CROSS–CULTURAL INTERACTION AND UNDERSTANDING

CROSS–CULTURAL INTERACTION AND UNDERSTANDING

A. Coming to Terms

            Culture is defined as the social transmissions of beliefs, values, practices, and behaviors of a group of cognitively- homogeneous individuals (Tomes, 2008). Moreover, culture is not static, but a fluid and dynamic aspect of beliefs and behaviors that influenced by new information and new experiences. Matsumoto and Juang ( 2008 ) define culture is terms of meaning and information shared by a group and transmitted across generations. Finally, Berry ( 1992 ) gives a greater understanding of culture through everyday language. The uses of culture are descriptive, historical, normative, psychological, structural and generic. One of the greatest illustrations of culture influences a myriad of unique behaviors ( i.e., greetings of one another, food eaten, etc. ). Additionally, many sociocultural factors powerfully affect family (Hays, 2007 ). As a result, some researches feel that culture may be distinguished between narrow and broad definitions. The narrow definition of culture examines simple aspects such as race and ethnicity without much consideration to diversity. The broad definition is much more inclusive of demographic information, affiliations, and other ethnic characteristics that are not limited to race but spans across cultures ( Mio, Barker, and Tumambing. 2009 )

Cross-culturalism is the scientific understanding of the behaviors and beliefs shaped and influenced by socio-cultural factors transmitted from one culture to another culture. The transmission of information is critical to understanding cross-cultural interaction and communication.

B. Cross Cultural vs Cultural Psychology

Cross cultural psychology includes a search for possible universals in behavior and metal process. Whereas, cultural psychology holds the belief that human behavior is determined by unique individual cultures that can be compared with each other only to a very limited extent. Also, cross cultural psychology surveys two or more cultures using equivalent methods of measurement to determine universality ( Hall, 2005 ). Moreover, Berry, Poortinga, Segall, and Dasen ( 1992 ), believe “ there is a relationship between cross cultural psychology and cultural psychology both at the population level and at the individual level.

Cultural psychology is more focused on specific aspect of one culture with limited attention to its interaction with other cultures.  Since cross cultural psychology extends beyond methodological changes in psychology, it is a method interested in understanding a broad range of phenomena related to human behavior applicable to people across different cultural backgrounds.

C. Cross Cultural research

Through expanding research methodologies to recognize cultural variance in behavior, language, and meaning. Cross cultural psychology seeks to extend, develop, and transform psychological and how it’s viewed in a global society. According to Matsumoto and Juang ( 2008 ), “ cross cultural psychology ia a research method that teste the cultural parameters of psychology knowledge “, central themes, such as affect, cognition, conceptions of the self, and issues such as psychopathology, anxiety, and depression. Are all re-examined in cross cultural psychology in a attempt to better comprehend the universality of these concepts. Cross cultural research is a scientific study of human behavior and it’s transmission throughout a variety of cultures.

D. Cultural Factors

            There are three main factors the influence culture: Ecology, sociology, and Biology. Without much details, it is easy to see how geography and climate impact culture. For example. American Indian who live one reservations may choose to grow and harvest fruits and vegetables, maintain livestock, and till the ground. Moreover, these are traditions agrarian society that values agriculture sustenance of life and beliefs.

            Moreover, Asian culture tend to struggle when immigrating into other cultures, like the American culture due to food allergies and constraints. Many Asian cultures possess enzymes that make them lactose intolerant.

            The society in which the culture rests creates another level of important influence. Factors such as population density, type of government, dominant religion and other sociocultural aspect dictate psychological attributes.

            The final factors, Biology, reflects, a lot of the internal states and traits that are less likely to be manifested by environment or society. While a person’s genotype is often illustrated through his/her phenotype, the same may be revealed through a culture. For instance, some people refer to Italians as having easy going temperaments, while Germans have slightly more aggressive culture.

E. Etic vs Emic

Different people with different experiences often see the world quite divergent viewpoint. These perspectives yield worldviews that are reflective of the filtered understanding a person in his/her culture experiences. Moreover, the destination between perspectives are etic or emic, depending on the cross-cultural lent one is looking through on a daily basis. The etic view attempts to build theories of human behavior by examining commonalities across many cultures. Constantine

and Sue (2005) believe “etic refers to the process of trying to find universal behaviors, beliefs, and values across cultures “. This approach is commonly used among cultural theorist to explain universal phenomena. Whereas, emic looks internal and examines behaviors, beliefs, and norm within a culture to determine what is valued within that culture. This perspective derives what is meaningful only from within the culture (Mio,et al .,2009).

