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CHAPTER 3

What Are the Essential Cultural Value Patterns?

Interactive Student Study Guide Table of Contents

Learning Objectives

Brief Outline

Chapter Checkup

Critical Incident Analysis: Transmitting Information on Transmission Systems

Glossary-Matching Quizzes

Practice Quiz

Exercise Handouts

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Chapter 3: Learning Objectives

As a result of reading Chapter 3 and participating in related class discussions and activities, you
should be able to

1. Understand the different functions of cultural values and how these functions drive
communication expectations, evaluations, and styles.

2. Explain and use examples to illustrate the four key cultural value dimensions.

3. Describe several distinctive personality styles and how they combine with cultural values in
shaping people’s communication encounters.

4. Identify and use examples to illustrate the three additional value orientations.

5. Recognize and apply the mindful O-D-I-S method (Observation—Description.

Interpretation(s)—Suspend ethnocentric judgment) to achieve a more ethnorelative
evaluation of the behaviors of a culturally different other.
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Chapter 3: Brief Outline

I. Functions of Cultural Values
a. Values: shared ideas about what is right or wrong, fair or unfair, etc. (NOTE: this
is a brief description; see textbook for actual definitions)
b. Identity Meaning Function: values help answer fundamental question: Who am I?
c. Ingroup-Outgroup Evaluative Function: ingroup inclusion, outgroup differences
i. Attitude: predisposed learned tendency that influences our reactions
ii. Ingroups: share interdependent fate and feel emotionally close
iii. Outgroups: feel no emotional ties, feel psychological distance,
competition
d. Explanatory Function: can make sense of ingroup’s behaviors
e. Motivational Function: internal drives for rewards or punishment for norm
violations
II. Analyzing Cultural Value Continuum Dimensions
a. Discovering Cultural Continuum Values
i. Cultural values: implicit standards by which we judge behaviors
ii. Cultural-level value tendencies, but individual differences occur in a
culture
b. Identity: Individualism-Collectivism Value Dimension (most important)
i. Individualism
1. Emphasizes individual identity, rights, and needs over group’s
2. Found in northern and western Europe and North America
3. Top individualist values: freedom, honesty, social recognition, etc.
ii. Collectivism
1. Emphasizes “we” identity over “I” identity, group rights, in-group
needs
2. Found in Asia, Africa, Middle East, C. and S. America, Pacific
Islands
3. Top collectivist values: harmony, face-saving, respecting parents,
etc.
c. Power: Small-Large Power Distance Value Dimension
i. Small power distance cultures: equal power distribution, rights; rewards
and punishments based on performance
ii. Large power distance cultures: accept unequal power distribution,
rights, role relations; rewards and punishments based on age, rank, status,
title, etc.
d. Uncertainty: Weak-Strong Uncertainty Avoidance Value Dimension
i. Weak (or low) uncertainty avoidance cultures encourage risk-taking and
conflict-approaching modes (e.g., U.S., Hong Kong, U.K.)
ii. Strong (or high) uncertainty avoidance cultures: prefer clear procedures
and conflict avoidance behaviors (Greece, Japan, Guatemala)
e. Sex Roles: Feminine-Masculine Value Dimension
i. Femininity: social gender roles are fluid, overlapping
ii. Masculinity: social gender roles are complementary and distinct
1. Men: assertive, tough, task-based accomplishment concerns

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2. Women: more modest, tender, quality of life concerns

III. Understanding Personality Styles and Value Tendencies (correspond to value
dimensions)
a. Independent Self-Construal Versus Interdependent Self-Construal
i. The independent construal of self
1. Views self as distinct, unique; values personal achievement, self
direction, and competition
2. Predominates in individualistic cultures or ethnic groups
ii. The interdependent construal of self
1. Emphasizes ingroup connectedness; fitting in, acting in proper
manner
2. Predominates in collectivistic cultures or ethnic groups
b. Horizontal Versus Vertical Personality Style
i. Horizontal self: prefers informality, equality, direct approach to problems
ii. Vertical self: prefers formality, respecting roles
c. Uncertainty-Oriented Versus Certainty-Oriented Attributes
i. Uncertainty-oriented individuals: actively seek information to resolve
uncertainty.
ii. Certainty-oriented individuals: seek emotional, tangible support from
others
d. Androgynous Versus Conventional Sex Role Dispositions
i. Sex: biological distinctions. Gender: based on sociocultural meaning.
ii. Androgyny: combination of feminine and masculine qualities
e. Cultural Values Connecting With Personality Styles and Social Situations
i. Loose socio-situational system: high degree of freedom to deviate
ii. Tight social system: compliance and conformity to norms is expected
IV. Additional Classical Value Orientation Patterns
a. Value Orientations: Background Information based on universal questions
b. Meaning: Activity Value Orientation
i. “Doing” solution: achievement-oriented activities
ii. “Being” solution: living with emotional vitality, relational connection
iii. “Being-in-becoming:” spiritual renewal and connection
c. Destiny: People-Nature Value Orientation
i. Controlling or mastering their environment: control environment
ii. Harmony-with-nature or “flowing:” emphasize spiritual transformation
or enlightenment over material gain
iii. Subjugation-to-nature or “yielding:” nature is beyond control of
individuals (includes fatalism: karma)
Internal Versus External Locus of Control
1. Internal locus of control: emphasizes free will, personal
responsibility (parallels mastery-over-nature value)
2. External locus of control: emphasizes fate, external forces shape
a person’s life events (parallels yielding value)
d. Time: Temporal Value Orientation
i. Future-oriented time sense: planning and clear objectives
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ii. Present-oriented time sense: valuing here-and-now, especially

relationships
iii. Past-oriented time sense: honor historic and ancestral ties and elders
V. Intercultural Reality Check: Doables
To be a flexible intercultural communication at the values clarification level, practice O-D-I-S:
a. Mindful observation (O), description (D), multiple interpretations (I), suspend
ethnocentric evaluation (S)
b. Observe a wide range of people and situations before making generalizations

