Ethnocentric Stages

Ethnocentric Stages

1. Denial

   • Does not consider the existence of cultural difference
     • A)
       • Isolation
         • If such a difference is confronted, it is probably overlooked through processes of selective perception
       • B)
         • Separation
           • Intentional erection of physical or social barriers to create distance from cultural difference as a means of mantaining a state of denial
         • Development Strategies
           • "Cultural awareness" activities.

2. Ethnorelative Stages

   • Acceptance
     • Cultural difference is acknowledged and respected
       • Crossing the barrier
         • A)
           • Respect for Behavioral Difference
             • Verbal and nonverbal varies across cultures and behaviors are worthy of respect
           • B)
             • Respect for Value Difference
               • Acceptance of the different worldview assumptions that underline cultural variation in behavior.
             • Developmental Strategies
               • Emphazising the practical application of ethnorelative acceptance to intercultural communication.
   • Adaptation
     • Skills for relating to and communicating with people of other cultures are enhanced
       • A)
         • Empathy
           • One attempts to understand another by imagining how one would feel in another's position
         • B)
           • Pluralism
             • Cultures are not only different, but that differences must always be understood totally within the context of the culture.

3. Defense

   • Counter the impact of specific cultural differences perceived as threatening. The threat is to philosophy that makes denigration of certain groups inevitable
     • A)
       • Denigration
         • Evaluate the threat of difference negatively. Negative Stereotyping
       • B)
         • Superiority
           • Positive evaluation of one's own cultural status.
         • C)
           • Reversal
             • Denigration of one's own culture and attendant assumption of the superiority of a different culture.
           • Development Strategies
             • Emphazising the commonality of cultures, what is good in all cultures.

4. Minimization

   • Cultural difference is overtly acknowledged and is not negatively evaluated. Cultural difference is trivialized.
     • Human similarity seems more profound than cultural difference. Put aside differences.
       • A)
         • Physical Universalism
           • human being in all cultures have physical characteristics in common that dictate behavior
         • B)
           • Trascendent Universalism
             • Human beings are products of some single trascendent principle, law or imperative.
           • Development Strategies
             • Cultural self-awareness through discussions, exercises and other methods of discovery

5. Integration

   • Always in the process of becoming a part of and apart from a given cultural context
     • Reestablish comfort with a multiplicity of worldviews
       • A)
         • Contextual Evaluation
           • Judgement of relative goodness that is specific to some identified context
         • B)
           • Constructive Marginality
             • No unquestioned assumptions, no instrinsically absolute right behaviors, nor any necessary reference group.
               • They cannot feel part of any culture, they feel themselves as constructive actors outside the culture.