| accommodating style | Emphasizes an indirect approach for dealing with conflict and a more emotionally restrained manner.
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| adaptors | Gestures related to managing our emotions.
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| affirmative action (AA) | Statutes that attempt to stop discrimination by encouraging the hiring of minorities and women.
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| Afrocentric | An orientation toward African or African American cultural standards, including beliefs and values, as the criteria for interpreting behaviors and attitudes.
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| age identity | The identification with the cultural conventions of how we should act, look, and behave according to our age.
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| AIDS | Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; a disease caused by a virus, HIV, transmitted through sexual or blood contact, that attacks the immune system. (See HIV.)
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| alternative medicine | A medical approach that goes against the norms of the medical establishment. It can incorporate holistic medicine, spirituality, and/or non-Western wellness philosophies.
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| Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) | A law requiring that places of business make "reasonable" accommodations for employees with physical disabilities.
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| assimilatable | The degree of participation in a type of cultural adaptation in which an individual gives up his or her own cultural heritage and adopts the mainstream cultural identity. (See cultural adaptation.)
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| benevolent deception | Withholding information from a patient, ostensibly for his or her own good.
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| bilingual | Able to speak two languages fluently or at least competently.
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| bilingualism | The ability to speak two languages.
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| boundary maintenance | The regulation of interaction between hosts and tourists.
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| class identity | A sense of belonging to a group that shares similar economic, occupational, or social status.
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| class structure | The economic organization of income levels in a society; the structure that defines upper, middle, lower, and other social classes.
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| cocultural group | Nondominant cultural groups that exist in a national culture—for example, African American or Chinese American.
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| code switching | Changing from one language or communication style to another.
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| collectivism | The tendency to focus on the goals, needs, and views of the ingroup rather than individuals' own goals, needs, and views. (Compare with individualist.)
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| colonial education system | Schools established by colonial powers in colonized regions. They often forbade the use of native languages and discussion of native cultures.
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| colonial histories | The histories that legitimate international invasions and annexations.
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| communication | A symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed.
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| communication style | The metamessage that contextualizes how listeners are expected to accept and interpret verbal messages.
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| complementarity | A principle of relational attraction suggesting that sometimes we are attracted to people who are different from us.
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| compromise style | A style of interaction for an intercultural couple in which both partners give up some part of their own cultural habits and beliefs to minimize cross-cultural differences. (Compare with consensus style, obliteration style, and submission style.)
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| conflict | The interference between two or more interdependent individuals or groups of people who perceive incompatible goals, values, or expectations in attaining those ends.
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| consensus style | A style of interaction for an intercultural couple in which partners deal with cross-cultural differences by negotiating their relationship. (Compare with compromise style, obliteration style, and submission style.)
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| constructive identity | An identity that is actively negotiated from various cultures in contact and that often creates feelings of a new multicultural identity.
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| contact cultures | Cultural groups in which people tend to stand close together and touch frequently when they interact—for example, cultural groups in South America, the Middle East, and southern Europe. (See noncontact cultures.)
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| context | The physical or social situation in which communication occurs.
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| contractual honesty | Telling a patient only what he or she wants to know.
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| core symbols | The fundamental beliefs that are shared by the members of a cultural group. Labels, a category of core symbols, are names or markers used to classify individual, social, or cultural groups.
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| cross-cultural trainers | Trainers who teach people to become familiar with other cultural norms and to improve their interactions with people of different domestic and international cultures.
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| cultural contact | When two or more cultures come together, sometimes on an individual basis, but often through larger social migrations, wars, and other displacements.
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| cultural group histories | The history of each cultural group within a nation that includes, for example, the history of where the group originated, why the people migrated, and how they came to develop and maintain their cultural traits.
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| cultural identities | Who we are as influenced by the cultures to which we belong.
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| cultural imperialism | Domination through the spread of cultural products.
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| cultural space | The particular configuration of the communication that constructs meanings of various places.
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| cultural texts | Cultural artifacts (magazines, TV programs, movies, and so on) that convey cultural norms, values, and beliefs.
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| culture | Learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people.
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| culture industries | Industries that produce and sell popular culture as commodities.
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| culture shock | A relatively short-term feeling of disorientation and discomfort due to the lack of familiar cues in the environment.
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| deception | The act of making someone believe what is not true.
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| demographics | The characteristics of a population, especially as classified by age, sex, and income.
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| diaspora | A massive migration, often caused by war or famine or persecution, that results in the dispersal of a unified group.
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| diasporic histories | The histories of the ways in which international cultural groups were created through transnational migrations, slavery, religious crusades, or other historical forces.
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| direct approach | Emphasizes that conflict is fundamentally a good thing and should be approached head on.
