2.1: Cultural Adaptation and Intercultural Competence

Chapter Learning Objectives

1. Define Cultural Adaptation and Acculturation
2. Explain the four primary acculturation strategies (assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization).
3. Describe the concepts of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism.
4. Apply the concept of “thinking under the influence” as a reflective skill for building intercultural communication competence.
5. Understand the components of intercultural communication competence (ICC).

Cultural Adaptation

Cultural adaptation is the process of adjusting and integrating into a new culture. This involves a wide range of adjustments, such as learning a new language, understanding and adopting new cultural norms and values, building relationships with people from the new culture, adapting to new work and educational systems, and adjusting to differences in daily life, including food, clothing, and housing. While challenging, cultural adaptation can be a rewarding experience that fosters personal growth and intercultural understanding.

Immigrants often undergo a process of acculturation, adapting their customs and behaviors to fit into a new cultural context. This adaptation can manifest in various ways, from adopting new language patterns to embracing different social norms. Psychologist John Berry (1980) identified four primary acculturation strategies: assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization, based on two main factors—how much one maintains their original culture and how much one participates in the host culture.

Cultural adaptation and acculturation are related processes, but they emphasize different aspects of how individuals or groups interact with a new culture. Cultural adaptation often involves developing practical skills and strategies to function effectively in the new culture, such as learning a new language, adapting to social cues, or understanding local customs. Cultural adaptation can be temporary or situational (for example, adapting for travel or work) and doesn’t necessarily involve changing core beliefs or values. Acculturation, on the other hand, is a deeper, often more long-term process in which individuals or groups not only adapt behaviorally to a new culture but also gradually integrate new cultural values, beliefs, and practices into their own. This can lead to shifts in identity and social connections and may involve changes in one’s original cultural beliefs or customs. Acculturation has various outcomes, as described in Berry’s model, depending on how much of the original culture is maintained versus how much of the new culture is adopted.

Who Else Undergoes Cultural Adaptation? \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Beyond immigrants, a wide range of individuals experience cultural adaptation. Here are some examples:

1. Expatriates: Professionals who move to a new country for employment often need to adapt to new customs, business practices, and social norms.
2. International Students: Students who study in a foreign country immerse themselves in a different culture, learning new languages, customs, and academic styles.
3. Military Personnel: Soldiers and other military personnel are frequently deployed to different countries, where they must adapt to unfamiliar cultures, languages, and security protocols.
4. Missionaries and Aid Workers: These individuals often live and work in cultures that are vastly different from their own, requiring them to adapt to new customs, beliefs, and social hierarchies.
5. Refugees and Asylum Seekers: People who are forced to flee their home countries due to conflict or persecution often face significant challenges in adapting to new cultures and societies.
6. Digital Nomads: Individuals who work remotely and travel frequently must adapt to different cultures, time zones, and work environments.

Assimilation

Assimilation involves fully adopting the dominant culture and letting go of one’s own cultural identity, which may sometimes be driven by social pressures or a belief that it leads to better social or economic opportunities. Throughout much of U.S. immigration history in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, immigrants were often compelled to conform to the predominantly British-influenced cultural norms to be seen as “real Americans.” Until the 1970s, many immigrant families avoided raising their children bilingually, fearing that bilingualism would hinder their acceptance as Americans. One of the most extreme and traumatic examples of forced assimilation in U.S. history occurred after the Indian Wars (1754–1763). The government banned traditional Native American religious practices and compelled Native children to speak English, attend church, study standard subjects, and abandon tribal traditions. This so-called “civilizing method” was enforced mainly through education in North America and through missionary efforts and Christian conversion campaigns in Latin America.

Integration

Integration is the process of maintaining one’s original culture while also engaging with the dominant culture. When the host society is accepting of diversity, integration can be successful, fostering a dual identity where individuals participate in both cultures. For example, many immigrant groups in the U.S. retained aspects of their heritage while blending into mainstream culture. This approach recognizes the value of diversity and promotes intercultural understanding.