Chapter 3: Chapter Checkup

Check out the following self-assessment and cultural literacy questions:

QuikChoice 3.1: Click on QuikChoice3.1 to learn about individualism-collectivism value

patterns. Answer the following question. Can you identify the value pattern reflected in each
answer?

To take an assessement of the rest of your value patterns, check out QuikChoice3.1 in the text.

Table 3.2: Use Figure/Table Quiz 3.2 to learn about your cultural or ethnic community’s value
tendencies. Complete each sentence by choosing the phrase which best reflects your cultural or
ethnic community’s tendencies. The answers to these questions indicate a culture’s power
distance value characteristics.

To see the rest of the descriptions for these different cultures, check out Table 3.2 in the text.

Table 3.3: Take Figure/Table Quiz 3.3 to learn about your cultural or ethnic community’s value
tendencies. Complete each sentence by choosing the phrase which best reflects your culture’s or
ethnic community’s tendencies.

To see the rest of the descriptions for these different cultures, check out Table 3.3 in the text.

Table 3.4: How does your cultural community view the roles of males and females? Check out
Figure/Table Quiz 3.4.

To see the rest of the descriptions for these different cultures, check out Table 3.4 in the text.

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QuikChoice 3.3: Use QuikChoice3.3 to assess your understanding independent and

interdependent self-construal traits. To take the full assessment, check out QuikChoice 3.3 in the
text.

QuikChoice 3.4: Click on QuikChoice 3.4 to check your understanding of vertical and
horizontal personality traits. To take the full assessment, check out QuikChoice 3.4 in the text.

QuikChoice 3.5: Use QuikChoice 3.5 to learn about the “meaning” value orientation. To quiz
yourself on the rest of the personal value orientations such as destiny and time, check out
QuikChoice 3.5 in the text.
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Chapter 3: Critical Incident Analysis

Check out the following intercultural scenario:

(NOTE: See “Chapter 3 Exercise Handouts” for a printable version.)

A Critical Incident: “Transmitting

Information on Transmission Systems”*

“Adjustment to Japan has been much easier than I thought it would be,” Karl Ruch told his wife
about a year after their move from Germany. Karl had been sent by an automobile company in
Frankfurt to see if he could establish production facilities for transmission systems that would be
built in Japan and imported into Germany. Having been told that negotiations take a long time in
Japan, he was not disappointed that it had taken a year for a major meeting to be set up with his
key Japanese counterparts. But the Japanese had studied the proposal and were ready to discuss it
this morning, and Karl was excited as he left for work. At the meeting, people discussed matters
that were already in the written document that had been circulated beforehand.

Suddenly, it occurred to Karl that there was an aspect of quality-control inspection that he had
left out of the proposal. He knew that the Japanese should know of this concern because it was
important to the success of the project. Karl asked the senior person at the meeting if he could
speak, apologized for not having already introduced the quality-control concern he was about to
raise, and then went into his addition to the proposal. His presentation was met with silence, and
the meeting was later adjourned without a decision having been made on the whole manufacture-
importation program. Because Karl thought that a decision would be made that day, he was
puzzled.

What was the reason for Karl’s difficulty?

*Source: Adapted from K. Cushner and R. Brislin (1996). Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Interactive Probes
(Ask yourself and probe your classmates’ reactions)
(NOTE: See “Chapter 3 Exercise Handouts” for a printable form containing these questions.)

Choose the number with the best analysis and write down the reason for your choice.

1. Karl had brought up quality control, an issue about which the Japanese are very proud. The
Japanese thought that Karl was questioning their commitment to quality control.

2. Expecting a decision in a year was still unrealistic; Karl should have been more patient.

3. Karl had brought up an issue on which there had not been prior discussion among the people
somehow involved in that special issue.

4. Karl had asked the senior person about speaking; in actuality, there was a younger person
present who was in charge, and Karl should have deferred to that person.

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Chapter 3: Glossary-Matching Quizzes

Click for Matching Quiz 3.1.

Click for Matching Quiz 3.2.

Chapter 3: Practice Quiz

Click here for the Chapter 3 Review Practice Quiz.

Chapter 3: Exercise Handouts

Note: Your instructor may ask you to download, print out, and/or e-mail the following
class handouts for this chapter.

The Parable
“The Parable” Exercise: Instructions to Participants
“The Parable” Exercise: Reflective Analysis

Reflections on The Art of Choosing TED Talk

Reflecting on Cultural Value Patterns

Value Orientation Emphases

Four-Dimensional Values Inventory (DVI)

Discussion Questions On DVI

A Critical Incident: Transmitting Information On Transmission Systems

Interactive Probes For “Transmitting Information…”