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| discrimination | Behaviors resulting from stereotypes or prejudice that cause some people to be denied equal participation or rights based on cultural group membership (such as race).
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| discussion style | Combines the direct and emotionally restrained dimensions and emphasizes a verbally direct approach for dealing with disagreements.
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| dynamic style | Uses an indirect style of communicating along with a more emotionally intense expressiveness.
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| eco-tourism | Tourism of sites of environmental or natural interest.
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| electronic colonialism | Domination or exploitation utilizing technological forms.
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| emblems | Gestures that have a specific verbal translation.
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| emotionally expressive style | Conflict style where intense and overt displays of emotions are valued during discussion of disagreements.
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| encapsulated identity | An identity that is torn between different cultural identities and that often creates feelings of ambiguity.
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| enclaves | Regions that are surrounded by another country's territory; cultural minority groups that live within a larger cultural group's territory.
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| engagement style | Emphasizes a verbally direct and confrontational approach to dealing with conflict.
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| equal employment opportunity (EEO) | Laws against discrimination in the workplace.
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| equivalency | An issue in translation, the condition of being equal in meaning, value, quantity, and so on.
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| ethics | Principles of conduct that help govern behaviors of individuals and groups.
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| ethics committees | Groups that provide guidance in making health care decisions; usually composed of health care professionals, administrators, lawyers, social workers, members of the religious community, and patient representatives.
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| ethnic histories | The histories of ethnic groups.
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| ethnic identity | A set of ideas about one's own ethnic group membership; a sense of belonging to a particular group and knowing something about the shared experience of the group.
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| ethnocentrism | An orientation toward one's own ethnic group; often a tendency to elevate one's own culture above others.
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| Eurocentric | The assumption of the centrality or superiority of European culture.
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| euthanasia | The ending of the life of a terminally ill patient.
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| eye contact | A nonverbal code that communicates meanings about respect and status and often regulates turn taking during interactions.
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| facial expressions | Facial gestures that convey emotions and attitudes.
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| family histories | The body of knowledge shared by family members and the customs, rituals, and stories passed from one generation to another within a family.
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| friendship | A personal, nonromantic relationship that has culture-specific definitions.
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| gay relationships | Same-sex romantic relationships.
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| gender histories | The histories of how cultural conventions of men and women are created, maintained, and/or altered.
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| gender identity | The identification with the cultural notions of masculinity and femininity and what it means to be a man or a woman.
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| gestures | Nonverbal communication involving hand and arm movements.
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| globalization | The increasing tendency toward international connections in media, business, and culture.
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| global nomads | People who grow up in many different cultural contexts because their parents relocated.
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| global village | A term coined by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s that refers to a world in which communication technology links people from remote parts of the world.
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| grand narrative | A unified history and view of humankind.
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| HBCUs | Historically black colleges and universities.
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| health care professionals | Physicians, nurses, and all the other medical staff with whom patients in the health care system come into contact.
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| heterogeneity | Consisting of different or dissimilar elements.
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| hidden histories | The histories that are hidden from or forgotten by the mainstream representations of past events.
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| high-context communication | A style of communication in which much of the information is contained in the contexts and nonverbal cues rather than expressed explicitly in words. (Compare with low-context communication.)
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| high culture | The cultural activities that are considered elite, including opera, ballet, and symphony. (Compare with low culture and popular culture.)
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| HIV | Human immunodeficiency virus. (See AIDS.)
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| home | The immediate cultural context for our upbringing; where we have lived.
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| homo narrans | A term used to describe the story-telling tendencies of human beings.
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| host | Residents of a tourist region.
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| hyphenated Americans | Americans who identify not only with being American citizens but also with being members of ethnic groups.
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| identity | The concept of who we are. Characteristics of identity may be understood differently depending on the perspectives that people take (for example, social psychological, communication, or critical perspectives).
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| illustrators | Gestures that go along with and refer to speech.
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| immigration | Movement to a new country, region, or environment to settle more or less permanently.
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| improvised performance | A way of thinking about intercultural interaction in which two people are making up a performance as they go along.
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| incompatibility | A state of incongruity in goals, values, or expectations between two or more individuals.
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| indirect approach | Emphasizes that conflict should be avoided.
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| individualism | The tendency to emphasize individual identities, beliefs, needs, goals, and views rather than those of the group. (Compare with collectivism.)
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| intellectual histories | Written histories that focus on the development of ideas.
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| intercultural communication | The interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds.
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| intercultural conflict | The perceived or real incompatibility of goals, values, or expectations between two parties from different cultures.
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| intercultural dating | The pursuit of a romantic intercultural relationship.
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| intercultural relationships | Relationships that are formed between individuals from different cultures.