Separation

Separation occurs when individuals reject the host culture and preserve their original cultural identity. This approach often involves distancing from the dominant culture, as seen in communities that isolate themselves to uphold unique cultural or religious traditions.

Marginalization

Marginalization is a state in which individuals are disengaged from both the host culture and their own. This can lead to isolation, powerlessness, and adverse outcomes such as unemployment, poverty, and poor mental health. Immigrant families often experience this tension, as parents may cling to their heritage while their children become increasingly acculturated.

While Berry’s model has been useful in studying acculturation, it has limitations, including difficulty predicting individuals’ experiences, as acculturation often varies with personal and environmental factors like family support and language familiarity.

Ethical Dilemmas

An issue many people face when interacting and communicating with another culture is whether they should adjust their behaviors to fit the host culture’s beliefs, values, norms, and social practices. The question arises: should the host culture also adapt, or is it solely the visitor’s responsibility?

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This saying places the responsibility on the visitor, suggesting that respecting cultural differences—whether in verbal or nonverbal communication—requires the visitor to actively learn and follow the customs of the host culture. But this raises further questions: Should visitors adapt even if it means engaging in practices they find morally or ethically objectionable? Can people lose their sense of identity by adapting too much? Could attempts to adapt actually offend the host culture, especially if done incorrectly or superficially?

The Golden Rule states, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". However, the Platinum Rule—"Do unto others as they would want done unto them"—takes this further by emphasizing empathy over reciprocity. Rather than treating others as we would wish to be treated, the Platinum Rule urges us to understand and respect others’ unique preferences and values. This approach can prevent imposing one’s own cultural expectations on the host culture and instead foster a sensitivity to the host’s customs.

Another ethical dilemma arises when visitors encounter practices within the host culture that starkly differ from their own beliefs and values. Here, the concept of cultural relativism becomes relevant. Cultural relativism is the idea that a person’s beliefs and practices should be understood within the context of their own culture rather than judged by the standards of another. In other words, cultural relativism encourages suspending judgment and attempting to see the host culture’s practices from their perspective. However, adopting a culturally relativistic approach can be difficult, especially when practices conflict with one’s own moral values or widely accepted human rights principles.

On the other hand, ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to use it as a standard to evaluate other cultures. Ethnocentrism can lead visitors to judge the host culture’s behaviors negatively, seeing them as “wrong” or “inferior” simply because they differ from their own. Ethnocentrism can hinder effective cultural adaptation and mutual understanding, as it discourages the visitor from seeing value in the host culture’s unique beliefs and practices.

This tension creates a moral dilemma: should the visitor accept the host culture’s norms without judgment, as cultural relativism suggests, or do they have an ethical responsibility to uphold certain universal standards, as ethnocentrism might imply? Practices like gender equality, freedom of speech, or individual autonomy are often considered universal rights, but they may clash with traditions in certain cultures.

Both the Golden and Platinum Rules hold value and can be applied in different settings. The Golden Rule emphasizes mutual respect, while the Platinum Rule stresses tailored sensitivity to each person’s or group’s cultural preferences. Together, they provide guiding principles for navigating ethical dilemmas in cultural adaptation, helping visitors respect the host culture without losing sight of their own values.

Key Factors Influencing Cultural Adaptation \(\PageIndex{1}\)

• Cultural Distance: The degree of difference between the original and host cultures.
• Individual Characteristics: Personality traits, language skills, and previous intercultural experiences.
• Host Culture Attitudes: The level of openness and acceptance towards newcomers.
• Social Support Networks: The presence of family, friends, or community groups.

Components of Intercultural Communication Competence

Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in various cultural contexts. There are numerous components of ICC. Some key components include motivation, self- and other knowledge, and tolerance for uncertainty.