The final area is imposed etics discussed by Berry (1969), when one culture, as an outsider, attempts to impose their view points, beliefs, and practices on another culture leads to imposing etics. While some behaviors or concepts appear to be universal, this is not true for all cultures.

F. High Vs Low Context

High context n low context communication is critical to understanding differences between ethnic groups. Hall (1981) explains that an individual’s status within a social system also affect what must be attended. To this end, individuals within a culture will pay attention to different things than those outside of the culture.

Additionally, those intra-culture persons also have the potential to examine things differently. A high context culture communicates information either in the physical context or internalized in the person to the point where little information is coded, explicit, or transmitted within the message. Within in the high context culture many things are left unsaid.

High context cultures are often rooted in the past and are very stable. Which supports the need for less outward expressions, but minimizes social inclusivity. Whereas, low context cultures are more fluid and less stable leading to more vulnerable actions of society. Since one message can never strictly identified as a high or low in absolute sense, each message may be part of cultural context continuum.

Need for Changing Cultural Competence to Cultural Consciousness

            The National Center for Cultural Competence (2009) has identified six salient reasons to having a better cross cultural understanding.

1.      To respond to the current and projected demographic changes in the united states.

2.      To eliminated long-standing disparities in the (mental) health status of people of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.

3.      To improve the quality of services and (mental) health outcomes.

4.      To meet legislative, regulatory, and accreditation mandates.

5.      To gain competitive edge in the market place.

6.      To decrease the likelihood of liability/ malpractice claims.

G. Areas Of Cross-Cultural Appeal

1. Identity

Couched within identity is self-identification and social-identification. Self-identity is aptly seen as how and individual defines his/her ethnic or cultural makeup. This perception is solely the responsibility and belief of the individual absent of societal influence. through this level of identification the individual has achieved a personal “ self actualization “ of identify. Whereas, social identify involves communicating with other thereby affection an individuals identity in that his/her sense of sense is reinforce by how others communicate and view them. More specifically, people enact identities through ascription-the identities that people perceive in others and to which they attribute identities and qualities (Rinderle and Montoya, 2008).

2. Communication /Interaction

The ability to communicate is critical to showcasing one’s culture or ethnicity. Five communication traits. According to Hsu (2010), have been widely applied between various cultural/ ethnic groups. The five communication traits are:

a.       Communication apprehension

b.      Willingness to communicate

c.       Self-perceived communication competence

d.      Argumentativeness

e.       Self-disclosure

3. Education

Having access to education is a right. When it is restricted to certain segments of population as in many third world countries, it becomes a privilege. Explaining racial and cultural differences in IQ scores has always been a thorny problem. According to previous research. Which also tend to be biased toward different ethnic and cultural groups, minority groups tend to perform less well than majority group or host culture on IQ test and throughout the educational process.

4. Mental Health

The likelihood of ethnic groups to seek mental health assistance is significantly less than their majority counterparts. African Americans are more likely to speak with a pastor or spiritual advisor before soliciting a psychologist. American India and Latinos seek the counsel for healers and shamans in order to address both metal and physical pain. Asians traditionally implore folk medicine and moxibustion to address maladies and often deny any psychological disturbances. These are all legitimate methods of addressing the health of ethnic groups that contrast those of majority and host cultures.

H. Trans-Culturalized

            Abraham Maslow, the father of humanistic psychology, believed that every person has a desire to not only realize, but more importantly reach his/ her full potential becoming self actualized. Trans-culturalized involves an individual progressing through four stages leading to final promotion of being trans-culturalized. Through this cultural evaluation different stage of advancement reveal the interactions of biology, psychology and sociology.

            Psychology envelopes the aspects of cultural that are not necessarily seen to the naked eye- values, beliefs, practices, morals, etc., but solidly is the anchor for personal cultural growth. Values provide an internal reference or moral compass for what is perceived as good, bad, fair, and even appropriate. for many, values appear to be static, but in reality they are perpetually dynamic and uniquely develop over time.

            Biological involves the biological components of an individual that cannot be altered or changed such as age, ethnicity, race, etc. Since biological cannot be changed, it forces the individual to deal with reality in its purest form, in order to graduated from this stage the individuals identifies a personal benchmark of cultural evaluation.

            Bio-social marries the biological an social aspects which widens the cultural network in that social peculiarities are integrated into one step. This step involves biological with social constructs, suggesting that these aspects are malleable.