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| interdependent | A state of mutual influence; the action or behavior of one individual affecting the other person in a relationship.
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| intermediary | In a formal setting, a professional third party, such as a lawyer, real estate agent, or counselor, who intervenes when two parties are in conflict. Informal intermediaries may be friends or colleagues who intervene.
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| international students | Students attending high school or college in another country. (See study-abroad programs.)
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| interpersonal allies | People, often friends, who work for better interpersonal and intergroup relations.
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| interpretation | The process of verbally expressing what is said or written in another language.
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| intimacy | The extent of emotional closeness.
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| labels | Terms used to refer to people's identities.
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| language | A means of communication using shared symbols.
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| language acquisition | The process of learning language.
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| language policies | Laws or customs that determine which language will be spoken when and where.
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| learning styles | The different ways students learn in different cultures.
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| low-context communication | A style of communication in which much of the information is conveyed in words rather than in nonverbal cues and contexts. (Compare with high-context communication.)
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| low culture | The non-elite activities seen as the opposite of high culture (for example, movies, rock music, and talk shows). In the past, low culture was considered unworthy of serious study. With the rise of cultural studies, however, the activities that are associated with low culture have become important representations of everyday human lives. (Compare with high culture. See also popular culture.)
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| macrocontexts | The political, social, and historical situations, backgrounds, and environments that influence communication.
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| majority identity development | The development of a sense of belonging to a dominant group.
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| maquiladoras | Assembly plants or factories (mainly of U.S. companies) established on the U.S.-Mexico border and using mainly Mexican labor.
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| masculinity/femininity value | A cultural variability dimension that concerns the degree of being feminine—valuing fluid gender roles, quality of life, service, relationships, and interdependence—and the degree of being masculine—emphasizing distinctive gender roles, ambition, materialism, and independence.
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| media imperialism | Domination or control through media.
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| mediation | The act of resolving conflict by having someone intervene between two parties.
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| medical jargon | Medical terminology, especially that which is confusing or difficult for the layperson to understand.
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| medical terminology | A set of scientific words and phrases used by doctors to precisely describe illness.
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| melting pot | A metaphor that assumes that immigrants and cultural minorities will be assimilated into the U.S. majority culture, losing their original cultures.
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| migrating | When an individual leaves the primary cultural context in which he or she was raised and moves to a new cultural context for an extended period of time. (See also immigrant and sojourner.)
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| minority identity development | The development of a sense of belonging to a nondominant group.
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| mobility | The state of moving from place to place.
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| monochronic | An orientation to time that assumes it is linear and is a commodity that can be lost or gained.
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| multicultural identity | A sense of in-betweenness that develops as a result of frequent or multiple cultural border crossings.
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| multilingual | The ability to speak more than two languages fluently or at least competently.
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| multinational | Companies that have operations in two or more nations.
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| multiracial and multicultural people | People whose heritage draws from more than one racial or cultural group.
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| national history | A body of knowledge based on past events that influenced a country's development.
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| national identity | National citizenship.
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| neighborhood | Living area defined by its cultural identity, especially an ethnic or racial one.
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| noncontact cultures | Cultural groups in which people tend to maintain more space and touch less often than people do in contact cultures. Great Britain and Japan tend to have noncontact cultures. (See contact cultures.)
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| nonverbal codes | Systems for understanding the meanings of nonverbal behavior, including personal space, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, time orientation, and silence.
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| nonverbal communication | Communication through means other than language—for example, facial expressions and clothing.
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| obliteration style | A style of interaction for an intercultural couple in which both partners attempt to erase their individual cultures in dealing with cultural differences. (Compare with compromise style, consensus style, and submission style.)
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| pacifism | Opposition to the use of force under any circumstances.
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| perception | The process by which we select, organize, and interpret external and internal stimuli to create our view of the world.
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| personal identity | A person's notions of self.
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| personal space | The immediate area around a person, invasion of which may provoke discomfort or offense.
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| phonology | The study of speech sounds.
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| physical ability identity | A knowledge of self based on characteristics related to the body, either more permanent or temporary—for example, sight, hearing, and weight.
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| physical attraction | Sexual desire based on the appearance of another.
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| political histories | Written histories that focus on political events.
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| polychronic | An orientation to time that sees it as circular and more holistic.
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| popular culture | A new name for low culture; referring to those systems or artifacts that most people share and that most people know about, including television, music, videos, and popular magazines.
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| postcolonialism | An intellectual, political, and cultural movement that calls for the independence of once colonized states and also liberation from colonialist ways of thinking.
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| power | A state of differential levels of societal and structural privilege.
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| power distance | A cultural variability dimension that concerns the extent to which people accept an unequal distribution of power.