Motivation

Initially, a person’s motivation for communicating with people from other cultures must be considered. Motivation refers to the root of a person’s desire to foster intercultural relationships and can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Put simply, if a person isn’t motivated to communicate with people from different cultures, then the components of ICC discussed next don’t really matter. If a person has a healthy curiosity that drives him or her toward intercultural encounters in order to learn more about self and others, then there is a foundation from which to build additional competence-relevant attitudes and skills. This intrinsic motivation makes intercultural communication a voluntary, rewarding, and lifelong learning process. Motivation can also be extrinsic, meaning that the desire for intercultural communication is driven by an outside reward like money, power, or recognition. While both types of motivation can contribute to ICC, context may further enhance or impede a person’s motivation to communicate across cultures.

Members of dominant groups are often less motivated, intrinsically and extrinsically, toward intercultural communication than members of nondominant groups, because they don’t see the incentives for doing so. Having more power in communication encounters can create an unbalanced situation where the individual from the nondominant group is expected to exhibit competence, or the ability to adapt to the communication behaviors and attitudes of the other. Even in situations where extrinsic rewards like securing an overseas business investment are at stake, it is likely that the foreign investor is much more accustomed to adapting to United States business customs and communication than vice versa. This expectation that others will adapt to our communication can be unconscious, but later ICC skills we will learn will help bring it to awareness.

Code-Switching in Dominant Groups \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Individuals with non-dominant identities may be driven to adapt to function effectively in dominant contexts. This is a form of code-switching in which individuals from nondominant groups adapt their communication to fit in with the dominant group. For example:

1. African Americans may “talk white” by conforming to what is called “standard English.”
2. Women in corporate environments may adapt masculine communication patterns.
3. People who are gay or lesbian may self-censor and avoid discussing their same-gender partners with coworkers,.
4. People with non-visible disabilities may not disclose them in order to avoid judgment.

Knowledge

Knowledge supplements motivation and is an important part of building ICC. Knowledge includes self- and other-awareness, mindfulness, and cognitive flexibility. Building knowledge of our own cultures, identities, and communication patterns takes more than passive experience. Developing cultural self-awareness often requires us to get out of our comfort zones. Listening to people who are different from us is a key component of developing self-knowledge. This may be uncomfortable, because we may realize that people think of our identities differently than we thought. For example, a U.S. American high exchange student in Sweden may be perceived to be shallow, because they were friendly and exciting while they were in Sweden but didn’t really try to maintain relationships once he left. That perception may contradict the U.S. American student's self-concept. The most effective way to develop other knowledge is by direct and thoughtful encounters with other cultures. However, people may not readily have these opportunities for a variety of reasons. Despite the overall diversity in the United States, many people still only interact with people who are similar to them. Even in a racially diverse educational setting, for example, people often group off with people of their own race. While a heterosexual person may have a gay or lesbian friend or relative, they likely spend most of their time with other heterosexuals. Unless you interact with people with disabilities as part of your job or have a person with a disability in your friend or family group, you likely spend most of your time interacting with able-bodied people. Living in a rural area may limit your ability to interact with a range of cultures, and most people do not travel internationally regularly. Because of this, we may have to make a determined effort to interact with other cultures or rely on educational sources like college classes, books, or documentaries. Learning another language is also a good way to learn about a culture because you can then read the news or watch movies in the native language, which can offer insights that are lost in translation. It is important to note though that we must evaluate the credibility of the source of our knowledge, whether it is a book, person, or other source. Also, knowledge of another language does not automatically equate to ICC.

Developing self- and other-knowledge is an ongoing process that will continue to adapt and grow as we encounter new experiences. Mindfulness and cognitive complexity will help as we continue to build our ICC. Mindfulness is a state of self and other-monitoring that informs later reflection on communication interactions. As mindful communicators, we should ask questions that focus on the interactive process like “How is our communication going? What are my reactions? What are their reactions?” Being able to adapt our communication in the moment based on our answers to these questions is a skill that comes with a high level of ICC. Reflecting on the communication encounter later to see what can be learned is also a way to build ICC. We should then be able to incorporate what we learned into our communication frameworks, which requires cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to continually supplement and revise existing knowledge to create new categories rather than forcing new knowledge into old categories. Cognitive flexibility helps prevent our knowledge from becoming stale and also prevents the formation of stereotypes and can help us avoid prejudging an encounter or jumping to conclusions. In summary, to be better intercultural communicators, we should know much about others and ourselves and be able to reflect on and adapt our knowledge as we gain new experiences.

