Intercultural Communication Social Psychological Influences

Intergroup Relations  Ingroup: The social group to which an individual perceives herself or himself as belonging (“us”).  Outgroup: Any group other than the one to which individuals perceive themselves as belonging (“them”).

Intergroup Relations  3 Factors Suggested to Explain the Psychological Importance of Ethnicity (Phinney, 1996) Cultural values, attitudes, and behaviours that distinguish ethnic groups Subjective sense of group membership (i.e., ethnic identity) Experiences associated with minority status (e.g., powerlessness, prejudice)

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1978)  Tajfel, 1978 Social categorization Social identity Social comparison Psychological group distinctiveness

Social Identity Theory, cont. Social categorization  The cognitive tendency to divide the social world into categories (i.e., social groups). This categorical differentiation has the effect of sharpening the distinctions between the categories and blurs the differences within them.

Social Identity Theory, cont.  Social identity  That part of the individual’s self-concept which derives from knowledge of his or her membership in a social group, together with the value and emotional significance associated to that membership.

Social Identity Theory, cont. Social comparison  The process through which characteristics of the ingroup are compared to those of the outgroup.

Social Identity Theory, cont.  Psychological Group Distinctiveness  The state desired by individuals in which the ingroup has an identity that is perceived by the group members as being both distinct and positive vis-à-vis relevant comparison groups.

Reactions of Minority Groups  Social mobility Exit from the disadvantaged group and join a more positively evaluated group.  Social creativity Look for new dimensions of comparison, redefine the current dimension of comparison, or compare with a different outgroup.  Social competition Directly challenge the position of the relatively positively evaluated group.

Communication Accommodation Strategies  Convergence Moderation of a speech style, whether in terms of lexical diversity, rate, accent, language, and/or some other linguistic feature, to become more similar to the interactant  Divergence Accentuation of a difference between interlocutors on one or a number of linguistic features.  Maintenance Refusal to alter communication style

Communication Accommodation Theory  Social Exchange Theory  Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis  Causal Attributions  Psychological Group Distinctiveness