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| pragmatics | The study of how meaning is constructed in relation to receivers and how language is actually used in particular contexts in language communities.
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| prejudice | An attitude (usually negative) toward a cultural group based on little or no evidence.
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| prejudicial ideologies | Sets of ideas that rely on stereotypes.
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| racial and ethnic identity | Identifying with a particular racial or ethnic group. Although in the past racial groups were classified on the basis of biological characteristics, most scientists now recognize that race is constructed in fluid social and historical contexts.
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| racial histories | The histories of nonmainstream racial groups.
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| reader profiles | Portrayals of readership demographics prepared by magazines.
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| regionalism | Loyalty to a particular region that holds significant cultural meaning for that person.
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| regulators | Gestures used to guide the flow of a conversation, especially for turn taking.
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| relational messages | Messages (verbal and nonverbal) that express how we feel about others.
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| relativist position | The view that the particular language we speak, especially the structure of the language, shapes our perception of reality and cultural patterns. (Compare with nominalist position and qualified relativist position.)
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| religious conflicts | Conflicts that arise from strongly held views and religious beliefs.
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| religious freedom | The ability to practice one's religion without fear; a concern among health care professionals who worry about engaging in religious issues.
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| religious histories | Bodies of knowledge containing the items of faith and that faith's prescriptions for action that have been important for a cultural group.
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| religious identity | A sense of belonging to a religious group.
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| resistance | Avoiding intrusions; may take fairly passive forms or more assertive forms.
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| restraint style | Conflict style where disagreements are best discussed in an emotionally calm manner.
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| retreatism | The avoidance of tourists by hosts.
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| revitalization | The economic benefits associated with tourism in certain areas.
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| romantic relationships | Intimate relationships that comprise love, involvement, sharing, openness, connectedness, and so on.
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| self-awareness | Related to intercultural communication competence; the quality of knowing how you are perceived as a communicator, as well as your strengths and weaknesses.
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| self-reflexivity | A process of learning to understand ourselves and our own position in society.
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| semantics | The study of words and meanings.
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| sexual orientation histories | The historical experiences of gays and lesbians.
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| silence | The absence of verbal messages.
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| similarity principle | A principle of relational attraction suggesting that we tend to be attracted to people whom we perceive to be similar to ourselves.
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| social conflict | Conflict that arises from unequal or unjust social relationships between groups.
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| social histories | Written histories that focus on everyday life experiences of various groups in the past.
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| social movements | Organized activities in which individuals work together to bring about social change.
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| social positions | The places from which we speak that are socially constructed and thus embedded with assumptions about gender, race, class, age, social roles, sexuality, and so on.
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| social roles | Roles we enact that are learned in a culture—for example, mother, big brother, and community leader.
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| socioeconomic class histories | Bodies of knowledge relating to a group's relationship to social class and economic forces.
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| source text | The original language text of a translation. (See also target text.)
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| status | The relative position an individual holds in social or organizational settings.
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| stereotypes | Widely held beliefs about a group of people.
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| stereotyping | The use of stereotypes.
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| strict paternalism | A physician's provision of misinformation for the supposed benefit of the patient.
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| study-abroad programs | University-sponsored programs that give course credit for study in other countries.
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| submission style | A style of interaction for an intercultural couple in which one partner yields to the other partner's cultural patterns, abandoning or denying his or her own culture. (Compare with compromise style, consensus style, and obliteration style.)
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| syntactics | The study of the structure, or grammar, of a language.
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| target text | The new language text into which the original language text is translated. (See also source text.)
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| teaching styles | The different ways teachers teach in different cultures.
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| third culture style | A new communication style that results from two people trying to adapt to each other's styles.
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| tourists | Visitors to another country or region.
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| translation | The process of producing a written text that refers to something said or written in another language.
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| traveling | The changing of cultural spaces through locomotion.
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| Tuskegee Syphilis Project | A government-sponsored study of syphilis in which treatment of the disease was withheld from African American males for the purpose of establishing an experimental control group.
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| U-curve theory | A theory of cultural adaptation positing that migrants go through fairly predictable phases (excitement/anticipation, shock/disorientation, and adaptation) in adapting to a new cultural situation.
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| uncertainty avoidance | A cultural variability dimension that concerns the extent to which uncertainty, ambiguity, and deviant ideas and behaviors are avoided.
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| universalist position | An ethical approach that emphasizes the similarity of beliefs across cultures—for example, killing within the group or treason.
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| unmitigated honesty | A physician's communication of the entirety of a medical diagnosis to a patient.
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| values | A system for viewing certain ideas as more important than others.
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| Whiteness | The associations having to do with the identities of White people.
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| worldview | Underlying assumptions about the nature of reality and human behavior.
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