Compromising
Third-party help
Emotional expression
Neglect
Integrating
Publications, 2018.
14
Publications, 2018.
15
The Intercultural Style Inventory (ICS)
Assessment tool focuses on Style
Conflict Style is the behavioral component that follows from
cognitive and affective dimensions
Conflict Style is culturally learned
Publications, 2018.
16
The Intercultural Style Inventory (ICS)
Four types of ICS:
Discussion
Engagement
Accommodation

Dynamic Style
Publications, 2018.
17
Intercultural Conflict Styles
Publications, 2018.
18
Individualist vs. Collectivism in Conflict
Outcome Oriented Approach
Process Oriented Approach
19
Publications, 2018.
Conflict Resolution in High- versus Low-Context Cultures
Low-context cultures are more direct and explicit in conflict
Separate conflict from the individual.
Prefer a solution-oriented style
High-context cultures are more indirect and implicit in conflict
Connect conflict with the individual
Prefer a non-confrontational style
20
Publications, 2018.
Communication Strategies when addressing Cross-Cultural
Conflicts
Avoiding

Forcing
Education/Persuasion
Infiltration
Negotiation/Compromise
Accommodation
Collaboration/Problem-Solving
21
Publications, 2018.
Resolving Cross-Cultural Conflict: A Contingency Model
Resolving Cross-Cultural Conflict: A Contingency Model
Strategies used in Cross-Cultural Conflict is contingent on
Centrality
Core versus Peripheral
Consensus
Intensity
Urgency
Publications, 2018.
22
SOURCE: Adapted from Buller, P. F., Kohls, J. J., & Anderson,
K. S. (1991). The Challenge of Global Ethics. Journal of
Business Ethics, 10(10): 767–775. Kohls, J., & Buller, P.
(1994). Resolving Cross-Cultural Ethical Conflict: Exploring
Alternative Strategies. Journal of Business Ethics, 13(1): 31–38.
Summary
Explored how humans experience conflict
Examined a variety of factors that play a role in triggering and
escalating conflict
Explored three models
Kim’s Model of Intercultural Conflict

Social Ecological Model
Broome’s Model of Building a Culture of Peace Through
Dialogue
Publications, 2018.
23
Summary
Defined Face and Facework
Studied a contingency model of conflict styles
Publications, 2018.
24

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