Slide 1

Intercultural Communication
in Contexts
Third Edition

Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama

Arizona State University

CHAPTER
Identity and Intercultural
5 Communication

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Slide 2

Chapter Summary

• A Dialectical Approach to Understanding

Identity
• Social and Cultural Identities
• Identity, Stereotypes, and Prejudice
• Identity Development Issues
• Identity and Language
• Identity and Communication
McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Slide 3

A Dialectical Approach to
Understanding Identity

• Social Psychological
Perspectives
1. The self is composed of multiple
identities, created partly by self and
partly through group membership.
2. Identities are formed through a series
of conflicts, diffusion, confusion, and
crises.
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 Slide 4

A Dialectical Approach to
Understanding Identity

• Social Psychological
Perspectives (cont.)
3. Variations across cultures:
a. Individualized identity
b. Family identity
c. Spiritual identity
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 Slide 5

A Dialectical Approach to
Understanding Identity
• Communication Perspective
1. Identities are negotiated, co-created,
reinforced, and challenged through
communication.
2. Sometimes the received image conflicts
with the presented image.
a) Avowal
b) Ascription
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A Dialectical Approach to
Understanding Identity
• Communication Perspective (cont.)
3. Different identities are emphasized
depending on the context.
4. Identities are expressed communicatively
in core symbols, labels, and norms.

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 Slide 7

A Dialectical Approach to
Understanding Identity
• Critical Perspective
1. Identities are formed within the contexts of
history, economics, politics, and discourse.
2. Interpellation establishes the foundation from
which interaction occurs.
3. Identities are dynamic.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Slide 8

Social and Cultural Identities

• Gender Identity
1. Begins in infancy
2. Influenced by media, commercial
interests, and changing cultural
notions
3. Enacted through communication
styles and other behaviors
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 Slide 9

Social and Cultural Identities

• Age Identity
1. Influenced by changing cultural
notions of how people our age
should act and look.
2. Different generations have different
philosophies, values, and ways of
speaking.
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 Slide 10

Social and Cultural Identities

• Racial and Ethnic Identity

1. Racial identity, or race consciousness,
is a modern and sensitive issue.
2. Racial categories are constructed in
social and historical contexts, and have
implications for communication.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Slide 11

Social and Cultural Identities

• Racial and Ethnic Identity (cont.)

3. Ethnic identity is a set of ideas about
one's own ethnic group.
4. Includes self-identification,
knowledge about ethnic culture, and
feelings about belonging to a
particular group.
McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Slide 12

Social and Cultural Identities

• Racial and Ethnic Identity (cont.)

5. Some people see themselves has
having a very specific ethnic identity,
while others see themselves as
simply "American".
6. Differing views on the relationship
between racial and ethnic identities.
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 Slide 13

Social and Cultural Identities

• Racial and Ethnic Identity (cont.)

7. Bounded cultures are groups that we
belong to that are specific but not
dominant.
8. Membership in the dominant culture
is difficult to define, though real.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Slide 14

Social and Cultural Identities

• Religious Identity
1. Often conflated with racial or ethnic
identity
2. Often at the root of intercultural
conflicts
3. Usually less salient than race or
gender
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 Slide 15

Social and Cultural Identities

• Class Identity
1. Often shapes our reactions to and
interpretations of culture, and is
reflected in communication and other
behavior
2. Simultaneously recognized and
denied by most Americans
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 Slide 16

Social and Cultural Identities

• Class Identity (cont.)

3. Ambiguity of criteria for class
membership
4. Overwhelming evidence debunks the
myth of class mobility.

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 Slide 17

Social and Cultural Identities

• National Identity
1. Legal status in relation to a nation
2. Not always clear-cut
3. Various ways of thinking about nationality
4. Complex relationship between ethnicity and
nationality

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 Slide 18

Social and Cultural Identities

• Regional Identity
1. Decreasing importance in the U.S.
2. Often affirmed by distinct cuisines,
dress, manners, and languages.

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 Slide 19

Social and Cultural Identities

• Personal Identity
1. Multiple and sometimes conflicting
personal identities are real challenges
for communication.
2. We use various ways to construct
identity and portray ourselves as we
want others to see us.
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 Slide 20

Identity, Stereotypes, and

Prejudice

• Stereotypes are widely held beliefs

about a specific group of people.
1. They are positive or negative and
help us know what to expect from
people.
2. Detrimental when negative or rigid.

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 Slide 21

Identity, Stereotypes, and

Prejudice

• Stereotypes (cont.)
3. We remember information that
supports them.
4. They come from many sources
5. Are unconscious and persistent.

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 Slide 22

Identity, Stereotypes, and

Prejudice

• Prejudice is a negative attitude toward

a cultural group, based on little or no
experience.
1. May arise from tensions between
groups, negative past contacts, status
differences, perceived threats, and the
need to see our own groups as more
positive than others.
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 Slide 23

Identity, Stereotypes, and

Prejudice

• Prejudice (cont.)
2. Four functions:
a) utilitarian function
b) ego-defense function
c) value-expressive function
d) knowledge function
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 Slide 24

Identity, Stereotypes, and

Prejudice

• Discrimination consists of overt

actions to exclude, avoid, or distance as
a result of stereotyping or prejudice.
1. Can be interpersonal, collective, or
institutional.

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 Slide 25

Identity, Stereotypes, and

Prejudice

• Discrimination (cont.)
2. Can range from very subtle nonverbal
behavior to verbal insults, job
discrimination, physical violence, and
systemic exclusion.

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 Slide 26

Identity Development Issues

• Minority Identity Development

1. Unexamined Identity
2. Conformity
3. Resistance and Separatism
4. Integration

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 Slide 27

Identity Development Issues

• Majority Identity Development

1. Unexamined Identity
2. Acceptance
3. Resistance
4. Redefinition
5. Integration
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 Slide 28

Identity Development Issues

• Characteristics of Whiteness
1. A location of structural advantage
2. A standpoint from which to view
society
3. A set of cultural practices

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 Slide 29

Identity Development Issues

• Multicultural and Multiracial

People
1. Biracial children may cycle through
stages of dissonance, struggle for
acceptance, and acceptance/
assertion

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Identity Development Issues

• Multicultural and Multiracial

People (cont.)
2. Global nomads are children who grew
up in many different cultural contexts.
3. People with long-term romantic
interethnic or interracial relationships

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 Slide 31

Identity Development Issues

• Multicultural and Multiracial

People (cont.)
4. A multicultural person is one who
comes to grips with a multiplicity of
realities.
5. Cultural brokers can facilitate cross-
cultural interaction and conflict.
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 Slide 32

Identity Development Issues

• Multicultural and Multiracial

People (cont.)
6. Two types of marginal individuals:
a) Encapsulated marginals become
trapped by their marginality.
b) Constructive marginals thrive in their
marginality.
McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Slide 33

Identity and Language

1. Labels are significant in intercultural

communication because of their
relational meanings.
2. They construct relational meanings in
communication situations.

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 Slide 34

Identity and Communication

1. Identity has a profound influence on

intercultural communication.
2. The dialectical perspective helps us
recognize the importance of balancing
both the individual and cultural aspects
of others' identities.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.