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Beyond the Book
Models of Intercultural Communication
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Several models or approaches to communication are available to the communication practitioner. Of course, the best approach is for the student to take a class in intercultural communication or check out many of the texts available! Often, if doing intercultural training, I will use one of the following three models (even for introductory classes). For copyright purposes, I will not reproduce the models here, but will offer a brief description and application of each. Your instructor might choose to include one of these just by means of introducing the notion of intercultural communication.
1. Samovar and Porter’s model (1997, p. 21): This model presents three shapes (just, for example, a hexagon, an octagon, and a circle), with two of the shapes more similar and spatially closer to each other than to the third. Each shape represents an individual from a different culture (i.e., three individuals). Each shape has an internal shape that is similar, but different in some way or to some degree from the outer shape (for example, the circle has a shape that is mostly a circle, but with one side shaved off). Each shape is a different color. Arrows lead from one shape to another—but the arrows are the same color as the shape they are leaving.
Application:
- Similarity and distance: Cultures vary in their degree of difference to other cultures. In this case, two of the cultures are more similar (e.g., U.S. and Australia) than either is to the third (e.g., Indonesia).
- Shape within a shape: People are distinct from the cultures in which they live, though they are shaped strongly by their cultures. To understand intercultural interaction, we must recognize both the individual and the cultural components.
- Colored arrows: We might receive messages from people in other cultures, but we transform them into something our own cultural/individual frameworks can understand. When we send messages, they can only be sent from our own cultural/individual repertoires of meanings and symbols.
1. Gudykunst & Kim’s model (2003, p. 45): This model is more complicated, but also provides more explanation and gives more details for understanding intercultural miscommunication. This model has two large sets of concentric circles within a larger box. Each set of circles represents an individual. The circles themselves (and the box that surrounds both individuals) represent filters that the individuals use to interpret messages (i.e., reduce uncertainty and anxiety—see discussion of AUM elsewhere in this Chapter’s website). Arrows run both directions between the two sets of circles. All lines are dotted.
Application:
- Lines both ways between circles: When interacting with people from other cultures, we are both sending and receiving (or encoding and decoding) messages at the same time. This is an advance from the earlier linear approach of the Shannon and Weaver and other models of communication (see Chapter 4).
- Circles within circles (within rectangle). The circles and rectangle represent filters that influence how we encode and decode message: (1) cultural filter (cultural values, world view, beliefs); (2) sociocultural filter (social identities, group belonging, roles, relationships); (3) psychocultural filters (personal differences, prejudice, stereotypes, tolerance for ambiguity, motivations to interact with strangers, etc.); all within (4) contextual filter (physical context of the message, e.g., work versus party).
- Dotted lines: The contents of one filter are not totally distinct from others. For example, if the Indonesian has stereotypes of the American (psychocultural filter), that may be influenced by cultural beliefs. One’s expectation of role relationships may be related to the context (work versus home), and so on.
1. Dodd’s model (1997, p. 21): This is another model with three circles, but the meaning is different. Two cultures sit side by side. These represent people from two cultures. On the outside of each circle are three factors or aspects that each partner brings to the interaction: culture, personality, and perception of the interpersonal relationship. A two-way line (encoding/decoding of messages) runs between the two circles. As the two perceive difference, they seek to reduce uncertainty and anxiety. This leads them to develop a third culture (the third cirle).
Application:
- Circles & factors: Each person brings both personal and cultural elements to the interaction (same as in first two models) but also a perception of the relationship (liking, threat, status, and so on).
- Line between: As in Gudykunst and Kim’s model, interaction is two-way, and the reduction of uncertainty and anxiety plays central (Dodd borrows explicitly from Gudykunst & Kim).
- Third circle: The third cultural perspective borrows explicitly from an approach discussed by Casmir. This is the idea that when two individuals communicate over time, they develop an agreed-upon set of symbols, meanings, and rules that will be some combination of what each brings, perhaps with elements new to both individuals’ cultures.
References:
Dodd, C. H. (1991). Dynamics of intercultural communication (3rd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (2003). Communicating with strangers: An approach to intercultural communication (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Samovar, L. A., & Porter, R. E. (1991). Communicating between cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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