Cognitive Flexibility in Practice \(\PageIndex{1}\)

You meet someone from a cultural background that you initially know little about. Your first thought is that their behavior seems different from what you're used to, but rather than quickly labeling them as "weird" or "difficult," you challenge your assumptions. You keep an open mind and reflect on their actions as part of their cultural norms, adjusting your understanding to incorporate new insights without relying on old stereotypes.

Tolerance for Uncertainty

Motivation and knowledge can inform us as we gain new experiences, but how we feel in the moment of intercultural encounters is also important. Tolerance for uncertainty refers to an individual’s attitude about and level of comfort in uncertain situations. Some people perform better in uncertain situations than others, and intercultural encounters often bring up uncertainty. Whether communicating with someone of a different gender, race, or nationality, we are often wondering what we should or shouldn’t do or say. Situations of uncertainty most often become clearer as they progress, but the anxiety that an individual with a low tolerance for uncertainty feels may lead them to leave the situation or otherwise communicate in a less competent manner. Individuals with a high tolerance for uncertainty may exhibit more patience, waiting for new information to become available or seeking out information, which may then increase the understanding of the situation and lead to a more successful outcome. Individuals who are intrinsically motivated toward intercultural communication may have a higher tolerance for uncertainty, in that their curiosity leads them to engage with others who are different because they find the self- and other knowledge gained rewarding.

Greeting in Japan \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Imagine you’re an American business professional traveling to Japan for a meeting. You’re unsure about the proper greeting—whether to bow or shake hands. Instead of letting anxiety stop you, you stay present and observe others. You notice that bowing is more common, so you adjust accordingly. As the meeting continues, you gain more confidence in understanding the cultural norms. Your tolerance for uncertainty allows you to adapt and engage more effectively, leading to a successful outcome.

Cultivating Intercultural Communication Competence

Cultivating intercultural communication competence (ICC) is an ongoing process that involves a blend of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. To develop ICC, we must first recognize that it's not a static skill but a dynamic one that adapts to new situations and cultural contexts.

A Curious Mind and Open Heart

A key step in developing ICC is fostering a sense of curiosity and openness to different cultures. Embracing a curious mindset allows us to approach intercultural encounters with a sense of wonder and excitement. This openness can help us overcome challenges and turn potentially frustrating experiences into valuable learning opportunities.

Knowledge and Understanding

To effectively communicate across cultures, we need to develop a deep understanding of our own cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors. This self-awareness allows us to recognize our own biases and assumptions. Additionally, learning about other cultures can help us appreciate and respect diverse perspectives.

Essential Skills

Several skills are crucial for successful intercultural communication. Empathy, active listening, effective communication, and conflict resolution are essential tools. By practicing these skills, we can build stronger relationships with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Reflective Practice

Reflecting on our intercultural experiences is a powerful tool for growth. By analyzing our interactions, we can identify areas for improvement and develop strategies for future encounters. This reflective practice helps us learn from our mistakes and celebrate our successes.

In conclusion, cultivating intercultural communication competence requires a lifelong commitment to learning and growth. By embracing curiosity, seeking knowledge, developing essential skills, and reflecting on our experiences, we can become more effective communicators in an increasingly interconnected world.

Attributions

Adapted from:

Communications 256: Intercultural communication by Tammera Stokes Rice. Provided by LibreTexts. License: CC-BY

Image Attributions

Immigrants Make America Great by Nitish Meena.

References

Berry, J. W. (1980). Acculturation as varieties of adaptation. Acculturation: Theories, models, and findings. Westview.

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