            Biopsychosocial further casts the net over three areas: psychological, biological, and social. Through this approach, biological, psychological, and social play a significant role in human functioning in the context of culture and culture transmission. The biological component of the biopsychosocial model for trans-culturalization seeks to understand how the unchangeable functions in the personal schemata of the individuals cultural beliefs. The psychological component of the biopsychosocial model further examines the potential psychological causes that may thwart advancement in culture adjustment. The social part of the biopsychosocial model investigaves how different social factors influences cultural understanding.

            Trans-culturalized indicates that one is in harmony with his/ her cultural being and his/ her cultural surroundings, regardless of the setting environment. To further illustrate this point, as the environment of the cultural being changes. He/ she is quickly able to adapt and accommodate the changes without threatening their culture identity or those affiliated with a different culture. The trans-culturalized being recognizes his/her worth through cultural transcendence.

I. Cross-Cultural Contact with Americans

1. The term “American“

There are so many types of “Americans”, and yet mainstream culture does exist. Even the word “American” confusing. After all, America consist of two huge continents and include North America, Central America and South America. Technically, “Americans” could describe, for examples, Brazilians, Argentineans, and Costa Ricans. The term “North Americans” is also inadequate, because it includes Mexicans and Canadians as well as people in the United States.

Unfortunately, there is no adequate word to use to label people from the United States. The term “United Statesian” is hard to pronounce and sounds awkward. We shall use the term “American” to describe the people who were born and raised in the United States. We recognize that language usage is sensitive and so we apologize to any Americans not from United States, such as Mexicans or Argentineans, who might find this application of the term offensive.

2. A description of Americans: It’s possible?

Some people might argue that is impossible to generalize about Americans. Americans do not come from a common ancestor. Except for Native Americans (i.e., Indians), all Americans come from different immigrant and refugee groups. Americans do have a common heritage, but it is based on cultural diversity or multiculturalism. Yet despite this multiculturalism, it is still possible to talk in term of an “American culture”.

3. “Melting Pot” and “Mosaic”

Americans views on their own diversity have changed over the years. In the early to mind-1900s, some people describes American as a “melting pot”. The belief was that ethnic groups and race would eventually completely assimilate and become one group. This description is not very accurate, however, because ethnic groups have been always different from one another. Many could not and did not want to melt away their identities. Some people still prefer to see the United States a “melting pot”, perhaps to minimize the differences and diversity that exist.

By the 1970s and 1980s, a better analogy was introduced: Americans multicultural society was described as “mosaic” in which all the races and ethnic groups could be proudly displayed. Each group was seen as separate and distinct, but contributing its own color, shape and design toward the creation of an attractive mosaic.

4. Mainstream American Values

There are mainstream values that reflect the majority culture. Because of intermarriage and the natural process of “Americanization” will take place. By the time an immigrant groups is in its second and third generation in the United States. It often places less emphasis on the traditional culture.

5. A Foreign Anthropologist’s Observation of Americans

Sometimes it is difficult to describe the values or ideals of a culture from within that culture. However if one were to look at the culture from the outside, certain observations could be made more easily. It is important to understand American values if you want to understand American behavior.

6. American Values

a.                   Personal control the environment

b.                  Change

c.                   Control over time

d.                  Equality and egalitarianism

e.                   Individualism and privacy

f.                   Self-help

g.                  Future orientation

h.                  Action and work orientation

i.                    Informality

j.                    Directness, openness, and honesty

k.                  materialism

CONCLUSION

Peshkin (1992) considers culture a ubiquitous, amorphous, overused, and over-identified term-to the extend that a conception to match nearly any purpose can be found. While culture is universal as Peshkin suggest, it is also specific. Culturally competent is the new mantra of today’s professional society.

In order to be culturally competent one must present understanding and sensitivity to a variety of cross-cultural bases. Moreover, in the social context of change, structural and functional changes occurred within the psychology profession that affected the development of organizational bodies focused on cultural issues. This book will address as well as challenge some of the issues raised by Sue and colleagues relating to the diversity, but more so across culture instead of within cultures, even though emic perspectives will be discussed.

            It is believed the interaction sustained between cultures allows for a new level of communication that may be inclusive most multicultural initiatives, but also more specific in high/low context that impacts how practitioners learn about cultures and in exchange work with different cultures. The field of psychology often perceived as the leader of cross-cultural dialogue, needs continual engagement in culturally relevant practices, education, research , and organizational development.

            To become more adept at understanding how work with and service persons of diverse backgrounds, the chapters of this book will provide a cross-cultural experience directly and indirectly challenging the reader to understand his/her own bases, acknowledge them and pursue an appropriate pathway to help others.