Intercultural Communication
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UncertaintyPrincipleChapter2.pptxCMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
PQ: How does the nature of knowledge affect IC?
“Let the Mystery Be!!!”
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
Epistemology: studies Dr. “K” how people know what they claim to know
2 Approaches:
Objective: Scientific, Determinism
To know something is to capture and represent its meaning
2) Subjective: Humanistic/Interpretation (Free Will)
To know something is to capture and represent its meaning as it relates to other things including the observer….OBSERVER PARADOX… “ex: Football Game”
“Knowledge changes depending on the viewpoint of the observer, and the observer changes, too!”
(Table 1 p.34)
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
“WHY does the observer change?”
Culture shock: reaction in an attempt to adjust to new situations
Self-shock: reaction to change in our own culture ID
IC: combination of both approaches
Objective: focus on discovered world
Subjective: focus on the discovering person
(example: 2 scientists North America and Asian)
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
Key Dynamic: “Creating continual motion (a wave) leads to discovering exact meaning with only a degree of uncertainty”
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
Uncertainty:
Predictive Uncertainty: inability to know what and when people will do something
Explanatory Uncertainty: inability to explain why people behave as they do
“Uncertainty evokes Anxiety!”
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
Reduce Uncertainty (Anxiety)?
Intercultural Process: Dis- closure (self- disclosure)
Johari Window (Fig. 3 p. 37)
4 panes: Open, Closed, Blind, Unknown
Example: Asian/ Western businessmen in a “negotiation meeting”
Every situation of IC is characterized by a “horizon of knowledge”
3 Strategies played out: Passive, Active, Interactive
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
Arrive at a sense of “Order out of Uncertainty”
Uncertainty Principle Defined:
We cannot be absolutely confident that our understanding of IC interaction is certain and complete.
IC can be presented as a process of dis-closure.
Different interpretations to the same experience form the basis of IC as shared order created out of uncertainty
CMST 340 Uncertainty Principle
“IC” is a process whereby people from different cultures constantly search for knowledge of how to interact with one another against the background of Uncertainty!!
CMST 340: Uncertainty Principle
Short Definition:
Uncertainty Principle is lessening anxiety by using disclosure.
